Day 129

I spent the morning getting ready to leave. The first step was to find a place for the dog. I got lucky. The vet that did her x-rays will board her. I like having her at a vet where expert care is readily available.

Then I attempted to get a plane ticket. Everything went well until I tried to use PayPal to pay. For some reason it wouldn't accept the password that Ellen had written down. Eventually she got it to work. The ticket was expensive. The trip will take over 9 hours and involves a plane change in Las Vegas. I can't wait.

While I was doing those two things I was also doing the wash. Tuesday is the normal wash day, so I was about out of clean clothes. I also washed my sweatshirt. The one I wear daily, do work in, and play with the dog on muddy days in. It hadn't been washed in months and it was pretty dirty and smelled. When I took it out of the dryer it was a noticeably lighter shade of gray.

I got out my brand new suitcase and started packing. The closest thing to formal clothes I have is a pair of light colored Dockers and a polo shirt. I suspect I'll have to buy a suit in Spokane. I remembered not to pack toothpaste. After all, I could use it to blow up the plane. I'm taking a lot of gizmos. One MP3 player with music, one with recorded books, an iTouch for games, and the small laptop. I'm also taking three books and some magazines. Spokane is a very boring place. I suspect that it will be depressing this time around, too.

The day wasn't too bad, partly cloudy and low 60's. I took Lucy to the back of the park and she did about 20 retrieves. Charlie the donkey was out for the first time in awhile. I went back to the trailer and got the carrots we bought for him weeks ago. I fed them to Charlie, a couple of cows that muscled in, and Lucy (she likes carrots too).

After that it was time to take Lucy to the vet. It was funny. She recognized the place when she got out of the car and really wanted to go inside. When they weighed her it read 55 pounds. That's a little light, especially when I haven't been running her that hard. I didn't hear her screaming after they took her away. Maybe that's a good sign.

Dan called in the late afternoon. He was at the nursing home. They give Dad 24 to 48 hours. It looks like I might just make it in time.

There's nothing to do this evening. The programming on TV has been particularly dull lately so I'll just surf the internet until it's time to go to bed. I'll probably have to leave here before 6 tomorrow morning.