142 HOME AND CHILLED OUT

I finally got home at 11:30 PM PST, or by my body clock 2:30 AM EST.  I dropped all my luggage in the front entrance and went to park the truck.  I grabbed my jacket at the last second and am I ever glad I did.  I had no idea how cold it was, but I was shivering big time by the time I did the one block walk back to the house.  When I got in and looked at the thermometer, it was reading -8 C.  The temperature inside the house was only +1 C.  I’ve never seen it that low inside before.  But of course, it’s been empty for three weeks with no heat on.

I lugged my suitcase and camera bag up the first flight of stairs, one painful step at a time.  I did each individually because I couldn’t handle both.  I went around the main floor and turned on all the taps, just to make sure the pipes didn’t freeze.  If I had realized just how cold it was, I could have turned on the heaters from Florida, just to be sure.

I’m absolutely exhausted from getting up so early to now being up so late.  Then all the physical labour with all the airport walking and lugging part of my luggage with me.  It’s odd that you cannot use a luggage cart inside the secure zone.  Anyway, I left the camera bag on the main floor and repeated the process and got my suitcase upstairs, one step at a time.

For some reason, I couldn’t leave well enough alone.  I guess I had a bit of a second wind.  I had to make the bed and put the quilt cover on, as I had washed them all, the day I left.  That done and I decided to unpack.  Why, I don’t know.  90% of it was dirty clothes that just needed to be washed, but even though I was unpacking, I wasn’t going to do the wash until morning.  But I got it all unpacked.

I finally crawled into bed at 1:30 AM PST and that was it, I was out cold.  I woke up the next morning at 7:30 AM PST, which was 10:30 AM by my body clock.  That was a full 6 hours of sleep and I figured I’d be good with that.  Not, so.  For the rest of the day, I would fall asleep at the drop of a hat.  Now I know what jet lag is.  To complicate matters, I’m feeling rough now.  Apparently, that sore throat I had in Orlando was the start of a cold and not just from the A/C.

But I needed to go look in on Blitz at Caitlin and Trevor’s place.  She herself was not feeling well as she was undergoing a deworming treatment.  Once that was done, I went and grabbed a burger at A&W, since there isn’t any food in the house.  I also discovered I had left 2 packages of chicken in the meat drawer in the fridge.  Let’s just say that consuming them would be dangerous.  The fridge didn’t smell so good either, but a quick clean of the drawer and some baking soda, and it’s ok.

I had to take care of a few things around here, like arranging purchase and installation of a new garburator which had self destructed right after Christmas.  I also had to arrange for repair or replacement of my water cooler which had leaked the day before departure.

Luckily when I contacted the company, the told me that it’s very rare for the cooler itself to leak that way.  She said it’s usually a result of a compromised bottle.  She recommended changing it and monitoring the situation.  I did so, and 30 hours later, there’s no repeat of the leak.

One other chore I had to do was take my Maui Jim sunglasses in to be straightened, as I sat on them 3 times during the trip.  Unfortunately, they were broken beyond repair and I had to get a new pair.  One nose pad was gone and the metal piece holding it had snapped off.  The bar between the two lenses holding them steady was snapped and the general frame was badly bent.

Anyway, I think I am all caught up with chores and errands, which included 4 loads of wash.  This travelling is hard work.  But it was well worth it.  I had a great time and took a ton of photos.  One big advantage of travelling alone was that I could do what I wanted, when I wanted.  I was on my own schedule.  I could also see and do stuff that someone else may not have wanted to do.

I never had time to feel lonely as I was so busy wandering around various attractions and then coming back to the hotel and being busy all evening, editing the shots I took.  I also had plenty of people to talk to between hotel staff, cafeteria staff, Starbucks people and then the number of conversations that got started by carrying “the big camera” as everyone referred to it.