The Journey - Chicago

After landing in Chicago, finding my luggage, experiencing Chicago afternoon traffic we made our way to Mollie and Chris' apartment. They were in the process of moving in, and in fact Chris still had most of his things at his old apartment. I was a bit appalled by the fact that it was a third story walk up, only because of the amount of luggage that I needed to take up. It had both front and back stairs, that I'm sure was a safety feature, but I'm doubtful of it's usefulness in a fire. Both sets of stairs are narrow and winding. It seemed as if they'd taken the space for one staircase and divided it for the 2 cases. The apartment itself, is spacious and newly renovated. It has high ceilings and hardwood floors that give it some charm, but the brick on it and the neighboring buildings belie their age. These building were bricked in an era when bricks were made and fired by hand.

When the luggage was put away and George the wonder fur kid was adequately acknowledged, we headed out to a welcome party that Mollie had arranged for me to meet all of her friends. That so many of them came out to meet was very sweet. Afterward, we went back to the apartment and stayed up for hours talking. Chris needed to get up to get a truck to move his things early the next morning, so we attempted to be quiet, but as the apartment was still being moved into, ever sound echoed. We did our best.

I woke up on Sunday morning to find myself alone with George in the apartment. He'd only been in the new place a day or so himself, and was still trying to figure out was going on. When I found him he was parked in front of the door looking sad that Mollie and Chris had left him behind. I'm pretty sure he thought that he'd been moved in with me and I didn't have the sense to furnish the place properly. I, on the other hand used the time alone to get a shower and start repacking my bags to make some sense of what I was carrying through the airports. Everything electronic went into checked bags so the only bag that I'd need to unpack at security would be the CPAP bag.

Mollie came home and we went out to tour the city, or at least the Humboldt park area of it. I must say that at least in the Spring it is a beautiful area to live in. Many of the streets are lined with trees.

Community amenities include things like community gardens and book share boxes. Mollie had a small plot close to the new apartment that she had begun to have tomatoes and squash growing. Chris's garden was a few streets over, but he was growing eggplant and kale. Mollie loves the book share boxes, and stopped at many of them to see if there was anything she wanted to read. She told me that she'd filled up quite a few of them while she'd been packing to move. She has agreed with Chris that they should only keep the books that they are emotionally attached too. I was not at all surprised to see the books she kept included "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and "The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches" along with "Where the Sidewalk Ends" What perplexed me was that she had an old battered copy of "The Life of Pi"

We walked for hours, while she showed me some very beautiful historic buildings and we ate in some wonderful local restaurants. One of the most unusual building we went into was Walgreen's. It had once been a bank, and now the vitamins are kept in what was the bank vault. And as stunning as the whole building was the most impressive feature of it had to be the ornate ceiling. Their was just no getting a picture of it that did it any sort of justice, though I gave it as good of an effort as I could. The drug store has preserved the building and it is as much an attraction as a place of business. It did my heart good knowing that at least this one beautiful, historical building is preserved.

 But that preservation comes at a price, or maybe it's just the price difference of everything in Chicago as compared to Woodstock. I bought a bottle of Airborne probiotics before I left Georgia at the Dollar Tree. I had been taking them for a month before my trip, hoping to avoid acquiring any nasty grunge during my travels. I was getting low on them and decided to check to see if they had them here. It was as good of an excuse to visit the vitamin vault as any. And I did find them, but the price was $25.99. I decided to make due with what I had.

Mollie took me to one of the local parks where there were walking trails that crossed major roads on bridges. They offered some breath taking views. As we were crossing over streets, she'd point out buildings where her friends and clients lived. It seems that she'd made a small community out of this area of a large city. So while having all the amenities of an urban area, she is still a small town girl.

It was getting to be the middle of the afternoon and neither of us had more than a protein shake for breakfast. I was famished and my blood sugar was dropping rapidly. I'd already chewing my way through my glucose tablets by the time we decided to eat lunch. I honestly can't remember the name of the restaurant that we went to but it was supposedly one that had been frequented by Al Capone. I don't know how true the claim is, but that's the legend.

