The Trip is On

After two minor surgeries to implant a “pain masking device” and probe into his spine, Glenda’s dad is finally feeling relief for his toe. That means he is finally sleeping and healing, and THAT means Glenda and I can go on our trip. It’s been a major ordeal for Glenda these past several weeks, and now she feels like he will be okay with her gone. He has several friends and neighbors (snowbirds who have just returned to the valley) who will check in on him, help him with errands and see to any general needs that Glenda usually attends to. Now we can breathe easier and go have fun.

With the recent terror alerts for the New York City subways, we have decided we won’t ride them while we are there. In fact, we will monitor the news this coming week and make a decision about whether it’s worth the risk to go see the World Trade Center site and the Statue of Liberty, or just bypass the Big Apple altogether and head on toward Philadelphia. If it were up to me, that’s what I would do, but Glenda has never been to the east coast and I’d like her to get a little taste of every thing.

The weather is the other thing throwing a damper, or should I say “drencher”, on our travels. Rain in nearly every state from several tropical storms in the Atlantic is the forecast. At least it will be cool. Not cold, but cool. We’re really looking forward to breaking out our sweaters and jeans. It’s still in the 90’s here in the Valley.

I met with the housesitter this weekend, and she is going to work out great. She made friends with the dogs immediately (of course, my dogs have never met a person they don’t like), but she was most excited (and intimidated) with the Tivo. My system is sort of complicated with several components hooked into the receiver and a universal remote, so it was a lot of information for her to process. I tried to boil it down to and stress two or three main points: Hit “MACRO 1” to turn on or off everything needed to watch TV; use the “Live TV/Guide” button to see what’s on now; go to “Now Playing” to see what’s recorded; and last, but most important – don’t turn the channel if Tivo is recording Desperate Housewives, Lost or Gilmore Girls! Who knows if I’ll be in a hotel room when my favorite shows are on, and I sure want to catch up on them when I get home. 🙂

I have lots to do in the next couple of days, including Nathan’s birthday tomorrow night. He turns a big 3 and Carrie is having Mom and me over for cake and ice cream. It’ll be an early evening since I have to get up the next morning at 4 a.m. to head to the airport. In fact, Brian has to get up early too, because he is dropping Glenda and me at the airport. I’m taking my laptop with me and I’ll try to post little blogs with highlights from our travels along the way. Those trees better get ready, ’cause here we come!