Morning Thoughts

This morning there was a light rain. It has stopped now. I have to go out and buy more medication for my trip. I am trying to do everything I may need in advance so I won't have to do it in the USA where everything is much more expensive. I am buying extra medication that I really don't need but don't want to have to buy up there in case of some kind of unforeseen emergency.  (Like being stuck up there for extra days, or weeks or more. I hope that doesn't happen but life is unpredictable.) 

I am getting a haircut which I also don't need because I don't want to have to get one up there. A haircut here costs me about eight dollars. No telling what it will cost there. I haven't been back in so long that I know I will be in culture shock and one of the biggest shocks will be the higher prices.

Four years ago, the last time I saw my son and daughter-in-law, I had them stop at the ATM machine so I could get some American money. I usually spend seventy dollars a week here so I got out three hundred dollars. I thought that would last me the entire month I would be there. 

When I told my daughter-in-law how much I had gotten she said, "That should last you one week." And she was right. I was back in less than a week for more cash. And now, here it is, four years later and that much more inflation. I will be in for a shock.  

Once I heard a phrase about traveling that is good advice for  me, "Take half the things and twice the money."  I usually lug around far too many things and don't get enough money. 

The closer I get to the time to leave, the more anxious I become. I have gone crazy on eBay. Since I don't get mail here and it costs a fortune to have packages sent down, I bought things on eBay that I have needed for years. I had two drawers filled with bathing suits and they are all thread bare. One thing about swimming in the hot sulfur water, it ruins bathing suits. And I don't even go into the pools that have jets. Jets will ruin a bathing suit in just a few visits. The swimming pool will ruin a bathing suit in about one month. And it also ruins goggles and bathing hats. 

It is going to be like Christmas when I get up there with all the packages I ordered. Except that I know what is inside the packages and I bought everything myself. So I know there won't be any rubber chickens as a surprise. Oh yes, I DID buy two rubber chickens from China, called Screaming Yellow Rubber Chickens, dog toys for their two dogs. 

Yesterday I worked for several hours on the problem with getting comments on the blog. I hope I fixed it. It is strange to write things and get no responses.  Chico is still snoozing and Olive is outside in the garden, enjoying the cool morning air, fresh from the rain. 

By the way, I don't leave here until the 27th of this month. It is taking me as long to get ready for the trip as it lasts. By the 27th I will probably need another haircut. But Kansas City, here I come......