Friends in Slow Places

Saturday afternoon found me in my car during Happy Hour at Sonic waiting for my favorite beverage: a Route 44 Diet Coke with Cherry and Lime, No Ice. There was a bit of a wait - so Charlie and I were conversing ... passing the time:

Lori: "Why is it that when I am in Australia, I don't drink any soda?"

Charlie:

Lori: "Is it that it isn't a Sonic drink? You know, I never thought about it, but I don't drink Diet Coke from the fridge at home either."

Charlie:

Lori: "So ... you think it is a Sonic thing?"

Charlie:

Lori: "Me too ..."

The cars were moving along during this scintillating conversation and soon we were at the window. I was handed my drink and was in the process of paying when a buddy of mine came to the window. I only know him from Sonic - but when you are there as often as I am ... well, you are bound to see the same face more than once.

He is über nice, and I believe a manager or something since he wears a different shirt than everyone else. We have had a few conversations. He has wondered about my month long disappearances. He likes my dog and knows her name. He knows my husband drives a white Ford F150 and that my son drives a blue Toyota Tacoma. This last part I thought was magic until he told me that there is not another person who orders a "Route 44 Diet Coke with Cherry and Lime, No Ice Please". He has even gone so far as to correct my sweet friend when she had ordered me one with ice ... per my instructions! Twice she has ordered me a drink with ice and twice he has told her that no, I don't get ice in my drink and promptly changed the order.

So ... über nice guy comes to the window and hands me a pile of receipts. He says he has been saving them for me. I thought he was joking and cleaning up the floor or something when he explained they were unclaimed receipts with a coupon for a free Route 44 drink. I thanked him profusely.

So ... this morning, again waiting in line, again at the window, again being handed my drink. I give the girl at the window one of the coupons.

Super Nice Sonic Girl: "You want some more of these?"

Lori: "Um, is this a trick question?"

Super Nice Sonic Girl: "No! We save them when people don't want their receipt."

Lori: "Sure! Thanks!"

Super Nice Sonic Girl: "Here." And she hands me a pile:

I have to call a number and take a survey to activate the coupon - but, hey: Free Sonic drinks for a few weeks!

What's not to like?

My Visit with Jessie

I did things a little different yesterday with Jessie. Instead of bringing her home and having her constantly harassing me for food (and no, she is not starving ... although she looks like maybe she is ... it is just something she does out of habit) I took her out to lunch and then shopping.

We had a pretty good time and she behaved fairly well having about thirty choices of Disney Princess crap to choose from. Back when she was still home, she got so out of control and was so large, that I could not control her in the store if she decided to lose it, so I stopped taking her. I am now confident that:

a) she is more mature, listens to me better and does not freak out like before
b) if she actually did ... I could get her in a head lock and drag her out of the store

Took her back a happy camper ... but not before snapping a few photos:

Yeah, well, it was blurry anyway so why not just make it fuzzier? I thought it was cute, so I had to do something with it ....

Between her and Charlie's heads exploding when they see Gary - things are going to be a little exciting (note: this means noisy) around here this week ....

Gardening in the Rain ...

Well, it IS raining outside ...

In my quest to become Wonder Woman - I have continued with actually doing more than one thing on my 'To Do' list per day. It is a weird feeling ... this having energy and the will to go out and do something ... anything. And being productive? HOW FUN IS THAT? I am having a ball.

After getting new tires yesterday, I headed to a couple of stores to try to shore up my gardens. I threw out about 5 plants and the others are recovering fairly well (in case you missed the blog -they didn't get watered for about 2 months). I decided to supplement with some artificial ones.

The first store I went to I think is called 'Home Goods' - I can't remember. I just wandered in one day before going to Michael's - my intended destination next store. They have a clearance aisle that has wonderful pots and vases I like to buy.

Everything is reasonably priced and I like perusing the aisles. I make it sound like I do this a lot. I HATE to shop, and I have only been in this store, counting yesterday, twice. But when the urge hits to update my garden, and I have the energy (and the fun money) - off I go.

I got this little plant holder (and the plant) there. HOW CUTE IS HE?

