I’m back from another trip east on family business. Like the last two I’m very glad to be home. This trip was only a week, though, and my sister Katy and her boyfriend came up for part of it, too, which made it an easier trip in many ways. This is the first time in a number of years that my whole family has been in the area at once.
I took the red-eye flight Tuesday night last week and was my usual zombie self for much of the day, although I did catch a short nap in the morning. I didn’t have anything I needed to do when I hit the ground, which was a nice change.
Our main goals for this trip were to make sure Mom had everything out of her house that she needed (or really wanted), and to sell her car, and we got both of those done. We got a lot of other stuff done as well, and feel like we can see light at the end of the tunnel. The question is when either of us will have time to go back to finish things off.
Meeting Katy’s boyfriend Andrew was neat too – he’s a lot of fun. His daughter’s a freshman in college in the area so we were able to meet her as well. A cheerful and funny guy.
After the two of them left on Sunday, I drove down to visit Debbi’s family again. Her sister Dianne was celebrating her birthday, so I joined them for dinner and pie for that. And we watched a bunch of football. Always fun to see them. This was the biggest chunk of downtime I had during the trip, although unlike my last trip not every night was spent sifting through Mom’s papers to find new things I needed to handle, so it was a little less hectic.
The weather during my visit went from warm and sunny to cold and drizzly during the course of the week. I enjoyed the rain and wished we’d gotten a little more. It turns out I missed a genuine thunderstorm back home the night before I left, which makes me sad.
The trip was a lot harder once Katy and Andrew left, as I continued cleaning the house, and spent a bunch of time with Mom making phone calls to change addresses and cancel things like her car insurance. This was additionally complicated by Monday being Columbus Day, which meant many things (especially government agencies) were closed. I didn’t get as many calls mode as I’d hoped to, but I think I got the important ones done.
I did eat a lot of good food while there, as Dad and I went out to eat most nights. Haven’t weighed myself yet since I got back, but I lost weight on each of my two previous trips, I think because I didn’t snack much. I had lunch with Mom several times, too. She’s still very happy in her new apartment, which helps make a lot of this easier. I can’t imagine what it would be like if she wasn’t happy there.
By Wednesday I was truly ready to come home. Of course now I worry about the things I didn’t get to while I was there, but that list is slowly getting smaller.
I did read two novels on this trip – almost entirely on the plane trips. The flights themselves were fine, and flying out of San Jose rather than San Francisco is definitely the way to go. Certainly it makes for more reliable departure and arrival times, as SFO often gets fogged in.
Debbi picked me up at the airport and we had a quick dinner and I did the basics of unpacking before we fell into bed.
Hopefully this will be the last trip back for a while, as the cross-country plane flights are getting to be a drag (and they’re pricy, too!).