3 Days and a Wake Up Before We Head Back to The Lake

Word of the Day

Arrow-waster - One who does not immediately proceed when a left-turn arrow flashes green; preventing following motorists from making it through on the light.

The list-maker can be fallible. In the middle of the night I remembered that I hadn't packed any shorts or capris for the summer. Why was that? It wasn't on my list. Why wasn't it on my list? It wasn't on my list because when I started this list (the basic list that I use as a starting point to form all future "Packing for The Lake" lists) I didn't own any shorts or capris because my old ones had gone the way of the dinosaur and I planned to buy new ones somewhere, somehow, during the summer. One can't pack what one doesn't own. Only...this year...I do have shorts and capris. I needed to add another line to my packing list. And then I got to thinking about what else wasn't on The List.

I would have been able to sleep a lot better if I'd to start keeping a pencil and paper by my bed to write this sort of thing down so I wouldn't forget the stuff swirling around in my head. I would have been able to sleep a lot better if I'd thought about getting up out of my comfy bed to find a piece of paper and pencil so I could write this sort of swirling stuff down. I didn't. As a result, I got up at 5 AM to power up my computer so I could amend my list. At this point the dogs were totally confused and decided that it must be time to get up. One learns not to ignore the dogs when they claim they need to go out for a walk. Who trains who?

I've been trying to train the dogs not to get up so early. My folks are going to look after the dogs for me while we're in Vegas. My folks aren't used to dogs that feel like they should be walked and fed before 6 AM. Only...that's when they usually get walked and fed because I never seem to be able to sleep longer than 6 AM because some niggling thought that I don't want to forget to remember always ends up waking me up.

Niggling thoughts. This morning it was all about The List and the mental image of an overflowing suitcase. With all the additions to The List, I finally had to accept the fact that there was no way that all that stuff would fit into one large suitcase. I have two large suitcases but one of those suitcases will be filled with everything that I'll need for a seven-day road trip. Three nights in Vegas and three nights on the road. Seven days. There's a lot of stuff I need for seven days. I was a lot younger when I toured the country-side of Bolivia with only the clothes on my back, my hand-woven purse, my alpaca poncho, and little plaid bag. I don't travel so light these days. Though...I probably could if it came right down to it. The desire to do so just isn't there anymore.

Oh well...so I decided I needed to pack some of this stuff into a box. After the dogs were walked and fed, I dug one of those small packing boxes out of the garage. We keep our packing boxes. They come in handy for the long road trips we make to and fro each year. Eventually, HTP would like me to whittle down the items on my packing list so we would be able to fly to and fro but I haven't been able to manage this Herculean task as yet. There's just so much stuff that needs to be transported from here to there and from there to here. It's all my Moms fault. It's in the genes. If you think I have a long packing list, you should see my Mom's list.

Anyway, I think I have a handle on things now that I've given up trying to pack everything that I don't need until we get to The Lake into one large suitcase. Now that I've packed the one small packing box, I have plenty of room in that one large suitcase for the items that I remembered in the middle of the night that I had to add to The List. And...I'm not carrying any more to The Lake than I carried there last year. I was able to transfer most of the recipes from all those cookbooks that I used to carry to and fro to a file on my computer. See? I'm trying to whittle down The List.

Murphyism of the Day

Snider's Law

Nothing can be done in one trip.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

If time flies when you're having fun, it hits the afterburners when you don't think you're having enough. - Jef Mallett, Frazz, 08-01-05