The restaurant is now a Mediterranean cuisine buffet. I was so hungry going in there that my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I was embarrassed to have taken way more than I could possibly eat. But Mollie frequents it regularly and knows everyone who works there. The owner came out to meet me and was so kind. He brought me to go boxes and asked us to take as much of the buffet home with us as we wanted. Being the afternoon, they were about to take the buffet down and prepare for dinner. I put my still overloaded plate in one of the boxes, but Mollie was not shy at all. The restaurant is one of Chris' favorites and she got enough for all of us to eat dinner too.  So loaded with enough food to attract every stray dog and cat in the city, we headed back out to explore some more. I was a bit surprised when as we were walking along she started handing out a couple of the boxes to homeless people we passed by. Some of the food that she'd gathered she had packed for them. She told me that she does it quite a bit.

While we were on one of the trails I spotted this steeple, and wanted to go over to see it. But it was getting late in the day and I was extremely tired. I had spent the previous 19 years sitting at a desk in Cubelandia and was not in any shape to endure the amount of walking that we'd already done that day. My feet were threatening to disengage from my body and find a place to rest. I said nothing about wanting to see it. I did, however mention that I was done walking, and a nice evening watching television would be welcome.  So with that we headed back to Mollie's place.  And  to my delight that path was along the route to the church. I was so glad to get a chance to peek in. This was a Sunday evening and they were getting ready for evening mass, so we didn't go in, but I was able to snap these pictures while we were there.

I think that it is most beautiful church I've ever seen. I teased Mollie that she and Chris should consider it for their wedding. She told me that Chris' mom wouldn't hear of it and that the wedding, if there ever was one would have to be in the cathedral down town, where everyone in their family gets married, baptized and eulogized.

Chris met us on the way home. He'd spent the day getting his things moved into the apartment and by the time we arrived, there was a table and chairs in the kitchen, the living room had been set up and the bedrooms had proper beds (as opposed to mattresses on the floor).  Chris unpacked the feast that we'd brought and started heating it in the oven, even though he had to unpack dishes to do that in. Mollie's rather nice microwave was sitting on the counter, but Chris will not use a microwave oven. He says any cook worth their salt does not need one. This turned into a joke the next day. We spent evening watching Stranger Things. It must be that I hadn't seen it from the beginning, but to be honest, I just don't get it.

The next morning Chris had to go to work, and Mollie had a client that she needed to see to. But after that Mollie and I went out to her favorite thrift stores. She has become a hoarder of cookbooks and travel books. One of the books that we found was called "The Microwave Gourmet" I bought that one and we left it on top of the microwave for Chris to find. He didn't notice it while I was there.  We had passed Margie's Candies several times. I finally convinced Mollie to go in there. I'm glad we did. It is quaint and the candy, while expensive was wonderful. The soda jerk told us that the store has been open for 60 years and that the Beatles had gone in there to buy chocolates. I asked what they bought and he directed me to a box of chocolate covered salted caramels. I kind of doubt they did. But I bought them anyway.

In the afternoon we got on the L and went down to the waterfront. One of the things I told Mollie that I wanted to see was the Bean. We went there, and it was interesting. But the whole area is fantastic, and the Bean is kind of unremarkable compared to the rest of the area. It is part of a park complex that boarders the waterfront. We took the obligatory pictures and then walked through the park. Mollie told me that the grass in the park was emerald green because it was still feeding on the decay from the Great Fire. Maybe, but if that were the case, it seems that many areas of the country should be the same. That fire was a long time ago.

We walked along the waterfront for a couple of hours. It was just so nice. Afterward we met Mollies and Chris' best friends Mallory and Steve for pizza. It was really good, but there was no way to eat more than one piece. They are really serious about pizza there. One pizza was enough to feed all four of us and Mallory took some home to a room mate who had not come.

We had to make an early evening of it because I had another early flight the next morning. I had planned to take the trains down, but Steve offered to take me there for a reward of breakfast at some restaurant that they all like a lot.

The flight from Chicago to Washington is a long rant that is better forgotten than allowed to cloud up my otherwise fantastic voyage. Nothing really horrifying, but enough minor annoyances to make me glad when I was finally in Washington. The next blog will be an introduction to my new home.

