Friday Pre-Travel Cleaning and Packing

It will be a short, not-so-interesting blog today, as this is more of a process than anything else.

I rose after 7 to a gray morning, but no rain. The weekend and start of the week in Oregon will be wet, according to the forecast. No need to ask Corwin to water the roses while I am away. At least for the first week.

I assemble my memories into a story and type that into WordPress’s Classic Editor, which has fewer issues (I was told years ago by one of their developers), while Grammarly finds the mistakes, and then I mostly ignore its hints for improving the text. I do this on-the-fly while I am typing. I am mostly asking the AI to find missing commas, missing plurals, and misspellings or incorrect word use. It suggests exchanging some words, for example, the previous sentence was written with ‘wrong’ and Grammarly suggested ‘incorrect,’ which is what I really meant. I might have spotted it, but I appreciate those changes. When it tries to rewrite my sentences, I look for a missing word, add it, and it then goes away. Something I have learned. Still, as Deborah reminds me, it still gets loose and mangles things once in a while. I suspect I OK’d a change when I meant to cancel it.

I also wrote a note to Mom Wild and got that in the mailbox before the morning deliveries. I had a list of items to do and added a few more. I completed the text and decorated it with some pictures. Coffee was made, and a banana consumed, my usual breakfast fare, and I made a bowl of cereal with milk.

I repurposed the milk bottle, a two-serving shelf-stable version, and filled it with liquid detergent, and sealed that in a zip-lock bag. Dryer sheets went into another bag. Ready to do laundry on the trip! Next, I sorted my bucket of coins that I keep on the counter. One bag for quarters, which I had a large supply of (from a previous run at the coin laundry), and another for other silver-colored US coinage. Pennies and non-US coins were returned to the bucket.

I found a 1951 ‘L’ Error Wheat Penny, which, depending on what you find on the Internet, is worth 3 cents or thousands (I suspect the lower amount). It was fun to be surprised and find this in the bucket. I have a vague memory of finding it and dropping it in the bucket for later, which was now. I put the coin aside in the office, as it is just fun to look at.

I published the finished blog, making it the current entry on the public website. Lunch was cold chicken and more potato salad. The last of the chicken is for Crowin to use (or toss later). I finally ran the dishwasher.

I took Air VW the Gray, fully charged, to the car wash again (sadly, not brushless) and cleaned the outside again. Next, I used the vacuum to clean up the inside. I had already wiped down the dashboard and other parts to remove dust and drips from various products. While I was not pleased with the look, it was far better. I returned to the house via the post office (picked up some new stamps).

Somewhere in the morning, before this, I had a shower, and talking to Deborah here and there through the morning and early afternoon, I finally called the colonoscopy people and waited nearly an hour on the phone. We finally agreed on a date in mid-August, and the scheduler laughed when I suggested Margarita-flavored prep (I suggested instead of lemon use the drink name, and you will not need to change anything but the label — more of a mental thing) or that our church needs to buy a six-pack of colonoscopies, as it seems someone is having one, or you know someone. The scheduler laughed when I told her I marked the prep day as a Party on my schedule.

While I was on hold, I put away the clean dishes, swooshed the toilets, and sprayed down the shower. Collected the laundry and ran it. I folded it, and previous loads, and much of it ended up in my suitcase. Packing was happening in earnest.

I then found my dermatological appointment on my schedule and moved it a week earlier, as my return date overlapped with it. I had decided to spend an extra day to see the Lassen Volcanic Monument on the way back to Oregon. More items from my list.

Corwin came by with Hank the Dog and watched an episode of Daredevil. I mopped the bathrooms and vacuumed after a quick pass of dusting. A rushed job, but it still seemed to help and lighten my mood when it was done. Shirts, pants, a swimsuit, shorts, all packed with spare shoes. Hiking boots I placed in the car with a light coat (I am crossing the passes and am always ready for events—traction devices are in the lower cargo area), plus I will need them at the volcanic park.

Dinner was out with Corwin (Hank had to stay in the house, and he was a good boy) at the local strip mall, where they had an excellent, if maybe too large, meal. I had a margarita (Corwin had given up drinking and weed and feels much better).

I returned home, cleaned up the office a bit, which was the last item on my list, and soon went to bed. I slept well and woke too early, but on a travel day, that is the usual.

Thanks for reading.