Wednesday, October 21, through Tuesday, October 27, 2015: The Last Week of the Countdown:

Wednesday morning, Becky started packing in earnest.  Our closet looks like a bomb has exploded.  A little later, I put in a hold order for our mail, and stopped at the police station to put our house on the watch list.  As part of that drill, I informed them who would be house-sitting and who would be visiting (like our gardener). 

And I had the weekly weigh-in.  We had started Phase Two of the diet last week, and the results were not good.  I gained two pounds.  Arrrrgh!  I will take it off this week.

The USPS tracking system revealed that the package finally arrived in Pasadena from Grand Rapids at 6:52 Wednesday morning and went out for delivery to the escrow company at 7:14 AM---Only five days late.

By Thursday morning, I had lost the errant two pounds, and I happily headed for Dr. Boettcher's office for my surgery follow-up.  He removed the cover he had sewn over the skin graft, and announced that everything was OK. 

Not great, but fine.  Because part of the new graft  replaced part of the old graft there were some slight imperfections in the junction (because the grafted skin is so thin), but he assured us everything would turn out just fine over time.  My only restriction on the cruise will be that I must wear a hat at all times---because the sight of my uncovered head will frighten anyone passing by, especially when I'm sitting down at meals.  I have great faith in Dr. Boettcher, and I am looking forward to my complete recovery---and the restoration of my head as a beautiful thing.  Maybe that's an exaggeration.

We decided to celebrate (a bit) by having lunch at Hiro's Sushi in Flagstaff.  As usual, it was delicious.

We learned in mid-afternoon that the escrow finally closed on Becky's father's home.  Hooray!!!!!  It took only four deals to get it done.  We can now go on the cruise with a clear mind.

Thursday night, UCLA surprised Cal and actually won another game.  Since Cal was ranked and UCLA was not (having fallen from being ranked #7 two weeks ago) it was a good win.  Maybe there's more parity in the Pac-12 than people realize.

Two days ago we started hearing a periodic "chirp" in the hallway leading to the bedrooms.   It sounded like a smoke alarm battery was wearing down.  But we have hard-wired smoke alarms, so batteries are not an issue.  Right?  Wrong.  After two minutes of research on the Internet, we learned that all smoke alarms have batteries.  On hard-wired alarms, the batteries act as a backup, not the primary source of power.  Since all of our alarms are near the ceiling, and all of our ceilings are of the "cathedral" type, and four of the alarms are within a few feet of each other, we couldn't quite figure out which alarm was making the noise. 

And it was necessary to use a ladder to get to any alarm.  I'm a little shaky on ladders these days (getting old is so much fun) so Becky was dispatched to learn which alarm was the culprit.  The alarm in the hall was the most likely candidate, so she changed that battery.  A bit later, the chirping resumed.  She then tracked the sound down to the one in a guest bedroom.  At 6:00 this morning, she changed that battery.  The chirping has not returned, so that apparently was the correct one.  Yea!

Friday involved taking care of more last-minute details, more packing decisions, more clothes washing, more puttering around with small home projects, and more getting excited about the impending trip.  This is exciting. 

Saturday involved a lot of football-watching.  Sadly, Utah lost (big) to USC, thus ending its position as #3 in the rankings.  And Stanford beat Washington, which is fine.  I like Stanford for no particular reason.

And we made more packing decisions.

Sunday and Monday were strangely boring.  We didn't want to start any big projects since we were leaving Monday night, so we just puttered around finishing last-minute details.  In celebration of our trip, Becky bought a bottle of Prosecco.  And of course, we enjoyed it!

I got obsessive about tracking the train every few hours.  It turned out that it was still almost on time late in the afternoon, so we prepared to leave for the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel---and its shuttle to the train---around 9:00.  We had a light dinner at home, then---at the hotel---a final adult beverage.  I had a delicious  Irish Coffee and Becky had a perfectly awful Lemon Drop.  We got on the train at 10:20, only 45 minutes late, and rather quickly went to sleep.  The next morning, we arrived at Union Station a bit early (Amtrak builds in a one-hour fudge factor at the Fullerton stop), Becky picked up our rental car, and we headed for the Pasadena area.  We ran some errands there and killed a little time before we met Terry Shelton for lunch at The Heirloom Restaurant in South Pasadena.  It's a pleasant, slightly funky sort of place, but the weather was nice and we ate outdoors. 

