May 21 – June 3: Home again
We are stuck at home for a few days or weeks – who knows? Not only does this count as a “first world problem”, it even counts as a “northeast US problem” given the floods, tornadoes and other bad conditions in the US midwest. The weather here has been stormy, but at least we are out of the worst of it. However, we wish we knew when we will be able to continue to trip.
We are certainly glad that we did not rent out our house this time, as we here until the RV can be repaired. There was no action before the Memorial Day weekend, and as I write there is no estimate on the date for parts to arrive.
Perhaps it is just as well that we were not able to get back on the road on Friday May 24, because that morning the frames of Chuck’s driving glasses broke. Since his prescription is more than 2 years old, this meant he needed to go to the ophthamologist. Fortunately, due to cancellations he was able to make an appointment for the day after the weekend. After some discussion of the logistics of getting the new glasses, our friend Phil agreed to be the delivery site and then send them on to us wherever we are. At our current rate of progress, that might well be home.
Another good thing about being home is that we are not driving through the thunderstorms and tornadoes that seem to be hitting everywhere. True, we planned to be in Canada by now — they are not having tornadoes, but the weather is not great. And since we do not trust the Canadian mail system to deliver Chuck’s glasses, that plan was replaced by a plan to drive to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan until the glasses arrive. Driving south of the Great Lakes would definitely have taken us through the bad weather zone. As it is, we are not driving anywhere.
The weather has had one good effect here, though. Everything is lush and green. Along a local trail, the flox is blooming with all its might. My garden is producing kale, onions, lettuce and dill and there are a few volunteer potato tomato plants.
Yet another good thing about being home when we are officially gone is the sense that, since we could leave at any time, are spending as much time as possible with our friends. We are typically kind of lazy about seeing everyone, but with what we are expecting will be limited time we are making the effort (and so are they).
Also, I have a lot of work to do. Yes, I am supposed to be retired. But I have papers to revise, papers to review, dissertations to read and letters of recommendation for promotion cases to write — 2 of each, in fact. The letters are the most time consuming, as these are for faculty members in other departments — I need to assess their research contributions, which means I need to read at least several of their papers. One retirement decision I will need to make is whether to use my expertise to do this type of volunteer work, or whether to move on to more traditional volunteer tasks, like delivering meals to shut-ins.
Chuck also has a bit of work to do, but not as much as I do.
Besides working, my primary activity since we got home has been to learn to play bridge. Elisabeth and her boyfriend started playing this year, and they and Chuck have been playing on-line against each other.
Bridge seems like a good game for making friends both at home and on the road, so I have been playing against the computer as a way to learn. I am still really bad, but I am much, much better than I was when I started.
Besides all this, what have been doing? We have been kayak sailing twice (albeit we quickly got rained out the first time).
And we went to the Boalsburg Memorial Day events (Boalsburg being one of at least 3 towns to claim to have initiated Memorial Day). And we make our daily phone call to the RV service folks.