Blustery Day

The weather has definitely changed, and I did not sleep well last night. So the blustery weather lulled me all day. I did nothing of use. Mainly I watched the rain outside my window and drank some ginger peach tea that I bought at Pike Place Market at the beginning of the summer.

The weather reminds me that I haven't gotten my flu shot this year. I mentioned it to my sister and she rather proudly told me that she and my brother never get one. If I have to sit through one more person telling me that lie story about the shot giving them the flu I think I'm going to scream. A dead virus did not give you a live infection, period. If nothing else, all those chemicals everyone goes on and on about should kill anything nasty lurking in the syringe. Give it up. Tell me why you really don't want the vaccine. Is it that you enjoy having the flu every year? Please just admit that you don't like being stuck with needles and we can both walk away from it with our pride intact. Tomorrow my task list includes finding a pharmacy that will give me the shot and returning the 7th season of "Game of Thrones to the library. I'm glad that I tested out my rain poncho. I will need it while I am out and about.

I will probably try to attend the Sit and Knit session at A Little Knitty, the yarn shop that I have been going on and on about. I have made friends with Jen, the owner and I think I'd like to give it another go. If for no other reason than to encourage the new found friendship. Hopefully I can find a few other friends while I'm there.

Speaking of friends, I've just received news that 2 more of my breast cancer support group friends have died. One from an apparent heart attack and the other from treatment related cancer.  Years ago I was close to both Kathy and Rosemarie. Though I lost contact with them, it still makes me sad. There are so few of us who remain from that group that held my hand while I went through treatment.

Early Morning

It is the early morning. Last night was the first chilly night of the season.  The temperature went down into the lower 50's. For the first time since I arrived in June all the doors and windows were shut, the fans had been turned off. Princess Pippi slept on my quilt. She wasn't interested in spending the night out chasing mice. Soon, the heater will have to be turned on.

Last night we filled the house with light and celebration. It was my niece's 24th birthday. My sister and I agreed that from our experience, it is the first real year of adulthood for most American kids.  I know that all these transitions are hard for my sister. I went through it 3 times already. But for my sister, it is the barring jolt of the first time, and the emotional sting of the empty nest all at once. But last night we had my niece, her two life long friends, a partner and a child all over to celebrate with us. They are all vegetarians, so I made vegetable soup and French bread. My sister brought home a beautiful cake and some ice cream. There was a party, but mainly it was just a room full of people who deeply care about each other.

Interurben Trail

Saturday started with a visit from my niece. She comes over quite often and it always is a welcome change of pace here. We have been wanting to try out a local café in town called Zola's. So we went there for lunch. I am really so glad that we did. This is a restaurant that I will be frequenting. It's like an unscaled Starbucks with much better food and minus the smell of burnt coffee. I got a nice bowl of ham and bean soup and a pot of tea. It was delicious. The best thing is this place is about a half mile from home and on my way to the knitting store. While we were there a family came in who were vlogging their day out and about. I did not recognize them, so I'm pretty sure that I have never seen their vlog, but they were all dressed out in hip clothes and had a fantastic camera. I like watching family vlogs on YouTube, but still they seemed a bit silly to me, walking around with a large camera pointed at themselves. I wondered what they seemed like to others who may not have understood what they were doing. 

After our outing I decided that I'd needed to get some exercise so I took my bike out for what I thought was going to be a short ride. Then, since it was a good chance to see if the new rain poncho I bought myself was going to be an acceptable solution to riding in rain showers, I decided to try to find the bike trail I'd been looking for. The problem was that I'd been looking for it near the Transit station. But the trail is actually about a quarter of a mile from there beside a different set of railroad tracks. I decided to take the trail south a bit to see if I could find the Outlet Mall. It was a fairly easy ride, but I wonder about the wisdom of it's use. The trail, though well maintained, seems to be a corridor for homeless campsites. While I was on it, it was well travelled, but I'm leery of using it after dark. It's too bad really, because the trail offers bike access to several of the nearby towns. A Google search doesn't really show much crime reported on the trail, and one person on a forum put it intellectually, "Most homeless don't want to mess with others because they know that reported crime will cause them to have to move." I'm glad I found the trail, and I will continue to use it in day time hours until I feel more certain of it.

My ride on Saturday had me riding about 10 miles all totaled. And yesterday I was a bit lazy, though I did give the dog a walk. My sister wanted me to go shopping with her and it yielded a revelation to me. Since I've gotten here both my brother and sister have been offering advice: "Stay off of the alley ways." "Don't go on Auburn Way, Main Street, etc." "Avoid the underpasses" Then I noticed that while driving, she was going in circles around town. I do believe that she wanted to think that some of the stores in the area are much farther away than they really are. I was a bit put off by that, but I do know she means well. I can see the benefit of caution.

