Ready to Travel

 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

35.3 miles

sunny!

 

338 recordings of 26 types, 61 old CPD. 24% clear.

 

So I need to summarize the last few days because tomorrow I'm heading to Pittsburgh and Ottawa.  I'll write after I get back, because I'm not taking the laptop, just the iPad.

 

I've seen some interesting things going on outside, and I hope I don't miss too much. The wrens have built a nest in the kitty kat nest box, and I hope I'll get to see the fledglings. My yucca, that I grew from one of the shoots from the deformed one I cut down, is going to bloom. And as my tulips begin to die back, the poppies are coming out beautifully.

 

On Tuesday I walked over to the Powerhouse museum to renew that membership, and I see that the Salvation Army is operating a transitional shelter on a nearby street. 

 

When Vince called, I had a two week list!  He told me about a computer museum he went to with Eric. Sounds fascinating.

 

Then Wednesday was fun. Padreic made a vase with pipe cleaner flowers and was very justifiably proud of it. I gave Bernadette her dragon basket present in the morning, then asked Joanna in the afternoon if she'd seen it... "yes, did you get anything for me?" Why yes I did, but you have to wait till after I read to you. I read two Just-So Stories, then went out to the car and brought in the two parts of her present. I handed her the big box and she started unwrapping it... "It's BOXCAR CHILDREN! And look! It's in a box that's a boxcar!!" Then I showed her the picture of the resort I'd printed up with the trains showing... you and I are going on a Boxcar Children camp and we'll stay in a real train car! She is beyond excited. Gareth wanted to know when he was going and I pointed out that I took him to Mt. St. Helens and Seattle when he was 8. Her turn. Padreic, meanwhile, wanted a birthday present too, but was OK with being told he had to wait till his birthday. He sang "Happy Birthday" to Mommy and Joanna, however.

 

When I got home I called Road Scholar to give them Joanna's address and tell them to send the paperwork to her (and mommy.)

 

Bernadette and I were talking about the summer... the kids will be gone most of June and a lot of August, so if I'm going to finish Charlotte's Web before we're separated for most of the time, I'll have to really read a lot every day.

 

Thursday I went with the WPAC to Cache Creek Casino. I had my old player's card that they gave me when I went in Rich's place back in 2012. From now on, if I go to a geocaching party at the Road Trip Cafe, I'll stop by here coming back. I lost $50, then won it back and cashed out, but still had a couple of hours, so in the end I lost $30. Fun, though. I sat with a Barbara, but she mostly had her nose in a book.

 

In June they're going to see Frankie Avalon live in Modesto. I asked Sharon if she had the coupons yet, but she agreed to take my money now and hold a coupon for me.

 

I took that in on Friday before I went to Renaissance and saw the movie About Time. Great actors, including a guy from The Best Marigold Hotel movies, who dies from lung cancer, sniff! At home I watched Donnie Darko (and was on my computer, which is why it confused me) which I didn't like as well.

 

In the evening, the Chatauqua did a super job with "A Time to Kill." And my friend Bill looks pretty good and says he feels well, and they're planning a geocaching trip to the East (so he can actually get away from a bathroom!). However, another geocaching friend had a heart attack and died Friday night. Owl is the person who asked me, a week after Rich died, if I was planning to move. No. (Though nowadays it sometimes seems like a good idea.)

 

I forgot to order my blood pressure pills last week, and had not realized I had no refills left so they had to contact the doctor, and since last time they didn't change my doctor's name despite my telling them that, it's taking too long, so I went into the pharmacy to ask them not to return the prescription while I'm gone.  Who knows. I have some blood pressure pills that I got when I wrongly panicked on my 2012 Wyoming trip, because I thought I'd forgotten the pills. So I can use them, a slightly different prescription but still HCTZ.  

 

I decided to order a bright blue luggage strap with a TSA approved lock, mostly because this way I can spot my bag more easily.


Yesterday I accidentally drove first to the First Saturday restaurant, thinking how fast time flies, it only seems like a week since I was there. Oops. Off to the right place! Then in the evening it was the church social where I sat with Laurie.


Today I saw "Chappaquiddick."  What a POS Teddy Kennedy was, but the people in Massachusetts loved him. He'd never have been President, though. On the Kennedy tour in Boston the guide said Kennedy's fight with Carter finished his chances, but I thought about Chappaquiddick. The rest of the country isn't Massachusetts, just like the rest of the country isn't, thank goodness, California.

 

Getting nervous! As long as I remember to take the iPad charging cord, I should be OK. I'm otherwise packed, I believe. (But just now remembered to check in and print my boarding pass!)