Our vacation started out quite well. We got to San Francisco from Reno, via United Airlines. The flight was good, except for a little bit of turbulence. We must have walked two miles from the United terminal to the International terminal for our Hawai'ian Airlines flight, but we didn't mind because we knew we'd be sitting for the next five hours. As we boarded our plane, we were quietly gripping about having to sit in coach, even though we usually do. We got to our seats, and were pleased to see that there were only three rows in our section. We had seats in the back of the section, and it was so quiet throughout the flight, ie no screaming kids, and nobody kicking our seat backs, that we felt almost as if we were in first class. The meal was just fruit, cheese and crackers, but we had packed sandwiches, grapes, cheese, apples, potato chips and homemade brownies, so we were able to snack whenever we wanted to.
 |
| The puffy clouds were just asking to have their picture taken |
We had a two hour layover in Honolulu, but we sat outside and just enjoyed the beautiful breeze. We got to Maui at 1:30, grabbed our luggage and got over to Alamo Car Rental. They tried to pursuade us to upgrade to a full-size car, but we declined, only to find out when we went outside that there were no midsize cars left, and we had to take a full-size car anyway. We were happy we hadn't paid for the upgrade.
We got to the condo at 2:44 and, for the first time ever, we didn't even open the suitcases except to get a pair of shorts out for Bill. We were down at the pool for the mai tai party by 3. Carolee joined us soon after, and Gee and Joe arrived about a half hour later, along with some new friends.
After the party, we unpacked and got everything organized. We were tired but since we hadn't stopped at the market, we didn't have anything in the kitchen to eat, so we went over to Moose McGillicuddy's and split a hamburger. Then we went to the closest market to get milk, bananas and a box of raisin bran for breakfast. We sat on the lanai for about five minutes when we got home, but we were both exhausted, so we went to bed at 8:00, and slept like logs.
Oct 10
I woke up at 4:15, which was really late for me, because it was 7:15 at home. I quietly got my clothes together and went for my first Maui walk. I wandered all throughout the complex, using the parking lot and the gardens, so my GPS would work. I walked for almost 40 minutes, and went two miles, so I was happy. I don't want to lose miles while we are here. I already have 25 miles for October and my goal for the month is only 70. We want to walk as much as we can, but we plan to swim more, so I set my walking goal lower.
We went to the pool for our 8:00 exercise. We beat Carolee, but she showed up within a couple of minutes. The pool was wonderful. We stayed until 9, and went home to have breakfast and make a shopping list. At 10:30, we picked up Carolee and made a Costco run. Costco in Maui is always mobbed, no matter what the time of day. We maneuvered the cart through the store and got out and home by 12:45. Bill and I finally relaxed for a while, reading on the lanai. Around 2, we went upstairs to visit with Janet. We were so glad to find out that George was out of rehab and home where he belonged. They are going to sell their home in Boston and stay in Maui permanently. They both love it here so much. We stayed at their place until a little bit after 4 and then went over to Safeway to finish up the marketing. When we got home, we went for a mile walk. Again, at the end of the day, we were too tired to read, so we went to bed at 8:45.
October 11
I was so surprised this morning when I woke up and found that it was already 6:10. I wish I could sleep this well at home. I didn't go for a walk because I had some training to do for the company I work for sometimes, so I sat on the lanai with the computer and got that taken care of. Bill got up at 7:20 and came out to make coffee and read before going to the pool. Carol was there this morning, but Roy slept in, so we haven't seen him, yet.
 |
| Bill next to the windmill |
 |
| Me hiding |
 |
| Jackfruit |
 |
| Sugar Cane Grabber |
 |
| Plantation windmill |
Bill discovered that the celery we got at Costco yesterday was icky, so we had to drive back in to Kahului to return it. We decided to make a day of it. After making the return, we went over to Ka'aumanu Center to walk around and through the mall. It was very hot and sticky, though, so we didn't walk for very long.
We had a late lunch at Ruby's Diner and then drove over to the Maui Tropical Plantation. We've been there countless times, but this was the first time we took the long tour, through all the gardens. We liked the fact that they label all the crops so you know what everything is. When we got to the Avocado grove, I found an almost ripe avocado on the ground, and I picked it up to take home for Carolee because she mentioned, yesterday, that she adores them.
