Weather photo
Got home mid-afternoon Saturday. Check-out time wasn’t until 11 a.m. so I made sure I gave the city of Syracuse plenty of time to clear the streets. I cleaned the several inches of snow off the car, had a nice shower and breakfast, punched in my home address on the GPS and started off. (Thought I had taken a picture of my breakfast but apparently not: juice, strawberry yogurt, scrambled eggs, bacon, and a cake donut for the road.) Syracuse weather photo I did take. The city streets were a bit messy still but the highway was clear if not dry so still didn’t use my cruise control.
One of the things I really enjoy on the road is listening to my iPod, something I only do on road trips; at home, I don’t change CDs very often in the house or car and am often listening to the radio instead. But my iPod is a classic which has a huge capacity and I love the ease with which I can change albums or artists and sing along with my favourite music. I listen to Judy Garland a lot and came home with several of her songs, particularly her jazz, from her album in the early 60s at Carnegie Hall playing away in my head. Rather appropriate as the movie about the last months of her life was up for an Oscar for Renée Zellweger who won, by the way, and gave an interesting tribute to Judy — more, I think, than what the movie actually did. Some of my other favourites are Abba, the Beatles, Tony Bennet, Liza, Boy Choir soundtrack, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter, and the soundtrack from Dirty Dancing. It makes the travel so much easier.
At the border, there was no NEXUS lane open (now apparently called Global Trusted Traveller — time to renew my card) but I went through quite quickly to find the 401 not only cleared by dry so was able to use my Cruise for the first time in 3 days. Much easier on the leg and knee.
Picked up a few things once in Ottawa before going home because I was pretty certain I was not going to want to go out again once I got all my stuff inside my apartment. Did some unpacking, tidying, and catching up on mail and by the time I was ready to sit down I decided it was also time to catch up on some recordings I had scheduled for while I was away. One of the things I liked while away was that many places I stayed had ION TV and I was able to watch a number of early episodes of Blue Bloods which I had never seen from the beginning and really think is a great show and I could watch while I worked on my blog. One of the things I didn’t appreciate while away was the wide variety of remote controls, some of which are really strange (like putting the “mute” button where “enter” is on all the other remotes) and many of the systems didn’t seem to have a TV guide channel.
I enjoyed watching the episodes of the new Rob Lowe show Lonestar 911 which began while I was away. Very unusual to have the star of a show diagnosed with cancer in the very first episode/pilot. I also caught up on Hill Street Blues which I’ve been watching since they reprised it — I had never seen very many of the episodes so am really impressed with the issues they dealt with for the period it was produced and find the acting very good.
Sunday morning I had the breakfast left for me by my friend, Lynn, who was taking care of my apartment, mail, and plants while I was away. She is very thoughtful and it is great to have a friend willing to take on these things while I go gallivanting off on my travels. Don’t you love the valentine bag? It has a cranberry orange scone inside. And the yogurt is in a little glass bottle! I went to church and gave thanks for His care of me while I was away and was welcomed back by many friends. Good to be home.
Not a snowbird!
After a bit more tidying, I went down a few floors and picked up my budgie, Budge, from the young man and his family who were caring for him while I was away. He’s a pretty adaptable little guy and I think appreciated the fact that we had company in the evening because he does like to have a lot of attention. Several friends came by for pizza and the Oscars. It was a pyjama party with many awards: best “elegant” pjs, best predictions, best information, best venue, and best entertainment went to Budge who chattered to us all through it, bobbed up and down, and tried to do manicures on everyone’s hands.
That’s prettty much it for this little adventure during which I saw so many new places, met so many interesting people, enjoyed so many fascinating museums and churches and architecture, and got away from the cold and the snow for a good period of time. I think I can say my little venture as a fledgling snowbird was a great success. I may do a little retrospect in a few days but I think it’s going to be back into routine for me and Budge. Many events coming up for Valentine’s Day including a luncheon at church on Sunday, a Chinese buffet here at our condo building on Friday evening and movie night on Sunday evening, and back to Woman2Woman Bible study on Wednesday morning. (Also, time to get an oil change ⁄ Overdue!)
So it’s Cheers until next time, from Ottawa, Canada!
Fledgling Snowbird
On The Road with Ms. M. 