This pretty little pot was $5.00. All the flowers from here on out (I believe - I bought plants at both stores and only took photos of part of my purchases) - the flowers are from Michael's and to my surprise and joy ... everything was on 50% off yesterday.

So - I bought the pot, four stems of flower bunches, pulled off the tags and dumped them in the pot. No foam, no arranging ... that is the extent of my talent!

Another shot which is lighter and I couldn't decide which to put in my blog. If these two photos look ... funky ... I put a filter on them in photoshop playing and liked the effect so on the blog they went rather than a more realistic photos.

My favorite find at the first store - this metal vase was $3.00 on the clearance aisle. I know, probably ugly as sin ... but I like it! The flowers, again, were purchased and plunked in the vase. You can't probably can't tell the shape of the vase - the opening (top) is a very narrow oval - making the flowers sit in a row like fashion rather than spreading out. It is also very shiny which does not show up in this photo.

This little beauty is an arrangement for a grave marker. It was in a special holder with a big spike on the bottom of it to put it in the ground. I liked it, so I pulled off the spike and plunked it in one of my own pots.

These are just filler, but I needed something artificial for my pots here since they don't handle water. And for $3.00, they fit the need nicely. I DID have to arrange the leaves on these ... still need a little work ...

And my 'fun' purchase - the word 'HOME' made out of twigs (OK, metal that looks like twigs). I have yet to figure out where to put it.

I am not sure how long my 'Wonder Woman' days will last. This is rather fun - acting like, feeling like, and just pretending to be a normal person. I hope it lasts long enough for me to finish my gardens - I have plants spread all over the place - including three that are four feet tall and need all their leaves arranged.

Actually - I hope this lasts through Gary's visit (I am a realist - I could hope for, say five years, but that just gets my hopes up to get them dashed later).


Here's to hoping .....

I've Got Problems ...

So - today I got up bright and early ... well ... 4:00am if we are keeping track (couldn't fall back asleep). Needed to get to Firestone to get my safety inspection done bright and early for that no waiting. It was the first thing on an ambitious list of 'Things To Do' I was going to do on this lovely Thursday.

While there, I was told that my tires would not pass inspection - the inner edges were bald due to probably an alignment problem. So, thus began the lovely process of learning WAAAY more about tires than I ever wanted to know, peruse Consumer Reports, call different tire places, comparison shop, make a decision (which I made Gary do after we researched it ... he was a trooper and chipped in to help after his meetings). Decision made, I set up an appointment for Friday afternoon. The safety inspection will have to wait until Monday.

TOTALLY threw off my plans for the day.

During my studies of what the hell 'P265 / 70R17 113S' meant, Mr. Amazon brought me a vacuum! Thankfully it was an easy assembly or based on the mood I was in, parts would have flown through a window.

For $99.00 he works like a charm! I miss my Dyson and might still get one based on the fact that I have every single attachment made for it in my possession and hate to toss them. Anyone interested in a broken Dyson vacuum and 15 or so attachments?

After vacuuming for a bit, I got it in my head that the closet under the stairs needed spiffing up.

So ...

I gutted it:

Yes, folks, that is a sheepskin rug. It was lovely in Norway - in Houston ... Not so much. I had no idea it was in there and that is saying a lot - it is huge, where was it hiding? I'm thinking it needs to find a new home - whether that be upstairs in another scary closet that I need to eventually clean out or the city dump ... I am not sure.

But look how lovely it looks without all the crap in it? It is deep and you could actually walk in and get a coat if you so desired (or more likely a bag since that is what I have hanging there ... who needs coats in Houston?).

During this tossing things out of the closet with wild abandon, I got a phone call. It was a group reminding me that I said that I would have a donation of clothing (and only clothing) out on my doorstop tomorrow.

WHAT? That is tomorrow? DANG! I just dropped off a huge pile of crap from my closet, including a bunch of clothes just that morning. Did they want a sheepskin rug? "No, ma'am, we only take clothing." (Man, cut a hole in it for your head and call it a coat ...)

This, of course, was not their fault (that I had dropped off all my stuff that morning or that you generally cannot really wear a sheepskin rug), so I told them I would be ready - the bags would be out on the porch by 7:30am, without the sheepskin.

