Moon Madness

TOM--PLEASE DON'T READ THIS ENTRY YET....LEAVE NOW BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THE PHOTOS!

I had forgotten about the eclipse until Walt's sister called and mentioned that she could see it starting. I was able to set up the tripod and catch a kinda sorta vesion of it.

It's been a strange day, mostly because I've been sick for the last few days and so haven't really even thought about this trip to Santa Barbara...but I have to catch the train around 6:30 in the morning (assuming it is on time). There was so much to get done...or so it seemed. Mostly there was packing and trying to decide which baby things to take and which to leave for the couples shower that is taking place next month.

Even with that, I had to pack the largest suitcase. Whaddya think? Too much?

One reason this is packed so full (and I took this photo before I had added any of my clothes!) is that I spent some time rummaging around in closets today. I was looking for two things that I remember saving for our grandchildren. There was an adorable "rose dress" that Jeri wore when she was about a year old and there was a coat which my mother made for her when she was taking a tailoring class.

I knew exactly where they were and I wanted to give them to Laurel and Tom. Only they weren't there. What was there was a collection of boxes of baby clothes. Oh my god. What was I thinking 40 years ago when Jeri outgrew all those adorable dresses? I saved them. I had such fun going through the boxes and then washing them all and adding them to the suitcase. I mean...I couldn't throw them away now, could I?

So I have a suitcase packed with nothing but baby stuff, with a few things for me. It's a huge suitcase and will come home almost empty.

When Walt got home, I showed him the clothes and we smiled as we remembered Jeri wearing all those cute little dresses (I had packed the boy clothes back up by then). I asked if he knew remembered seeing another box.

"Did you check the boxes in the big bedroom?" he asked.

Boxes?

He disappeared and came back with a huge box labeled "birth to 6 mos" and told me that there were other boxes up to age 4 or something. Good grief. No wonder we have no room around here.

I checked the box, which had the tiny, tiny stuff in it. I know Laurel already has more than she will ever use now, but I washed it all anyway. Still no sign of the rose dress or the coat, but he did reappear with one box marked "coats" and one marked "hats." All held great memories, but not what I was looking for.

(In fact, as I write this, I still have not found either)

But I have spent the evening washing, and oohing and aahing over clothes that Laurel needs like she needs a hole in the head. I'm only bringing a very small (relatively speaking) percentage of the clothes, but I'll leave it to Laurel to decide whether she wants to use any, or just toss them and hang the sentimentality of it all.

Lots of things I wanted to do before I left didn't get done, but it's not like I'm going to Outer Mongolia.

Since Amtrak told me there is no dining car on this train, I thought I'd find fun snacks, but no time to leave the house to go shopping. In fact, I sent Walt off to get money for me so I could continue getting all the "stuff" together.

I'm not taking the laptop with me, but decided to take the laptop case because it contains all my things like cell phone charger, SD card reader, iPod charger, camera battery charger. I added my book, gorillapod, iPod and some snacks. It's slightly lighter than it is with the computer, but since the book I'm taking is a thick hardback (James Lipton's "Inside Inside"), it's not that much lighter than it would have been otherwise.

So I guess I'm ready. All that's left is for me to go down by the station early in the morning and see if the little puffer bellies are standing in a row.

It's anybody's guess when I will add the next entry, but I'm sure it will come with photos of my train adventures!