Recovering my Equilibrium

Thank you all for your travel wishes...I feel like I've been traveling for ages. I started Thursday afternoon....first I finished packing up the rest of the house, then I cleaned it, a snow storm moving into the area with gale storm warnings all the way to Los Anchorage. I had those hard goodbyes, the kind that hurt but that you can't not do. Then a drive to Los Anchorage, snowy passes and dark oceansides. I arrive at my summer weekend neighbor's who really live in Los Anchorage. They are storing all of my stuff in exchange for my shoveling the snow off their boats and because they are sweet people. They made me a halibut dinner and hot buttered rum and then another friend picked me and the Disreputables up. First we took the Disreputable Dog and his buddy Ziegra on a long romp. Ziegra and the Disreputable Dog go back to puppyhood in Fairbanks. After that this dear friend dropped us all off at the airport. Out flight wasn't really until Friday at 1am. It seems every flight out of the state is a red eye.

We flew for hours...flying from Alaska to the lower 48 is often like flying to Europe from the conterminous US. The Disreputable Cat proved to be quite adept at attempting to escape from her kennel. It wasn't because she didn't like the kennel, she loves it, but she got bored. Eventually I had to ask the flight attendants if they had any tape and had to tape the openings shut to keep the paws and cat head from popping out of the bag. I couldn't really fault her - she'd been in the car since noon the day before and needed to stretch out. On the other hand it prevented me from getting some dearly needed sleep and by the time we had laid over for three hours and gotten on our next flight I was ready to pass out from exhaustion.

We arrived at our destination in the Western Lower 48 around noon. Amazingly all of my luggage arrived (I was quite embarrassed for traveling with more luggage then I have traveled with in my entire life). Then we had a drive over the pass with my niece in tow. My niece was delighted to be in the same car as the Disreputables. I think she has been talking about them since she visited this last summer with her grandmother. My nephew, who is more cautious about animals was happier to wait for the arrival of his great grandmother and to caravan up (in altitude) with her and his parents. Another snowy, icy drive and we only arrived at my parents' around 10pm. I was utterly exhausted.

The next day was mostly spent monitoring children (my niece & nephew) and the Disreputables with my parents' pets. My parents have a dog one year old then my dog an a 17 year old cat who is currently suffering from kidney failure. They've met the Disreputable Dog and he is no concern to either but the Disreputable Cat and the Parental Cat have had a few exciting standoffs which the toddlers find most fascinating and which they wish to get involved in.

Today is the first day that I have started to recover my equilibrium. I am still exhausted and jet lagged but the amazing brilliant sunlight helps immensely. There is a swirl of family chaos and holiday plans to be involved with and when I get overwhelmed I take the Disreputable Dog and the Parental Dog for a long walk or take the niecenephew out sledding on my parents driveway. I am still grateful to all of the people who helped me move and I miss two people from Small Town South of The Permafrost dearly. I wonder, where will I end up? Where will I go? But I don't worry too much. I have applications out and I figure I won't hear much until the holidays are over so for now I'm on vacation. And today, I finally check my email and see all of your encouraging wonderful comments and am grateful for you readers and look forward to finding time to catch up with your blogs again in the next days.