PNewL PNewS
Volume 30 Issue 1 “All the pnews that phits.” March 2022
I went Away and It was Good
It is early at the Charles de Gaulle airport. I have already had a mixed day. My fear of leaving my fifth-floor walk-up hotel room with a bag that weighs (I found out at the airport) 15.6 kilos (a little over 34 lbs…only gained 2 lbs on the trip. Nice work!) worked out fine—the nice night watchman helped. I got to the airport 3½ hours early which is too much (not as much as they recommend) but gave me plenty of wiggle room. I went to Delta, they said I needed to go to Air France. I tried to print my boarding pass and it said there was a problem and I would need to speak to an agent. There was one agent helping 10 people while seven other agent-y looking people stood around gabbing. The one agent did not want to deal with the four of us who did not speak French. Breathe… Turns out there was no problem—the new agent printed everything out and I was on my way. There were still several hoops to jump through and it got to the point where I walked up to, I’m sure, a very nice person, and said what do YOU want? I don’t know that she heard the emphasis with the mask but…as I said, it had gotten to that point. Passport, boarding pass, attestation form, vaccination card, passe sanitaire, I had em all plus some other stuff just to confuse my sleep deprived brain. At one point, a sign said “To save time, have the results of your PCR test available.” Um, I did not have a PCR test, I had an antigen test and apparently the link to the Lab had expired. (I saved it to my computer and sent it to myself via email but I forgot that (see sleep deprived brain reference above.)) I had a brief moment of panic. Now I am here, in the boarding area. I have had coffee and my last croissant for a while, and I still have two hours to go. (FYI: Our flight was pretty late but I still managed to make my connection home and all in all, it was an uneventful trip with an empty seat next to me on the long haul.)
I should have started differently but the above is what’s on my mind. First, I should have said: I went away and it was all excellently good fun. Then: I used my passport! For the first time in exactly two years! And it felt good and I learned a lot about travel at 64 ¾ with a two-year hiatus that was humbling. I had a lovely time with Cousin Bill and Friend Denis. We met in Paris where Denis lives and drove to southern Portugal where we were exactly two years ago. En route, Denis had found a magical selection of accommodations—in the first one, all the rooms had different themes—mine was Alice in Wonderland! In the second we were in an old stone mansion turned into a spa. On the way back, we stayed in ruins that a very friendly fellow had built up into a charming apartment. All surprisingly different and comfy cozy. Yay team!
In Portugal, we spent a week at a lovely perfect-for-us house, and wandered around the countryside. We ate good food, walked around a lot, went on a boat to look at the caves along the coast (“When in doubt, get on a boat” is my motto though there was no doubt about it—this was a perfect way to spend a sunny bunch of hours in Portugal), bought fluffy shoes (slippers, actually), and generally had a nice relaxing time.
But wait! There’s more! We drove back via Salamanca where the whole city seemed huge and gorgeous and unexpected, Bilbao (for the Guggenheim Museum—Amazing! Wonderful! OMG!...and that’s before we went in the building!) and San Sebastian (for dinner and to see the Atlantic from the northern coast of Spain) and then to Paris for a week where I walked so much my legs still hurt (27,000+ steps one day, between 15,000-20,000 on most of the others) and we ate and went to Disneyland Paris and looked at where Denis wants to move and saw a light show in the Jardin des Plantes (straight to the point name), and went to the Thierry Mugler exhibit (a-MAZE-ing—thanks again Katy) two days after he died. There was plenty of other stuff—traveling with Bill and Denis was a delight, which I haven’t really mentioned enough—but that’s probably enough for now.
A Little of This, a Little of That
& Other Observations
• I do not have the upper arm strength to pack as heavy as I do. I need to work on that or be prepared to accommodate it.
• I went down a bit of a rabbit hole tonight, wandering hither and yon because Joe is going to Norway and I have kroner (plural of krone—who knew?). I went in search of the kroner—I have a bunch of bowls of international currency and went through them but the kroner were not there. (I do have a good collection of pesos and Canadian currency and then small bits of South African rand and one Namibian coin, Greek coins and notes, plus some Thai baht—I knew for so long how much they were worth because they were very stable and then they weren’t--and a bunch of stuff that might be worthless (Laotian, I presume), and a bunch of angel coins I get in the mail regularly that someone thinks might inspire me to donate—I usually put them in with a tip—maybe it will bring someone luck.)