We had a very nice time with Terry, catching up on all the late family doings.  We then headed for the airport to stay at the Four Points Sheraton on Airport Boulevard.  The plan had been for Becky to drop me (and the luggage) off at the hotel, then, after filling the car with gas, return the car to Budget at its near-the-airport drop off place, then take the Budget shuttle to the airport and there pick up the hotel shuttle---to return to the hotel.  When we go to the hotel, though, we realized the Budget office was right across the street.  So, after dropping me off, Becky got gas, then returned the car and walked across the street to the hotel.

The room at the hotel was nice---except that its alarm clock was broken and the refrigerator was not cold.  (We had some Prosecco to keep chilled.)  The hotel replaced both the clock and the refrigerator.  Then Becky went to the front desk to borrow scissors to trim the bandage on my head.  There were no scissors to be had there.  She canvassed the hotel and finally found some in the accounting office.  She was having such a good time building up a hatred for the hotel that I didn't bother to tell her (since it wasn't important) but the bathroom door was missing part of a hinge.

Barbara Coad arrived at the hotel shortly after 6:00 and we started to celebrate the impending trip. 

After we finished the Prosecco, we went downstairs to the bar and had another beverage and some surprisingly delicious bar food for dinner.  We then crashed for the night.      

I had made a tentative arrangement to see my brother at some point during the day.  It was tentative because he had someone coming to see him around noon and it was not clear how long he would be with him.  He was going to call me as soon as he knew what his timing would be.  After turning off the lights for the night, I finally heard from him.  He managed some explanation about the guy he was meeting with had a medical emergency immediately after arriving, and my brother had to spend the entire day taking care of hm. That ended this portion of the saga.

            

Wednesday, October 14, through Tuesday, October 20, 2015: Time to Start Packing:

Wednesday morning's weigh-in was rewarding.  I have now lost a fraction more than 15 pounds.  Yippee!  Although my weight has shifted a bit---and not necessarily to the good---this is the least I've weighed in more than 25 years. 

If I'm careful, my clothes will fit during the entire cruise---which leaves Civitavecchia in just 17 days.  (We will leave Williams on the 26th and get to Rome a few days before sailing.)

Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, I got a strange call from the office of one of my doctors informing me that I was scheduled for a PET Scan Friday afternoon.  When I asked why, I was told I needed to see the doctor for an explanation---which Becky and I did on Thursday.  Dr. Mathern told us what Dr. Knutson had not bothered to do---that one of the tissue samples she had submitted to the lab on Monday turned out to be positive for another melanoma on my scalp.

Dr. Mathern had ordered the Scan to see if anything else was lurking in my body.  In quick order, we met with my plastic surgeon, Dr. Boettcher (who did my surgery in April) and we decided to schedule the necessary operation on my scalp Saturday  morning(!), before even waiting for the Scan.  The reason for the urgency was to accommodate our leaving on our cruise---which we were not going to forego---as well as in recognition of the fact that one should not unnecessarily delay any cancer treatments. 

I had the Scan on Friday and the surgery on Saturday.  (The surgery apparently went well, as expected.) We'll see Dr. Mathern on Monday to discuss the results of  the Scan to see if there is anything else to worry about.  Whew!  It has been an exciting three days.  At the moment, I plan to spend the rest of Saturday in bed, watching football.

Also in the past few days, UCLA got embarrassed by Stanford (on Thursday night), I got a haircut (on Friday) after the PET Scan,

and I bought two new hats (also on Friday) to hide the two "shark bites" that will henceforth grace my head.  I will now be stylish as well as less frightening to strangers.

One of the games I watched on Saturday was Michigan vs. Michigan State---with the most unbelievable ending EVER!  The last play will be shown on highlight reels from now 'til the end of time.  Explanation:  Michigan had the game won with fewer than 10 seconds left, and just needed to punt the ball from its 40-yard line.  It didn't really matter how far the ball went.  Except for what really happened, the only negative possibility was that the Michigan State receiver would run the kick all the way back for a touchdown---which was very unlikely under the circumstances.  But the punter dropped the snap from the center and tried to kick it off the ground. 

It popped up into the hands of a Michigan State player who---with no Michigan players in the vicinity---proceeded to run it 38 yards into the end zone for the winning score.  Wow!