We drove back to the condo with about 45 minutes to spare because we had planned to do one of our favorite things, swim with sunset. We quickly got into our swimsuits and went across the street. It felt wonderful to be in the ocean again. We swam until the sun disappeared and then we sat in our beach chairs for a half hour and just watched the people and the gorgeous sky. We hadn't taken the phone or a camera, so we didn't get any pictures.
After that we stopped by the pool for a dip and then came back to spend the evening reading and relaxing.
Carolee is going to come over for dinner and sunset swim tomorrow night. We'll have chicken salad. We have fresh Kula tomatoes and a ripe pineapple to put in so that will make it very tasty.
 |
| Cooperative longhorn bulls |
October 12
Janet and George took us to Stella Blue's for breakfast. We had such a good time visiting with them. George and Mary like my book. Janet didn't have a chance to see it, yet, so I will get her opinion when they come over for dinner on Monday.
Caroee's friend, Kristy, came over this afternoon to see our condo. She is the only realtor who lives at Kamaole Sands, and I thought she made a very good presentation. The man Bill has been talking to will be back on island on Monday, and we'll talk to him, too.
Dinner with Carolee was easy and relaxing. After we ate we walked.
October 14
We spent a calm Sunday. We were the only ones at the pool for morning exercise, so we just had a leisurely workout for 45 minutes. Then we read the Sunday paper. I went home at 9:00 to make pancakes and scrambled eggs with pineapple and watermelon. I took breakfast to the pool where we got a few looks of envy.
After breakfast, we did a few more small things around the condo, and at noon, we drove down to Wailea to walk around inside the shopping center, but even in there, the heat was pretty bad. It was 86 with 59% humidity, so we only walked for a little while. We went over to the Maui Marriot and walked through there, too.
Then we drove down Wailea Alanui but we didn't go all the way to the King's Highway, because it was too hot to walk around on the lava. We saw an open house sign for Christie, the realtor we have been talking to, so we drove up to the luxury houses to see what she was selling. It was a 4500 square foot house, with a commanding ocean view all the way from Pu'u'olai to the Pali lookout. The price was only 4.5 million.
We spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy. Bill grilled a steak for dinner, and I made fried potatoes. After dinner, we drove to parking lot at the end of Keakwaikapu Beach and walked almost to the Grand Wailea on the sand, and then on the trail. Even after the sun went down, it was still awfully hot. When we got back, we went in the pool for an hour. Just as we were going over to soak our feet in the hotter of the two hot tubs, Joe and Gee came in the gate so we saw them for a few minutes.
October 17
After swimming and breakfast, we took the day off and drove to Lahaina. We looked at two multi-million dollar open houses on the slopes of the west Maui mountains on the way. Very nice, but too far from the beach. In Lahaina, we walked a little bit, had lunch at Cool Cats and did our first Hawai'i geocache.
We always enjoy seeing the huge banyon tree on Front Street, so we went there and sat under the shade of it for a little while. On the way home, we stopped at Leoda's in Olowalu to get two small pies. They were luscious, but we will probably never go there again, because they were $9.00 each. That's for a four inch pie. It's good that they are so expensive, because we enjoyed them far too much.
 | ||||||
| Time for bed little guy |
October 18
Today was pretty routine, pool in the morning, and beach at sunset has become our routine. This morning, we listed the condo today at $525,000.00. We have some people interested already, especially the family of the people staying next door. They live in Calgary, and have been looking for another unit to buy, one with a large lanai. They would love to have two side-by-side, so we are in preliminary talks. There names are Roy and Delores, and they are very friendly. We have started bringing them a paper every morning.
After swimming this morning, we did some more closet cleaning, and getting ready for professional photos tomorrow morning. Bill worked on the problem of the mechanism being broken on the bedroom verticals. We drove into Kahului to see if we could order the part he needs, but they weren't at all helpful at Lowe/s. He had to duct tape the ends because they won't stay on. They are only one year old, but I guess that's what you get with Lowe's.
