Week 45 - Another Road Trip

Monday was Halloween and for the first time ever, I was in town but not handing out candy. It was a hard decision and felt like the end of an era but since I’d stayed home last year and only had a few trick or treaters despite leaving the light on until 9:00, it just didn’t seem worth it. When I drove by the hospital on the way home, where Boo in Wahoo was going on, and saw the parking lot full with overflow parking on the road, I knew I’d made the right decision. It seems like everyone is living in so much fear that events have taken over from walking neighborhoods. Too bad for the kids. I went to knitting and had a nice evening.

Tuesday was the first of the month and I would be doing all of the monthly reports alone for the first time. Randy had taken on a few but I had the lion’s share so figured I’d be at it for days. Josh had made magic buttons to run things more easily but, of course, many of them didn’t work on my machine. Randy came to the rescue and figured most of them out. I did end up emailing Josh with a question and he called back immediately and was pleasant. Doing it all took 3 days so my week flew by. Add in a webinar on Friday that took up a big chunk of the afternoon and the work week was done. Good because I was looking forward to Saturday.

Cindy and I had planned a trip to Ikea in Kansas City a month ago and Saturday was the day. I set my alarm (sacrilege!) and was on the road by 6:30 with snacks galore for our road trip. I picked her up right at 7:00 and off we went. The ride went quickly as we chatted away, getting to know each other better than we ever could at work.

We arrived just as they opened and were presented with a free orange mug because it was a food and family event. Cindy had never been to Ikea so was a bit overwhelmed. We did the showroom first, arriving at the café too early for lunch so we did the shopping part before winding our way back to the café. I’d picked up all kinds of things along the way but Cindy is a less decisive shopper than I am so wanted to go back. My knee had had plenty of walking already so I sat in a chair knitting while she went back. After half an hour on the phone and another half hour knitting, still no call from Cindy and she didn’t pick up when I called her. I headed back towards the registers (not easy when you’ve done things out of order so I ended up somehow past the registers but with a basket full of unpaid stuff – yikes!) By the time we got out of there, it was after 3:00. We had planned to thrift near Ikea but skipped it in favor of heading home. We did stop in St. Joe to hit Starbuck’s and a Goodwill right across the street (I didn’t find anything) then made a beeline home. After dropping Cindy, I was home at 8:00 exhausted but happy. I set the clocks back and went to bed.

Well, since you can change a clock but not a cat, I was awakened by Gansey at 4:45 and got out of bed shortly thereafter. My knee was very stiff but I just ignored it and powered through my day. I was bleeding at step one of putting together my new night stand but got it done and then finished the bedroom, which involved taking the mattress and box spring off the bed to reposition the homemade platform that supports the slats. I also dusted under there and then did the final furniture moving. I was very happy with my bedroom and had already been sleeping better on the new part of the mattress. All good.

I had lots of dishes and laundry to do, finishing all that by 3:00, when I sat down to a cup of tea and a call to Carolyn. That done, I started going through papers and clearing surfaces. I talked to my sister at some point and had the last of my saugies and beans for dinner before settling in for a night of PBS. I never did get any cooking done but since the house was ready for the cleaning lady already, I could do some Tuesday after voting.

Speaking of which, we’re in the home stretch. I am SO sick of all the negative ads and despite fivethirtyeight.com’s prediction of Hillary winning, am just a bit uneasy at the prospect of a Trump presidency. I will not be truly at ease until this is all over and have already planned dinner with a friend on Wednesday night to celebrate (hopefully.) Good luck making it through to Tuesday night. Time to stream on Netflix to avoid the ads. : )