'Twas the Night Before ...

I'm feeling a lot like the Ed Grimley character on the old SCTV series - the boy who couldn't wait for Christmas. Even my hair bears a resemblance to antsy Ed's - I've been pulling at it in frustration for much of the evening. The switch-over to the lap top didn't go as smoothly as it might have and then Blogger decided to give me grief over my password. My self-confidence on the computer front is shaky at best. The water wings are deflating as fast as the tide is rising. Thank God the under-thirty Eric is aboard.

I spent an hour or so outside today nailing thin strips of wood across the ramp I built for our poor old Airedale last week - she can't manage the steps to the deck very well anymore, but the ice and snow had turned the ramp into a toboggan run. The finish nails I was using were too small to grasp with gloved fingers so I worked as quickly as I could with bare hands. The sun was brilliant today but what was the temperature? Minus 10 degrees or something. As my fingers grew more and more numb I couldn't help but think that in less than twenty-four hours I would be stepping off a plane into a 30 degree wall of heat.

Here we are at T minus five hours and counting. The bags are packed and standing by the front door like two stocky sentinels. I've checked and re-checked all my lists, gathered my documents, counted my greenbacks. After weeks of planning and preparing I am finally ready to go. The only thing left to do is to try to get some sleep.
If the planets align and Blogger, the lap top and the internet all co-operate, the next time you hear from me will be from Suchitoto.