The Return

It was my intention, while on vacation, to continue to write every day.  That intention was not realized.  As I traveled I found that I had slipped into a very “in the moment” approach to the whole vacation.  I cannot say I was authentically present in each moment, but I can say that I tried to not let myself be distracted by external things. During the course of the vacation I logged on once to send an email to TR.  (I also used my email on my iPhone to email text out, since there is still no cell phone connectivity at the ranch.

All in all it was a good trip.  The traveling portion of it, on both ends, was very smooth.  I travelled as light as I could - one change of clothes and incidental toiletries in Maximus, plus my iPhone and Kindle Fire HD table as my only electronics.  I will have to say that it worked well and I am sure the whole process of traveling light contributed to the ease of traveling. (I’ve now got a full weeks worth of clothes at the ranch, so that makes the traveling light more convenient.)

The stay at the ranch was nice, if busy.  I spent each day there, with the exception of Thanksgiving day, running errands with my folks.  They are full steam ahead on moving into the assisted living apartment complex in Winner, SD - the Golden Prairie Manor.  It is a nice facility and one of the errands was a visit there to complete some paperwork.  Most of the other errands were medical related.  The folks were getting vaccinations and copies of records compiled, sent, and reviewed. I think they have one outstanding medical errand left, which I believe they are running today - they need to go get general physicals from their doctor.  From there on out, it is just a question of moving in, which they seem to have lined up.

As smooth as the whole vacation went, it was very nice to get back to California.  The weather on Sunday was simply beautiful and I spent most of the day out wandering from place to place, doing all the assorted errands that I needed to do to start the month of December.  I had breakfast at the Hickory Pit, then stopped and got the Saturn detailed, then went on a rambling park walk at San Tomas Aquino River Park, then off to Cupertino Square to see “Homefront” with Jason Stratham, James Franco and Winona Ryder - an very little good little action movie by the way. Then a stop to get new work shirts (ten of them, with ten older ones destined either to be donated or to hit the trash bin), then a stop at the market to stock up on groceries - followed by a return to trip to the market since I forgot the most important thing - coffee! Then, home for a quiet evening, a great little call with TR, and finally “The Walking Dead”, which closed with an awesome episode.

All of which brings me here, to work, on Monday morning.  I am hammering my way through the email that stacked up while I was on vacation.  The good news is that they should be wrapped up in by later today.  The load wasn’t too bad, in part because it was a short week, but it was actually nice to come back to 100 or so email.