Saturday, April 21, 2018

preparations


As mentioned previously, I'm working on getting ready for my trip. In advance! Who are you and what have you done with me? Bought a backpack, it will just have to do unless I come across a smaller day pack between now and then, and ordered a pair of jeans online since no one ever has my size. Well, I can find my size just not the proper length. Apparently stores think all women wear 4” or higher spike heels with their jeans and so never stock 'short' in length. And I'm not particularly short. I dug out my old Canon PowerShot (pre IPhone) to take with me and charged the battery and tested it and emptied the sim card since my IPhone tells me at least once a month or less that my storage is almost full so I have to delete the message log and phone log and mail folders and old photos and no I don't want to do the cloud since it screwed up my photos app in Hawai'i and I now have 17 empty albums that I can't get rid of, the photo stream function no longer functions, and within 2 days was wanting me to buy more storage. I've got the electrical converter gizmos. I've checked the average temperature for Portugal for May...mid 50s to low 70s. I've downloaded three English/Portuguese dictionaries because I'm not sure which one will be the most useful. I bought some leggings, something I have never owned, mainly for comfort for the plane rides and yes I do have a shirt long enough to cover my ass to go with them. I got my hair cut, shorter than I wanted but once that first snip is made you are pretty much committed.

this is what 68 years of living looks like

Oh well, it'll grow and will be easy to take care of on the trip.

Guess I'll get out the suitcase on Monday and start assessing clothing and packing the nonessential items like one of my yoga mats. Still need to contact the credit card company and alert them to my travel plans and decide how much cash I want to convert to Euros. Still having some involved dreams of groups of people and being places but I don't really remember much about them.

Whatever the situation was about the shower drain was resolved Wednesday but blah blah reasons why no more progress was made this week. It's all supposed to start happening Monday heard that a million times in my life, said it more than a few too but I'm becoming increasingly detached from expecting any progress at all before I leave which is a good thing. Still need to pick up the rest of the tile Monday and order x amount of bullnose tile to finish the shower edges. Details and loose ends.

Other activities this week...it's dewberry season.


I bet I've picked at least 12 cups so far, maybe one or two more, though mine are about done. Maybe one more decent pick. The dewberries (our native blackberry) loved the flood. They have colonized the front right corner of the shop and spread all along the front fence. I have made and we have devoured one dewberry cobbler and I'd make another if he would just go to the grocery store since the first one involved a madcap drive, or as Leonard says, a bat out of hell, to Judy's house at the other end of the street in the middle of preparations to borrow 1/3 cup of flour to continue.

Here's a picture of the garden a few days ago. Still haven't planted the okra. It could wait til I get back. It probably will.


And a monarch on the love-in-a-mist.





17 comments:

  1. Girl- you are getting it done. I am so excited for you. You're going to have the best time and when you get back, all will be well and maybe your bathroom will be done.
    It's Magic Time!

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    1. I'm feeling good and relaxed and not stressed but no, the bathroom won't be done because...don't ask the husband!

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    2. Ha! Poor M gets no respect :)

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  2. When you can't push water uphill, just let it find its own way. The berries look wonderful! I need to instigate some cobbler around here. Have a grand trip!

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  3. All sounds good and you are ready. Never been to Portugal and it must be exciting to go to a new place/adventure. Don't overpack as I always do and the new haircut looks great. Have fun.

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  4. The cobbler sounds real good, love te garden wishing I had mine going that well

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  5. Your hair looks great! I'm thinking about getting mine all chopped off again. We shall see.

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  6. Things will get done eventually, so just concentrate on this fantastic trip you are going to take.

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  7. Excellent! So exciting to get prepared! I think the short hair suits you -- and yes (speaking as someone with EXTREMELY short hair) it is much easier to travel with and care for.

    On the iPhone thing, I kept getting messages that my iCloud storage was almost full, and wanting me to buy more. I never even opted into the Cloud, so I wasn't sure why this was happening. Turns out the phone automatically backed up to the Cloud after I updated the software -- I think, anyway -- and I went into Cloud settings and turned off the function that backs up my photos. (The vast majority of data on my phone comes from photos.) After that, I never got the nagging backup message again. I'm not sure if that would work for you or if that's even your situation, but maybe it's worth a look.

    I hate that damn Cloud.

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    1. I turned off the cloud when we got back from Hawai'i but the photo stream function which automatically uploads photos from the phone to Photos on my desktop stopped working. I have to do it manually now.

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  8. This iwll be a great trip.
    Cobbler, a bit like our rhubarb crumble? The berries are gorgeous.


    My daughter who travels a lot swears by not bringing everything you think you should bring, so you can buy weird and wonderful stuff you never would do otherwise, which is when a large backpack will come in handy.
    Also, they make amazing shoes in Portugal.

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    1. cobbler, crumble, pretty much the same thing I think. weird and wonderful, that suits me. trying not to be anal about it.

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  9. jealous of your trip! You will have the best of all possible trips because , I said so...YIPPEEEE

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  10. Have a great trip. You cannot use a towel from the hotel as a temporary yoga mat? Since you have the artistic eye I am sure you will fill us in on Portugal art. Now fence around your garden??

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    1. the fence around the shop property which is across the street from the house. it's an old auto body shop on an acre and a half. that's where the raised beds are for the garden because it gets more sun over there than in my yard. I suppose I could use a towel. we're staying at a villa the owners rent out.

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  11. Must have been 68 years of good living. Portugal is a glorious place - especially for artists (in my humble opinion) and I'm sure you will love the trip. I used to travel extensively and now my brain goes into lockdown if I am facing more than 24 hours away from home. Don't forget to send us pictures!

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    1. I'll be gone for 3 weeks! the longest I have ever been away. will the dog think I abandoned her? she's my constant companion. the husband will be here so he'll do in a pinch. I never traveled until the last 5 years or so except for a few trips to Mexico and will be only my second time across the pond.

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