My Long Day

Thursday, May 30, was a VERY long day for me. Our flight was booked for 1:00 departure - we were going home. I was ready, but at the same time, not. Going meant no more grandbaby, it also meant going back to work, pretty much all at once. Very little adjustment time after traveling.

This wasn't at all like last year where a chopper left us right here in the yard. Not like last year at all.

We went to town this year to help my son so he could start some schooling - that fell through, but we were there. I took the opportunity to order a copy of my military DD 214, separation papers, and by coincidence, I had my husband's there too. On a whim, we decided to apply for VA coverage. Up until now, we had no medical coverage. I won't go into the nightmares Obamacare gave me. Come to find out, we were fully covered, to include transportation to and from our home here in the middle of nowhere, and that includes helicopter cost too. You wanna talk about what kind of load that took off our shoulders - HUGE.

Now that we were involved with VA, we both had our rounds past a Dr. Mine had to do with my thyroid, which they found to be a little underactive - now I have a pill to take every morning. My husband has had a lump on his scalp roughly the size of a small grape, and during his examination, they found two more that just small ones that had yet to bubble up. The two were removed during another visit right there in the office, but the Dr. wasn't comfortable doing the same with the big one - it might be something different. So he scheduled him for a CT scan and a follow-up appointment to go over the finding - surgery for it's removal would be later.

Now, understand, time for us to get home before breakup, before it was no longer safe to travel on our river home, was running out, so I called transportation and asked after them helping us with that chopper flight since they hadn't brought us in. We either needed to cancel all those appointments and go, or if they could help us, we'd stay. They assured us we were covered, so we stayed. Sadly, I didn't write down the name of the guy I talked to. Six weeks later, long after things were all going to hell (as far as the river was concerned), I called again to take them up on their offer of help with that flight. We even canceled the surgery, to plan it for next winter, because it was getting so close to breakup. We really wanted to be here to be able to take care of our boats if needed - sometimes the water comes up violently during breakup.

SO, I called VA transportation and asked to book our flight, only to be told that, since they didn't bring us in, they could't justify taking us out. Now this logic escapes me, but they have their rules. I've been dropped off by my son, confident we'd be able to get transportation back to his place, and they would have, if we'd made the appointment to do so 48 hours ahead of time, but they wouldn't do the same with a flight, Course, I didn't think of that detail then either. I'm just not very good at this. Anyway, I was assured that I would be fully covered from now on, and we will have more appointments next winter, so we'll see how it all works out.

SOOO, since the chopper was out, we were stranded until several items fell into place

#1 we had a driver to take us to the airport
#2 we had money for the flight - we did
#3 we had transportation from where the plane landed home.

The first one came about fairly easy. Once we booked the flight, either my son or his wife could take us there. The last part wasn't so easy. Our first effort to arrange our ride home failed as my neighbors were both in town. A week later, several options for transportation came together.

#1 My boss would be arriving out there the same day
#2 One of my neighbors had just returned home
#3 The lodge owner where our big boat was stored had just come out a couple days earlier. 

The third option was by far the best for us.

Thus begins my VERY long day.

My morning alarm goes off a 6 AM, and I usually turn it off and get up maybe a couple hours later. This time, I woke up at around 5, and couldn't stop tossing and turning. I gave up at 5:30. All our stuff was already packed, so I went out into the living room and found my kindle, but I couldn't concentrate on that either. My computer was all packed up too, so I couldn't do anything much on line either. I ended up reading assorted articles on my phone, using up about a third of my battery - so much for coming out with a charged phone.

We didn't go anywhere until around 9. The plan was to hit Fred Meyers and then Costco on the way to the airport, there were some groceries I wanted to bring out. In the end, I decided the trip to Costco was irrelevant - I only wanted the powdered milk they have there. We didn't want to get a lot of things, not knowing what we'd find when we got here. Our worries about whether a bear had broken into the place or torn up the freezer were uppermost. Our worries about whether our house had withstood the earthquake had been alleviated a couple weeks ago when another neighbor sent me an email after flying over - our house was still standing - what kind of chaos awaited us inside was still to be discovered.

Since it was only a little after 10, and since it was a while before we had to get to the airport, we went back to the apartment for a cup of coffee. I was specifically avoiding coffee because it tends to go right through me.

We left for the airport at around 11 - we were all starting to doze off. So my husband and I wandered around the airport until near 1 I think - I was no longer watching the clock. We landed out here and we got our big boat in the water with happily very little trouble. We loaded up and we were on our way.

Thus ends the easy part.

We parked and unloaded our stuff into another boat still on land - it was starting to try to rain so we covered it. We had to walk the quarter mile or so home with what we could carry and get either the 4-wheeler going to come back with the cart. My husband carried his backpack - it was heavy - I carried the gallon of water we'd bought. Ack - I was SO not ready for that hike. I was already tired. We had a cup of coffee and a sit down.

As it turns out, though the 4-wheeler started easily, the mud on our trail caused us to opt not to use it, however there were some things that simply had to come home without much more delay.

I took the cart down and brought back the food and our computers, as well as the tool bag so we could get it ready to use the next day. It was a fairly heavy load, and I was already tired. Needless to say, I stopped many times to rest. When my husband saw me, he came to help push. It was a big help. I'm sure I would have rested at least two more times before actually reaching the house - and that was within less than 100 yards.

I don't know what time it was when we finally settled down for the night, but on my last legs, I fixed supper and sat down to get my computer logged into our satellite system (my phone too), and to eat my supper. Come 8 PM, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I went to bed, half expecting to wake up at some point during the middle of the night - I didn't.

We got up at 8 this morning. My body so very sore. It would seem that I managed to lose nearly 10 pounds yesterday. Woohoo. Most of that was constipation and water weight likely brought on by stress. I don't stress much - I'm not a worrier, but I'm no spring chicken either, and for the first time all winter, my feet were swelling, which added to my pain in doing all that walking yesterday. I've gone potty like four times since hitting dirt here - my, how exercise will get the plumbing moving.

So now, my little boat is in the water, though we have yet to start it - we couldn't find the key. Anyway, we got brave enough and took the 4-wheeler down, since the cart did so well. We should have brought the cart anyway - it would have allowed for fewer trips up that hill carrying things. Ugh, but at least it was only up that hill and not all the way to the house and back, at least two trips that way. Three trips for me - the last one for my plants - and two trips for my husband - he struggles with that hill too - and we were all the way home.

My body is still sore, but I'm a lot less tired today, then again, I did get a 3-hour nap today too.

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