Home Again, Jiggidy Jig

What a whirlwind trip this was! I left home at 3:30 am for the drive to the Portland airport. My plane took off at 5:47 on time and I spent 2 hours in the Detroit airport (which was VERY nice) listening to all loudspeaker announcements read in English, Chinese and Japanese. I had a delicious Bacon, Egg, Cheese Bagel at McDonald's. All the proteins and fats helped calm my jittery nerves (over excited and overtired). Before I knew it (20 minutes) my flight from Detroit to Akron was complete. And the adventure began.

I was delivered to my (Dad's) house by the caretaker's delightful wife. Then I discovered (after she drove away) that my (Dad's) car's battery had died. So I called AAA for service. Then I left the car running and charging the battery for one full hour. That's when I discovered the tires all needed air. I drove to the nearby gas station and literally begged the maintenance man to fill the tires with air. Lucky for me, he had a tire gauge in his personal vehicle. All four tires needed 7 pounds.

Then I followed the directions I had to our hotel. Checked in. Then got directions to the Akron Airport (from which I had just arrived) because my son was arriving at 3:30. It was 2. The directions had me driving on two interstate highways, making lane changes and exiting to the left. I 76 and I 77. I try to NEVER drive on a highway. I did this. Successfully. I felt empowered. Like SuperWoman. Sort of.

C arrived on time and took over the driving. We drove north and west and arrived at the great intersection of all the chain restaurants, bookstores and retail shopping. We had a nice late lunch/early dinner, bought a local map (C is a techie in the Silicon Valley (a computer engineer) and prefers paper maps to the GPS I brought along from home). Then we retired to the hotel. Both of us had left home at 3 am. We watched the news (Brazil airplane missing) and then just gave up and went to sleep.

Tuesday morning. Breakfast at McDonald's. Another Bacon Egg Cheese Bagel and the largest decaf coffee they had. We purchased light bulbs, Febreze, work gloves (I had forgotten them) and two batteries for the smoke detectors (which were beeping). The dumpster and Daniel arrived at 11 am and by 1 pm we had carried every scrap of trash out and into it. And FILLED it. Wood, garbage bags of trash, wheel barrows and buckets of trash. I swept every floor surface clean. Then the realtors arrived and we toured the "property" and decided on a price and my "as is" no improvements decision. Then I signed papers. And signed papers. And signed papers. And then C & I raced (with GPS) to find the bank branch where I could FINALLY get control of the money I inherited in October. It took almost 2 full hours, but I have my money. C kept me calm, quiet (I tend to talk too much) and pleasant.

Wednesday morning. Up at 6:30 and out the door to McDonald's for the BEC Bagel and coffee and over to the house to pack the FIT with everything we could safely carry. (It's a small engine vehicle and we didn't want to overload it since it only had 197 miles on it and was still in show room condition. This would be it's first real "drive") By 9 am we were on the road. C wanted to go to 59/8 and drive east on 271 to I 90 and then just drive on 90 to Mass. Which is what we did. And arrived home, in the driveway, at 10:30 pm. A very easy and pleasant trip. We don't get to spend much time together and so had lots of conversation. I drove for 2 hours on the New York thruway. We paid lots of tolls.

Here we are. We have had breakfast and now we will empty the FIT and put all of the useful things we brought home away. Vacuum, TV, Computer, Wall Clock, Tools, Kitchen Ladder, Paper Shredder and workshop tools from the basement. I forgot the neat broom I used to sweep piles into the dustpan. I miss it already. I don't miss that house. It may take a full year to sell, but it's in good hands, has an attractive low price and lots of potential (once the new owners paint, carpet and update). The lawn guy is doing a fantastic job on the cutting. The yard has never looked better.

Here I am at home again. Riley and G were happy to see C & I last night. We were happy to see them. The power company is cutting tree branches out front. Noisy. My Crocs have still not arrived. I still have 4 days off before I have to return to work. The remainder of my gardening work is still waiting for me. The sun is shining!

This is all very good. Happy.