We went to Carolee's for Hawai'ian pizza. It was very good. We sat and talked for a bit, and then walked over to the beach for our sunset swim. We took homemade fruit-cicles with us for dessert. On the way we stopped at an open house in building 2. It is a beautifully remodeled one-bedroom on the ground floor with a small lanai for $549,000.00. That is so good for us. It is $24,000 more than ours and we have the large lanai. The sunset was wonderful, and we saw the green flash for the first time this trip. Maybe an omen of good things ahead?
October 22
So, I thought I was so clever. I extended our trip from October 29 to November 7. Pat and Leroy were expected on Nov 5, so I figured we'd be able to see them for a little while. I got a mystery shop at the Hyatt Regency Maui in Kaanapali, which includes the room, breakfast, dinner and a spa visit. We will do that on the 5th, and stay with Carolee on the 6th. Just one problem - Pat and Leroy will be here on October 31. So that leaves us with no place to stay for five nights. I was so upset about the stupid mistake that I couldn't get to sleep last night. I finally got up at 11:30 and opened the fold-out in the living room. I watched TV until after 3:00. I'm working on finding a place to stay. We just don't think we should stay with Carolee for that long.
On Saturday, we took off and went upcountry to play. We went to the Maui Winery, checked out a few garage sales, watch the windsurfers at Hookipa, and found a few caches. We even found one of Ennio and Sherry's caches up in Ulapalakua.
Bailey texted me to ask me to get a sunset photo for her, and I think this one was really good.
October 23
Today we went to Ulua and Mokapu beaches to read and enjoy the breezes. The condo was on the Realtor's Caravan Tour, so we had to be out for three hours. On the way home we stopped at Taco Bell to get tacos for lunch, because we had an early and sparse breakfast of cereal and banana. In a few minutes, we're going to pick up George, Janet and Mary for dinner at Ruby Tuesday. We haven't tried the one here, yet, but we liked it in North Carolina.
October 24
Dinner was wonderful last night. George, Janet and Mary exclaimed all the way home that they hadn't had a steak that good in a very long time. The salad bar is the only one we know of on the island and it was excellent. We were so stuffed that none of us indulged in dessert.
We have a lovely place to stay. Mary asked us to stay with her when we have to leave our place next week. She sold herself as quiet, neat and never there. George and Janet own the condo she is in, and they were adamant that we should stay there and they won't even think about letting us pay them for it. We were planning on them coming for dinner on Saturday, so now we will plan for more meals together - they were excited about the prospect of homemade pizza. Carolee is sad that we won't be staying with her for even one night but we don't want to contribute to her stress level. She hasn't been very well for the past few months. We will be taking her to the swap meet and out to lunch on Saturday, and we will still see her after we move to Mary's place.
Today, we have no plans, yet. We still need to find two boxes so we can send our lampshades, the pineapple lamp, and a few other things home.
October 25
This morning, we did our civic duty and attended the homeowner's meeting. There were no interesting people there. We stayed for almost two hours before sneaking out due to shear boredom.
I took Carollee over to Kalama Heights for a tour. Kalama Heights has independent living for retired seniors, and, though it isn't as nice as Cascades, where Bill's dad lived, it was still quite a nice place. Carolee was surprised at all the activities, but she wasn't very excited about the rooms, and having to give up her condo and her life here at Kamaole Sands. We had lunch in the dining room, and neither of us thought the food was wonderful. Still, it is an option for her when she can no longer live alone. She has been having regular seizures and we're afraid it is only a matter of time until she falls and hurts herself when she passes out.
On the way home, we drove by the airplane that landed on the Pi'ilani Highway a few nights ago.
October 26
This morning, I mentioned to Carolee that she should get a service dog. Boy did I open a can of worms. The easiest thing will be for me to post the letter that I wrote to the board of directors here.
We are
writing this in behalf of Carolee Dennett, of 5-409. You may know that she has been having health
problems for several months which includes seizures in which she loses
consciousness, and we are concerned about her safety. We have encouraged her to seek solutions to
living alone, but she adores living at Kamaole Sands, and she is presently
refusing to give up her independence. We
have checked with health care professionals, who have explained a good option for
her would be to have a service dog that would be able to alert her when a
seizure is imminent.