Today I decided that I did need to get out a bit. I rode over to Safeway, about a half mile away and picked up some bread and items to make soup this evening. While I was riding I noticed this tree. So much of this area is forested with evergreens that I don't see many signs of fall. This was the first that I have noticed turning for fall. There are other signs that Autumn will be on us soon, birds flocking and squirrels harvesting the seeds from the beautiful sunflowers that I have enjoyed watching all summer. But this is the first solid sign that I've seen that it is here. I thought about calling Beverly to send me pictures of the beautiful fiery foliage that Atlanta can have, but then remembered that they are still at least a month out, and are having temperatures in the 90's.

I have been warned that there are more warm days ahead, but it's kind of hard to believe when I'm looking at scenes like this.

Pseudo Autumn

It was 2:30 pm and a yellow jacket flew into my room. It was looking of a supply of nectar to ensure survival for the hive through the winter. In the south they get mean this time of year and will sting without being provoked. I'm not sure if that holds true here, but I don't want to find out the hard way. So I put away some essential oil soaps that I bought earlier in the week and opened the window wider to let it find it's way out.

As thoughts do, mine have a way of intertwining in ways that probably makes sense only to me. I realized that I had not eaten anything since 8:00 pm yesterday, and while I wasn't really hungry it isn't wise to go so long without food with diabetes. I suppose it was the influence of seeing the bee that reminded me of the honey cake still sitting in the refrigerator. I cut a large slice even though it isn't the best cake I've ever had. After eating it I realized that I didn't check my blood sugar before I ate it, so I don't know how bad such a large shot of sugar is going to be. I have gotten very sloppy in my management.  It was 154 an hour after eating the cake, so I'm not too worried.

The temperature yesterday got back up to 80 F, but wasn't too unbearable because of a nice breeze. I decided to go out for a spin on my bike. It wasn't too bad considering the weather and getting myself lost in neighborhoods that I've never been to before. Overall, the experience has given me new confidence that I can find my way home. Though I'll admit I considered flagging down a police office to ask for assistance. I have found that Waze does not work very well if you are a pedestrian. I think that the satellite isn't sensitive enough to tell you are moving if you are travelling below a certain speed limit. Anyway, the screen is difficult to see when I'm outside. Today only got up to 61 and was overcast. The weather stations say that this is the last gasp of summer and fall has arrived, but my sister says not to trust it. She says that it can get quite warm sometimes if  October. It seems weather is fickle no matter where you live. 

There is a pedestrian and bike trail in the area. So far I have been unable to find a point to get on it. I was looking for it yesterday when I went out. If I could find it, other than on a map, I will have a reasonably flat access to most of the towns nearby. I plan to keep looking. but I did not today and I was glad for it. About 20 minutes after I thought about going out it started raining hard. It did so for about 45 minutes and then stopped. 

My sister and I went out to the grocery store afterward. Then we took the dog out for a walk. He wasn't behaving very well today, wanting to pull on the leash and go to areas that we didn't want to walk him. We brought him home and he immediately went to his bed and dug himself under his blanket to mope about the shortness of his walk this evening. That only lasted as long as it took my brother to go to the local Pick-Quick to get burgers for dinner. The dog loves hamburgers and fries. It is one of his favorite things. 

We spent the evening watching a show on Netflix called "The Family". As a Christian Democrat, I find the show very unsettling. It speaks about how a secret cult wrapped in Christian teachings has been controlling Washington DC for decades. It's good to know about, but I'm not sure what can be done about it. Now I just want to do something mindless for the rest of the evening. 

Why Blame The Honey Cake

When we got home from Sumner the other day I was so disappointed by being taken to a Russian grocery store rather than a tea room that I tossed the honey cake I bought there into the fridge and made pot roast for supper. Hey, I just wanted to sip tea and eat cake away from the dog and the cats demanding their portion. The cake sat in the fridge for a while until this morning I was looking for a little something to go with my morning tea and remembered the cake. It tastes like a store bought cake. I wonder if my assessment isn't tainted by the disappointment I felt at not getting tea the other day. I don't really think so. I will avoid the store going forward.

The local knitting store has a Sit and Knit session every Wednesday. It had been my intention to join them and make friends there, but that backfired on me on my first visit. I went in and introduced myself. Immediately, a woman who looked uncannily like Big Delores from the movie "Hope Floats" started lecturing me about the evil racism of the south. Noting that there were no Muckleshoot women in the group, I felt like calling her out on it. But what would that accomplish? Delores was sitting in a scooter and sometime during the group I noticed a rather timid chihuahua was hiding behind her enormous legs. Any first impression break I was cutting her evaporated when I spied him.  He immediately went under the table and pissed on the floor. Of course Delores did not offer to get off the scooter and clean it up. One of the other women in the group did that for her. I have been using the experience to avoid going back to the group, though I really would like to be part of the rest of it.

