In Kentucky!

I am writing from a king sized bed in a Marriott in Charleston, West Virginia, surrounded by six pillows that prop me up. From the 16th floor I gaze out into a city shrouded in fog. I have sent Larry to get me coffee so that I can sip it in bed while I write. When he returns I watch him rearrange the entire room so that he can do his yoga. I laugh at him, with a twinge of jealousy that he has the drive to do yoga every morning of his life for the past five years. I then congratulate myself that I have been working out several times a week since January, in spite of my various physical challenges.

The Internet is not free here, so I will write and upload it at Megan’s later. I am a bit miffed, as when I have traveled through the Northeast through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Canada, I always had free wireless at the other hotels I have stayed in. But the giant white bed graced with half a dozen pillows feels delightful, so I forgive them.

Yesterdays 600 miles took me through five states; New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and finally West Virginia. Most of the ride has been through rolling hills, dotted with farms and occasional strip mines along the way. Easy driving traffic for the most part. During the ride we listened to Oprah’s pod casts with Eckert Tolle about his book A New Earth, each one being about an hour or more. I periodically read Larry snippets from my book on “Right Sizing”, something Larry and I need to do in our home as we enter what the book terms “the third (and final) part of our life.

Sometimes I think about what I would take with me if I had to live in a nursing home like my mother. What would be my favorite paintings, movies and books? What would I do? In Right Sizing the author Ciji Ware (whom I met while I was visiting Bardet in Sausalito, CA) has us think about what we want in our lives presently, and in the future. Where would we want to live, what would we want to do? I chuckle to myself and think, what WOULDN’T I want to do? Travel, paint, read, watch movies, exercise, eat out….

Larry and I have a lot of work ahead of us to pare down our slightly obsessive collections of our 50+ years. She gives a fabulous method of choosing the most important possessions, and there will be more about this book at a later date.

The shower and breakfast calls.

Patti O Traveler

PS mom holding her own. Still an intestinal blockage, she is refusing an enema, and any hospitalization. Kidneys are functioning, but not very well. BUT she is watching TV and eating liquids, so for now that may hold her for a bit while I am down here.

PPSS Sunset from my Mariott hotel window in Charleston WV, early morning fog from same window, and a really bizarre castle looking building on the way in Kentucky I believe. A barn for horses? Dunno