I don't know why, but for the past few days I have been in a 'mood' to toss ... well ... next to everything in the house. So - off I went to my closet to make a second, more brutal pass.

I was RUTHLESS. If I haven't worn it for a while - I got rid of it. I can always buy more clothes later ...

Thus - more messes in my house that was oh-so-pristine yesterday:

Finished itemizing the clothes, bagged them and put them by the front door all ready to head to their new home in the morning:

Back to the closet.

Tried really hard to keep the closet manageable. Got everything back in it but that pesky sheepskin rug / toga, my Dyson vacuum (the new one will go right there in the front) and the bag of Dyson accoutrement's. Not too shabby (you can at least see carpet - something that was not showing before I started):

But ... here's the thing ...

Apparently I have a 'condition' that I can't seem to shake - I believe it is called 'antipackrat' (I believe in medical circles it is pronounced an-TIP-a-ckrat).

Or maybe I just need to simplify my life and this is a good start?

Nah ... probably a disease ...

Anyhoo ...

There are some candles, room fresheners, etc in the closet for some reason. I think I was under the impression that it would make the closet smell good (which it does) but ... the closet under the stairs is not the designated place for candles and room fresheners!

THE HORROR!!!

Where they should be: The Official Candle and Room Freshener Location is a kitchen cupboard and it is full to the brim with the aforementioned items.

Thing is? I KNOW that I won't be able to sleep until I clean up my candle mess. Which means things will spill over and I will be also cleaning up the kitchen candle mess, which will lead to discovering another mess, or just something unorganized and off on a tangent I will go ... and all of a sudden (hmmmm ... sort of like last night) it will be 3:00 in the morning and I won't know where the time has gone.

Like I said:

I've got problems ....

A Mixed Bag

The last 24 hours have been ... oh ... the last 48 hours have been odd. Yeah - I am that on the ball right now. Monday SEEMS like only yesterday ...

I was / am super busy going through mail, (literally piles and piles of it), making appointments I missed while gone, rescheduling things ... pretty much catching up after having been gone for the better part of two months and putting crap away ... lots and lots of crap to put away. To say that I left for my second trip to Brisbane in a hurry doesn't begin to describe how it was - I left the house in disarray and, well - Ryan was here ... then he MOVED OUT. I finally braved going into his empty bedroom today and picked up some of the detritus strewn about the floor.

So ... I have been busy - something that is not the norm for me. So when things started to go south, I wasn't sure I had the coping skills to keep being productive while things crumbled around me without running down the street screaming and pulling out my hair.

First ....

we have bees. BEES! I. HATE. BEES.

They decided to take up residence under some siding on the second floor in the back of the house. Industriously building there bee lair (that would be the honeycomb? I have no clue) inside where siding will need to be ripped off to clean it out. This is the THIRD time bees have decided to come live with us (the other two times were in our house in Sugarland - one of those being killer bees). Yeah ... bees. Joy.

Next, I had a lunch with my two best buddies - one just having had a birthday. I couldn't remember where I had put her present, but after searching for a bit - I found it! Thrilled, I got ready to go and then went to wrap her present. It was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere ... TWICE. I retraced my steps, I searched rooms I HADN'T EVEN BEEN IN. But no ... so I had to improvise and off to the lunch I went - with apologies.

I then discover that Gary's truck and my Tahoe's registration expired in July.

JULY.

I had mentioned to Gary that I had not seen the bills come in the mail and he was the one who knew that it was late - I would have blissfully gone on waiting for them until next year rolled around or I got pulled over because of it ... which ever came first. Of course - he is sure I got them and lost them - so does the tax office people - but, really - I know it is hard to fathom - but I'M NOT THAT STUPID - OK, let me rephrase that - I most definitely could have lost them - but I would have remembered that I got them! So - Thursday, after getting my inspection done (which should have been done in July) and dropping off a donation at the Women's Shelter - I get to go wait in line at the Tax Office to beg for new ones.

