Back from traveling, and I must say, it is good to be home again.
We went to see my step-granddaughter graduate from high school. She’s the first of the grandkids to graduate. She’s planning to head to college next year and study psychology (I think).
There was much my wife wanted to get done during the trip. Shopping (sooooo much shopping!), visiting with family, getting meals at restaurants, visiting friends, playing Scrabble, and lots of activity. I got some reading in so that was good.
As for Scrabble, in one game I had all the letters to spell ‘erudite’ except for the second ‘e’. It was near the end of the game, I had an opening to play it, which would have landed on a triple word score space, used all seven of my letters (gaining me a fifty (50) point bonus) and would have ended the game. I knew there was one last ‘e’ in the bag but alas, I didn’t get it. (It also turns out there was an ‘e’ tile on the table after the game was over.)
In the second game I played the word ‘whet’ on a triple word score corner space. I had the letters ‘one’ in my hand and needed the letters ‘s’ and ‘t’ to be able to extend it to the next triple word score space and make the word ‘whetstone’. I did get a ‘t’ and I kept playing trying to get the ‘s’. I finally had to use the ‘one’ letters because I had no other play. And of course, what do I draw out of the bag as a replacement letter? An ‘s’.
The last game has put me off Scrabble for now, possibly permanently. Out of sixteen (16) turns in the game, fourteen (14) of mine were single digit scores. I had the lowest score I’ve had in recent memory.
In other news, I managed to get in a trip to Freebirds World Burrito, which they don’t have in our new area. So tasty. Also, they started carrying their spinach tortillas again! They didn’t have them for the longest time. It’s pretty much the only way I’ll eat spinach.
I also got a trip in to Half-Price Books, which we also don’t have in our new area. (There are no bookstores at all in our new area, which is dreadfully tragic). I managed to find three books by Holly Lisle that I don’t have in my collection – Minerva Wakes, Hunting the Corrigan’s Blood, and Curse of the Black Heron. I also managed to find a TTRPG that doesn’t take itself at all seriously (Critical!: Go Westerly) and a book on rhetoric by Jay Heinrichs called Thank You For Arguing. There were more books I found but was limited by how much space I had in my bag to pack them.
We got packed up and went to the airport. I realized after we had dropped off the rental car and were on our way to the terminal to catch our flight that I left my trenchcoat in the closet at the hotel. Aaaarrrgh! The flight home was (mostly) smooth and arrived at the big city airport a little before 10:00 PM.
We should have gotten out of the airport relatively quickly but the airline sent the wife’s wheelchair to the wrong location and we had to wait to get it delivered to us. Then a two hour ride back to our little town, getting us home a little after 1:00 AM. After getting all the bags in and unpacked and some laundry started, we finally got to bed around 2:00 AM. A very long day, indeed.
We picked up the dogs from the kennel this morning. Sirocco started screeching at the top of his lungs the second he saw me. He lived up to his namesake and was spinning all over the place as I tried to get Major Tom’s leash on. I was going to take them one at a time to the car but Sirocco bolted the second he had enough room to get out of the kennel gate and charged to the door leading outside. I picked him up before we opened the door and lead Major out on his leash. Magdalena was the last to come out. Even she was wound up, and eager to leave. She’s normally quiet but she was quite vocal about leaving.
Both Sirocco ad Magdalena were shedding like there was no tomorrow. I’m guessing it was stress shedding? I’d run my hand along their backs and my hand would come away covered in hair.
We went to one of our favorite local restaurants for lunch after picking up the dogs. Fortunately they have an outdoor eating area so we could be outside with the dogs. The waitress was nice enough to bring them water. After we shared some of our lunch with them, the dogs all settled down for the drive home.
The rest of the day has been settling back into our routines, getting groceries, and catching up on everything that didn’t get done over the last week. I did get in touch with the hotel, they found my trenchcoat and are going to ship it to me. Its expensive to get it shipped back but still cheaper than having to buy a whole new trenchcoat.
I hope your week went well, my Hordeling, and you got something from my posts last week.
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