An Interesting Few Days

Decided it was time to go home to visit my father who is not doing so well lately (at 90, who is?). I'll probably be lucky to make it to 70! Of course about 30 minutes before I'm ready to leave home, the power goes out in the house and comes right back on. Unbenownst to me, it messes with one of my USB ports that my external backup Hard drive is connected to. It looks like the Hard Drive is toast, along with the USB 2.0 PCI card and mini-hub and maybe even the printer. After getting all those suppliers to ship me new parts (no questions asked either, which was surprising), I decided to unplug everything, reboot the machine and then plug everything back in. Of course, voila - everything goes back to working. Nothing like adding to post departure stress! (back on the phone cancelling all those orders)

For more fun, we decide to take the 2 cats along with us. Our one cat, Turbo, has made this trip before, but the little one Willow, who is high strung, has not. Turbo goes willingly into his cat carrier and proceeds to snooze for the next 5 hours without so much as a peep. Willow, shows her great pleasure with the whole experience, by deciding it is time to do a number #2 in her cat carrier, just 20 minutes from the house. Needless to say, that caused some excitement in the ol' car and a quick exit off the road. A few minutes of cat cleanup (good job, Janet!) and we are headed off again. 30 minutes later while paying for some food at Wendy's in the driveup lane, Willow decides that she isn't getting enough attention and does the ol' heave ho all over my camera bag sitting on the back floorboard. Another cleanup and fortunately, by now she has about exhausted herself. The next 4 hours she spends curled up in Janet's lap, heart pounding, but doing better.

As soon as we reach the motel for the night and lug the 2 varmints inside, they both make a run for under the bed and although Turbo comes out later for a look around, Willow remains firmly attached to her square of carpet under the bed and does not come out for anyone. In the morning, we have to move the bed and pry her off the carpet. Fortunately, once in the car she snoozes off for the remainder of the trip, which lasts another 5 hours.

Believe me, I was glad to end this trip!