This morning I thought I'd give the group another try. Maybe Big Delores would have other plans. I loaded up my current knitting project and headed toward town on my bike. But the morning was beautiful and I decided that I didn't really want to spend the morning cooped up inside. I rode around a little bit, visited my favorite thrift shops and then decided to stop by the knit shop to take a look. I went in and sure enough Big Delores was sitting in her spot. I assume the dog was with her too. Rather than join the group, I looked around the store and bought three skeins of a dark teal blue, cotton

and wool blend yarn. I'm not really certain what I will make with it. I'm thinking maybe a shawl. But I have a lot of yarn that I have earmarked for scarves and shawls. I'm sure that it will tell me what it wants to be when the time comes. Socks maybe, but the yarn isn't really stretchy enough for socks. 

After leaving the yarn store I rode around a bit more and then stopped in the Habitat for Humanity store to see if I could find some new blinds for my window. The cats have torn one of them up so badly that I took it down and threw it away. I didn't find anything that would work. I will just have to bite the bullet and pay full price for some at Target or Walmart.  Goodwill is next to the Habitat store, so I looked in there too. Goodwill in Washington seems to have forgotten that they are selling the second had crap that people donate after they failed to sell it at the neighborhood yard sale. They want to charge a lot for it. I looked at the price they are charging for an ironing board. My sister had bought the same one at Walmart a few days ago and they are asking $2 more than the brand new one cost. I guess there's a recycled premium on it. 

I did find a quilt that is in very good condition for my niece. She doesn't live here, but she does have a bed for when she stays over. It is covered with random throws, and she doesn't have a proper blanket for it. Her birthday is Monday so I hope she likes her present. 

I got home to find new neighbors moving into the house across the street. One of the room mates there moved out over the weekend and now a couple is moving in. I hope they will be nice. They have a large Class C RV that they have parked on the street outside of our house. Maybe they will move that soon.

Now I am exhausted and ready for bed. I hope I won't bee too sore tomorrow after all the riding around today.

I

It's Raining

It started raining on Saturday night with an unusual (I'm told) thunderstorm. It really was a magnificent storm. The weathermen are saying that it broke records for the number of lightning strikes. And the thunder was loud. My brother and I watched it from a covered patio. We had a long talk, and about more than distant memories. He can be such a goof ball that I forget that he really is a deep thinker. He has unique perspectives on things.

The rain has brought cool temperatures with it. Instead of the mid to high 80's that we had been experiencing, we are having temperatures in the 60's and low 70's. I am wearing a flannel shirt, and smile when I think of the 90 something degree heat I'd be in if I hadn't moved across the country. The calendar is telling me that it's time for fall and for once, the weather is cooperating.

I'm looking forward to the festivals that are coming up. The summer was filled with them. There was some kind of community event planned for every weekend. And not only in Auburn, but all the surrounding towns.

My sister got home from work yesterday and once again she started telling me about the crazy haunted antique store that she went to in a nearby town. We decided to go there so she could show it to me. She's right. The place is called The Whistle Stop Antiques and it definitely has a creepy feeling to it. Something about the store shouts at you "Don't come in here!" When you walk in. And it doesn't ever feel comfortable once you are walking around inside. I was only in there for a few minutes before I had to leave. Karen left with me, and unlike her, she didn't feel the need to make a purchase before she left. Nothing from that store needs to make it's way into our home.

We went down the street to a store that sold mainly kitchen items, fancy soaps and small curio items. Karen liked the Le Creuset dutch ovens until she saw the price on them. She was mollified when I told her that Pioneer Woman had a line that was maybe a tenth of the price and was just as pretty. I may get her one for Christmas. I bought some cookie cutters and a few soaps and we left.

On our way back to the car we passed a storefront that I found intriguing. It's called the Heritage Quest Research Library. Imagine if the genealogy room of your local library was as large as a Main Street store and also had charts and trained researchers available. This one was impressive. But the ladies there wouldn't let me peek at the books. I wasn't sure if any of them would help me. If the materials available are mainly for the local area, then they are no use to me. My brother and sister and I are anomalies here. The rest of the family is from the east coast. It is those records that I need to access. I signed their guest book and took some informational pamphlets about the library home with me. I found out by reading them that I could have paid $15 for a one day pass and used the library. I'm thinking of taking the Sounder back to the town and spend the day in there.

Before we left Karen wanted to get tea at a German bakery that she had frequented. But when we got to the place we found a notice that the owners had retired and closed the shop. Am I the only one who thinks it's odd that they wouldn't have sold the business before just closing it all together? Instead she said we could get something at a Russian bakery on the way home. Thinking that I was going to a tearoom, I was disappointed to find that the Russian Bakery is really a Russian grocery store with a large in-house bakery. Buying a honey cake and taking it home to have with my own tea was just not what I had in mind. I was disappointed. And that is not even to say that I've never really been a fan of Russian food. I cooked a roast when I got home and had an American supper rather than tea. Karen had tea with cheese and crackers. She doesn't really eat suppers, even if I make them vegetarian for her.

