Next trip
Here I am fiddling with my earrings instead of packing.
Since then I've made a third pair with the subtle square beads like the one you see unmounted. Must get some longer paddle-ended headpins and matching metal earwires. The black plastic ones are the most comfortable for me, but silver would look better and be more durable.
I think I know what this trip is going to be like; it's a trip by air to a ceramics conference called NCECA (en-see-kah) which I'm sure will be a sensory overload. It's at the Baltimore Convention Center, where some of us have been before; we're in a luxurious-sounding overflow hotel on the other side of the harbor attractions. I can visualize some of the ships of the Maritime Museum as they are moored against the piers; at least I can't think of any other place I've been in the last decade that could provide those memories. I think I visited the lightship, lighthouse and (yuck) submarine. (I mean I'd hate to spend any time in one; as an exhibit it's very interesting.) I'm pleased that one of the pottery exhibits I'm probably going to see on a bus tour I have a ticket for is in the Baltimore Public Works Museum, a big piece of architecture with big industrial stuff, at that point probably a welcome change from pots, pots, pots, but not as overwhelming as a whole nother art museum.
I hope to see jonsinger at least in passing but he will be quite the social butterfly while I will be a fly on the wall, trying not to feel too sad-sacky about being in a minimal-production mode.
The trip has really begun because...
I have already boarded the dog at the vet;
it is a nuisance that I have to pay for two more nights than I'll actually be away, but it IS easier to pack without him watching (are you perhaps going somewhere without me??) and I can pick him up during the Sunday afternoon feeding hour rather than waiting for business hours.
One of the things I have to do before being picked up at 7am is move my truck; it's in the driveway where the oil delivery truck may need to back in while I'm gone, because the area just inside the gate is too soft to drive on this evening, and I have to wait for the overnight freeze:
The lower left corner of this photo and the upper right of the dog photo are approximately adjoining; the snow is in the shadow (most of the time) of the house. The muddy part is where my best sun is, which is why I keep thinking about container gardening - pots to move around parking needs.
I have now packed the clothes. A frenzy of dishwashing (necessary anyhow) is provoked by not being able to find the 7-day pillbox I last used - the dusty one off the shelf that was last used for my previous dog's anti-anxiety meds... well.
The gadgets are lined up & presumed ready; I finally bought a memory card (wish I'd had the capacity for The Gates) since the next to last time I tried to download from the Crummy Kodak I had to hold the cable Just So. I checked that a neighbor has a multi-card reader and CD-burner. Over the weekend my palm pilot developed a nasty trait of giving Fatal Errors - after beginning to draw the back of solitaire cards with an offset across the middle - a hard reset yesterday seems to have fixed it. For that one I have to take the charger. The cell phone I'm likely to use only once or twice.
Instructions mailed to the kitty sitter, and another round of dishwashing. Now for a bath, then a little, but not too much, sleep.
Since then I've made a third pair with the subtle square beads like the one you see unmounted. Must get some longer paddle-ended headpins and matching metal earwires. The black plastic ones are the most comfortable for me, but silver would look better and be more durable.
I think I know what this trip is going to be like; it's a trip by air to a ceramics conference called NCECA (en-see-kah) which I'm sure will be a sensory overload. It's at the Baltimore Convention Center, where some of us have been before; we're in a luxurious-sounding overflow hotel on the other side of the harbor attractions. I can visualize some of the ships of the Maritime Museum as they are moored against the piers; at least I can't think of any other place I've been in the last decade that could provide those memories. I think I visited the lightship, lighthouse and (yuck) submarine. (I mean I'd hate to spend any time in one; as an exhibit it's very interesting.) I'm pleased that one of the pottery exhibits I'm probably going to see on a bus tour I have a ticket for is in the Baltimore Public Works Museum, a big piece of architecture with big industrial stuff, at that point probably a welcome change from pots, pots, pots, but not as overwhelming as a whole nother art museum.
I hope to see jonsinger at least in passing but he will be quite the social butterfly while I will be a fly on the wall, trying not to feel too sad-sacky about being in a minimal-production mode.
The trip has really begun because...
I have already boarded the dog at the vet;
it is a nuisance that I have to pay for two more nights than I'll actually be away, but it IS easier to pack without him watching (are you perhaps going somewhere without me??) and I can pick him up during the Sunday afternoon feeding hour rather than waiting for business hours.
One of the things I have to do before being picked up at 7am is move my truck; it's in the driveway where the oil delivery truck may need to back in while I'm gone, because the area just inside the gate is too soft to drive on this evening, and I have to wait for the overnight freeze:
The lower left corner of this photo and the upper right of the dog photo are approximately adjoining; the snow is in the shadow (most of the time) of the house. The muddy part is where my best sun is, which is why I keep thinking about container gardening - pots to move around parking needs.
I have now packed the clothes. A frenzy of dishwashing (necessary anyhow) is provoked by not being able to find the 7-day pillbox I last used - the dusty one off the shelf that was last used for my previous dog's anti-anxiety meds... well.
The gadgets are lined up & presumed ready; I finally bought a memory card (wish I'd had the capacity for The Gates) since the next to last time I tried to download from the Crummy Kodak I had to hold the cable Just So. I checked that a neighbor has a multi-card reader and CD-burner. Over the weekend my palm pilot developed a nasty trait of giving Fatal Errors - after beginning to draw the back of solitaire cards with an offset across the middle - a hard reset yesterday seems to have fixed it. For that one I have to take the charger. The cell phone I'm likely to use only once or twice.
Instructions mailed to the kitty sitter, and another round of dishwashing. Now for a bath, then a little, but not too much, sleep.