It’s the end of another interesting year, perhaps not one we’ll look back on as among the Best of the Best.  It’s not one we’ll forget soon though, that’s for sure. Thanks to all of you for sharing it with us for better and worse, and especially for your help in strengthening and steeling us to live through this past month.  

Now though, it’s time to look forward again.  On to the new year, and on to that green light that is still there waiting for us to pass through it.  The time is coming - soon, very soon.

So to revert back to that last ophtho appointment.  After hearing everything else he had to tell me, I told Doctor Torres of what we wanted to do if he thought it wise, reasonable and prudent.  Rachael and I were both prepared for the disappointment of having him say I really needed to stay in Oregon indefinitely for rheumatology and ophtho appointments, tests, and the like, and we would have course followed his advice.  We’ve got our priorities straight, and if we need to hang around town indefinitely then of course that’s what we’ll do - but we might start looking around for a little more spacious airbnb when we’re done with this one.

But if he thinks it’s reasonable, we really want to get to Tucson, a place where we can be out in the sun nearly every day, I can get back in shape and stay healthy (an important consideration in dealing with the prednisone in my system), and I can be in a safe environment where I start learning to adapt to my new normal, whatever that’s to be like. I’m proposing we’d fly down there in two weeks, stay there for seven weeks, and fly back to Portland around the first of March to check in again, have my first rheumatology appointment, and then plan on staying here indefinitely until we have a new assessment.  That’s what we’d like to do if he thinks that’s right thinking.

He considers it from several angles.  From the rheumatology perspective it will be fine to push out that first in person meeting another two weeks because like I said earlier, they’re already on my case and monitoring my blood draws.  So that should be fine.  And he was planning to have me back here for a third visit in maybe three weeks, but he looks at the calendar and decides that seeing me back here in two weeks instead, just before I’ve proposed leaving for the rest of winter, will work fine too.  He tells me I should go ahead and make that optometry appointment as soon as possible and get the type of strengthened safety glasses he’d mentioned.  And in the end he says OK, that will work.

He adds only one proviso: I need to be prepared, if a reason for it comes up (blood test results, return of symptoms, etc), to come back.  Which is our thinking also.  It’s a small world, and if something came up one day I could fly home and be in his office tomorrow.  It’s an idea Rachael and I had already discussed amongourselves.

So it’s a go; and as soon as Bruce drops me off at the apartment I start actualizing the plan we’ve already laid out, knocking off tasks in priority order:

• I notify our prospective Airbnb host in Tucson that we’re coming.  She was kind enough to block out the period we wanted for a few days so it wouldn’t get booked out from under us while we waited for a decision, and said she’d hold it open until Friday afternoon as I’d requested.  It will be a perfect spot for us - a simple one bedroom in the west university district, close to the Loop, close enough to walk to town for dinner at El Charro and other nearby favorites.
• I book the place we’ll return to in March for a month here in Portland.  It’s a second one in maybe the same building and managed by the same host, but it’s a one bedroom that looks significantly larger that where we’re crammed in now.  Looking at the photos, it looks like an estate.
• I call optometry to schedule the earliest possible appointment for an eye exam so I can order new glasses.  Yes, they can do that - there’s one available on February 19th (that is, five weeks in the future).  Will that work?

• I suppress the temptation to say hell no that won’t work, and ask if there’s the possibility of a sooner one anywhere else in the region.  Well, it’s the holiday season so it’s not easy but she’ll look around.  She returns a minute later and said there’s just one she could find: January 6 in Hillsboro, at 8:30 in the morning.  Perfect.

• Well, nearly perfect.  The 6th is the day Bruce and Andrea are due to bring the Raven home, but it’s also the day I’d arranged visits down in Salem with Frank and another friend.  I was going to take the bus down, catch up with a pair of folks important to me, and then take the bus home in time to welcome Roddy back into my life.  So I send off an email to my friends announcing the visit is off and I’ll make it down there in March sometime instead.  
• I phone the rheumatology department requesting my appointment be rescheduled as soon after March 3rd as possible.  No problem - there are a half dozen to choose from on March 4th, the day after we return.  You just need to get far enough out on their calendar apparently.
• And when Rachael returns, together we pull up Expedia and book our round trip flight.  It’s frustrating, minced oaths and then unminced ones are heard, but finally we master whatever Expedia’s problem with the date function is, and we get the flight we want.

So there’s the plan.  Were hanging around just long enough for the Raven to return with our bikes and many other things we’ll need that we left crammed in the back; for a HAC group meeting Andrea is hosting for us, Bruce, and our friends the Grumbys driving up from down in Silverton.  We’re hopeful that the great gong gets rung again. And then there’s that final ophthalmology appointment, and then we’re out of here.

Anything else to add, Scooter?  Well, yes - about those dates.  Returning on March 3rd specifically?  Why not two days earlier and align to the complete month?  It’s because we’re looking further into the future, to the next big ask.  If winter and March are a success we’ll ask if they think it’s OK for us to fly to Europe for three months and return to Portland somewhere around Independence Day.  Is that too much to ask?

So if we get that second green light sometime in March, we’re off to Pisa for a three month bike/train loop that will take us north to Annecy to visit some friends before working our way south again.  The March 3 date in Portland is because we want to leave for Italy on April 3rd, stopping off to see Shawn and the girls (and maybe the Garceaus?) over the weekend when Haylee is out of school so we can visit.

So that’s the plan, and the next dream.  Tuscany in April sounds amazing.  Maybe there will be rabbit angolotti, but I’m not holding out much hope for finding many nonalcoholic beers over there.

Heart

4

Comment

4

Link

Kelly IniguezDon't forget about the private Uber offer - I have a minivan, the better to carry all of your stuff!
Reply to this comment
2 weeks ago

Scott AndersonTo Kelly IniguezAch! Offer enthusiastically accepted! It would be great to see you when we arrive.
Reply to this comment
2 weeks ago

Kelly IniguezTo Scott AndersonWe can also stop by the grocery and do a big shopping. I have no problem waiting in the van and looking at my phone while you get the basics out of the way. I'm not familiar with groceries in the downtown area, but I did read Johnny Gibson's has closed, which is problematic for those in the area. It's nice to have a store within walking distance. The grocery offer is open, if it's not too much in one run.
Reply to this comment
2 weeks ago

Rachael AndersonTo Kelly IniguezHow great of you to pick us up at the airport and thanks for the offer of taking us grocery shopping but we’d rather take you out to lunch.
Reply to this comment
2 weeks ago

Log in to comment or reply