I arrived home BEFORE Dave retired.  Tomorrow is his last day of work.  Not only did I arrive home for that occasion but I actually accomplished what I set out to do.  I wanted to see so many people and I saw many of them,  I didn’t have a chance to see everyone I would have liked to but I still feel very fortunate to have been able to reconnect so many as I discussed in yesterday’s blog,

Well, someone was the first to call me to find out my mystery of “doing a first” and she got the story.  She couldn’t stop laughing (at my expense!).  I was laughing too!  I did another first again today.  It may be a good thing this trip is over because no telling how many “FIRSTS” I could get myself into.  Some of the things I only did once:  Lost my check book  (I didn’t do it again).  I didn’t do it again because I am still not signed onto our account because of being out of state when I lost the checks.  Oops!

I lost my keys once and after that I kept my keys in a very certain place when not engaged in using them.  That is, until I got home.  I went down to change of load of clothes and there were my keys on the washing machine.  I’m sure glad I saw them and put them into my purse.  I leave early in the morning to take my car into the dealership to be detailed cleaned.  I love it when my car comes back absolutely like brand new.

I only took one person’s key with me when left her house and it is still on my key ring.  I remembered that out when I tried to open my door with it.

One thing I did do more than just “a first” was get lost.  I was “lost” a lot but I just made it into an adventure and then purposely got lost more.  Of course I had my Garmond with me the second half of the trip so I was never really lost.  When I got majorly lost, like take a wrong freeway from the the six freeways that were splitting up and I had to go off to the left but to be sure and be in the right third lane so I could make a quick right curve and then get in the center lane so I would be going to Fort Worth instead of to Dallas, now that was really getting lost.  It was amazing how many re-dos I would have to re-do to get undone.  But…I never lost my temper with myself and always found myself before I ended up “lost as a goose”.  Being “lost as a goose” is one thing I always remember my mother telling me she was.  I NEVER want to be lost as a goose because them someone has to come and find  you.  When my mother  was lost as a goose in the downtown L.A. area one time when she was driving down to see Dave and I in Orange County, Dave’s father had to drive all the way out to where she was lost and then have her follow him home.

I only left my clothes at someone’s house as a first.  I never did that again.  Thankfully, Cynthia mailed my package of clothes to me.  And wouldn’t you know it, I actually went back by to see her on my return trip.  I could have picked them up!

Well, maybe I’ll tell you the whole story about  my first time of losing my phone.  No time now but I’ll do a followup blog when I have all my contemplating over about my trip.  I will, however, tell  you about a first I did today.  I stayed at a very nice airbnb last night.  Everything was fastidiously clean and neat.  I don’t think I could live quite that neat if my life depended upon it.  Well, by the time I finished with it, it wasn’t quite as perfect as before.  I went to bed at 3:00 a.m.  There was a ceiling fan and I love sleeping with a ceiling fan blowing a breeze on me.  This fan had a little rebellious spirit for living in such a neat house so it decided to be a clutter to my ears.  There is a little chain that hangs from it to turn the lights on or off.  As the fan blades make their rotation a slight jiggle takes place and that little chain jumped at each rotation and went click, click, click and so on and so on…  I don’t mind clutter around me but I don’t like clutter in my ears.  So I decided at 3:00 in the morning to stop that little bugger from jumping and clanging and clicking.  I looked for something I could tie around it.  Nothing.  I had one pair of dirty smelly socks I had worn for two days so I decided against that.  I didn’t want to add any aromas flying around cluttering my nostrils.  Ah…I thought.  I found a pair of clean underpants that would work.  (The operative word is clean).  So I tied them in a knot, slipped the chain end through and my problem was solved.  No more sound.  I drifted off to a restful but short sleep thinking to myself to remember and get those panties in the morning.

About 2:00 p.m. this afternoon while I was in Iowa I happened to think about the fan and wondered if I had turned it off.  Then my eyes opened real wide and I remembered what I had left there…my under drawers tied in a know around that little gold chain where another guest would be coming and looking up at that fan.  Would the man see them up there.  I hoped he would but I hoped he wouldn’t.  I couldn’t believe I did that.  About that time my son Courtland calls and I tell him what happened.  He said don’t worry about it, just call him and tell him you left your granny panties hanging on his fan and make sure and let him know they are clean.  So I did just that.  Mr. Don was laughing about as hard as I was trying not to.  He said he was going to tell everyone about that but in order to protect the innocent he wouldn’t use my name.  I told him I was going to write about it in my blog and I was going to tell everybody his name!    Like I’ve said before, every day I am learning.  What I learned today is to not use my underwear to buffer the sound of of a clicking chain.  They are too expensive.  Those unders cost me $9.00 a pair!  Next time I’ll use my dirty sock.  I get my toe socks on sale at Walmart after Christmas for half price and they are only $150 a pair!  Actually, we both had a good laugh over that.  He was thankful that I had given him the heads-up on my dilemma. He said He would find something else that would quiet the fan chain.  Thanks Mr. Don for not making me feel bad.  It was a pleasure staying at your Campbell House Airbnb in Lincoln Nebraska.  If you’ve never used this service go online to Airbnb.com and see what kind of travel deals you can get all over the world.  Way below hotel costs and a lot more fun.