The Journey: Atlanta to Chicago

I am not a morning person. I never have been. A lifetime of forcing my biological clock to wake in the pre-dawn hours has failed to change that reality. But I rather unwisely chose a 7:30 am flight thinking that it would give me more time to spend with Mollie. Beverly isn't a morning person either, but unlike me, she recognized that nothing was going to change that. She was gracious though, to agree to wake in the still dark, pre-dawn hours to drive me to the airport, only to have to fight city of Atlanta traffic all the way home. Everyone needs a Beverly in their lives. I know that I have been blessed with her friendship.

As I said before, the trip to the airport was spent mostly in silence with a million memories flooding my mind and making me believe that I was doing the wrong thing. But once at the airport, I was busy with so many things all thoughts of nostalgia vanished. I dropped the two large bags at the baggage check outside the airport. The porter barely looked at me and mumbled the entire time he was checking my bags. Telling him that I am hard of hearing and showing him my hearing aids only made him lower his voice and turn away from me while he talked. But my biggest fear went unrealized when my bags checked within the weight and size limits. I did not have to pay any extra for them.

The next challenge was to find my gate. I rearranged my carry-ons and took off to the security check point. Getting through it was an ordeal. Nothing really unusual, but still a lot like cattle being forced through stockyard gates. The TSA representatives were friendly and helpful, but still, I'm glad that it's not something that I face every day.

So after all of us cattle were forced through the gates we were loaded onto trains and taken to the terminals. Mine flight was on Terminal D and the gate was all the way at the very end. I would have liked to have gotten a snack to eat while I was waiting, but I couldn't figure out how to manage it, and my baggage and my cane all at once, so I went to the gate and worked on a sweater while I waited.

The plane was packed. Every seat had been sold. Apparently there was some sort of baseball game in St. Louis that everyone was traveling to. I sat by an grandfather/grandson pair who were more interested in looking out the window than bothering me.

There was a 2 hour layover in St. Louis and the airport was small and very easy to navigate. I went to one of the restaurants and had a sandwich and a soda while I waited. Before I knew it I was on the plane to Chicago, and was getting excited about seeing Mollie again. Once again, the plane was packed. But once again I was lucky. I chose a window seat because I wanted to see what had been so fascinating. It was actually horrifying. The land had been flooded and there seemed to be hundreds of miles of farms and communities that were cut off on all sides by flood waters. I can't imagine what the people who lived there were going through.

It was early afternoon when I finally landed in Chicago. But I had a hard time finding Mollie and the baggage terminal where my luggage was, so it was around 2 pm by the time I finally was out of the airport and beginning my short visit.

I have pretty pictures to show you of my visit, but this post is already too long. I will write more later.

The Journey

So, here it is. I need to write this post to turn the page and get this blog caught up to the present day. If you are planning on reading to the end, you might want to get yourself a nice cup of tea, and maybe a snack or two. This story may get a little long.

I left off last winter after my apartment flooded. I spent six weeks living in a suite style hotel. During that time I made the decision to retire from my soul sucking job and move to the Pacific Northwest. My friend, Beverly took pity on me and invited me to stay with her until I was ready. It was a gracious offer and one that I will always be indebted to her for.

After my retirement on May 15, I spent a couple of weeks at Beverly's house packing up my belongings. and preparing to move across the country. I had three large boxes that were stuffed full to the brim. I sent them with a company called Send My Bag. They shipped them for less than $300, and were the easiest company to work with. They picked up when they said they would and had them waiting for me when I arrived at my new home. If you ever need to ship something heavy, I highly recommend them. The rest of my things came with me on the air plane.

The transmission in my son's work van gave out around the time that I was retiring, and I needed to off load my truck somewhere. It was a reliable vehicle and I'd just put over $800 getting the electrical system working on it. But the truck was a 1998 model and had over 320,000 miles on both the engine and transmission. I knew that I was unlikely to recoup any of that money. I was pleased to be able to leave it with my son who has put a little more work into it and is enjoying it's use.

Before I left, my church threw a party for me that made my heart melt. It was one of the rare moments that I strongly questioned taking the journey at all. I had spent a quarter of a century with these people. I'd seen quite a few of them grow from infants and toddlers to fully grown adults with infants and toddlers of their own. I doubt that there is anything in my new home even remotely similar to what I had.