I spent yesterday, as I mentioned, putting stuff away. I like an orderly house and my mental health depends on it - so it is a good thing that I have a cleaning lady come every other week - it forces me to put everything away. That it took an entire day was probably a record of some sort for me.

During this cleaning up process - things started to look up. As posted in an earlier blog - I started cleaning my closet until it started scaring me and left piles of crap all over the bathroom. So I spent a bunch of time yesterday organizing, tossing things out and filling donation bags.

I was almost done, and what should appear, but my friends long lost birthday present (it was jewelry - so small). It had fallen behind the ladder that permanently lives in my closet so I can reach the top two levels of shelves there. You would think that I just closed my eyes and threw the jewelry in my closet ... but I can honestly say I have no recollection of doing that ...

And, wonders of wonders ... I finished! Much better and now I have a ton of drawers and storage containers emptied just waiting for me to accrue more crap to stash in them.

And today was my favorite day: Cleaning Lady Day! Even though I had picked up the house, I knew it wasn't clean: the floors needed moping, counters wiped off, bathrooms sanitized, you know - the stuff that cleaning ladies do. THEN it is clean and I am a happy girl. It is amazing how my mental health can be so dependant on a vacuum, mop and scrubbing bubbles ...

Alma (my cleaning lady) came down from upstairs after vacuuming and asked me if I had another extension cord - showing me a weird, melted end of the one I had attached to the vacuum cord - complete with bare wires. Got her a new one and went to unplug the vacuum cord from the old extension cord and discovered that they had MELTED TOGETHER .... as in FUSED, stuck together. Pulling as hard as I could, I could not unplug it. Seriously - how hot would that have had to get to melt a plug and then ooze into the slots for the prongy thingies?

The plug and the extension cord:

Extreme closeup - the arrow is pointing to the blue plastic from the plug that melted into the extension cord slot:

She decided to try to quickly vacuum my bedroom and when she plugged it in - was shocked and it made a lovely loud electrical popping noise. Thus:

My vacuum is toast. And it is a Dyson. I LOVE MY VACUUM. Well, I LOVED my vacuum.

Why Alma didn't sprout wings and a halo today, I have no idea. In the picture below, notice the carpet. See those vacuum tracks? We had a mini hand held vacuum for vacuuming cars and she got down on her hands and knees and vacuumed my rather large master bedroom:

Was playing with varying exposures while taking a panorama to show the rest of the master bedroom - but it is distorted. The sitting area to the entry to the master bedroom is not in a straight line. But - success! I was able to make a panorama even though I changed the shutter speed dramatically for each shot. (I know ... you care)

Here is a shot that shows the correct perspective - which also shows how light the windows are and how dark the shelves are - which is why I was changing the exposure to suit each section of the room. And, yes still ... carpet tracks!

After Alma left - and each time Alma leaves, I spend time just wandering through the rooms downstairs. It just makes me happy that for a brief moment (well, a longer period of time now that I am the only one living here) my entire house is perfectly clean ...

So ... as I said - a mixed bag. Lots of troubles (some not mentioned - hate to get ... whiny).

BUT:

My house is clean, sparkling and smells wonderful

It is sunny and my house is bright and cheerful (I believe I have SAD)

Had a wonderful lunch with good friends

I found my friends birthday present

After spending some quality time with Consumer Reports online - Mr. Amazon is bringing me a new vacuum tomorrow - and even though it is not a Dyson - it was rated the highest and was 5 times cheaper!

I have finished going through the mail, paid all my bills, updated Quicken and finished all the icky financial crap I needed to do - finding out there was good news when all was finished

Reconciled all our accounts ... was behind four / five months - so completely up to date

Made my header for a newsletter I am responsible for (early so I won't be rushed) and I am rather pleased with it

Have actually gone grocery shopping (for healthy food only) TWICE since I got back

Took the dog to the vet

Bathed the dog

Didn't kill the dog when she barfed on the carpet

Washed my car (OK, Ryan did most)

Watched my 'To Do' list shrink considerably

And: most important and best of all:

Gary is doing great, is no worse for wear from travelling to Phoenix from Australia, is able to swim with really good movement in his arm, will be calling me in just a few hours for our nightly chat and will be home (for a week and a half) in exactly one week!


