Thursday

Maybe I should just pack my bag and go out into the world and then I'd be done with exploring it for good! That's the feeling I had when I read this year's NYTimes list of "52 Places to go in 2023" -- they publish this each year and this year's list was posted today. If someone paid my way and if Covid would abate, I'd go and see at least half of them right now, before I get really old! (I'd been to some, but not enough to make me feel like I've seen enough for one life.)

In the alternative, I could be talked into a road trip in some part of North America, so long as you don't have to drive for ten hours along a boring highway before you come to some hidden gem (and my definition of gem is very broad!). 

In other words, the world seems like a beautiful place to me and experiencing its depth and breadth has always felt mind boggling, in the best of ways. 

Unfortunately, no one is paying me to hop skip through half, or even a quarter of the 52 spots scattered across the planet and if they were, I wouldn't just want to copy someone else's list, I'd want to create my own, with fewer hours in the air or on a road, but still, it was a nice little vision to carry with me as I went through the early morning tasks. 

It was a mixed bag of tasks, since I had to follow up on one of my Mystery Illness threads one more time, but though not all threads are tied up yet, most are, and importantly, this one tied up quite nicely (as Ed had predicted). 

So,  animal feeding walk:

And then a spin through the medical establishment, followed by a visit to a wine shop for balance, and finally to a pharmacy to have a discussion about the very mixed messaging on seniors taking Paxlovid with them (the recommended Covid antiviral) when they travel. Medical experts, cited in NYT, say do it! But go ahead and find me a doc who will write a prescription for it if you haven't yet tested positive. Go ahead! I'm totally stumped on how I can accomplish this. 

Best part of the morning? Breakfast when I got home at 11:30. With Ed, who did not seem to notice that we were eating oatmeal at a very late hour.

Now, back to the main theme of this post which is"the world is such a beautiful place." I asked Ed just after breakfast, when my two favorite cats -- Dance and Unfriendly Snowflake -- were cuddling on the couch... 

... and our stomachs were full (in other words, everyone was in great spirits) if he would consider going to any place on that list of 52. Some of the destinations are quite remote and require a certain adventurousness to get to them. I said I was willing to tag along to any, so long as he was by my side.

I was not really surprised that he answered "no." What did surprise me was that he had actually studied the list earlier this morning. Was he smugly eyeing stuff he believed was not worth the air travel carbon footprint  to visit? (Actually, not all the destinations would require flying and besides, the guy did board a plane to go on his sailing trip so he's not 100% opposed to catching a flight when "necessary," by his own definition of "necessary.") Or was he evaluating what he might be missing? I'll never know. What I do know is that we are running out of travel years and I do not want to twist his arm so hard that I would have him reluctantly agree to a trip that he then would sulk through (a.k.a. sleep through) every single day of our journey.

So, I'm slated to pack bags without him. From that list of 52? I'll probably get to maybe one this year. Hey, one is always better than none!

In the afternoon, Snowdrop is here with me. Happy girl...

But this time I put my foot down earlier on snuggling over books I don't adore, so she is on her own for a good chunk of time, reading through stuff that only a kid would like. Oh, and throwing socks at Ed -- a game they both seem to enjoy.

And in the evening, Ed asks -- hey gorgeous, you want to go out early next week and watch a sunrise and get some freshly made butter? I point out that it's slated to be cloudy every morning next week. He responds -- so what. I am not one to say no to a trip with him, no matter how short and pointless! In the meantime, we sit back and watch one of the last episodes of Jack Ryan. Snowdrop had asked -- what's that show about? I told her -- well, first the bad guys chase the good guys, then the good guys chase the bad guys, then some of the good guys are actually bad guys, and some of the bad guys are actually even worse than bad, and so they all chase each other all over again until the end, when I imagine the good guys will win.

Did I get that right?

A happy night to you as well!

with love...