Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023…So Long, Farewell (Rodgers and Hammerstein)

   We’ve been looking forward to our winter get-a-way for some time now; the Charlevoix WonderKids not so much. Lately, Shelby has been telling me very dramatically that “Six weeks is FOR-EV-ER, Gramma!” So today we had lunch at Culver’s with the kiddos and their parents where they each presented us with a piece of artwork; then after lunch it was back to the house so they could wave us off on our travels.

  I do this thing with the kiddos whenever family members leave our house: we stand at the end of the driveway and sing “So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye”, doing our best imitation of the Von Trapp children from the Sound of Music…although Charlie’s understanding of the words at this point is quite comical.  Yeah, it’s a corny thing but the children enjoy it and it’s become a tradition.  And at my funeral I expect them to stand and wave me off
with a rousing rendition of our song. 😎 

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   On the road about one o’clock.  The temperature was a brisk 24^o when we left but there wasn’t any precipitation.  Ran into a snowy mess in the Fife Lake/Cadillac area and didn’t run out of it until about South Haven.  Sloppy, slushy roads are no fun when driving in a car…sloppy, slushy roads are especially nerve wracking when pulling a 26 foot camper.  Throw in Grand Rapids rush hour and you’ve just hit the trifecta of horrible driving conditions.  But Kim did a great job of navigating through it all…and he didn’t even express frustration with the noises coming from my side of the truck. 😟

   Snow turned into rain a bit north of Benton Harbor, just as darkness was coming on.  The temperature was hovering in the 30^o range; ice started forming on the outer edges of the windshield and I could see ice shining from the sides of the highway.  After miles of listening to the wiper thwack against a piece of stubborn windshield ice, we decided to get off the road at the next exit with hotels and get up early to continue.  So that’s how we came to be in Room 304 of the Comfort Suites Hotel in Stevensville, MI, at 6:45 p.m.  And the ‘right to your door’ Jet’s pizza delivery was just the right delicious indulgence after hours of driving/riding in lousy weather.  

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  My sewing room is getting a makeover…new flooring and a new work surface. We’ve talked about it for a couple of years now but never followed through because it seems I was always in there working. But a recent mishap with one of my machines made it evident that it’s time to get a larger work surface and rearrange things which will give me better lighting. Marshal is doing the work and now has six weeks with an empty room to put the plan into action. Yay!! 

  The sewing room had become a sort of catch-all room and suddenly everything had to find a new temporary home.  Everything!! Including all the items I had stored in the sewing cabinet; it had to be emptied before it could be moved. Agh!  So the past couple of days have been about last minute packing in the camper and last minute packing up of the sewing room.  It was a daunting task but I’m pleased to say that the sewing cabinet has been dismantled and taken to the basement (it will be replaced in the make-over), the spare room doesn’t have much room to spare right now, and the storage/clothes rack is in the TV room chock full of boxes contain all my sewing essentials.  I feel accomplished!  All that stuff is not going back in the room so there will be some more sorting to do in the future but for now, the room is empty and waiting for a new look.

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