Because
animals are not allowed at Kamaole Sands, Carolee is under the impression that
she would not be allowed to have a service dog live with her, however the Americans
with Disabilities Act defines a service animal as “any animal that is
individually trained to do work or person tasks for the benefit of a person
with a disability.” Service animals are
not considered to be pets. A person with
a disability uses a service animal as an auxiliary aid – similar to the use of
a cane, crutches or wheelchair. For this
reason, fair housing laws require that housing providers make modifications to
“No Pet” policies to permit the use of a service animal by an individual with a
disability. Also, pet fees cannot be
charged for service animals.
Landlords
and property managers must review all requests a disabled tenant makes for
reasonable accommodations, including requests for their service animal. You can require the tenant to provide written
verification from the tenant’s healthcare or mental health provider that the
tenant has a disability and needs the service animal. The provider need not be an M.D., but does
need to be a healthcare professional.
You can require proof that the tenant is disabled, but cannot require
the tenant to provide information about the specific disability.
Carolee
understands that she must be a responsible owner, and care for her service dog,
including proper disposal of waste and keeping the animal under her direct
control at all times. Also the animal
must be well behaved, including not jumping on people, biting, acting
aggressive, or barking. You may require
that the service animal is in good health, free of internal and external parasites.
We wanted to
let you know Carolee that will be contacting the board about this in the near
future. When you discuss this matter,
please remember that part of Carolee’s symptoms are stress related. We know that you will treat Carolee with the
utmost respect and consideration.
Sincerely,
Bill and
Billie Garrow
So, then I did a lot of research online about getting a service dog, and I wrote a letter from Carolee to the board, which I have sent to her and her daughter for their approval.
While we were at Jarret's office, what started out to be a five minute visit turned into almost two hours of talking story. He told us all about his life. He is a fascinating man to listen to. He is a native Hawai'ian, having gtown up in Hana, on the other side of Maui. His family wanted him to be a priest, but he wanted to be a businessman. But, several years ago, he became a Kumu, or teacher of ukulele, and he is teaching the Hawai'ian language to the new generations through his music. We have always liked him so much, and it was extremely interesting to hear his stories about his ohana.
He has several ukulele videos on youtube. If you search for ukulele, several of them are available and he doesn't make any money teaching. He just does it for the love of Hawai'i.
October 27
This makes me mad and there is nothing I can do about it. I posted all about our adventures yesterday, and everything is gone, so now I have to try to remember it all so I can post it again.
We took Carolee to the swap meet at 7:30 and by 10:00, we were all pooped. We decided we needed to have an early lunch and lots of drinks, so we went to Ruby's Diner for bacon, eggs and french toast. We all gulped down buckets of water and enjoyed our meal in that nice, air-conditioned restaurant. We drove up to Iao Valley just for the drive, because it was too muggy to do any walking up a mountain. We had to stop at Heritage Park for a while, because it is something we do every time we're on the island. We took a few photos at Dr. Sun Yat Sen's monument. Several days ago, we were in his park upcountry in Ulupalakua so it was interesting to see the different kind of tribute to him.
We got home close to 1:00 and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to stay cool on the lanai with our books. Bill grilled hamburgers for dinner and we went to the beach to swim at sunset. It was a wonderful way to cool off.
This morning, we left here at 7:30 to drive over to Kamaole Beach 2, which is about two blocks away. We would normally have walked there, but my foot is still bothering me. I was very glad, because just walking from the car to our spot was very difficult. I haven't loaded the pics to the computer, yet, but when I do, I'll include them here,
We came home to prepare dinner for tonight. George, Janet, Mary, Carolee, Carol and Roy were invited. Mary called to say she had a bronchial infection so they weren't able to come. We had a very nice, relaxing time and dinner was a great success. They couldn't say enough about my apple pie, and they all enjoyed the pasta dinner, too. We were pleased to find out that Carolee has been doing some research into getting a service dog and she has found a place that trains dogs in Makawao, here on Maui. They don't train seizure dogs, but they might be able to help her with the next step. They stayed for three hours but, because they came over at 4:30, we were still able to enjoy the beautiful evening from our lanai after they went home. We read until after 10, which is unusual for us, but we knew the bedroom would be too hot to go to sleep.