A girl just can't ask for more than that ....

A Nap Might be in Order ...

Having SERIOUS sleep troubles since coming home from Australia. Thursday night I slept 14 hours, but quickly made up for that by not falling asleep at all Friday night, and not for the lack of trying. Slept Saturday night - was up all night Sunday ... again after multiple attempts.

So ... I should be scheduled for a night of sleep now that it is Monday (OK, well, it WAS Monday when I went to bed).

Right?

I have been to bed 3 times (so far) and no go. Each time, I lay there for about an hour, then give up and get up deciding it is better to be productive than just lying there fretting, becoming ever more frustrated and muttering to myself. The first time I got up I cleaned the kitchen and puttered about. The second time I got brave and decided to clean out my closet. Pulled my collection of bags out and promptly decided I had no patience for sorting all of my crap.

Looks good, yes?

The third time I booted up my computer and started some Photoshop CS5 video lessons. I selected 'masking' and 'selections' since Gary has become obsessed with the photo I made of Charlie where she seems to be floating. He told me the other day he would like for me to get it printed on canvas and he would hang it in his office.

OK.

Selections and Masking are techniques used to cut a person, thing, whatever out of a photo - which is what I did with Charlie. There are many ways to do this and some are extremely complicated - but worth it since they do a decent job of selecting strands of hair and clumps of fur. I am still a novice ... but working on it.

Charlie looked cute in the photo, but the background was messy - thus cutting her out and giving her the funky black and white gradient for a background.

So I was practicing while watching the video (yet ANOTHER nice reason to have two monitors ...) and decided to expand my practice to all my kiddos. Mainly I wanted to see if I could make a decent selection on a scanned photo. The quality is pretty much crap - and I wondered what that would do to the selection process. Thus - photos of the kiddos when they were young.

I did play with Charlie a bit more and came up with a few varieties to my original photo:

This one I decreased the saturation so that she didn't have that pesky blueish tint:

Gave her a 'floor' (oops - just noticed she is still blue in this one ...):


Here is one I like - I semi-posterized it (plus a bunch of other stuff ...):

The following photos are from a photo where I am holding both Ryan and Jessie. My eyes are half closed and I have a horrible, goofy, very unflattering grin on my face. Basically, I look drunk or dim witted ... or both - but the kids are adorable. Although the photographer (I am assuming Gary) chopped part of Jessie off - it is one of my all time favorite photos of my kids when they were young. Now it is usable! (And, no, you can't see my part of the photo ...)

Wasn't he the most adorable child ever?


Well, then again - I may be a little biased - but I had / have beautiful children!


Well, it is now exactly 5:01am.


Hmmm.


Yawn ...

Not-So-Grand Finale ...

... but not horrific either. Just, well, typical? Ordinary, yet annoying? Par for the course? Mind numbingly long?

Well, whatever it was ... I am done.

Término

Avslutte

Fini

My last forty hour day has come and gone.

Got in the taxi, early Thursday morning. The Qantas web site crashed, of course, when I tried to book online ... I wouldn't expect anything less these days from my Vengeful Travel Gods. As I looked out the windows on that now familiar drive to the airport - I felt ... nothing. Don't really know what that means - it was just what it was.

Checked in, got an aisle seat, filled out the paperwork to go through security, went through security and then on to the gate - to begin my 'waiting in an airport'. On my list of favorite things - this was way down there ... but it has dropped considerably in the last year and a half. From the lounge I could see downtown Brisbane out the window and felt a few pangs of sadness then. I felt better about that.

After a second security check (for flights going to the US this is required) I boarded the plane. Made my final call to Gary letting him know that I was on the plane - and that I would e-mail him from LA since he would be in bed. This seemed rather discouraging since we had left together - him to head in to work for the day - me to the airport, and the next time I could communicate with him it would be in the middle of his night.

The plane was full, so no laying down - still typical with my Vengeful Travel Gods lurking about. There was a family spread out in the two rows ahead of me. A baby and a toddler were part of the pack. This is unusual for being way back in the back of the plane. They generally take up all three rows that look like a bulkhead (have a wall in front of the seats). since they have fold down cribs attached to the wall. This didn't worry me, just noted it as unusual ...

