It has been a very busy week, as you might imagine. We leave tomorrow afternoon, flying up to Salt Lake City to enter the MTC in Provo, where we officially report Monday morning. It wasn't possible to arrive there from San Diego on time leaving Monday, so we opted to stay a couple of nights early in the MTC, which will accommodate us. That schedule will certainly make for a more relaxed Monday.
Yesterday I packed my two large suitcases (29") and my carry-on, working from a list prepared over the past few months. It took me over four hours, and I was exhausted. It's interesting to trade off what you can fit in the weight and size limits, particularly for 18 months. In addition to lots of (missionary) clothes, we are bringing a fair amount of tech with us; not that we can't buy most of it in Italy, but over there it's more expensive and we won't have much free time. We also each have 18 months of prescriptions that our doctors (and the
church's international senior missionary health insurance) helped us
obtain without much hassle or cost. When I went on my mission in 1975, I had only one suitcase and a large briefcase -- not sure how that ever worked! The airline penalties for being overweight are pretty severe, so we are checking each suitcase to make sure it is less than the 50 pound limit. Dee is packing today, so we won't be bumping into each other in the closet, which is good for marital harmony.
On Wednesday, we transferred title of my Camry to our son, so that he can have it on his insurance policy (we paid for his premium increase) and drive it a bit while we're gone. When we get back, he'll transfer title back to us, or so we hope! <g> Today we sold Dee's 2004 Honda Odyssey van for blue book value to an old friend, VinceH, who will also use it to drop us off at the airport tomorrow. Dee will buy a new car when we get home. I will cancel our auto insurance policy once we get to Italy. It's the first time in forever that we don't own a car.
In going through our kitchen pantry, Dee found a whole bunch of food -- mostly canned goods -- which had long since passed its expiration date. Instead of giving it to a local food shelter as planned, we now had to throw it away. The problem is that our trash bin was already going to be quite full for some reason. Fortunately several friends kindly agreed to let us put some stuff in their bins (thanks ClaireS and CamilleH!). Tomorrow morning is when the trash gets picked up; it's usually Friday but is delayed because of Labor Day, which is too bad given our schedule. Anyway, don't be surprised if tomorrow morning finds me scouting out free space in the bins of our next-door neighbors to slip in some extra stuff! It's very
odd to walk into a pantry and open a fridge that are mostly empty,
particularly with a wife whose family DNA dictates overproviding
wherever possible, especially where food is concerned.
On Wednesday we each got our final vaccinations: Hepatitis-A for me and Dee, and TDAP for me. I've had about eight shots as part of this process, and Dee roughly the same number. The local CVS Minute Clinic has been great to work with, since they allow us to make appointments and then show up with a wait of only a few minutes. There's a surprising amount of medical stuff to take care of in preparing for a senior mission, and everyone has been very helpful to us in getting it all done.
Tuesday night I went to a St. Louis Cardinals game versus the San Diego Padres with three friends -- BillG, DickM, and MikeV. Many of you know that I'm a diehard Cardinals fan, and each year I try to see them when they are in town. It was also my final baseball "fix" until the 2019 season, as there isn't much baseball in Italy. However, there is a town called Nettuno, just south of Rome, where American GIs taught the kids how to play baseball during and after WW II. Nettuno calls itself "the city of baseball", and the game is still very popular there, with a small league of teams playing each year. You can read about it in a fun book called Baseballissimo by Dave Bidini. I doubt I'll make it to any games there, unfortunately, although maybe it would be fun outing for our YSA kids?