Now I need to get dressed and return some books to the Library. I've been reading Edward Rutherford's "New York" I enjoyed "London" and "The Princes of Ireland" but never really got into the story of this one. I may check it out again later when the nights come sooner and I am in more of a mood to read.

Journeys End

When I was a kid, I always drew pictures of houses as having two windows set on either side of a door. I thought living in a house like Timmy's in the show Lassie, or Gidget, with windows that were not blocked by screens would be so cool. I could stick my head all the way out the window.

My new home is like that. The front of the house is a door and two windows. There are no screens on any door or window in the house. Surprisingly I find that most disturbing. While the area isn't overrun with flying roaches, there are bees, flies and mosquitos that are abundant, as well as many varieties of moths. Also, our four cats wander in and out of any open passage way that they find. They can and do scare me awake if my windows are left open enough to allow them passage. I thought the no screen thing was a lot cooler when I was a kid.

The house is a bungalow type style. It is located at the end of the street next to the rail tracks and interstate. In a weird way, it gives us a lot of privacy. Not many people come down this way. And when they do, the are either coming to see us, or they don't belong here and we know to keep an eye on them. The house across the street and the house next door actually face to a cross street. We are bordered by their back and side yards. Our front garden is the only one that faces the street on this block.

The rail road is noisy. But I have found that I do not mind the noise so much, nor the noise from the highway. I can only guess that comes from spending my earliest years living on Army bases. They aren't known for being places of peace and solitude. Besides, I slip my hearing aids out of my ears and I only hear a rumble of the actual noise.

The town is almost out of a screenplay. It is quaint and has the ability to be travelled by bike and by foot. It's charming. But most of the store fronts are taken up by business which aren't all that interesting to me, gyms, physical training, nail salons and coffee shops. There are also an abundance of physical therapist, chiropractors, herbalist, acupuncturist and psychics of all manner. Quirky, your name is Auburn.

In the vein of quirky, there is a disproportionate amount of the population walking around with "service dogs".  They get the quotation marks because as far as I can tell, most of these people when questioned, "Is that a service dog?" will answer yes. But when asked "What task does it preform for you?" don't seem to know that is an acceptable question and don't know how to answer it. "Service Animals" can be seen everywhere. In Georgia I may have seen one a month, if that. Here they are a regular part of any outing.

I was told that it always rains here. While it may be cloudy for parts of any day, in the past three months I can't claim to have felt rain-bound.  Most days seem to be sunny for parts of every day also. I have been able to get out and about almost every day.

At first, getting up and getting myself out on that fancy bike I bought last spring was a near impossibility. I did not feel stable on it. I feared that it wouldn't stop when I needed it too. I feared looking ridiculous if I toppled it over like at two year old. I can say that I have completely overcome those fears. I have gotten stronger while riding and I am a lot more bold in venturing out, even to roads where I might not totally feel are bike friendly. There are a lot of bikers here. There are a lot of pedestrians here. In the very least, I'm not the only one they will be gunning for. But everything is so close by here. With-in easy walking and biking distance is every kind of convenience that I could want, parks, libraries, museums, theaters, shops, bars and restaurants. Even casinos! Though I do not have any plans of visiting them. There is a hospital here, and all the doctors to run it. I still need to get on it, but have enjoyed my medical free summer.

Nature here is breath taking. I asked my niece, who grew up here if she still sees the overwhelming beauty of this place or is she so used to it, that her brain doesn't register it. She said that she thinks that sadly the latter is true. But I am not like that yet. when I round a corner and Mt. Rainer is in the distance, it grabs my attention. It is incredible. Last week we were on a road that I'd not been on before and I glanced over the side of a bridge. I was so amazed by the sight that I saw I gasped and said "Oh my" out loud.  Unfortunately, we were on a narrow bridge and there was no room to pull over, or even to stop beyond the bridge and be safe walking back. The view looked down into a mountain gorge and there was a waterfall to the side. How unfortunate that there was not a scenic view pull over on the bridge, but you can't make the whole state a scenic view stop.

Then we go around the corner and come face to face with this. Again, I gasped and warned my sister that there was a deer near the road. But this one was magnificent. Clearly it was the largest deer that I've ever seen. I even asked my sister if it might be a kind of moose or elk. It was at least that big. That brush that it was in was chest level for me. I'd say his head level, sans the antlers was seven and a half feet tall. I wasn't the only one in awe of him. My sister pulled the car over and several other cars pulled over too. He posed nicely for those of us who wanted pictures. He didn't even spook when a police car turned on lights and sirens to be official when investigating what had so much attention. He politely stayed in the culvert, chomping on brush.

This place is incredible.

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.