Saturday night went well;  I slept like a log and did not need to take any of the gonzo pain pills they gave me.  Sunday was another day of rest, and football, and reading, and crossword puzzles.  I had borrowed Mark Levin's new book, Plunder And Deceit, from the Williams library, and started reading it on Sunday.  It's very interesting---and frightening, in that Mark explains quite clearly how the current generation of politicians are setting up future generations for financial disaster.

Monday we saw Dr. Mathern and he reported that the PET Scan was completely clear and we could breathe easily for the time being.  That was very comforting.

We've been anticipating the closing of the escrow to sell Becky's father's house.  The closing has been set for early this week.  Last Wednesday, the escrow lady emailed Becky a form of deed to sign, which she printed out, signed, had notarized, and gave to me to mail.  I dutifully sent it by 2-day Priority Mail, scheduled to arrive in Pasadena on Friday.  Monday morning, the escrow lady emailed Becky to say the deed had not yet arrived.  According to the USPS tracking system, the package had gone from Williams, to Phoenix, to Capitol Heights, Maryland, and to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where it had been sitting since Sunday afternoon.  Since it was clear the deed would not arrive in Pasadena in a timely fashion, Becky had to reprint the deed, sign it and have it notarized, and we then drove to Flagstaff to catch the last FedEx pickup for the day. 

Whew!  When I confronted the post office about the screw-up, I was greeted with a shrug and the explanation that someone had simply tossed the package into the wrong bin, and, since nothing is guaranteed, we couldn't even get our money back.  That was disappointing to say the least.

Tuesday was a day of relaxation.  I finished Plunder And Deceit, and we puttered around.                          

Wednesday, October 7, through Tuesday, October 13, 2015: Counting Down to Rome:

The weigh-in news Wednesday morning was not very good.  I lost only one pound this past week, netting 13 pounds overall.  Admittedly, Saturday and Sunday we cheated a bit so the news was not unexpected.  We'll continue the diet a while longer.  The plumbing news was good, though. Apparently, the drip has stopped.  Thank you, Sutton Plumbing.  We later discovered that the repair would have been covered by our home service contract, but we didn't even think of that at the time.  Oh, well.

On Thursday, Becky took Danielle Worthington and Carmen Rice to lunch at the Red Raven, our local favorite.  They were basically celebrating (a little late, of course) the anniversary of our having bought our house.  (Danielle was our broker and Carmen looks after the joint when we're gone.)  I was not invited to the party, since it was for girls only.

Friday was my day to attack a project I have wanted to do since we first saw the house.  The sliding doors on the front hall closet had never had a guide installed on the floor, so the doors swung forward and back when you slid them side-to-side.  It was very irritating.  In order to install the guide, I had to first cut a half inch off the bottom of each door. 

One of the reasons I had not approached the project previously was that I had no circular saw.  I finally bought one the last time I was at Home Depot.  Another reason was that I did not have a hammer drill, the kind that is excellent when drilling into tile and concrete, both of which make up our floors.  I bought a hammer drill several weeks ago but still needed the proper saw.  Now that I had both, I attacked the project---but I forgot to use the hammer drill.  Duh!  I have two more sets of closet doors to fix in the same way, so I'll remember the hammer drill next time.

Saturday was a football day, though UCLA had a bye.  (They're playing Stanford next Thursday.)  There were some fairly interesting games, but no blockbusters, so I really looked forward to Sunday.

The Saturday redbox movie was The Longest Ride, starring Scott Eastwood (Clint's son), Alan Alda, and a previously unknown actress, Britt Robertson (who will likely remain unknown). 

It's a strange movie, combining bull riding with Jewish suffering.  Not a fun combination.  It was from a book by Nicholas Sparks, who wrote The Notebook, among other best-selling novels.  I happened to like the film The Notebook, if only because of the presence of Rachel McAdams.      

On Sunday, Becky took the dogs to Sedona to go hiking with Laura Dillon, a co-worker of ours at the South Rim in 2007.

While they were gone, the only interesting game was Seattle vs. Cincinnati, which Cincinnati won in overtime after closing a 17-point fourth-quarter gap with a field goal on the final play of regular time.  Wow.

Monday morning, I had an appointment with Dr. Knutson, my Flagstaff dermatologist.  It was just a follow-up, to see if anything new (and bad) had appeared anywhere on my body.  She found a couple of tiny things she found interesting, and cut them out to send to the lab for testing. 

