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Post Egypt

We are home after 25 hours of flight and layover, starting by leaving our Cairo hotel at 12:30 AM. First to Vienna, where wheelchair support whisked us through the airport and customs. Then to Frankfort, and a Viking representative waiting for us. Somehow we lost her when Grant went to the bathroom. Suddenly our long layover with what I’d hoped would be a nice meal turned to chaos. I was overwhelmed, exhausted, and hungry. I started to break down Thank goodness I had added the Viking Travel Support phone number to my contacts, so I messaged for help. Coincidentally, I spotted another Viking rep, and with her phone calls to supervisors, another wheelchair and staff came to our rescue. He even took us to the back area and found clean pants for Grant. Another quick trip through customs and on to the gate waiting area. While Grant sat, I scrounged for food. Several long gates away, I found a sandwich bar with beer, wine and tables. If only I’d had the energy to push the wheelchair, it coul...
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Egypt 3

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The Grand Egyptian Museum and the pyramids. I am overwhelmed. First the museum. As ever, at a fast pace, but with Ehab at the helm, we bypassed the main area and went straight to the boat of King Khufu, the oldest boat in the world. Found in 1954 next to his pyramid, it was reassembled and given the place of honor in its own building. Eventually it will be joined by another.  Next, the treasure of Tutankhamen. Gold, gold, gold including the 11+ kilogram mask that never leaves Egypt. But also all the things the king would need in the afterlife: food, clothing, chariots, weaponry, furniture, etc.  My favorite: the 365 small figurines of the king that would handle all the work he was going to be required to do, one for each day. Exactly what I need at home for my gardening. Given an hour of free range, I headed to the gift shop for post cards (meh selection), a cat magnet for our cat sitter Vera (all I could find)*, a pillow cover with a sacred ibis (will go with...
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Egypt 2

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  We are alive. After dining in our room on the leftover calamari pasta, tea sandwiches, and, for me, the rest of the pastries, we decided to take a chance and scoot across the road to walk along the Nile. The natives, young and old, do it. How hard could it be? Hard. We chickened out, and with the help of a security guard, negotiated having one of the 3-wheeled little cars takes us there. Just to the u-turn place a half block down, then across to the other side. E£50, but with only 20s, I gave the driver E£60. All good we thought, except he wanted an additional $1 when he dropped us off. I’m not clear if it was just an attempt at extortion, or we screwed up. In any case, we refused and walked away.  After paying $2 for tickets to go down the stairs to the waterside walkway, we strolled past empty restaurants, beckoned in at every one. Definitely not the high season in Cairo. Lots of Egyptian families with most of the women in long robes, often with scarves. For E£100 (posted,...
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Trip to Egypt

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Day 3 of our trip, and still no luggage. Fortunately, this time to Northern Africa, we packed so we have a change of clothes (for some reason, I didn’t put in an extra blouse, ah well) and all Grant’s meds with us in our carryon bags. Lost luggage does make it easy to decide what to wear each morning. Same old, same old. We are at the Fairmont Nile Hotel, with a wonderful room overlooking the Nile. Between us and the riverside People of Egypt Walkway is a 6-lane road with constant traffic night and day. I use the term “6-lane” loosely, as lanes seem to be suggestions, not rigid rules. But there are lane markers. Buses, trucks, cars, mopeds, even 1 horse-drawn wagon stream pass. What there isn’t are crosswalks. I have seen none. Pedestrians just walk slowly across, one lane at a time, while traffic goes by. I am determined to try it.  My plan is to be next to a local and follow their lead. This morning we saw men standing in the road waiting for a seat on a microbus. Eventually they...
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Welcome Back Open House

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Bloom & Grow Membership Committee’s Welcome Back Open House was a success. All of my anxiety a waste. I knew that, but I still worried. We had 36 people attend, which does include 6 committee chairs and 5 of us on MC, but still, a good turn out, plus 3 people said they were joining, Ashley created a huge charcuterie, Rosemary brought desserts and a collection of raffle prizes (she evidently loves haunting upscale thrift stores), Linda P. came in the morning to help Grant and me set up, then stayed to bitter end cleaning up, Tina volunteered as extra hands. A good group. I provided the PowerPoint, which I updated with current pictures, plus I organized my committee with myriad emails and texts. My coup was figuring out, with coaching by AI, how to create an iPhone shortcut to send individual text to everyone in B&G, asking them to reply “Yes” if they were coming. The good: I got a few more positive responses. The bad: a heck of a lot of “I’m so sorry I didn’t answer your email.”...
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Visiting Mary

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Out to visit Mary, who says she is doing well. Ryan is still in a hotel somewhere in the Mideast. I’ve brought my sketching and paint supplies, a scarf I’m remaking, and our computer so I can update the Bloom and Grow PowerPoint.  The week’s project, in my mind, is to get all of the school supplies currently in piles on the living room floor stored so they are accessible. I always forget to take a ”before” photo. Mary had made great progress by sorting things into piles. So many markers, so many crayons. Just way too much for what shelves are available. Long term: items not used will be moved on. Short term: get things into the upstairs storage room with distribution TBD.  Well, finding the mouse and her nest certainly helped our decisions to throw stuff away. After 6 days of plodding away, going through the garage moved to the top of list. A full van of items donated, and a full garbage can thrown away. Thank goodness I looked in the cubby with the stuff from Ryan’s old car. ...
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