Chapter 8: Cleaned out

Yesterday more movers arrived to take the remainder of our household goods. It was a long day, and the house looks so much different--so empty, even though we are not moving everything. Lawna and I are now sleeping on an inflatable bed, which is really quite comfortable, and we are picking our clothes from fairly neat piles since our dressers are gone.

Lawna is back to work today, and I have some more arrangements to make, for plumbing services and to try to convince AT&T to unlock our new I-phones so that we may use them in Germany. So far, they have been stubborn about it. We won't use our cell phones to call home--we'll have Vonage and Skype for that, but we want to use them locally. They are new phones!

I have been watching the disturbing news story about the Carnival Triumph cruise ship and the stranded voyagers aboard. I'm sure the conditions must be terrible. On our recent cruise with Princess, we were detained from docking at Galveston for a full day because of heavy fog. These ships carry only enough food for the duration of the cruise. By around 1:00 our ship had pretty much run out of food, and we were quite hungry by the time we hit shore. We saw one family that hoarded several large pizzas and then left much of it uneaten. If conditions had become really dire and we had been driven to cannibalism, then that family would have been the first on our menu plan. Fortunately our bathrooms did not become overtaxed in the single day of our delay, but I can understand how it could easily happen. Perhaps these ships should keep emergency chamber pots in their supply rooms. Seriously! A ship can only carry stores for so many people for a finite amount of time, and occasionally a ship is bound to become stranded. And, the sad part is that many cruise customers are particularly vulnerable seniors. Of course, sometimes they are also the most resourceful, having lived their early lives making do with less.

My sister Jan and my brother Eric are meeting with me for lunch today to visit one last time before I leave. About a week to go!