... until the toddler started tossing things. He was a thrower - books, toys, magazines, what ever he could get his hands on - and with a backward swing with his arm straight into the air it generally came over the seat ... and onto my lap, my head, the impossible to reach foot space ... this gets pretty old within the first hour ... I don't play fetch or being a target well at all.

He calmed down for a bit in the middle, but then woke up and decided to jump up and down in the chair, which was better than getting hit in the face with a hard object, but twice almost came over into my lap. This made me a little wary - since if I got my hands on the little thrower I might have strangled him (or his parents ...).

Sat my watch to LA time: five something Wednesday afternoon. Sighing, I looked at the face of my watch and realized that the hour hand would have to circumnavigate the entire thing: back to five again and then some (we were scheduled to land at seven). That long before I would be free of this lovely 'home away from home' of mine. I have discovered that in a year and a half this has become a little easier - I haven't had the urge to run screaming up and down the aisles - but still so very, very long. There is nothing you can do to change the fact that you are sitting in a chair for fourteen consecutive hours.

I decided to do the math. In the last year and a half I have been the air, just the 'in the air' part of my adventures:

SEVENTEEN DAYS.


Seriously.


THREE AND A HALF PERCENT of my life for May 2009 - September 2010.

Sitting in a chair at 37,000 feet trying not to look at my watch.




At my two o'clock in the afternoon Brisbane time, I watched the sun set:

I know, incredibly crappy photo - but it was beautiful ...

In the last three times I have flown, my entertainment system was broken. Yeah, I wouldn't consider anything less from my Vengeful Travel Gods. This is a frightening situation for me - I don't sleep and no movies / TV series would elongate each minute into something completely intolerable and unacceptable. They find me an alternate seat - somewhere I can go and watch movies, yet keeping my stuff in my original chair. I am assuming that this is not happening to hoards of people (apparently every traveller does not come complete with a set of Vengeful Travel Gods) or the one of the few seats that were unoccupied would undoubtedly go to someone much luckier than me ...

I was lead to my 'viewing seat' and noticed that it was one of the bulkhead seats. There were two adults without children sitting there - complete with the unused fold away cribs. I was wondering why my little tosser wasn't up there with his family. Often after getting nailed with something I wondered if I could convince the other two adults up there to move back and relocate the younger part of the family. Actually - just move the toddler - apparently parental supervision was not a requirement ... I am sure the two adults there wouldn't mind - especially since they weren't the ones getting nailed - it was the people behind him that might have a few problems with the arrangement.

We landed on time - and I went through the steps to get to the 'waiting in an airport' portion one last time. Man, I hate LAX. I decided that only the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris was worse - from ambiance to just getting around it is one nasty, butt ugly airport. I won't be missing it any time soon.

Got on the plane and noticed the headrest entertainment systems and sighed. I caught a break and the person behind me didn't even use it! It was heavenly! It made my entire three hour flight bearable. I finished my air travel in a good mood.

At the airport - my wonderful, wonderful friend picked me up. She is a saint. She watched my dog, took Jessie for outings every week - AND picks me up at the airport. I feel very loved . Until gaining my two best friends here after moving back from Norway - I don't think I ever had a close friend. Surely no one that I would ask to watch my dog, entertain Jessie or even pick me up at the airport. I is so wonderful after a lifetime full of acquaintances to have two gems of friends now - I am very blessed.

My friend had taken the dog home before picking me up and I walked in on one happy, ecstatic puppy. I meant to take her to the groomer when I got home from Australia the first time (July) but it didn't work out. She is one shaggy dog! Monday is going to be a 'Charlie' day.

Ryan has been the epitome of responsibility this summer - his move, setting up his apartment, starting a new year in college in a different town ... BUT I asked him to water my plants. This was something I failed to do before leaving knowing they had not been watered in over a month since I had been out of town. I am pretty sure he forgot - I have some very dead plants, but surprisingly I have many more (including all three trees) that look just fine. OK, maybe a wee bit limp ... but they will pull through. Apparently I am an overwater'er if they can survive for two months sans agua.