We realized on Monday that we will be leaving Williams in just two weeks for our big cruise.  It's getting really exciting to contemplate.   

Before I left for Flagstaff, Brian Mills, the painter we've been expecting for some time, arrived with his crew to start the project of re-oiling the outside of our house to repair the sun damage from several years of neglect. 

We also decided to darken the color a bit.  The project involved our house, the RV barn, and our back fence.  Brian and his gang set to work immediately, and finished in mid-afternoon on Tuesday.  The results are wonderful.  We're very happy. 

In doing the project, Brian moved our barbecue out of the way and put it in a different place when he finished.  It turns out we like the new location better, and will leave it there.

Tuesday night was the Democrat Party debate on CNN.  We recoded it but didn't watch it.  But, on Red Eye Tuesday night, the panel had a lot of fun talking about it.  It was hysterical to watch.

Wednesday, September 30, through Tuesday October 6, 2015: Yet Another Week In Williams:

Wednesday, we realized, was the first anniversary of our having closed the escrow on our Williams home.  Hurray!  It continues to have been a very good decision on our part.  We really enjoy this place.

Wednesday is also the occasion of the official weigh-in after two weeks of our diet.  I have now lost 12 pounds.  Double Hurray!  I celebrated all day.

Thursday, after I got a pedicure, I started reading Shadow of Power by Steve Martini.  (I'm taking a break from James Patterson for a while.)  It consumed most of my "free time" during the day.  I'm so busy, you know.

Friday, I dropped off Becky, Ramsey, and Kelsey at Buckskinner Park for their long hike of the day.

Buckskinner Park, in the Kaibab National Forest, is the location of one of the Williams reservoirs.  I puttered around while they hiked, doing some minor maintenance items.  Plus I read a little.

Friday afternoon, the mail included our Trusted Traveler cards from Homeland Security.  That was fast.  Now we're ready to travel like the big boys.

Saturday morning, after raking and bundling some of the gazillions of pine needles that have been falling this week,

we went to Flagstaff to run errands.  That evening was the occasion of the annual "Taste of Williams."  This year they moved it from the Elephant Rocks Golf Course to Bearizona, and changed the name to "Taste in Williams."  The event was supposed to be a costume party, and the theme was supposed to be Come As Your Favorite Star.  I dislike costume parties a lot, but we decided to go along with the crowd and at least wear our matching Hawaiian shirts (from Meghan's Bat Mitzvah).  That way, I could claim that I was Tom Selleck.  It turned out to be too cold, though, and we abandoned the idea of costumes altogether and bundled up. 

The event was fine, by the way.  We discovered one of the vendors was providing "Arizona Poppers" consisting of jalapeno peppers filled with cheese and wrapped in bacon, then deep-fried.  Absolutely delicious.  We ate too many of them.  And the live music was very good.

Sunday afternoon, we went to the Flagstaff Brewing Company on Route 66 in Flagstaff, to listen to some local bands.  We went specifically to hear The Prowlers, which featured Sue Kelly, the woman who does Becky's facials, as vocalist.  They were pretty good.  We were very good to ourselves, having only French Onion soup and Arnold Palmers.  It was interesting to see that the venue was packed with what seemed to be only friends and relatives of the various performers.  I guess local bands are like that.

Monday started out with rain, which returned a few times during the day.  It was actually quite a relaxing day.  And of course we can always use the rain to fill our reservoirs.  The Monday night redbox movie was I'll See You in my Dreams, with Blythe Danner.  Sam Elliott was also in it, almost as a cameo.  It was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival this past January and released in May, so it went to video rather quickly.  It was a nice, bittersweet film, though, well worth seeing.

I finished Shadow of Power early Tuesday afternoon.  Pretty good, though very complicated.  The Sutton Plumbing people showed up mid-afternoon and replaced the shower cartridge.  We'll see if it stops the drip.  They didn't need to snake the laundry tub drain, though.  Becky inadvertently cleared the blockage on Monday by simply filling---and emptying---the tub while getting mud off her shoes.  

The Tuesday night redbox movie was Cop Car, with Kevin Bacon.  It was an unusual film, odd, but very entertaining.  Like the earlier one, this was released just two months ago and is now available on video---not a good sign for a movie.

Wednesday, September 23, through Tuesday, September 29, 2015: Another Week In Williams:

Wednesday morning's end-of-the-first-week weigh-in was positive:  I've lost eight pounds so far.  We'll keep going on the diet.