I now have about a week’s worth of work getting everything back in shape in regards to all the STUFF I had in my car.  Because Dave is so allergic to cat and dog dander I am washing everything item of clothing, towel, blanket, etc that traveled with me.  I’m on my fourth load of laundry and have several more to go.  At least my favorite pant (because they still fit) are washed and ready to go when I get up in the morning.  I am taking my car to my dealership to have it detailed in the morning.  It will be there at least four hours and maybe longer.  I suspect “the longer” when they see just how embedded it is with bug death on it.  It is quite gross.  Both inside and out.  I have to leave here at 8:30 a.m. and then I will have a shuttle return me home and pick me up.

When I drove into Wisconsin it was like night and day from the rest of the country.  Remember how I commented about all the dry and dying trees in Yosemite and other parks I visited.  So much brown, and dust, and dying grasses made me sad for our earth and especially for our country.  I saw half empty lakes and dried up river beds.  I saw mountains that usually have snowcap all year but the snow is already gone.  And the rivers are dropping.  Even the Columbia River Gorge that flows as a border between Southern Washington and Northern Oregon has a lot less water than normal.  And I drove up from a somewhat dry area, but not as dry as the deserts and the south area and Wisconsin is like an unreal oasis of green.  So many different colors of green all in one photo snap.  The light green  of new crops pushing through soil,dark rich greens of crops  of opening leaves and nutrients going to work wonders.  I wish I could describe in true detail how fulfilling it was for me to see the sea of green before me.  I wish a camera would do justice to what my eyes see.

SINCE I AM SLEEPY

by Kathleen Martens

July 2, 2015

Since I’m so sleepy

I shall lay down my head

Before it falls off me

For then I’d be dead.

And I have requests

That my head must do

For it always tells me

How to tie my shoe.

And it’s just so much smarter

Than my hands or feet,

For it knows when I’m hungry

And tells me to eat!

So I shall go sleep

But my fan chain is quiet

Having panties in the air

Is not tonight’s riot.

Goodnight one and all

Go rest and be still

Let your brain think on God

And with peace you will fill.

I do want to tell you what it felt like driving into a green paradise.  The Wisconsin terrain is very hilly and graceful with curves and gentle sloping sides.  Hill after hill was either growing crops or had just been mowed and waiting for harvest.  Graceful lines of smiles were cut into the soil as row planting was done like stair steps.  I wish I could have stopped and taken photos.  The sunlight was coming at an angle and creating beautiful bright hills full of the promise of autumn’s bounty.  But it was the green that caught my eyes.  Every color of green you can imagine.  Huge fields of the lightest shade of new plant growth, silver greens, forest greens, apple greens and blue greens could be seen all in one eye view. And the smell!!! I rolled down my window to a brisk 67 degree temp which was so refreshing, having come from a 97 degree day in Nebraska the day before.  Fresh mowed grass along both sides of the road mingled with all the sensory pleasure to create a full picture.  I just breathed and breathed it in as my eyes soaked in the visual pleasure.  And was there a place to pull over and snap a photo?  NO, OF COURSE NOT.  As I drove the five miles from the highway to where I live I did have the luxury of stopping and taking some local photos right around where I live and travel.  I tried to download some but only my tree (not really one I own but one I love around the corner from where I live) did get uploaded onto the blog.  Be sure and look at it.  To give you a perspective of how big the trunk of that old oak tree is, it takes 4 of my arm spans to circle around its girth.  I have literally taken about one thousand photos of that tree in every season, every time of day, every light, and from every angle.  Panoramas to up close and personal.

I just noticed a couple of other photos finally showed up on my blog below.  They are both right here close to where I live.  I pass by these places on my way to where I buy food.  We have no retail close by us but what I see when I drive to and fro sure is pretty and relaxing, even in winter.  After driving in all the cities I have have just come from it makes Wisconsin my #1 Favorite place to live.  I wouldn’t mind staying a part of each year in different states but I will always come home to Wisconsin.   I have some other favorite states picked out but will share those later too.

Good night by beloved friends and family (and new friends as well)!

Kathleen