Whacking away at the task list

May 20, 2021

Not much to report here, but we are making progress on departure planning. Monday we drove Rachael down to Clackamas for an EKG and stress test, and then Tuesday all the way up to Longview for a pulmonary function test. The good news is that she has the heart, lungs and stamina of a twenty year old, unsurprisingly to me.

Attention next moves up above the neck, and the suspicion that she’s got a nasal condition of some sort. We both wonder about an incident at a neighborhood pizzeria about eight years ago, when she walked off to the restroom and came back bleeding profusely from her nose after walking full speed into a wall-sized mirror. It spoiled the meal and broke her nose, and perhaps had some longer-lasting impact than we knew at the time.

The other big time-sucker this week has been booking reservations. We changed our mind again and decided to book 100% of the itinerary from Minneapolis to New York, and are glad we did. We were surprised at how much difficulty we had finding affordable lodging at some of the places we were planning to stay, and even changed our plan in a few spots. Our three night stay in Burlington landed in the bit bucket when we discovered it would cost nearly $300/night to stay anywhere in reasonable walking distance of the town center. We’re done with America now though, and are steaming east into Germany.

And then there’s this five month old mess to deal with:

I don’t think I can afford to wait another five months to do something about this. It hurt my pride last week when I caught Rocky and Jen laughing at me.

I think that Bill the Barber down in Salem finally closed his doors, but it was time to start over with someone local anyway. I liked the storefront look of Sam Wolf on Burnside, a new shop that opened sometime in the last three years since we sold our home - no wonder I didn’t recognize the place. Nice shop.

Tony, one of the barbers at Sam Wolf Barber Shop. From Boston, but with Italian roots - his family comes from Castellammare, Sicily; and his wife’s is from Salerno. Comes from at least a three generation line of barbers.

Should get me through until we return to town later this fall.

And, I’d like to include this photo courtesy of the Cycle 365 Poet Laureate, Gregory Garceau:

Sez Mr. Garceau: Are you Neil Young? I can't figure out how to post pictures on the comments section of your journal, so I'll do it here. The resemblance is uncanny.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	5
Comment on this entry	Comment	0