Dragging

I don’t know if I caught something on our trip to Atlanta or some other place, but I’ve been dragging the past few days. I’d wake up with a scratchy throat, but a cup of coffee would make that go away. After a week, I was coughing. No fever. Wednesday and Thursday, I laid in bed and read, getting up to present a solstice invocation in Kip’s memory at EarlyBirds but skipping the Tree Board meeting after. They didn’t want to sit next to me coughing anyway.

Before that, I was able to do some gardening in the mornings, then laze around all afternoons. We did get my sundial installed. My watercolor and other activities have been put aside. I called Delta and persuaded them to change our Sydney to Auckland flight to Wellington instead. That’s a relief. Another day, I reserved a hotel in Wellington, bought Zealandia tickets, and decided to take the train up to Auckland to meet Betsy and Keith. We will save money on that, because the upscale seats were all sold. Means we will have to bring our own food or buy some in the club car. C’est la vie. 

Lastly, I booked a flight over to Norfolk Island because I want to visit those NI pines in situ to see if they look good on their home turf. I’ve wished a disease would take out all in this country, since they are way too tall for the rest of our vegetation, sticking up like fake cell towers. So far, my pleas to the universe have been ignored. Perhaps I will learn to love them on the other side of the world. The tourist board is quite proud of the conifers, and they are the symbol on their state (?) flag. We shall see.

My next project is to convince Delta to change our flights home without paying extra. Since I’ve now reached their Silver Medallion status, I allegedly have extra customer care. If I have to buy a flight to get to Sydney, I’ll suck it up, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Before my lethargy, we took Clara to the Mall at Millenia for some bonding time. Since school is out, we haven’t seen much of her. No more being the bus. It was fun walking around with her. I think the first time I’ve been in a mall in 5 years. Hard to believe. I offered to buy her some clothes as an early birthday present. First, we found me a kitty sweater at Forever 21, on sale of course, marked down to $9.50. Nothing caught Clara’s eye. We wandered on. Finally, as we were leaving through Macys, I suggested we check out the junior department. Wide legged pants are back in style, with sizes like “15 30”, which can’t be waist and length. Maybe hem width and waist. Who knows? Certainly no one around to ask. We managed to find several pairs for her to try on. Since I’d told her 1) I always shop the back of the stores first to see the sales, and 2) never pay full price, she was hesitant when we realized the jeans she wanted were $42 and no discount. What the hey, she claims to be my favorite grandchild. I told the sales person to ring them up, and, lo and behold, I had not 1, but 2 coupons, each for $12.60, in my account. Yes, I’d like to use one. Could I use both? No. I have to go back before August 3rd to use the other. I see another mall trip in our future.

Grant’s 81st birthday was Saturday. We had Steph, Clara and Kyle over for chicken spaghetti casserole (Grant cooked, I made a chocolate cake), and Patten drove up, getting stuck in traffic from an accident involving a boat and other vehicles. Originally Patten planned to ride BrightLine, but he had to leave at 5:30 Sunday morning to make his Global Entry interview that afternoon. Who knew the US government worked weekends. 

He efficiently had Amazon deliver his gift directly to our house: fancy attachments to our Dyson vacuum. Rumor is that my truck could be detailed. TBD.