We are now in escrow on Becky's dad's house for the fourth time.  Three prior escrows have collapsed because the buyers were apparently spooked by the huge number of items that needed to be fixed---none of them major.  (The house is 65 years old, after all.)  Over time, we have now fixed virtually all of them.  We hope this escrow holds. 

The Wednesday redbox movie was '71 which was a very graphic, tough film about what are apparently commonly referred to as the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland in the '60s and '70s.  Some of the dialog was hard to understand due to the accents, but it was an engrossing movie nonetheless. 

 

Thursday as a serene day.  I finished a James Patterson book I've been reading for a few days:  Miracle at Augusta, which is not one of his mysteries.  It's about golf .  I don't play golf, but I know enough about it to have thoroughly enjoyed this small book.

 

I also got a flu shot on Thursday.  It was a Chinese fire drill at Safeway.  I had to wait my turn at the pharmacy, then fill out paperwork, then wait again for the clerk to come free, then wait for her to input the information to Medicare (which didn't like some of the data, so I had to wait again for that to get cleared up), then got back in the original line to sign the terminal, then wait in line for the pharmacist to finish what he was doing.  Then I got the shot.  In all, I was there for an hour.   

 

Friday, was my day to attack our 2014 taxes. 

 

 

I finished up the calculations which I do and emailed our accountant (in Colorado) with the Readers Digest version.  (I send all the backup stuff independently.)  Immediately after sending the email, I realized I had made a big mistake in one of the calculations, and emailed him a replacement version.  By then it was too late to send him the backup stuff, so I did that on Saturday, which meant that the UPS package would not go out until Monday.  But we still have more than two weeks to get it all finished and filed, so I'm not worried.  Ken, the accountant, has been doing this for us for 16 years (always filing in October) and he is very accommodating.

 

My copy of Bill O'Reilly's Killing Reagan arrived on Thursday, but I couldn't get to it until Friday.  I got half way through it on Saturday.  

 

 

I noticed one mistake.  O'Reilly describes the weather at the 1981 inauguration as pleasant:  "The Reagans have brought California's weather with them.  Tens of thousands of people stand in shirtsleeves and light jackets on this fifty-six degree day."  I was there.  To my mind, 56 degrees is not California weather, and I'm not sure it was really 56 degrees.  It was verrrry cold.   

 

I also watched my share of football on Saturday.  UCLA beat Arizona fairly handily, though, in truth, Arizona helped with some dumb mistakes.  The big thrill was watching Utah pummel Oregon 62 to 20.  Both teams were ranked in the top 25, Oregon at 13 and Utah at 18, I believe.  For some reason, I dislike Oregon almost as much as Notre Dame.   

 

The Sunday redbox movie was Water Diviner, with Russell Crowe, who also directed it.  Interesting movie.

 

 

 Sunday night was the occasion of a lunar eclipse that was interesting, and Monday night we had a "blood moon" which occurs when a full moon is closest to the earth.  Both were interesting to see. 

 

Monday morning, we dropped the dogs off at the railway kennel and headed for Phoenix (362 miles, round trip) for our "interview" with the Global Access folks from Homeland Security.  We passed!  We now are Trusted Travelers, meaning we can avoid some of the hassles at "participating" airports. 

 

 

After a 3 1/2 hour drive, the interview took about three minutes.  It was 104 degrees when we got to Phoenix, and we couldn't wait to head back.  It's only in the 70s here in Williams these days.  Very nice. 

 

Monday evening, I finished Killing Reagan.  For some reason, I was a little disappointed in it.  I don't think it was because the man was portrayed as a real human with many faults instead of the hero many of us have created in our minds.  Anyway, it was well worth reading. 

 

Tuesday morning, the folks from Sutton Plumbing showed up to fix our leaking master-bath shower faucet and snake a slow drain in our laundry tub. 

 

 

On a guess, I had contacted Moen and wangled a free replacement part for the shower.  It turned out the faucet is a Price-Pfister.  Oops.  A frustrating trip by the plumbers to the hardware store ensued; the store no longer carries Price-Pfister parts.  The parts need to be ordered by the plumbers. 

