Good-bye, Farewell, and Amen

The packers are coming this morning. Not long after them the guy is coming to put my car on the truck to ship it back home. I pick up my brother-in-law tonight at the airport. The movers come tomorrow to put the boxed contents of my life onto the truck and take me back to San Antonio. Friday I turn over the keys to my place and my brother-in-law and I get in the truck and start driving.
   I am not all right with all this.
   Only now, right now, is the magnitude of this disruption becoming clear to me. I'll be sleeping on the floor tonight and tomorrow night, probably in a motel on Friday night. Then I'll arrive at my newly-rented house and move in what few of my things I put in the truck for the drive cross-country. Then I wait for my car and all my stuff to catch up with me.
   I'm leaving you, SoCal, with mixed feelings.
   There's a new adventure waiting for me back home, I'll try big things and - fingers crossed - succeed at them. But I've spent 20% of my life in Pasadena, far, far longer than I ever intended, and the place has grown on me. I got comfortable here, probably too comfortable. Definitely too comfortable.
   It's sad, and moving sucks no matter how you cut it. But I will be back in my home town, with all my friends and family around me. Which will be great.
   Still, I'm gonna miss you, SoCal, with your astonishingly incompetent and corrupt local politicians, with your 10% sales tax and state income tax, with your overpriced produce, with your crazy drivers and your terrible roads. It's been a good ride, but it's time to switch horses.
   See you in the funny papers.