Sunday Ramblings

I’m back on the road to Portland today. This week will be different since I am bringing Stefan along with me. Today he is getting to experience the long journey from South Carolina to Oregon that I’ve been doing almost weekly the past few months.

So far I have watched a movie “Blood Diamond” which is 2 ¼ hours (great movie); taken a nap for 1 ½ hours; I’ve been listening to music over half an hour. This trip just seems to get longer each week. This week I will be on the plane a total of 5 ¾ hours. I am looking at the moving map and we are still over Montana and 1 ½ hours from touch down.

I have brought my scout “Stefan” to find new areas of the Portland area for me to explore. As I wrote last week he goes out and finds all the neatest things and then takes me to see them. This is his first trip to the Pacific Northwest. The weather is going to be chilly and wet the first few days and clear the last few days. So he’ll get the whole Portland experience. I hope he gets to go see some of the cool bridges from Jackie’s blog.

I let him have my favorite seat (1A) I talked about in a past blog. He will be on the side of the plane that has the best view of Mount Hood when we arrive in Portland. I took his seat (my second favorite – Exit Row Window). There is nobody in the middle seat so I have been able to sprawl out more than in a first class seat and with fewer distractions from the flight attendants offering me another beverage. I know they mean well but my bladder is only so big.

This week will be one of the few weeks that I don’t go home to see some new project completed at the house. A few weeks back I came home to see the new fireplace that Stefan built in the downstairs den area.

The remodel really started as moving a door and has morphed into a complete updating of the house (kitchen, floors, bathrooms, laundry room, pouring a concrete driveway, moving walls in the basement to make more rooms). Least to say the cost and time under construction has exceeded what the initial plans were. I know it’s going to be worth it when it’s over. Right now I’m just wondering if it will ever be over. I figure we will be under construction at least another 6-9 months because I’m on the pay as you go plan.