The last week in the U.S.

Note:  this was written September 1 but, due to our travel, not posted until now:-(

Well, it has been a busy week.  No matter how you plan it, when there are so many things that have to be taken care of, it is going to be a big effort.  So here is a recap.

I want to start by talking about our good friend Tom Walters.  As many of you in Action Ski Club know, Tom had surgery on Sunday, August 17, to remove two brain tumors.  We saw him just two days later, and it was remarkable how well he was doing.  We hooked up with John Thomas and Janet Katz and saw him again on Friday, August 22, and then we dropped by again last Monday morning when we were in the area, just in time to catch his physical therapy session.  It is truly incredible that anyone can go through such a major traumatic experience and recover so quickly.  Attitude has much to do with it, and Tom’s attitude has always been steadfast upbeat.

We visited Tom last Monday after taking daughter Liz and husband Jeremy to the airport after her 10-day visit with us before we take off.  Jeremy was only able to get off work and come in for the last 4 days.  For their last night with us, we went to the Chart House in Cardiff for dinner.  It was a beautiful night, and afterwards they took off their shoes and waded in the surf.  That will be something to tell their friends back in rural New York about.

Working to our schedule, on Wednesday we got the moving truck from our storage unit and moved all the stuff we had packed.  Tom Sullivan volunteered a long while back to help with this, and truly we could not have done it without him.  Do you remember the game Jenga, with all the wood blocks that have to fit together?  That is what filling our storage unit was like.  Then on Wednesday night, we had our last Italian class.  Thank heavens we got to passato prossimo verb tense before we left!

Thursday was devoted to more packing, along with our last Italian conversation group and a meeting I had on one of my projects.  Friday started with taking our 2001 Honda in for a service and smog check prior to selling.  The next item was supposed to be easy—mailing boxes of our stuff to ourselves at the post office.  This was our first experience with shipping anything internationally, and we were deer caught in headlights.  The difficulty is you have to make customs declarations, and restrictions on what you can send vary from country to country.  We were not surprised, after our visa experience, that Italy is one of the worst.  On our second trip to the post office, we were off in a corner opening our boxes to inventory the stuff for the declaration.  Fortunately, we thought to bring packing tape and scissors, and had a very helpful postal agent that advised us on just how detailed the declaration had to be.  Will our shipment be rejected by Italian postal authorities?  Stay tuned to find out.

On Saturday, as planned, I borrowed Andrew’s truck and hauled the bed from our guest room up to Brian in LA.  I hoped to get back early afternoon and get a few things done before having dinner next store with our neighbors Sharon and Sue in the evening.  Driving up I did not hit particularly heavy traffic, but I was reminded that it was Labor Day weekend by the gridlocked traffic heading south.  It gave me a bad feeling, that turned out to be painfully true.  It took me over three hours to finally get home, late for dinner.  But after a shower and a glass of wine, it turned into a wonderful evening with our neighbors and Andrew and Violet.

Saturday night was our last in our place for the next year.  Sunday was for picking up loose ends, packing our suitcases, and the challenging task of fitting our mountain bikes into the storage unit.  We were going to hand the place over to Amanda and Rob, our tenants, that afternoon, but we all agreed that we needed more time.  We moved our luggage over to our neighbor Debra’s place, had a delightful dinner with her, and crashed in her guest bedroom.

And that brings us to today, Monday, September first, Labor Day.  Brian came down to go to lunch with us, and take us and our luggage to the Sheraton by the airport.  His car was packed to the gills.  So here we are at the marina, experiencing why San Diego is such a desirable tourist destination, finally relaxing after an incredibly hectic week.  And tomorrow the adventure starts a new chapter.  Ciao!