I’m taking a blogcation from posting over the next week or so, as we travel to Oakland, California. I’m leaving behind my computer but will make some notes on my phone to sum up the trip to see my wife’s daughter and husband. Most likely there will be a poem. We leave the house in the capable hands of Tally’s dogsitter, and catch a Delta flight out of 
Fort Myers on Wednesday afternoon. I’ll have plenty of time on Wednesday morning to get my 2.1 miles in before we venture to the airport. A neighborhood friend is kindly picking us up at the house, dropping us at the airport and returning us on the 12th. We tried to talk her out of it since it’s such a late arrival back in Ft. Myers, but she insisted. Apparently, she has a friend in Ft. Myers that she wants to visit, but we don’t get in until 11:30p, and that’s barring any delays that will be likely on the three flights home. 

It will be a long day on the 12th, leaving at 6a from Oakland after a very early morning run in the dark. This is always one of the challenges of running every day and maintaining the streak. It’s really 9a our time, but we will be well adapted to the Pacific Time Zone after a week of being there. I have plans to meet college friends on the Saturday after we arrive to watch the I.U. vs. Auburn basketball game from Atlanta. The city will be one of our stops on the way there and back. Hopefully, we’ll come back winners!

While I’m enjoying the I.U. game, my wife has plans to go to Chinatown and on other adventures with her daughter. As a cardio-thoracic PA at Stanford, I’m sure they’ll continue to discuss my upcoming surgery, while shopping for “Year of the Dragon” merchandise to use at our annual Chinese New Year Party that she hosts. They’ll also decide on restaurant choices, considering that our first pick recently burned down. 

Today has taken on a relatively hectic retirement schedule. I Chauferred my wife to school early after finishing my morning run. Tally and I then went to the dog park, and I went on to get my holiday haircut and have my sore back worked on by the chiropractor. It still hasn’t healed since I clipped my toenails last week. Embarrassing enough, it was an old age related, reoccurring injury from bending over too long and pinching a nerve. At least, my shoulder has healed, so this gave the osteopath something new to work on. It won’t help being on a plane later this week, so when I get back home more adjustments will be necessary. This is why I’m on a maintenance plan with weekly visits because it’s always something. 

For lunch, I’ll reheat some leftovers from our Big Bamboo “Date Night” on Saturday. Pad Thai should work for “Meatless Monday.” Tally gets another fortune cookie, while I enjoy (but can’t pronounce or spell) more of the Greek dessert delicacies that our neighbor down the street baked.  I’ll then dutifully pick my wife up from school at three, where hopefully she won’t again be the victim of a vomiting child or have to deal with disruptive, unruly students. I certainly couldn’t do what she does, even though it is only part-time substitution. We both can’t imagine how full-time teachers maintain their sanity. She’ll unwind at her Aqua-Fit Christmas party this evening, as I’ll begin packing for Oakland.