Homecoming

"Where's the restroom?" I called out quietly to Walt, as he was returning from said facility while we were at a gas station.

"What?" he asked, since we were some distance apart and he doesn't usually hear me the first time I say something.

I asked him again, a little louder

"What?" he asked again.

I finally had to raise my voice enough so that others could hear me. But he did direct me to the restroom. By the time he did, it was no longer an idle question, but more of an urgency.

By the time I reached the restroom, some 14 miles from the gas pumps (or so it seemed), there was no time for niceties like putting seat covers down on the seat. But there was no great embarrassment until I went to get some toilet paper.

You know those toilet paper holders that allow you to take ONE sheet at a time? This one had maybe 10 squares left on it and it wasn't one-ply, but more like half-ply. And I needed more than 10 squares, so I was reaching up to the extra roll, hidden away as ingeniously as old timers in a gated community, twisting my hand around, trying to find that elusive edge of the sheet of half-ply paper and trying to extract more than a single sheet at a time.

It's an adventure tending to your needs on the road!

Nicki was so happy to see us when we returned home that she left a trail of poop from the family room the the living room...and then turned around and did another trail from my office to the family room an hour later. There were signs that Ashley had been here shortly before we got home and had washed the floor but you'd never know it now. It seems Nicki has not stopped releasing her bowel and bladder since we got here. It does sort of take the bloom off the happy rose of seeing that puppy again.

Both Walt and I came in the house so happy to cuddle with Nicki--Sheila won't be interested until I go to sleep tonight and she cuddles with me, and Lizzie got her share of cuddles along with Nicki. But when Nicki started with the non-stop pooping and it was hard to stay in soft focus.

It had been a long day -- longer for Walt, who had to do all the driving, than for me. We had been up sort of late, visiting with Joe's daughter, Jocelyn, who had just come home with her new fiance and we were getting caught up on our respective Christmas dinners and congratulating Jocelyn and David on their engagement.

In the morning, it was getting the Lanza family off to their next Christmas party, then over to Maravilla to say our goodbyes to Walt's mother. It was about noon before we finally hit Hwy 101 and start home.

We had listened to the first half of Michael Connelly's "The Black Echo" on the drive down and we were both very hooked on the story so I started up the second half of the book and the miles just flew by (well...for me they flew by--I was in a visual blurry haze most of the trip, at least until the sun started to go down!)

I had listened to a different Connelly book, "The Overlook" on the last trip I took to Santa Barbara by myself and thought this would be as gripping...and it was. Gotta get more of those on audio. GREAT way to pass the time when you're on the road.

Walt was so engrossed in the story that he didn't realized we had passed through King City (where I thought we might stop for a meal), and was beyond The Burger Queen before he realized we had passed it as well. So we rolled on to Gilroy and beyond and finally stopped at a Denny's, where I had some tilapia that didn't set too well, by the time we got home again.

There were signs that Ashley had been here shortly before we got home. The floor looked like it had been newly cleaned (just in time for Nicki to mess it up again). What other dog/house sitter would come in, keep your floors clean, groom your dogs (Sheila and Lizzie had been bathed and Lizzi had a nice hair cut; both dogs had their nails trimmed)...and then she leaves huge stockings of goodies for all three of your dogs, the two that live with you permanently and the foster puppy AND goodies for you too! She's very special.

The dogs and I opened all the gifts and Sheila was particularly thrilled that she had new noise-making toys to tear up (her goal in life is removing the noisemaker from any toy that has stuffing in it).

I spent way too much time struggling with the new software for Flip Video, but I did finally get it all figured out and was able to make a video to post (if you are interested in 5 minutes of trying to feed Brianna!)

It's good to be home, but it sure was a nice Christmas!