Finally, I found the kroner—along with a mouse nest that I think has been long dormant. And because of all this cracking open of “Maybe I will go somewhere with a passport again,” I started diving into travel photos. I have the bug. I need to… want to…please…but am trying to be patient. I went through some books and almost moaned at “Oh the Places I have Been.” I am so lucky. I have been many places and seen many things and the thought of my passport expiring without another stamp or sticker…sigh…it makes me feel mortal. Things make me feel mortal these days—friend’s illnesses, family member’s vulnerabilities, forsythia in December. It feels so selfish to want to see another penguin or flamingo in its natural habitat—to hang out with Bill and Denis in Europe next month and again next year. I need to do my part to help society recover from the pandemic and also to cut down on my contribution to global warming by flying less, and yet, I whine. [As I approach the final edit of this—yes, I do edit—I thought perhaps I should clean up this bullet point and maybe the whole dang PNewS, but it represents to me the way my pinball brain wanders and how things get all mushed together “in these times,” so if you got this far, congratulations.]
• If you are planning to travel and you are thinking of getting a new cell phone soon—do it before you go. Travel is now cell phone based. My phone is old. I wondered more than once if the battery would die before I showed my ticket or my proof of vaccination.
• One of the surprising things about traveling in January is how obnoxious it is trying to keep a purse strap on the shoulder of a down jacket. The slippery fabric gave the strap nothing to grab on to. [I never said the PNewS was earth shattering epiphanies, did I?]
• Many years ago, I smoked cigarettes only when I traveled. It gave me something to do when I paused, and in Asia, everyone smoked. More recently, I pull out my knitting. Same purpose, much healthier.
• Recently I have been in some interesting conversations based on some kinda random questions. You are welcome to borrow any of these. How old is your mattress? Do you remember the names of your elementary school teacher’s names? (Prove it.) What cars did your parents drive? And this one isn’t really a question but I have wound up in this discussion a couple times and I learn something—it’s about plans for end of life or more accurately what you want done with your body. This doesn’t have to be grim because you think you are going to live forever or because it will happen to all of us and thinking this out is a good thing.
• Don’t throw a baking potato in with some little red potatoes to boil into mashed potatoes. It DOES NOT WORK or help or make anything better. So there. Buy the freaking 5 pound bag of red potatoes and use three and give the rest to the food pantry (since you think you are going out of town).
• I have not missed having children but I do miss having grandchildren. They are precious and I am ready to appreciate them.
• I have taken the Olympics to heart--in a way I don't think anyone meant for me to. I was walking the dogs and was standing at the top of a rise above the driveway below and I thought, all those people can do these huge jumps. I can do it too! and So I did...and boom. I can't do it too! I'm old and not in any shape to be jumping anywhere. (I DID keep Buster's leash in my hand. He thought it was an opportunity to escape.) I didn't hit my head or break anything but I skinned my knee and I think I hit everything else so am looking forward to the results in the morning. [Ed. Note: Everything felt a bit tweaked..and sore…briefly.] I think the big mistake was thinking I could land it on one foot. Lesson learned, I hope.
• All of the erasers in my house are petrified, as in hard as rocks. I remember that was true in my parent’s house. Is it because we are all old—me and the erasers?
• Signing up for Medicare and upgrading phone software at the same time is enough to make me feel like my brain will explode at any minute.
• I took a hand lettering class (a simple version of calligraphy) on Zoom which I found very entertaining. I needed a pencil --my house is littered with mechanical pencils. I could not find one in advance of the class. Typical.
• Last week, the day of the most recent meeting of the Peaceful Exit (Pexit) class about end-of-life issues, I wasn't feeling so hot and then progressively felt worse and worse. I cancelled afternoon plans and went to lie down, and all of a sudden i thought: What if this is an end-of-life thing—what if I am dying?? There are so many things I haven't written down that are part of my Pexit strategy! No one will know what people have agreed to and conversations I've had that need to be documented so I went to the table, lay my aching head on the cool surface and started making bullet points that might be enough for someone to decipher…Who needs a van--Oh! Kay asked if I wanted to sell mine--give it to her. Bonnie the dogsitter said she’d take the dogs—write it down! Here I was wondering if whatever it was that was afflicting me might be the end and I'm writing Pexit notes. It felt like the right thing to do. Gini says these sudden moments of ill health and wondering will increase and I will get used to them. This one was very productive!
• We had a mask-less knitting group today. We voted that we all hoped this was a safe thing to do and were ready. I had never seen these people's lower faces before. It was familiar and yet surprising putting eyes together with mouths.
• It took me longer to sign up for a Temperament Assessment appointment for puppy daycare for Buster than it did to make an appointment with a new dentist for me.
• I used to work with a woman who called herself an Indoor Enthusiast, which I loved. As much as I don’t want to say it, I am too sort of. I like being outside but generally with a purpose—walking the dogs, mowing the lawn, visiting with friends. The unfortunate thing is that most of the things I am passionate about—crafty stuff, for instance—are indoor activities.
• Well, we made it. Thirty years of the PNewL PNewS. I had planned to make t-shirts and have a collection self-published by now, but I haven’t. I could push it back to the 40th…or…well, there’s a whole year to figure it out. Thanks for coming along.
