Like trips around the world

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The center of a Mandolin block I started during the weekend. Looking forward to working on it again today.

We're home a day early from our daughter's house in the San Francisco Bay Area. On Saturday my husband got a head cold, so the decision was made to cut short by one day our long weekend visiting family. While I lamented his illness, leaving was the best option, and I went to bed that night mentally prepared for a road trip the next day.

Which occurred, but not as I had imagined, for when I woke Sunday morning, my lower back was a TRAIN WRECK! No idea what I did, but it was something AWFUL, and I spent the early hours hobbling around, attempting minor stretches, as well as ingesting over the counter painkillers, all to no avail. Meanwhile my beloved was head cold sick as the proverbial dog (Do animals get head colds? I have no idea!), our plan to depart on his account now suddenly scuttled by my predicament, DUDE! I was literally limping around my daughter's house, truly uncertain if we'd be able to leave on Monday, much less that day. Funny how plans dissolve, events merging from what we assume into merely hoping I could sit in a chair without yelping.

Then, as if the Red Sea was again parted, my back became a little less achy. My husband managed a rest. A new agenda emerged; he would drive us out of the Bay Area, then I would navigate us home. That was decided after it was determined I could get in, then out of, the car without tremendous difficulty, LOL. He needed to be at home, seated in his recliner to achieve adequate rest while his sinuses played havoc while I, already in a frame of mind that Sunday was our departure day, longed for the familiars of home. With our daughter's help he loaded the car, the granddaughters sorry to see us go, but knowing they are visiting us soon removed some of the sting. I took another dose of painkiller, and by eleven thirty a.m. we were on our way north.

It felt like north to Alaska, like charting a new universe, like forging some alternate discovery. Part of that was our mostly clear-headed consciousnesses, ha ha, also that we'd just traversed Nevada to California the previous weekend. Some was distinctly personal, at least for me, in how touchy was my back; humbling how one's health can immediately plummet to the depths. Traffic through San Francisco was SLOW, then once we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge all those cars struggling to flee seemed to disappear, or were severely culled, not sure exactly what happened to most of them. We made our way through the North Bay, each outlying city and town beckoning for drivers to stop there. After Healdsburg, few vehicles remained. And it stayed that way the rest of our travels.

How and why weren't considered as I took over the driving, pondering how marvelous was it seeing our beloveds over the weekend (our youngest daughter brought the grandsons for Saturday, always terrific having our kids and grands together). How traveling within (and just a little outside) the state of California provides exceptional glimpses of many geographical sights. How blessed am I to have the opportunity to travel, and of course, how grateful I was to be going home, bad back and sick husband notwithstanding. Being seated for several hours didn't harm my back and my spouse was able to rest. The last stretch was filled with recounting the weekend, as well as keeping up with the NY Knicks/Indiana Pacers basketball game as spotty internet service allowed. We reached home safely just as the contest wound down, watching New York deny the Pacers a 3-0 series lead while a pot of echinacea tea brewed, hopefully easing his stuffy head and keeping me from getting his cold.

We both slept well, waking to a gorgeously sunny Humboldt day, as though the abundant brightness found in our previous locales tagged along for the ride to the North Coast. My back is still meh, his cold remains, yet we are home where we can heal best, and we possess awesome memories to sustain us until we are reunited with those we love most. And as we're planning to acquire baby chicks in less than a week (EEP!), home is where we'll be for a good long time. Maybe not fully at 100% before chick acquisition, but certainly in decent frames of mind, body, and of course soul.

Happy Memorial Day to all celebrating it and welcome to the start of another week!

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