And we proceed...

Arrangements have been made. We shall be quitting the scene in under a month, moving onward. It's not that this has been a bad place, but it does not seem to be a place which is sustainable for us. An effort made in good faith, as it were.

My family - myself, my wife, and our five-year-old son, have been in Spain for more than a year, coming here from Los Angeles. Madrid is a fine city, in its way as fine a city as Los Angeles. It has museums, bars, restaurants, and a first rate transportation system that essentially liberates one from the need to own a car. But in the bleakness of the winter, with its short days and biting cold, it will be easy to leave behind.

Our son, Ricky, comes out of school to learn as we go. It was a fine school, and he learned fine things, and met fine people and wore a fine uniform, complete with black shoes and a tie and gray slacks and a jumper. I'm sure there shall be moments when he will miss it.

For now we deal with the dreary demands of our few belongings. Before moving to Spain, there was a great purge of items, a dropping of the detritis which had accumulated in a dozen years of stability. We traveled with suitcases, bringing little. We left many things with my sister, who has been kind enough to keep things for us, looking toward a future day when our feet touch ground in a place we decide to stay, and our items can be brought together and unpacked, and we can live in a museum of our own devising. At the moment we have little, but enough to be troublesome, as we lack a place to keep our things. Our furniture means nothing to us, wonderfully fungible items bought at low cost and utterly free of sentimental value, although the waste of usable items still grieves. So we shall rent a space, store what is worth storing, and retrieve it when we can. We give up our apartment without regret. It has served us adequately, but it lacks charm. Cut from all ties to property, real or personal, we set forth with carry-on luggage, tickets for Africa, and plans for Asia and the world to the east.

Bryan