Ready, Set, Go!

If packing were an Olympic event, I would be considered very slow to get out of the gate or off the starting blocks.  I had planned to spend the week getting ready for our Alaskan cruise, but I dilly dallied for too much of the time.  The weather forecast for our cruise was for cold, rain, more rain, and maybe even a frozen mix.  What?  What was I thinking, agreeing to go on this cruise.  It did not sound appealing at all.  However, the reality of our ever nearing departure loomed in the fast approaching, immediate future. 

Saturday, it rained off and on all day, which was great for the yard and gardens and kept me inside where I needed to focus on packing.  I got my hour walk in before breakfast, without getting rained on.  My second breakfast was blueberry pie and ice cream.  I figured I had to get my body prepared for all the sweet deserts it would be exposed to.  And besides, we still had three cartons of ice cream left over from company.   

All morning I worked on last week's blog and finally got it posted.  I did get interrupted by other computer distractions... the usual Facebook and e-mails but also lots of messaging with Britney.

Once Joe got home from work, I tried to pin point him on some packing questions, new phone issues, and pet care items; but he had already laid down for a nap.  Seen right, he eventually got up and took this photo with my i-phone to show me how to take a photo without it taking a one second video at the same time.  He thought he had been successful, but later I discovered, he hadn't.  By then, he was already outside mowing because it had stopped raining.  He needed to take care of this pre-vacation job before more rain came.  His Ready, Set, only takes seconds before he Goes.

I don't know where the day went, but pretty soon we were headed out the door to go to the dinner/dance at Legends.  It was nice to not have to come up with dinner plans and we even did a little dancing, but once I got home, I was too tired to accomplish anything productive.

Sunday I slept in and skipped my hour walk and then, still had pie and ice cream for breakfast.  This was the forth day in a row of rain and I couldn't help but wonder if that was part of my problem with getting motivated to do anything in preparation for leaving on our cruise.

Shirley and I chatted while waiting for the rain to let up before leaving Church.  On a rather long walk after Church, Maggie and I both got rained on.  Maggie looks silly in the left photo, getting caught shaking off some rain drops.  I finally started to get my non-clothing items organized for packing.  I also wanted to have everything I needed from Joe before he would be leaving on Monday.  Joe was at work, so I left the technical (i-phone, i-pad, printing, etc) for him to help with later.  But soon after he got home from work, he left to spend the afternoon golfing.  I was beginning to feel like I was in a holding pattern and that the starting gun would never go off.  So I wasted time (all afternoon) here at my computer, until I got antsy and decided to go to the gym to work out.

Our neighborhood fox was passing through and laid down on the hill just below the 17th green.  He/she appeared (video) to be grooming itself and resting I guess.

Joe got home at dinner time, but we each just grabbed what leftovers we wanted.  I was getting the refrigerator emptied out, ready for us to be gone.  Our evening activity consisted of some organizing, planning, printing tickets and documents we would need, and going through packing lists.  And adding to my to-do list.  Ugh.



Monday I did my morning hour walk as the sun came up, (which is later these days).  I started the first of three loads of laundry I would get done during the day.  Joe left for the Nashville airport at 10:30.  Seen left, papers I needed to read through as I tried to figure out what I would need to take (pack) for our cruise.  I was still trying to figure out my i-pad and i-phone and ended up computerizing and procrastinating, and never really packed anything.


Jan, and later Brian, came over for cat care instructions.  (I did get their notes typed and printed)  I also had to find keys that would work the garage doors.  I was going to re-pot my parsley and throw the rest out, but decided that the tomato and pepper plant were not done for the season because they had a bunch of new blooms.  So I moved them off the deck and put them by the back door with all my other potted plants to make it easier for Brian to water them.



I got all three bathrooms cleaned.  I hate leaving a dirty house when I go on vacation.  I texted with Patty and Shirley about some documents/passes I wasn't clear on, as to whether or not I needed to print them.  And I even played with the cat and dog, as if I had time for that.





After dinner I went on a walk with Maggie, headed to Mirror Lake Blast.  These cairns showed up on the Lakeview hiking trail that goes from Flossmoor to the Library Building.  Seen below, Maggie between two, to give you an idea of their size.  A miniature cairn seen right; made me wonder how they stacked these on such little edges?






As soon as we got to Mirror Lake the band went on break.  So we continued to follow the walking trail down a ways and swung around the other side of the lake and back up to Cromwell and home.

Before bed, I organized my to-do lists by days (the last three remaining) and crossed some things off, deeming them not necessary to do.  Going to bed early, exhausted, I ended up having troubles sleeping because I had so much to do, all running through my mind.  Ready, Set, Wait a minute please.

My hour long walk Tuesday morning was before sun up.  I needed to get the show on the road, so woke early.  At 9:00, as if I didn't have anything better to do, I went to the barn to go riding.  I did pay my September board, so could cross that off my list.  Also, because I will be taking a three hour horse back ride in Alaska, I felt I was getting ready and set to go, by preparing my leg muscles for the longer ride.  I didn't even take any photos of our ride, but here's one from June, of Jim.  I met him and Terry out on the trail.  He had trailered his horse Zip to Terry's farm and they left from there.  We had a good ride, and were out a little over two hours.




I had lunch on the back porch when I got home at 1 pm.  I took some photos and this video of Stevie playing with Maggie.  I finished reading all my documents for the cruise and organized my packing list and then went to the gym to workout and shower.



The evening was ended with more dog walks and sitting here accomplishing very little in terms of getting ready to leave on our cruise.

Joe and Ben did an over night, camping out on Tuesday.  Here is Joe at the Summit of Mt. Bean.





I cut my usual walking time in half Wednesday morning, only going 30 minutes because I felt an urgency to get going on my packing job.  I took this video of the early morning golfers going out for their 7:30 shot gun start.  Before going shopping at 9 am, I cleaned the kitchen and did a (hopefully final) load of laundry.  I got gas, then help at the ATT store with my new i-phone.  I ran into a clothing store looking for a hoodie, and ended up coming out 45 minutes later with five new shirts, on sale, each under ten dollars.  I got the hoodie, and other necessities at Wal-Mart and didn't get home till 12:30.  After a quick lunch I was off to work from 2-7.

As soon as I got home I did one more load of laundry, consisting mostly of the new clothes I had just bought.  Stevie hung out under the bench at the end of our bed while I rooted around in the closet and brought possible clothing selections out.  I was matching shirt to slack, trying things on as I went and putting outfits to be packed onto the bed.

At one point during the night, I was cleaning the laundry room and cats pan.  Stevie escaped, during a lapse in my carefulness, and I ended up outside for nearly an hour searching for the cat using my cell phone flash light.  Brian was up, heard me, and came out.  Stevie was under his back deck.  I finally got her corralled with Brian's help and was back in the house about 11:45, to resume getting ready to go.

Thursday morning came all too soon, with only four hours of time in bed, and some of that was spent thinking through my to do list.  I still had a LOT to do before the black and white checkered flag would wave.  After Stevie's escape, I was extra paranoid, and kept checking on her where she was (video).



I did a plethora of things including talking with Brian and Allen, watering all my plants, walking and taking Maggie to the kennel, working out, and getting all my stuff from the bed into the suitcase.  I cleaned house a little cleaned out the refrigerator and kept checking on Stevie's where a-bouts.


As you read this, I am hopefully well on my way to taking an Alaskan Glacier Cruise with Joe, Patty and Shirley.  Shirley is picking me up soon, and we will go to Courtney's for the night, before going to the airport for our very early flight Friday morning.  I will probably be off line (including i-phone) for the better part of this next week.  Anchor's aweigh and bon-voyage.