He gave notice.

Thak just called me on his way to the flight line. (Yes, he is still helping out the platoon with their inventories for the change-of-command that's coming up even though he doesn't truly have to. He's too nice.) He had stopped at our landlord's office on his way out there to turn in our 30 day notice on the house. We're pretty lucky they accepted it for the date we had originally planned, because it's actually a 28 day notice, but they were cool about it. We would have been ok with staying the extra two days if they'd been sticklers for policy, but it's great that we don't have to.

So now it's official. We're really leaving. Well, it's been official for a long time what with the orders being cut and in hand, the clearing papers issued as of yesterday, and Thak's diminished responsibilities at work, but now it's just got even more of an official air to it since this time next month, we won't have a house to live in. That's scary. It's actually the first time in my life I've had to do it this way. I've always either been a barracks soldier, or had one house squared away and ready before leaving another. This time is different. We will technically be homeless for a minimum of four days, and that's even providing we find a house the first day we are in El Paso. It could take longer, although hopefully it doesn't. It wouldn't be our preference to live in a hotel for longer than a few days.

The landlords briefed Thak that they're going to begin showing our house to perspective new tenants immediately, and that they'll be giving us about two hours notice before they do so. We also have to let them know if we're going to be gone for the day or something. This won't be much fun, but it's only for a few weeks. We can deal. The hardest part will be getting Erin to keep her room in some form of order. That's always our battle, but it's ten times worse when we're guaranteed to have who knows how many strangers walking through our house on a daily basis. Hopefully the place leases quickly, and we won't have to deal with this for long.

I have to also call a carpet cleaning service and set up an appointment to have that done after our stuff has been picked up by the movers, but within a couple days of our final inspection so that the carpets have enough time to dry before then.

It's real. We're leaving. I'm going to kind of miss this place in some ways. I'll miss looking out into my back yard and seeing a cyprus tree amid pines... and grass, for that matter. There's not much grass where we're going. I'll miss Spanish moss, the Atlantic ocean, the occasional tropical storms we get here, and humidity. I like Texas, and will be glad to go back, but this place wasn't all bad either.