Off to PA!

The past 48 hours have been a blur. I spent part of the morning teaching, and then I had to find Perlite, a challenge for a Sunday afternoon when the temperature is a brisk reminder that the time for planting has long past. Perlite is an absorbent, non-flammable material - the squishy white stuff in potting soil. It's important for gardeners because it holds water for seedlings, and it's important for ultra-lightweight hikers because it absorbs the alcohol that they put into their homemade stoves built out of old soda cans.

The evening's project was to build said soda can stove, with the help of Art. I ultimately decided to use two (empty) Foster's beer cans, and two AriZona Tea cans. They're both a bit larger than standard twelve ounce soda cans - it was a recommendation I'd run across online. Once I returned back home, I had a lengthy Cinderella list (the list of chores that need to be done before you can go to the party, or do something fun, like sleep). I cleaned mildew off the ceiling in the bathroom. I swept the house & mopped the kitchen. I packed and loaded 6 boxes of books into my car. I cooked a couple of meals and dehydrated them, because I didn't want the food in the refrigerator to go bad. Around 6 am, I knew that I had to take a short nap before driving Madison out to the dog sitter's in Franklin...and dashing back to Barre for a 6.5 hour shift at the store.

I do not remember the drive from Barre to Pennsylvania, save three things: 1) stopping at Tam's to drop off my books; 2) a special Poconos snowstorm that wreaked havoc with what few functioning brain cells I had available; and 3) Alan meeting me at the exit to lead me back to his house. He gave me his bed, taking the cot in the living room. My protest was feeble at best - pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out. Alan didn't wake me until 10:20 - so much for leaving at 10 am. We had plenty to do before departure: adding Alan's bike & rack to my car rack, getting his stuff loaded into the car...going to the Gertrude Stein Scratch & Dent Store for chocolate (we are remarkably bad influences on each other in that regard).

It didn't matter - we still ended up stuck in traffic. From our vantage point, we could see the location of the accident...saw the chopper fly in and the emergency vehicles come the wrong way down the interstate. It was a good thing I'd brought lunch: taco makings, which we ate cold.

The drive down to Florida was a challenge. Of course, I had no sleep reserve, having used everything up in order to get to Pennsylvania. I remember stopping in VA to fax some info for my upcoming job in Mississippi, and we also stopped for Thai food. We drove until we were stupid tired. AND, as it turned out, we got to Florida too quickly, and had time to kill in St. Augustine. It was fun - we rode our bikes for a bit, and also checked out the old fort.
After, we headed over to Willard's house, outside of Daytona. And then...sleep.