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Washington 
Link to an Oregonian Article re Pending Litigation
DAYS
367 and Beyond
Getting
home was a piece of cake. I flew to Seattle on the same flight as Lucia, Todd
and their children and went to their home for the next couple of days. Maya, my
dog, had lived with them for the last year and I couldn’t wait to see her. But
I had to wait because the woman with whom she had spent the week while Lucia and
Todd were in California wasn’t at home when we stopped there. I didn’t get
to see her the next day either because the woman had to work that day. But I did
get to see my son, Eric, who surprised me by appearing on Lucia’s doorstep.
That was a treat! I hadn’t expected to see him until the weekend.
My car was at Lucia’s and I drove to Port Angeles to my mother’s home. She looked great in spite of being a year older and having suffered a broken arm when Maya yanked her off her feet. She had planned a family party for January 6 to welcome me home. I thought I might make myself useful but nothing needed doing.
I
have had trouble getting to this task. I had told Todd I would write one or two
more pages but that was more than two weeks ago! So what is my problem anyway? I
have many excuses. Mom had planned a welcome home dinner and celebration. My two
children and my three grandchildren came and all my siblings as well. Aunts and
cousins, nieces and nephews, and friends all came. That was wonderful! Then
there were 2 apple boxes of unopened mail which had accumulated during the year,
my prescriptions had run out, and I had to find and organize all the tax forms
that were buried in the boxes of mail for my 1999 taxes, and send that to the
accountant. That was boring. There were bills and property taxes and
insurance premiums to pay! That was shocking! The brakes on my car had to be
replaced, my bike was delivered by UPS quite squished and unrideable, and my dog
had been in a fight and had to take a pill twice a day. That was awful. As
became the condition of my ‘room’. I am staying in a spare bedroom at
Mom’s temporarily. Suddenly I had all this space! Boy did I fill it! After a
year in a tent or a portion of a hotel room, to suddenly have this whole room to
myself was a great luxury. Now if I can only make order of the chaos.
So
you see I have plenty of excuses. I suppose though that the real problem is that
I just don’t have anything to say. Odyssey? What was that? I suddenly find
myself plunked down in a completely different situation. I haven’t even ridden
a bike yet. I find that I am missing those Odyssey folks, the very same ones
that at sometimes bored or irritated me, and I am surprised. I wish that we had
planned a reunion for a date real soon but we didn’t. It’s lonely out here!
But
it is great to be home, to see how well Mom is, to go for long walks with my dog
who remembered me and has all the same old endearing habits and the same naughty
ones too. It is great to be anticipating actually living in the U.S. rather than
just visiting here as I had done for the 15 years prior to the Odyssey. (I had
lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for the 15 years prior to the Odyssey and came
to the States for a few weeks once a year.) But best of all is to be actually
realizing what being ‘retired’ means. My retirement date actually occurred
before the Odyssey, but the Odyssey was not the place to appreciate retirement.
It was as much like work as anything I have ever done. Retirement is when
putting off until tomorrow what I should have done on the weekend doesn’t
matter because all days are weekend days!
What is next? I will move into my cabin on Lake Sutherland where I will enjoy a variety of water activities, even fishing, and watch the wildlife, especially the birds. I will strive to become current with the new technology that has become commonplace in the states since I’ve been gone; even the newfangled phones and answering machines are a mystery to me. I will read and listen to music and reread the various Odyssey journals and daydream about the good old days of the Odyssey. I will find some new friends and try to get reacquainted with the community of Port Angeles, my old home town. And I will strive to do mostly only things that I actually want to do!
Goodbye, Alice
Today's Music
Happy Trails
Washington
Odyssey Riders and Staff
