Is that really the end of August that’s creeping up in me? Where have the past three months gone? Why are there so few posts on this blog?!
I’ve never been a big fan of excuses; there just like rear end (I’m trying to be family friendly), everybody’s got one and some are better than others. There’s no point in making up some interesting excuse, the reality is that life just got the best of me this winter (It is winter on my side of the world). We spent 6 weeks in the U.S. – that covers the last week of April through the first week in June.
It takes a week to ten days for the body to adjust to a 15 hour time difference and almost as long to catch up on the laundry with my “apartment sized”, high efficiency washer and dryer. That’s not an excuse – I’m getting older; hangovers and jet lag last longer. If you don’t believe me –drink two bottles of red wine and a couple of cocktails and then track how long the headache lasts. My environmentally friendly washer can hold a whopping three pairs of jeans at a time. I even have to split up a set of queen sized sheets. Best of all it’s a front loading machine that takes an hour per load. There are only two of us and the laundry never ends.
Normalcy and routine had barely returned to our lives when we received the call that Dave’s mom had passed away. Ruth had not been well for the last couple of years and we knew when we visited her in May that it was probably the last chance we’d have to spend quality time with her. Knowing that doesn’t make that phone call any easier. We got the call from Dave’s sister on Sunday morning, July 21. With the amazing support and assistance from Raytheon and Harvey World Travel staff, we had tickets and travel arrangements that afternoon and we left the following day at noon.
The grueling 24 hours flying time was made a little more challenging by the Pope and World Youth Day that was taking place in Sydney. There were no seats available on the Sydney to L.A. flight, so we had to go through Melbourne which added about 6 hours to our flight time. Fortunately when traveling east across the international dateline you gain a day, so we able to get to New Jersey in time for the visitation and funeral. The three weeks spent in New Jersey, was the longest Dave had spent there since he got out of the army nearly 20 years ago. In addition to cleaning out the house, we were able to spend quality time with his brother and sister. Sarah and I even had a girls shopping afternoon, leaving Uncle Dave to bond with his three nephews. The males survived the experience and Sarah deeply appreciated shopping without a pack of boys with her. Her youngest, James, did report that Uncle Dave had to be put in time-out twice. Although six year olds aren’t always reliable sources of information, he said the problems involved Dave demanding more chips before finishing his sandwich and trying to hog all the cookies. I know Dave’s eating habits and I’m not sure who to believe!
The majority of our time was spent sorting through 40 years of stuff in the house and eventually we both needed a break. My amazing husband got tickets to see the Monty Python musical – Spamalot in New York City. Both of us being long time fans of Monty Python, it was the perfect mental release. Despite my vivid dislike to NYC, I agreed to cross the river again for the opportunity to see Spamalot. I figured flying cows, a large wooden rabbit and a few shrubberies would make for a great Sunday afternoon. We both loved the show and I was happy to learn that NYC is slightly less claustrophobic on Sunday afternoon than on the weekdays. I’ll still never be a fan of the place; my friend Melanie can have it. There are way too many people and not enough fresh air in that joint to suit me!
We eventually helped as much as we could and left the remained of the work to Carl and Sarah and headed back down under. On the day we left, we were awoken in the hotel by the fire alarm and had to evacuate. It was already quite warm and seriously muggy standing in the parking lot in the first cloths we could find, so we hopped in the car and went to Starbucks. Upon our return we were relieved to find there wasn’t a fire, so we went to work on packing. Since we had a 6:30 flight and a 3 pm hotel check out we were taking our own sweet time in the process. Right up to the time American Airlines called the cell phone and said the 6:30 flight had been canceled, but if we could be to the airport in an hour they could reroute us through Dallas. We desperately wanted to get to LA in time to catch the Sydney flight so we said yes, even though we weren’t done packing and it’s a 40 minute drive from our hotel to the airport and we needed to return the rental car. The short version is that we made it in time and made the Dallas connection only by running through the airport like crazy people and finally landed in Alice Springs a day and half later. Boy – are we glad to be home! I’ve stopped waking up at 5 a.m. And although I’m not getting as much done, I’m a much happier person.
Life is returning to normal although I haven’t been golfing yet. It’s been cool and windy and my golfing partners have been out of town. Hopefully I’ll be able to whack a few balls next week. Tomorrow night we’ve having a dinner party and I’m attempting to smoke a brisket. I’ll let you know how that goes; I hope it’s not the “Christmas Pudding” sort of culinary disaster. I have a bunch of sausages to toss on the grill in case the brisket is inedible. This weekend is a big wine tasting event and next week I’m having the carpets cleaned.
I promise to be a more prolific blogger. Thanks for your patience.
Till next time, Paula
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