Back to Normal.

At our last meeting I left you with a ton of questions about our impulsive trip to Memphis to visit Graceland with no clue about what transpired beyond that adventure. And it really was an adventure. Especially for Diane who drove the entire way … 6-7 hours on the road plus the time to tour Elvis’ s domain. In order to keep from being frightened on the way back to our hotel in Nashville, I slept. We made it safely but one of us was extremely tired and mentioned that she had whiplash from trying to stay awake not only on the trip ‘home’, but on the way to get to Memphis. Still, she wouldn’t let me drive.

That’s old news so let me move on. No more questions, please …

The flight home from Nashville was no big deal. We got the premium seats we paid for so had lots of leg room. Watched a movie, read, and ate hamburgers that we bought before boarding the plane. Nothing memorable.

It was clear but brisk when we got to Portland and it got brisker and brisker as we waited for over an hour for the courtesy van to arrive and whisk us away to our bed for the night. We stayed in Portland instead of going home because Jeff had an appointment in the vicinity of the airport the next morning so it kinda made sense to avoid two trips to PDX for him.

After a couple more phone calls, during which Diane got pretty tense because one of the calls revealed that no one actually notified the van that we needed a ride. The other call, she was put on hold and no one talked with her again until we were almost to the hotel. When we arrived we found out that the computer system at the front desk wasn’t working so people were lining up waiting for their rooms while they did their best to work around the problem. Making it worse, the young lady behind the desk was new. She was flustered, for sure, but maintained her composure despite a bit of hostility from some of those waiting. That wasn’t from us. We weren’t in a hurry like they were.

It was good to see the kids and dogs. They always get so excited when they discover that we really did come back. That happens every time we leave and return, even if we’re only gone for 10 minutes. Still, it’s fun.

We got back into the routine of our daily lives quickly. That’s not difficult for me because all I do is sleep all night then lay all day in my recliner until bed time. Simple. Many times throughout the day I sense that there’s probably something I should be doing but then I nod off for a bit and the feeling goes away. Since I feel pretty good, I’m sure there are times during the day when I either get up for sustenance, or it’s delivered to me. I also got up for a trip or two to the gold course with my friend Junior. As you know, we don’t golf all that well, but you’d never know it by our scores because we do pretty good on paper.

After a week of resting Diane made it known that I really, really needed to take care of some things that needed to be taken care of. So I did. I’d give you details, but I don’t remember what I did.

Jennie had a birthday on October 23rd. She turned 43. I’m sure that’s not kosher to reveal her age, but I don’t think she cares. She’s our baby, she’s still cute and adorable, and the shortest one in her family. I’ll leave it at that and update you on her longevity in a separate post … no … I’m doing it here … with a bunch of photos I randomly selected from my vast array of choices.

When we were all young.

As you can see, I don’t have many where Jennie is looking at me. She’s always busy doing something for someone else. That’s her in a nutshell. We love her to pieces and are very proud of the woman she has become.

We’re closer than ever to getting a suitable tow car set up for the motorhome. Got the car (a 2016 Equinox) before going to Nashville and ordered the proper baseplate that will fit the tow bar I got from Cousin Don. It’s supposed to be here today. If it gets here before dark I might get to work on it. I’m doing it myself because I’m cheap and don’t want to pay over $500 for a piece of hardware that I can get for $300 and that I’m sure, with minimal assistance, that I can install just fine, if I can find all my wrenches. I watched a really good YouTube video about how to do it and I’ve had luck with other projects using media as a teaching tool. So far, so good. I guess the proof of success for this effort will be that the tow car doesn’t fall off somewhere on Highway 30 and go it’s own way. I’ll let you know how that goes. You can follow along by watching the video here.

Yesterday Jeff and I replaced the old, failing microwave. Finally. It’s been behaving badly for the last year or so. It would beep often as the menu cycled itself without prompting so we turned of the sound long ago. Then, a couple of days ago, I pushed the button for the light and the fan came on. That was new. Diane was aware of a sale at Standard so we went and picked out a likely candidate. It was a good price and appeared to be just as smart as the one we had. I’m going to take it apart and fix it. I’m sure there’s a video out there somewhere that will show me how. Regarding the new microwave, we’ll have to learn all about it. It’s interesting that there is no Start and/or Stop buttons. Instead it has Play and Exit buttons. Kinda weird, but in line with the times and probably makes it easier for very young children to operate the equipment.

Diane salvaged the large glass turn table from the old one and was going to use it for a couple of plants in the Girl Room but I managed to break it to smithereens while cleaning the stove. She’d washed it and had it in the drying rack next to the sink I used to wash the burner covers. They’re big and bulky and I managed to knock the glass thingie out of the rack onto the very hard tile floor. It was really loud so there was no way I could not deny doing it. Everyone looked. She took it well. Better than the broken antique ceramic cat I broke later in the day in a perfectly innocent manner while searching for a Comcast remote for her Mom, Jean. Her’s quit working in the manner to which she had become accustom and neither Diane nor I could overcome the failure to make it work in any sensible way. We thought we had an old one but couldn’t find it so went to Comcast and got her a new one. Took it over, programmed it, and it works like a charm. Mom’s happy.

On Sunday we visited with our Winnebago friends over supper at the St. Helens Elk’s Club. I only spilled one drink on Diane so it was a relatively successful night out for me. Thankfully, it was just water, same as the glass I spilled on her when the crowd was at our house a couple days prior. Seems to be a theme with me. It was a costume party and it allowed me to capture my new favorite photo of my bride.