traveling: prepping to leave

If you know me, you know that I love to hit the road. There were months when the kids were young that we would be gone more days than we were at home. Some months, we’d be home only a handful of days.

Fast-forward to now, and it seems I can rarely get away. Now that they are in school and have their own activities, I too have started to have more activities based at home – Decatur volunteering, Red Cross volunteering, ham class and more. Between their activities, my activities and our being down to one car (Poppie), it is hard to get away.

I finally managed to escape to the cabin this weekend. While I am missing a number of activities at home, none were of very high importance. Rob is home and can handle all the girls’ comings and goings as I do the many weekends that he is gone for various reasons. (Although I have Poppie, so he is having to walk or get a Zipcar.)

But it still takes a lot of work to leave town.

1. Feed the turtle and water the plants, because I can’t be sure that will happen while I’m gone. The cat? She will surely let someone know if she hasn’t been fed.
2. Dump the aging leftovers. This leads to needing to empty the clean dishwasher (for the now empty containers). And loading the dishwasher. And wiping out of the now empty fridge shelves and drawers. And then taking out the trash. Which involves cleaning the kitty litter — again, no telling if that will happen while I’m gone, poor kitty.
3. Adding many items to the shopping list now that the fridge and pantry are empty.
3. Take out the recycling. Seems not to cross anyone else’s mind very often.
4. Renew the library books and gather those that can’t be renewed in order to read (heh) them while I’m away.
5. Pack. The clothes are the easiest part. It’s the dog’s stuff, the library books and movies, the magazines, the amateur radio study study stuff, the electronics (cameras, chargers, computers, etc.), the leftovers that aren’t getting tossed, etc. that takes the most work.
6. And if I’m going camping? This list gets so much, much more complicated.

I know people who can pack a suitcase and leave. By the time I make it out the door, I am insanely jealous of anyone who can do that. But then I hit the road and the couple of hours of drudgery is worth it (even if the grumbling about it lingers).

leaves – 24 oct 2014