To top that off, Beverly and Lynn decided that they needed to see where I'd grown up. We loaded up in Beverly's van and we took a tour of the Drew Valley neighborhood of Brookhaven, Ga. The first stop we made was to the house that I spent my formative years in. There was no one home there, but the neighbor next door let us see the back yard from his back yard. It felt a bit strange for me to be there. I think that Beverly felt that I needed to say goodbye to there also, but I had left there many years before and have rarely turned back. We had lunch at the 57th Fighter Group. It is in a smaller airfield know as Peachtree DeKalb Airport. I think that they both liked it. I had grilled halibut and redneck caviar. They both seemed to enjoy themselves, but I was ready to head back to Beverly's. I was leaving on a flight in two more days and I still had a lot to pack.

I was able to pack all of the necessities that I needed. But after the large boxes were sent and I looked at what I had left to physically carry across three airports I began to panic. Not included in the picture is the bag with my CPAP  and medications in it. I knew after the bags were packed that I'd taken all that I could carry with me. Luckily the larger bags could be checked and not carried far. I could stack the small carry-on on the handle of the carry-on. My purse was stashed in the front pocket of the small carry-on, and I could use the strap of the CPAP as a cross body strap. I had been advised to request disability transport through the airports, but chose to ignore it in Atlanta. That was a huge mistake. And not one that I made twice. By the evening of May 31, I was packed and ready to go. Beverly and I had to be up at 4:30 am to get dressed, and leave for the airport. I had a 7:30 am flight to catch.

The trip to the airport with Beverly was where my emotions began to go a little awry. Neither Beverly nor I are chatty in the mornings, and it was good. As we drove past all the neighborhoods and landmarks that I'd known all my life, the reality finally set in that I was leaving the life that I had worked so long to build.

And so I was off. Soon I will write about the flights and my side trip to Chicago. Thank you for staying with me for this rather long tale.

The Days Go By

I wanted to write yesterday, but wasn't able to. It was a pretty busy day. Mostly I talked on the phone and answered Facebook...

Yesterday was my birthday, and I appreciate all the attention that I was getting. My sister came home from work with a feast of smoked chicken and salmon and a cheese cake. She bought me a couple of new frying pans (mine had gotten ruined and were no longer stick proof) and a new mirror for my bike. Now I will be able to see what is behind me when I'm cycling. My kids, the one sister who doesn't live here and my cousins and aunts all called. I even heard from friends in Atlanta. My niece came over and brought me the sweetest card. It was a very nice day. 

So today I slept in past noon. I've been doing that way too much. But it is oh so nice to wake up without an alarm clock. I rode my bike around town for a while just for the exercise of it and then went to Dollar Tree with my sister. I wasn't expecting to buy much, but ended up with $25 worth of candles, toothbrushes and paste, lavender soap and various odds and ends that I think we need around the house. After I came home, I made dinner and have been taking it easy since then. 

Soon I will be writing an introduction to my new home, and telling about the journey here. But I am still processing everything. But I really want to do it. Thank you for your patience.

Courtesy of She Who Seeks

I couldn't resist stealing this from her...

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

...a parody of the poem by Dylan Thomas

There was an old father of Dylan

Who was seriously, mortally illin'

"I want" Dylan said

"You to bitch till you're dead.

I'll be pissed if you kick it while chillin' "

Thank you Debra, I just couldn't have done this without you.

You can read Debra's blog HERE

You should check out her blog. She is always entertaining. 👋

Hello, it's Me...

I've been away for a long, long time... I've been overwhelmed...

It is absolutely gorgeous here...

I think that the reports that it rains here all the time and is always cold is a gross exaggeration. It must be a conspiracy to keep the rest of the country from all coming here. For the most part, the weather has been as good as the views...

I even managed to join a clan...

We went to the Scottish Highland Games in Enumclaw...

While we were there we all decided that we should claim our family, but the question was which family should we join. We descend from many Scottish families. We decided that we should join the closest genetic link that we had. My grandmother was a Thompson, so Thompson it is.

Where I'm living is cozy...

The house is small, and I live here with my brother, Ken and my sister Karen, along with 4 cats and a dog...

Bear

The cats are a little shy right now...

Max

We had to get the long haired ones shaved. We do not have air conditioning and even the relatively mild temperatures that we have had is too much for them. They were suffering. I'm told that their fur will grow back enough for the winter, but I will make them sweaters just in case.

I have so much more to tell you. I will try to break it down into bite size chunks. But for now I will leave you with the eye candy...