October 28
Air Transport manager Randall Jarman loosened wing bolts on a Mokulele Airlines plane Saturday morning. Jarman and another worker from Phoenix made quick work of dismantling the aircraft's wings and tail, stacking all removed parts onto a nearby flatbed trailer. The plane is scheduled to be loaded onto a trailer and transported to Kahului Airport this morning. Pilots of the aircraft made an emergency landing on nearby Piilani Highway on Monday after experiencing engine trouble on a flight from Kahului Airport to Kamuela on the Big Island. Eight passengers and two pilots were uninjured.
Bill was going to go over to take George to physical therapy this morning after our swim, but Janet said that Mary really wanted to do it. She usually uses the equipment while George does, so she likes to go with him.
The trade winds are back and it is a wonderful relief. We've gotten the condo cleaned and we're pretty much packed and ready to move in with Mary on Thursday. I wrote to Pat and found out that they won't be here until after 10:00, so we'll be able to spend all day here, and go to Mary's in the late evening.
We went to see what the new Andaz Resort is like and found it to be rather stark, but beautiful. They used a lot of wood throughout. The lobby and beach overlook areas have a lot of comfortable furniture for just sitting in the lovely breeze.
 |
| Three endless pools cascading into a large pool at the bottom |
October 30
We're all packed and ready to move over to Mary's condo. We've started taking food over, and we'll do the rest tomorrow morning, so we can clean for Pat and Leroy's arrival. Yesterday, we went to Kahului to exchange the rental car, and we did a few errands, including finding the birthday present we wanted to get for Bryanna. We are concerned about not being able to find the things we've been looking for to send to Carson and Brendan. We did some geocaching in Kahului and upper Wailuku and drove home along the beach road, stopping at the beach boardwalk at Kealea Ponds. The phone was dead, though, so we couldn't track our walk. My foot is almost back to normal, so I want to try to do a lot of walking in the next week.
We have seen Joe and Gee a few times but neither of them has been feeling very well, and they are also dealing with a very stressful situation with the flood in their building 10 unit. We miss hanging out on the lanai with them.
November 1
We moved to Mary's place yesterday.
Today was Bill's testosterone shot day. Since we extended our stay, we didn't have a syringe or needle, so we went over to Long's Drug with his prescription bottle. They told him they wouldn't sell him the things he needed without a prescription per Hawai;i state law. I called Dr. Minor's office and Fred was incredulous. He said he would see what he could do, but if he wasn't able to get them to sell to us, we could go to any urgent care or ER for help. He called Long's and got them to agree to sell Bill the needle and syringe. When we went back to the pharmacy, we saw the pharmacist set them up on the counter between her area and the front area. The clerk told Bill they would have it ready in a while and would call him. After 20 minutes, I went to the window to ask what was taking so long since the needle was up on the shelf. She said, "Where?" I pointed to it, and she went to look, found it, and returned, saying that she didn't know it was there. She told Bill that his insurance probably wouldn't cover the cost and Bill said that was fine. She rang it up and it was 18 cents. We have half a mind to submit it to the insurance company for reimbursement.
We finally got home, and I had a very hard time getting the medicine to go into the syringe. It is always hard, because the stuff is really thick, but I couldn't even get it started. Bill did it. I started injecting it, and found that it was leaking out of the syringe and running down his arm. Based on how much ran out, we think he got about one quarter of it. We were angry that we got a defective needle, and concerned that he didn't have enough medicine, so we drove to Maui Memorial, expecting another runaround. Quite the contrary. The nurse at the hospital said to Bill, after he explained the problem, "You had to come to the hospital to get a shot?" "They wouldn't sell you a syringe without a prescription, even though you have the prescription for the medication?" She then reached into a drawer and gave Bill ten needles. We were out of there in under five minutes.
