the Cooper: Getting ready

Five days to go and most of what we will bring is sitting in our dining room and study. It is the culmination of months of planning and on-line purchasing. I was shocked at the spreadsheet Rusty had prepared. How could there be anything more that we could purchase for our bottomless trawler? I will say this again: the next owners are lucky, lucky, lucky...

Rusty suggested we upgrade the SUV rental to a mini-van. Last year we were unable to bring all the wine and he did not want the same thing to happen for our 2014 trip. You see, Rusty has lived most of his life overseas in countries that did not have American type food. So food was shipped to wherever he lived. The food pantries and wine cellars were huge, similar in size to a small grocery store. The habit of stocking up has never left him. People who went through the depression can relate. In any case, when we are down to our last five cans of tuna, there is a quick trip to Costco. And of course, no one but no one leaves Costco without dropping a few hundred dollars. That sleeve of tuna cans expands to a cart full of things that we will surely run out of over the next few months.

My going away checklist is getting easier each year. Mail forwarding service with St. Brendan's Isle is set up, cable is going to be on vacation hold next Friday (nice little feature for Floridians - we can bring our cable/internet costs down to about $10 per month for the time we are away), and a home watch service has been engaged. The only hiccup is finding an internet provider for the time we are in Canada and that is an ongoing problem for Americans going to Canada and vice versa. So we will rely on wifi for the period of time we are in Canada.

The next few days will be filled with cleaning and laundry, maybe a tennis game. Tennis. Hrummph. This winter both Rusty and I got serious about tennis. Rusty had a good game years ago and came back with a vengeance only to experience significant resistance from his body parts. So he is happy to have a hiatus until the fall. I have had to work at my game, not being a natural athlete and getting on in years. I finally am seeing some results so it pains me that the upward trajectory to play with the "big girls" will be throttled. Rusty does not know it but I am taking our rackets and a bag of balls. I figure he will be thrilled that my mind is not on rebuilding our toilets. Yes, people, that is what is waiting for US this spring.