Almost A year

Okay, so here it is – life has returned pretty much to normal!!  To begin with, I thought I would wait to write again until we saw if we lived through today (it being one of the days the world was supposed to end!!), then, it is getting very close to Mike’s 73^rd birthday, in addition to a year ago that he died.  I certainly hope he is happy!  Today, because Meg’s back is bad, I drove to San Diego, CA from Reno NV.  A long drive, but beautiful.  The mountains were beautiful and the lakes were also.  The mountains in California were especially beautiful.  Anyway, I listened to a reasonably good mystery while appreciating my surroundings, buying gas and ½ a tank so I wouldn’t realize how expensive it is, and just coasting along – thanks to cruise control!!  So, thinking I was doing great by arriving in San Diego at 6 p.m., thereby giving me time to get a hotel room, change my clothes and go have a dinner and glass (or two) of wine.  HA! HA! HA!  Seems everyone in San Diego is graduating and the whole world came to see them.  It took until 8:30 p.m. to find a room.  Obviously, business in San Diego is good, because no one was very interested in helping me find a room.  I was by the airport; at an area called “hotel circle”, where, incidentally, “Comfort Inn” had a sign out front – “Rooms Available”.  When the receptionist told me they were full, I said, “there are signs out along the street saying rooms available”.  “Oh yeah”, says she, “I forgot to remove them.”  So after about 12 hotels rejecting me there, one young woman suggested I drive to the beaches – oops!  No luck there, either.  However, afraid I was going to burst into tears, one receptionist at a Holiday Inn (after completing a conversation with her friend for about ten minutes, while I waited) bothered to call another Holiday Inn in an area called Old Town, where, lo and behold, they had a room.  Not only was it $120, but, in order not to have your car vandalized on the street, you have to pay $15 to park in their garage!  (A little like Jesse James without his gun!)  So, okay, I bring up a bottle of wine, open it, have a sip, relax and think I am going to write on my blog!  Well, it is now 9:47 p.m. and I am typing this in Word, hoping I can transfer it tomorrow when we get to Carlsbad, because for some reason unknown to either the guy at the desk or the “repair man”, they can’t seem to get the Internet to work in my room!  So, there you have a little synopsis of a normal day in the life of me!!!  At least there is always that test of my sense of humor.  Hopefully, I will get this in tomorrow.  Thanks again for reading.  Ricci

P.S.  I picked up Meg from the airport this morning (in a much better mood) and we drove to Carlsbad, CA.  We could not get into the condo until 4 p.m., so we went to Norte for Margaritas and a Mexican lunch.  Then we walked down the steps to the water, so I can truly say I have now been “from sea to shining sea”, so now I just have to cover those darned “amber waves of grain”!!  See you soon!!  Ricci