Thank you for staying around. I will try harder to deserve the loyalty that you all have shown me.

It's just that these last several months have been so tremendously overwhelming it has left me speechless at the end of the day. It has taken a lot to process what has been happening. But I will keep trying.

Rules for the Road

One thing  that I have learned about myself from the past 5 years of living alone is that left to myself, I become lazy, slovenly and unkept. Sorry if that truth is too much to bear, but it the truth. I have spent entire weeklong vacations in my pajamas and without bathing. Armed with this self revelation I know that going forward I'm going to have to exert some self discipline and control. So I have decided that on this journey into retirement there has to be a code of conduct for the road.

1. I may not stay up all night piddling away the mid-night oil playing games on Facebook. Bed time is no later than mid-night.

2. My face must be washed and my teeth must be brushed before I go to bed.

3. I may not sleep the day away (See rule 1). I must be up and ready to go no later than 10:00 am every day regardless of having anywhere to go.

4. I must shower and brush my teeth every morning. Hair must be washed no less than twice a week.

5. I must change out of my bed clothes and into clean day clothes every day.

6. I must wear my compression sleeve.

7. I must make my bed every morning.

8. Breakfast must be made and eaten no later than noon every day. .

9. Dishes must be washed and put away at every meal.

10. I must accomplish at least one indoor chore every single day.

I know that these seem very basic. But as I said, I have a tendency to not expect much of myself when I don't have a reason to be presentable. It's shameful enough when it's for a short duration such as a holiday, but not at all an acceptable way to conduct myself on a daily basis.

Actually my rules are fairly lenient. I'd expect more out of a five year old.

So, I'm off to play.

Ta ta for now...

Getting Packed

I packed up my cube today. Mostly because Ali was being a pain and I wanted an excuse to ignore her. I had done a bunch of cleaning earlier, so it wasn't too bad. I was able to get almost everything in 2 paper boxes. They will fit into storage easily. I had anticipated that I would have a lot more than that. I think I will find the same to be true when I pack to leave for Seattle. I have three large boxes to pack and ship as well as 2 large suitcases to be checked, a carry on bag, a back pack and 2 cpap machines to take with me. I look around at what I have left to pack and panic. But I really don't have all that much more to pack. I think the three large boxes to ship will be more than adequate if this mornings session is anything to judge by.

Getting in the Mood

Basic Top Down Raglan by Lisa Knits

Can be purchased on Ravelry

Back in the dark ages when I first picked up knitting again my daughter asked me to make a sweater for her. I bought a bunch of Lions Brand Fisherman's Wool in the Natural colorwave and blindly started a bottom up sweater. I wasn't much for following a pattern back then. Needless to say, because of my lack of skill and the difficulties that I was experiencing I soon tired of it and went on to something simpler. The sweater and the wool were placed in a bag that found it's way into a forgotten corner.

Saturday I found the sweater and the wool in a bag in storage while I was looking for other things. I got kind of excited because I think the wool is nice and decided to finish it. After taking a critical look at my work I decided the only real salvage was to rip it all out and start over again. I had already found a basic pattern that will work well for this and I'm kind of excited to get re-started on it. The pattern that I'm going to use is a very basic pattern that I purchased from Lisa Knits (No, I am not the Lisa who sells this pattern. And I'm a bit unhappy because I was hoping to use that name on my work, but she has it first.) The pattern is so basic that I would hesitate to call it my own and sell it anywhere, but she has done the math and resized the pattern to fit everything from a young child to an obese adult. I guess that in itself is worth the $5 asking price. The pattern is written to be done in stockinette stitch, but Mollie wants hers in basket weave. To accomplish this I went up on size from the one that I would have chosen and added 2 stitches under the arm. That will give me the consistent 8 stitch repeat that I need to accomplish it.

So now, I'm even more excited about retiring and having time to knit. I have a great pattern and some nice yarn to make something that is long overdue.

TWO WEEKS!

Just eye candy...

It hardly seems possible. In 2 weeks I will walk out of the doors of 55 Glenlake for the last time...ever. One more month and I will be getting on a plane to visit Mollie in Chicago. Then I will go to Seattle. I panic and think I have so much to do. But the reality of it is that it is not so much to do. Most of it is done already. I have a little more to pack up and ship off. 

This is getting to be very real...