Here I only have one dead, limp puppy - the rest (all real) are going to pull through:

After getting home, I was tired, but not that tired - sometimes I am exhausted when I arrive. I was bored, though and didn't want to do any of the many things I need to do - so opted for bed anyway. It was five o'clock in the afternoon.

I woke up again (less the couple of trips to the little girls room) when Gary called me the next morning at 9:00am! Obviously I have no idea when I am tired - I was rather surprised that I could sleep so long. Seems I have beat that jet lag thing right off the bat ...

Headed to the doctors today:

Since I had to turn around and head back to Australia, I missed my doctors appointment and ran out of my meds a couple of weeks ago. I discovered that I am not a happy camper morphine-less. So good to get the drs appointment out of the way. I also never got over my infection and added some more ailments to my ever growing list - all which apparently needed its own prescription.

During Gary's call at midnight his time and another call when he woke up - we have had a long overdue conversation:

GARY'S MOVING HOME!!!

For real!!!!

He sent an e-mail off to the powers that be that he was staying too long if he stayed until the end of October, basically having finished what he moved over there to do and is coming home early. OK, I guess it is all relative since he was supposed to be home in April ...

BUT, he has the movers scheduled for October 15th and he is planning on flying home the next week!!!

So my days in Brisbane are over. Right now sitting in 100 degree temperatures and about 100 percent humidity I have discovered very quickly that I will miss the weather in Brisbane. Give me a few months and I am sure my list of 'missing Brisbane' will include much more than the apartment and weather.

But until then, I am just happy to be home ...

Tick Tock ...

Well, it is the morning that I fly home from Brisbane ... for the very last time. I have decided that I am going to miss this place. The 'Great Convalescence' is over, and I am assuming it will fade to the background and all the wonderful times I had here - our adventures to Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns, New Zealand will remain in the forefront.

Upon waking, I discovered that Story Bridge and Brisbane were putting on a final show for me:

And, of course, I had to take pictures. They are labeled 'StoryBridgeLast'. It was a wonderful way to start the morning. My Vengeful Travel Gods are wreaking havoc, of course - I wouldn't know what to do if travel went smoothly anymore ...

So off to the airport early to check in and hopefully get my coveted aisle seat. You know ... there are definitely things I AM NOT GOING TO MISS about this ... travel being a huge first!



Gary update:

As I leave Gary - we discussed at dinner last night how far he had come! Long lost is the very, very pale man I encountered when I arrived and back to his usual colour. Last night I smilingly told him I was proud of him at the restaurant - he was cutting his own food - and eating with his right hand!

He also sneezed yesterday without swearing ... a first since the fall. Coughing has been curse word free for a while, but sneezing - I think he re-breaks a rib every time he does it!

He is headed to Phoenix on Sunday. He will survive - he is in Business Class - so has his own seat and probably won't be jostled much. His flight from Phoenix to Houston, on the other hand, is in economy - we will see how he is when he shows up!

All in all his recuperation has been rather swift. He is a stubborn patient - but that stubbornness has gotten him up and about faster. Two nights ago was his first 'narcotic free' night and he did well. He never complains, does everything for himself and makes this look easy. I need to pin a gold star to his forehead!

Well, that's it folks. Since I am heading to the airport early - I will be in 'travel land' for about 29 30 hours.


See you then ...

Missing Brisbane ...

OK ... so this morning I got up and it hit me:

I am going to miss this place. More specifically, I am going to miss this apartment.

The way the light hits in the morning, rising behind Story Bridge:

My 'mini office' with the morning light streaming in:

I love the windows and the openness of the apartment - bringing the outside in. Surrounded by thousands of people ... but not really. The isolation is the best part - being surrounded, yet alone ...


Watching the comings and goings of the river. Mirimar - the boat that heads to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary every day - like clockwork. Leaving at 9:00 and arriving back at 3:00. I can set my watch to it.

Watching the people and their shadows make their way to work.


And this, don't forget this:

But not for too much longer. He I will see again ...



... Brisbane I will not.