12 Days and Counting

All the planning is quickly coming to a close and the reality looms. Even so it all seems far away--unreal--as we sit in our home of 29 years, listening to backyard fountains creating music, relishing the quiet of evening--having earlier enjoyed Casey frolicking in the pool, Sratch rotating between chasing his tail and his ball and the pleasure of conversation with son Jeff who is living with us these last few days and whom Casey adores and worships

Evening is so nice because we relax in the family room, ignoring the chaos of the rest of the house with its half filled duffel bags, stuff strewn on the floor, piles of "take this" and "leave that" and whatever else is there.

Today's activities have included:

• Wiring a significant amount of money to pay for the car our landlord has bought for us--a silver, Megane station wagon.
  
• Deciding we were taking too much and so starting to unpack duffels and making new decisions about what things we really don't need to take--a lot as it turns out.
  
• Cancelling cell phone service.
• Visiting two banks with Jeff--signing papers giving him access to our accounts and adding him to our checking accounts--yep, we trust him totally.
  
• Lunching at Joe's Crab Shack with Jeff-realizing that soon it will be italian, italian, italian for lunch (pranzo) and dinner (cena).
  
  
  
• Being a resource to a couple other people starting the path we have been traveling-- there are some lessons we have learned and information that we have garnered that are worth sharing.
• Making the last trip to Casey's orthondontist here before being handed off to Dott. Floria in Firenze.
• Realizing that I have some serious spyware and infections on the computer and so purchasing a new program to augment the free ones I have relied on.
• Linking Bushdrums.Com to my Tanzania website pages--if you are interested in the ecological and cultural preservation of Kenya and Tanzania, a trip to this site will be worthwhile. It is being developed by my dear friend in Montepulciano, Nico Pannevis, who owns Sant' Antonio Country Resort.
  
• Working with Casey on completing two pages of his matematica work book from his school in Greve.
• Enduring two games of WAR with Casey.
• And more, more, more.

It has been a rather full day--and since I forgot to take my Tylonel PM last night and so have been awake since 3:30 this morning, a quite long one. Hopefully, once we are THERE sleep will come easily and will last a good 7 hours each night. But--with the heat the way it is in lovely Italia right now, that may be just a dream.

Now--off to a bowl of ice cream smoothered with much gooey hot fudge sauce--not gelato, for sure, but it'll do for tonight.

Ciao