September 08, 2008

4:38 p.m.

More Thoughts from Yorkshire

The sun did come out today; I always suspect it's my mother who orders the good weather on schedule. I did walk a little and may do some more later. Also caught up on laundry, and for the first time we've had the house all to ourselves, as our hosts went out for an all-day excursion and the other two guests had a gig somewhere. Nice to relax.

Here are a few images from our tour. This first one is Cascais, Portugal; that's pronounced Kass-KAISH, with the second syllable sort of rhyming with "nice." It really did look like this!

We also went to the westernmost point in continental Europe and looked at the sea. My little mouse, Michelangelo, sat on my shoulder for this one.

And, back in Birdsedge today, he came with me on my walk and observed some very nice English countryside.

We also saw some horsies who were very friendly, and I took a movie of him petting a cat out on the road here. I don't have a way of posting that but it was very funny. The cat was very affectionate and kept rolling over on its back and nuzzling up to this fuzzy little stuffed mouse.

Chris has been in logistical hell trying to figure out how we can travel with a PA system in a couple of weeks. The minivan isn't big enough, the car rental company doesn't allow roof racks, a trailer is out of the question and we don't want to rent two cars. However I think we're going to end up buying a universal rack anyway and just using it. It supposedly goes on with rubber linings or something on the top rails so there really isn't any way to damage the car with it. This trip has been very stressful for him in some ways -- he's responsible for driving, loading, dealing with the plane reservations, problem solving, keeping us alive -- I get really nervous about some of these things and just keep giving thanks that the burden of all this......

Interruption... Chris can't find the key to the storage shed and thinks he might have had it in the pocket of his running shorts, which have a hole in them. I think we have to take a little drive and go looking. Ai, yi yi. Yet another.... oh, right! Romance! Adventure! Exotic places!!