 

During their midday walk, Becky and the dogs encountered two bears in the forest.  The mother took off but the younger bear approached Becky and her troupe.  It was scary, according to Becky's report.  She started to make noise and wave her arms, which is the suggested protocol under the circumstances.  Just then, a fellow approached in a car, got out to offer help, and Becky noticed he was armed.  That changed things.  Eventually, the bear wandered off.  Whew. 

 

 

 

Tuesday afternoon, we headed for Flagstaff to have an adult beverage with Bruce Bourne and Patrice Giordano at their very nice, remote home.  It's located on two acres, tucked inside the Coconino National Forest on a dirt road, with a remarkable view of Mount Humphreys across a wide meadow from their terrace.  

 

 

Patrice is the aunt of a fellow who used to work with Becky.  We met them last year.  They're very nice people, and we had a good time with them.  

 

Wednesday, September 16, through Tuesday, September 22, 2015: Our First Week Back:

Waking up in our regular bed Wednesday morning was a little unsettling after sleeping elsewhere for the previous 3 1/2 weeks.  And the dogs were a little unsettled, as well. 

But we all got back to our regular routine in a short time.  The big job, which we had started on Tuesday, was moving a ton of "stuff" from the rig back into the house.  Becky, the champ, did most of the work, of course.  The house was fine, but we discovered that our "water feature" was not working---apparently, a burned-out (or at least very cranky) motor.  Becky ordered a replacement.

Although we had not gained any weight on the trip, we both thought it would be best to lose a little before embarking on our Transatlantic cruise in October.  So we dug out The South Beach Diet book that we have been using rather successfully since 2004, and started in on its regimen Wednesday morning.


Wednesday night we watched part of the Republican Debates on CNN.  We gave up halfway through the second one.  The structure---pitting one candidate against another over often petty matters---was both uninformative and boring.

Thursday, I started to work on the faucet in our laundry room.  It was not only crusted with lime, but it leaked when you turned on the hot water.  After struggling with it for two hours, it was shiny and clean, but it still leaked.  I'll get a new one on Friday when I go to Flagstaff.

Friday, I went to Flagstaff to run some errands and Becky washed the rig.  It's beautiful again.

Becky also started to replace the pump for our water feature.  It needed some connecting parts, which I went to the hardware store (twice) to get.  I need to go again on Saturday, since my last trip produced a wrong-sized coupling.  Oops. 

Saturday was a great day.  First, we joined fellow Williamsians (?) in a two-hour local trash-cleanup effort,

then Becky completed the water feature pump replacement and it works beautifully, and I successfully replaced the laundry faucet.  I also fixed a leaky water hose that was connected to the rig, and otherwise prepared the rig to go into the barn until we leave for the winter.  And I got the truck washed by a bunch of middle-schoolers who were running a fundraiser in town.  Months of bugs were finally off the grille. 

And, finally, Stanford upset USC and UCLA beat BYU.  What a wonderful way to end a terrific day.

Sunday's big goal was to move the rig into the barn.  First, I had to lower the hitch in the truck 3 inches so the rig would fit in the barn.  I've done this before and it was difficult but not too hard.  This time I was so visibly struggling with it that Jay, my next-door neighbor to the South, came over and volunteered to help.  I accepted, and in short order we had the job done.  Becky then guided me through backing the rig into the barn---much more easily than last time, due entirely to the new driveway gravel that helps prevent wheel-spinning. 

Thank you, Troy (our landscaper).  I was tired after that pair of projects, so I napped while Becky took Ramsey and Kelsey for a long walk.

Monday was my day to go to Flagstaff for a CT Scan of various parts of my body.  It was a scheduled follow-up to my recent bout with melanoma.  I had to drink some prepared stuff the night before and the morning of the test, and I couldn't eat or drink anything else for many hours before the test, but I survived.  And the report from Dr. Mathern afterwards was that I passed with flying colors.  Hurrah!

Naturally, since we were in Flagstaff, we had to run some errands.  One of them was to got to the Amtrak station and pick up our Southwest Chief  tickets to and from Los Angeles for the beginning and end of our Transatlantic cruise.  We now have our train and airline tickets.  If we get our weight in line, we'll be all set.

Tuesday was a simple day; nothing special.  It rained a little, I took the tire monitors off the rig to save their battery life, I sprayed the rig's tires with some stuff to make them look nice, I arranged with a fence company to re-do the fence and gates on the South driveway (in November; they're very busy) because the current setup is sagging, and I read a lot.  Nice, quiet day.