Getting ready 08-26-08

As much as I have been On-the-Road, especially in the last fifteen years, one would think that I would have getting ready down to a science. When I was going somewhere every month it seemed easy to get ready to go, I even have a checklist. However, I haven't been anywhere since early April and I seem to have forgotten how I used to do this! I do have the checklist, but it isn't the big things like stop the paper, tell the postal carrier, tell the neighbors, arrange for someone to water, etc., it is the little things. I suppose I will need to make a list of what to put in my train case and what to put in the suitcase and how much money to take and...... Surely some of you know how it is. It is easy to say, "I can stop anywhere along the way to buy whatever I forget." But sometimes that is difficult to do. I wear an XL size which aren't available everywhere. And I have prescriptions that I only use 'as needed' that I cannot refill on the road.

The other problem is that I have this 'thing', maybe it is a phobia or an obsession, I don't know. Whenever I am going on a trip I spend the week before departure thinking that I ought to stay home. I should use the money for something more important. I fuss with my route. I moan and groan the whole time I am getting ready. But, in the end, I always go and have a great time. Since I was in my twenties I have 'suffered' with this - sometimes it is worse than other times. Some people have their feelings hurt because they think I don't want to go with them or to see them, but after a few years they catch on and usually raze me unmercifully about it. When it comes right down to leaving I hustle around and do all the last minute things. Of course, I am always exhausted when I get to where I am going - fifty miles or several thousand. But I must enjoy something about it because I am still traveling. I hope to leave tomorrow, but have some business to attend to before I go - maybe Thursday, eh?