We drove to Airport Road to find a quick cache at an old WWll bunker,
We stopped at the little beach park just outside of Paia to look for the cache we couldn't find several days ago. There were two young men hanging around their truck when we parked. We were looking around some rocks. I was out of sight on the other side of the rocks and Bill was bent over a large boulder, trying to look under it, when one of the guys at the truck called out, "Hey man, are you okay?" Bill wasn't able to hear him very well, but he know that the guy was talking to him, so he thought they had figured out what we were doing. He walked over towards them, and the guy asked, again, if Bill was okay. Seeing Bill bent over the boulder, they thought he was having a heart attack. He said he was trained in CPR, and he wasn't going to let that happen on his watch. I had wandered over by that time, and heard what they were saying. We explained exactly what we were doing and they were very interested. I showed them my phone with the cache description. They said they are going to go to geocaching.com to check it out. We thanked them for their concern, and went back to the search, but, again, we weren't able to find the cache.
Next, we found five caches at Puunene
We came back to Mary's for a quick shower and went out to look for a hot dog for Bill and a pulled pork sandwich for me. We couldn't find a good place for those things, but we ended up at Dog and Duck Pub, and had delicious Mahi Mahi on a bed of rice with mango salsa and shephard's pit, which wasn't very good, but we had a good time. We brought cookies home for Mary. Talked, looked at photos and watched a little TV.
In the news today - a gunman killed a TSA officer at LAX and the whole airport was shut down for several hours, causing problems all over the country. There was another shark attack on the north shore, but the man who was bitten was able to get himself to shore and was safe.
November 3
This is what Bailey wrote to Bryanna on Instagram for Bryanna's 15th birthday. I think they are both incredible young ladies.
_bailey_brownThis is Bryanna Nichole Brown, the most amazing sister ever. I wanted to be the first to wish her a happy birthday but I fell asleep I know I'm not the sister she wants, but I'm the only one shell get. She's beautiful, amazing, funny, and much, much more. I love her so much, she's one of my role models, I learn from all of her mistakes Today she's the big 1⃣5⃣ I can't wait to make you drive me around every where I can't wait till we go on yogurt beach dates I love you so much Bry You know that I'm always here for you, and I know you'll do the same for me. We've got each others backs and your my best friend when no one else is there for me. I love oh so much, happy birthday Bry Everybody wish my beautiful, perfect sister a happy birthday
November 6
Today was our last day on Maui. It has been bitter-sweet, knowing that this may be the last time here as owners of our own piece of Maui. We spent the last evening with Carolee at her place, having homemade Hawai'ian pizza.
Yesterday, we did a resort mystery shop. Most aspects of the service were impeccable. We now know how the other half lives. I loved my Happy Feet massage, and would like to have one every week for the rest of my life.
November 7, 2013
We are on the plane on our way home. We have had a good
time in Maui with little trauma this time, which made the trip all the
better. After our mystery shop at the
Hyatt, yesterday and the day before, we got back to Kam Sands by noon. I started the crust for the pizza that we
were planning to take to Carolee’s place for our last dinner. Then I sat at the table and worked on the
report so I could get it submitted before going to the mai tai party. Bill went
down to secure good places for us to sit and I kept on working. It took quite some time to finish, but
finally, I was satisfied with it and I sent it in.
I went down to join Bill and found that nobody else was
there, yet. I looked at Bill’s foot to find that his big toe was bloody and
swollen. He had tripped after going in the pool gate and scraped it on the
deck. He went over to the rest room to
wash it off and we put some ice on it.
The music started and we enjoyed it, as always. I spoke to Jarett who told me that the
ukulele concert series would be starting for the winter, so we were really glad
we were there for that. Several of the
ukulele group got up to dance hula and the songs they played were wonderful.
Tony and Margaret came over to sit with us for about an
hour. Pat, our friend who is staying in
our condo, came to the pool to join us, and we were honored, because she had
told me that she and Leroy never go to the pool, even on mai tai day, because
they prefer to listen to the music from our lanai. She said the people talk through the music,
making too much noise. After a few of
the songs, she said she was very glad she had joined us, and she had really
enjoyed watching the hula dancers.
She saw Bill’s toe, which, by that time had turned
completely purple. She was very
concerned, and she insisted that we go up to our place so she could do some
first aid on it, because she knew we didn’t have any supplies at Mary’s place. We waited until the 5:00, when the party was
over, and went up with Pat. She bathed
Bill’s foot and washed the area with soap and a soft cloth. Then she put some tee tree oil medication on
it. It was very good of her to do that
for him.
