Toosday

Wow! How full one's days can be when one is busy!

Started the day by taking Missy, our cat, to the vet - to have her front claws removed. The vet was really nice and gentle and made me feel comfortable leaving her there - and off I went to my "last day at work" - again. I spent the morning deleting emails and files from the last 10 weeks - and collecting up what I needed to "deliver" and documenting it. Then I had lunch with the guys I used to work with - both long ago and for the last 10 weeks, got a phone call while at Wendy's - telling me that Missy was fine and awake and that I should plan on collecting her tomorrow - and then I finished lunch, said goodbye to my co-workers again - and walked out the door. Retired - again.

Got home and found Kathy busily packing. We've both discovered that it feels like there's not a lot that has to get done - but as we keep picking off "that one last thing" - 2 more always come to mind, so we just make a point to keep knocking them off - and we *do* seem to be making progress. I finally faced actually *packing*. Kathy has already done all of the "common" stuff - literally already had it packed *into the van* as of this last weekend (so we could see how it "rides") - but I needed to pack my clothes. I was rather surprised that just 10 copies of my clothes - fill my suitcase: 10 pairs of sox (actually, I discovered that I don't OWN 10 pairs of sox - after throwing out the holey ones!), 10 T-shirts, etc. But I got them into my suitcase, then looked around thinking that surely there must be other things to pack - but Kathy pretty-much had all of the "camera, GPS unit, books-on-tape, DVD's, towels, camp chairs, etc etc" packed. So I was suddenly "done". Gee!

Kathy went off to work - one final big project with Hallmark - and I sat down to enjoy myself. Except that I realized that I really needed to book a *room* for the Albuquerque Balloon Festival - so we'd be sure to have one. Amazing just how difficult that is - given all of the technology to help me. At one point, I had separate windows up comparing the best that Hotwire, Expedia, and Hotels.com had offered - AND I had "Streets & Trips" up to help me figure out where the offered-hotels *were* - and with all of that going on, I got an email directly from Orbitz - offering me a 20% discount. On Hotel rooms. If I booked within the next week. Uhhh... really - is somebody watching what I do on the net and sending me "real-time coupons"? I actually think that *is* possible. So I fired up Orbitz, found a hotel I rather liked, and applied the coupon. BANG! Saved $54 on the 3-nite stay!! And even though "Hotwire.com" had the overall lowest price, it is an absolutely no-cancellation, no-change, no-refund deal and I'm nervous enough about our schedule getting shifted - that I wouldn't do that. Hotels.com had a good deal, but wouldn't TELL me what their cancellation policy was. So I booked Orbitz. It's only a $25 fee if we cancel before the day we're supposed to arrive, and I thot that was fair enough.

But that took me - I am embarassed to say - ***3 hours*** to book one hotel. Granted, I was trying to pick something for a Festival time - so the choices were limited, prices jacked up - and I was trying to trade off "just how close to the Balloon Festival grounds should we be?" vs "Is $135/nite really OK for a 2-star hotel - if it's close?" Anyway, at least I *am* satisfied with the final choice.

So I began to look at hotels for Yosemite, but just decided that I'm not strong enough for that tonite: the only reasonably-priced "hotel" *in* the park (at this late booking date) - is for a tent. Literally for a tent. For $40/nite. No heat. No plumbing. When I get more energy, I'll go look at the surrounding area - like Groveland - which looked like I might get reasonable rates by staying 20 miles outside of the park.

So. Life is good. I've been making calls and emails to the people we intend to visit first and they're all OK with our "hopeful" schedule, so "so far so good". I *was* warned by our Nashville friends that 80% of the gas stations in their area - have no gas (EEP!), but we're hopeful that that will have eased by Monday when we expect to be there (OOPS! There I go "expecting" something of our schedule! BAD BAD!!).

This is really amazingly wonderful - to have this next chapter of our lives - just *happening*!