I'm Home!

It was a long, boring trip home. Boring because I like to travel with Suzie and she remained behind. Long because, well... It was long. I got home yesterday at about 1pm. It felt good to sleep 12 hours last night--I needed it badly.

I left their house at about 5:30pm on Friday. They are not all that far south of downtown Los Angeles--About 20 miles or a half hour normally. To give you an idea of what a bonehead I was to leave their house at 5:30 on a Friday, at 8pm I was just going past downtown LA. That's pretty bad. I guess the usual Friday LA commute was made much worse by one of the freeways having some overturned hazmat truck or something on it that shut it down completely. At least I made my break. I was going to leave there Saturday morning, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted two nights in my bed before going to work on Monday. I guess I'm fortunate because all the times I drove us all around that area during the week or so I was there things went pretty well. I only had one other time when traffic sorta sucked, and that was just a rush-hour thing too.

Naturally, I was in the dark for the majority of my trip. The sun just started coming up in lower Oregon, but it was no less boring. Almost the whole time I was in that state it was foggy--REAL foggy. It finally cleared up somewhere near Salem I think. I was glad I had the portable mp3 thing going. I plugged in a DVD of my mp3's that I made that was all loose songs, grouped by artist name, and started it at the E's. When I got home it was just into the J's. Pretty handy to have music play for that long without being having to change a disk!

It felt so good to be home. I don't remember the last time I'd had 2 weeks to burn--I really don't. I went to make my coffee pot up before bed last night and stood there puzzled for a moment, wondering what the ratio I use was. I really couldn't remember. Okay, that may have just been a senior moment--I dunno... Fortunately the weather was pretty good here, because I turned my heat completely off and my house was cold. I could have been much colder I'm sure. I was so grubby and dirty that the first thing I did was run a tub and sit down in it. I had been living in flipflops almost the whole time I was there, and wore them for my trip home as well. Considering my feet were almost black on the bottom when I started my trip, it didn't help that I was in the car for another 19 hours in addition to that.

When I felt human again, I drove over to give Sarah the treasure trove of art supplies I got for her from Suzie's uncle Eugene's estate. Being the artist he was, he had a lot of supplies. As a matter of fact, it's too bad Sarah couldn't have had the fun of picking through it in person--She would have had a blast. Some of the things we (thanks to Suzie and her mom for their generousity) gave to her were things she probably wouldn't buy for herself, let alone all at once. For example, a really large, zippered portfolio to transport your artworks around in, a 17" x 24" (pretty big!) clipboard (two clips made onto it) for clipping sketchpads and single sheets onto while you're working, a nice assortment of brushes, a really beautiful folding wooden "kit" containing 144 large pastels (that item was the nicest artist thing in the house!), and several other assorted pads, sketchbooks, and things. She also got a few really nice books. She was very happy with her goodies.

Thanks so very much to Suzie and her mom (mostly her mom) for fixing me up like that. It meant a lot to me to be able to pick several items from the "cream of the crop" that would have added to their garage sale earnings. That was really nice of them.

Things are going very well down there as far as their sale goes. Almost everything has been exposed to the buying populace at this point. Things that we all worried about selling, such as the large, the obscure, the heavy--All sold or are selling. It's been a very good, organized attack at the estate, considering the state everything was in. Kudos for Maggie (Sue's mom) and Suz herself for being the organizers that they are. The legalities and the logistics of liquidating an estate can be very daunting.

Anyway, after I gave Sarah her goodies, I drove up to Suzie's house and unloaded her stuff. Her stuff actually made up the majority of what was in my car by volume. I had to pack the car very carefully to get it all in. The main thing I had of hers was a really nice folding card table set from the 50's (we think). Not only does the table fold (like they all do) but the wooden chairs all fold too! As a matter of fact, when they are unfolded and sitting upright, they look like any other wooden chair. They are real, working pieces of art in their own right. It's a wonder they've survived this long considering how many parts there are making up each one.

I still haven't unpacked everything from my suitcase and all--I'll do that shortly. Laundry is in order--I know that for sure. It was nice having the ability to do laundry while I was staying down there in Lakewood. Today will be a day that hopefully allows me to "sync" myself. Although I feel pretty good physically, I still feel totally discombobulated.

And I miss Suzie. I don't know when she'll be home really, and neither does she. Although we originally thought she'd fly home when this was all done, it's looking at this point like she will rent a car and drive. She has accumulated some artworks that she wants for herself and her kids, in addition to a few other things that she will bring home. That will also give her the ability to visit her friend in San Fransisco on her way home.

Yep, the trip is over. I drove the little red Neon (which performed flawlessly I might add) 3,944 miles, filled up the tank 11 times, and took 1,265 pictures. Yes I'm anal, but aren't stats cool?