We left her and Leroy for the third time, and started
walking over to Carolee’s. Gee phoned to
say that they had missed the mai tai party due to a dead battery, and being
stuck and towed. We were so sorry we
weren’t able to see them more while we were there this time. With Joe’s back and their condo flood, they
had such a lot going on.
At Carolee’s, we cooked the pizza, which didn’t turn out
very well. It was mushy, probably due to
the water content in the sauce, but it tasted wonderful. We had a lot left,
which we wrapped up and left for Mary, Janet and George. After a sunset, that was beautiful, but not
spectacular, we started the movie, Identity Theft. Bill and I got into it right away, but
Carolee didn’t like it, so after about a half hour, we turned it off and went
to the pool for a swim. We thought the cool water would feel good to Bill’s
toe. We got home about 8:30 and watched
TV with Mary for an hour.
This morning, I found that the editor for the shopping
company had several questions about the shop that needed answered, so I was
stuck on the computer for an hour, but, at least, we were packed and ready to
go. Bill went to the pool to visit with
our friends, and I finished answering the questions and went down at 8:45, so I
didn’t go into the pool. I missed the
swim, but I didn’t feel like enduring the cool water. The pool always cools off in the late fall
and by winter, it is really cold, compared to what it’s like in the
summer. We said good-bye to everyone and
went up to have breakfast, shower and put on real clothes. We left at 10 to head for the airport, so we
could drive on the beach road, and also, to give ourselves enough time in case
there is a problem on the road. We went
to Costco for gas, dropped off the car, and got to the airport by 11. Our tickets were flagged for Security
pre-check so we didn’t have to remove our shoes or belts, and the computer
didn’t have to be taken out of the carry-on bag. We don’t know why we were flagged, but we
were glad. We got into a special line
instead of having to wait with 40 other people in the regular line. What a great way to start the trip.
The flight was good.
About two hours into it, someone needed medical assistance, and oxygen
was administered, but we didn’t find out anything else about it.
Susie and Kurt will be picking us up at the airport. The next few days will be busy, because we
will be unpacking and trying to find places to put all the things we cleaned
out of the condo. Then we will be going
to the Chase ATMs to service them. We
have eleven of them to do in the next two weeks, which isn’t a lot, as long as
the weather cooperates. Bill has scans
next week, and then we will be going to San Francisco to see Dr. Minor in a
couple of weeks
.
.
We got a nice surprise as
we exited the plane in San Jose, California A group of paramedics had
gone onto the plane to remove the lady who was sick. Then they let the
rest of us get off. Just as we had started going toward our next gate, a
nice looking young paramedic left the group of EMTs who were clustered around
the lady's gurney. He looked right at us and said, "Bill,
Billie?" We had no idea who he was. It turned out that he was our
son, Tony's friend, Forrest. Tony hung with him all through high school,
but we hadn't seen him since he moved away, probably 25 years ago. We
only had a couple of minutes to talk, since he was on duty, but it was
wonderful to see how well he had turned out. It seems funny to see our
kid’s kooky friend all grown up.
Bill’s toe is feeling a lot better, but he now
has three toes that are a lovely shade of purple.
We made it.
As wonderful as it was to be there, it was really good to get into our
house and see what we have here. Our house may be small, but it is a pretty
good place to be. We had a good night's sleep after unpacking and putting away
some of our stuff. We got home at 12:30 and didn't get to bed until after
2. We have the laundry all done and most
of our things put away now (at 1:15 pm.)
We went to the market and picked up our doggies from Kathy's house.
We've put all our plants back where they
belong (we had put the all together in one area so it would be easier for our
neighbor to water them.) I'm very pleased with the amount of work we've gotten
done already. The yard is full of leaves
that I've already raked and Bill is going to help me bag them when he's done
with the mail. After that, we're going to take the day off and read, then
tonight, we'll start watching all the shows we recorded while we were
gone. That will take several nights,
because we have four weeks of stuff, but, with the cold coming, it won't be a
problem for us to stay inside and curl up under blankets.
