TROPICS OF THE PIANKATANK (and our weekend)

Lovely.  This is how the week looks for our temperatures in Stafford, VA, or all of the east coast.  95 degrees and higher starting Tuesday with the heat index making it feel like 110 by the end of the week.  Oh, the heat and humidity is back.  Can't wait.  It has been a little slow in coming this season, but we never go without.  We have had more than enough rain though.  July has already broken records.

Week of July 14

Because of Ray's scheduled and then re-scheduled gall bladder surgery, I am off this Wednesday.  The start of the intense temps.  But Carly and I have plans.  Indoor plans, thankfully.  NO amusement parks in the plans.  She moves out in two weeks, and we are going to explore IKEA.  She doesn't want or need for much since she gets to acquire all of our things, but when Ray and I were in Sweden, I ate vacuum cleaner pastries (yes, that is the name) and loved them!  I was told by a patient (who is from Sweden) that IKEA has them.  I haven't been to IKEA in years.  I, unfortunately, was too lazy to go into the biggest one ever when we traveled Sweden two years ago and am looking forward to shopping this week.  And perhaps visiting a dark, cold theater to catch up on a movie and eat my pastries.  Time to play a bit before Carly moves out and starts her J.O.B.

 Carly has done an amazing job letting go of things from the past, we have given away books and Barbies and more, as well as taken loads of items to Goodwill.  She is for the most part packed up with piles of things going to her apartment, her classroom or storage (once we leave).  I just ordered a flash drive that holds 16,000 pictures, and it will only pull pictures off the computer when uploading.  Seems easy enough, and I have two digital frames that I plan to keep turned on in Panama streaming pictures.   

Ray is loving the looks of the place.  The clutter is leaving, the piles are leaving, the lawn is mowed (just threw that in) and he was lucky enough to suffer not one but two gallbladder attacks starting at three am this morning.  It sure is a good thing they moved his surgery back a month!  I don't know how he will make it to August 14th, poor guy.  Along with today being a great day for him, the past two days really have been super (I think).  It started out with Ray having a  successful, non-eventful first ever colonoscopy.  Checked that off his big boy list of things to do before moving to Panama.  No need to go into details here, and yes, it is my turn in a few months.  We decided not to go to the lake house.  It was raining on and off throughout the day, and we had plans for the rest of the weekend.  Instead, we saw the movie "The Heat" with Sandra Bullock, had some laughs and ate a ton of food.  I decided that since Ray had not had much food prior to his appointment and was starving, I would also eat a lot with him.  

Yesterday  we enjoyed a fantastic day (the rain went away really fast) at our friend's second home (their river house that they just added 1200 square feet to) on the Piankatank River.  We sat on the dock, and I tried my hand at fishing (it's hard work!), sat indoors on the screened porch, sat at the table eating lots of yummy foods, and talked non-stop for ten hours.  Our friends kept double checking with us if the porch was okay, or was it too hot.  We reassured them it wasn't too hot and it's the humidity that causes the uncomfortableness, but that we loved sitting in the big, comfy, rattan chairs, and we have to get used to it!  (Get us ready for the tropics!)  This couple (we met them on a cruise 12 years ago and are penpals for the most part through emails, oh, and we traveled to New Orleans together) is downsizing from a four story home to a 55 and over community, and the river house is going to be their retirement home.  For now, they enjoy it on the weekends and holidays like we do our lake house.  We chatted a lot about letting go of things.  They are cleaning out closets and attics, and we discussed that until we are ready to let go of those dolls or trophies or artwork our kids made, things won't get thrown out.  But gradually, we do eventually get that "Aha" moment when we think, 'why am I still hanging onto this stuff', and out of the house it goes.  I had that "Aha" moment on Friday.  Carly and Ray were being good about packing things up tidier for the when the movers come to move her things.  I was staring at dolls that my dad bought for me and my sister in every country that he traveled to on business.  These dolls came home, we were allowed to play with them for a few minutes and then they were displayed in a case.  The case and dolls were then showcased in a hallway in our finished basement of the first place Ray and I owned (a three story townhouse).  When we moved to our first single family home, the case went to the trash (or we may have given it away), and the dolls went into a Rubbermaid tote.  Fifteen plus years later and without Carly caring to play with them when she was little, my "Aha" moment happened on Friday when I realized these dolls had to go.  I am going to take a picture of them, and then out the door they go.  This week.  Before I change my mind.  Wait, I think there are two dolls from Panama (can you guess which one's and another one has a broken neck!).