Departing at Gate 5 for darkest Tennessee:
Originally published at . You can comment here or there.
Tomorrow, Meredith is leaving on a week-long expedition to Tennessee to see her twin sister and her family - including an expedition to Memphis, and back again to the Harrington farm (a really lovely place). Her really big presents (woo-hoo wise) were a new set of Ugg boots, and her Sissy’s present - a Lego VW Microbus from 1962. As soon as she got home from the main gift exchange at her great-aunt’s place on Christmas Eve (and after the service at our Church), she jumped into assembling the thing, and finished last night. I still see a number of small pieces on the table downstairs where she was working on it, and I’ve got to get her to collect that and put it away. But otherwise, she did an amazingly good job on it.
Today, she’s supposed to be working on her laundry (doing the dirty and putting away or packing the clean) and other chores around here that she needs to get done before she goes - it will be awfully quiet here without her. I really hope she has a great time; she generally does, and is on her best behaviour. (Or at least, that’s what she tells us.) The outbound flight is early tomorrow, and so all packing and gathering has to be done today.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like I’ll be going off with Susan and Mere to the airport. I’m not terribly mobile (any long trek is in a wheelchair), and I’d be more of a hindrance than anything, especially since only one parent can go to the gate with her. I’d spend 95% of the time waiting in the mini-van or in a busy airport area waiting in a wheelchair. I also don’t have much in the way of leave in any way, and taking everything after 2 pm or so up with getting over to the hyperbaric treatments, I don’t have a lot of latitude in rearranging my working hours (6am-2:30pm). Same on the return - I’d get out of the treatment at 5:30, and Susan would have to be out of the house shortly thereafter to pick up Mere at 7 pm at Midway. Doubt I could get home in time.
This will also the first time Mere’s missing the New Years Eve traditions we have here, and she’s not happy about that, but the Siren Call of Sissy beats everything else.