January 30, 2004 - Eye of the Storm

Naturally, almost all the stores were closed due to the storm, even though the roads were fairly clear by this point. But then I remembered that a lot of stores in that central Pennsylvania town are closed on Wednesdays, for some reason. Some habit the town collectively adopted.

I stopped in the hardware store to see if there might be something. They had a display right inside the door of camping equipment, and I remembered my dad talking excitedly about how he's been doing his own reorganization project and how he had put all of his camping equipment in one closet.

There was a camp cookware set with a large pot, a small pot, four plates and four cups. I didn't think he had anything like that, so I bought it for him. He was very appreciative.

Since they were dilating my eyes, I took a cab to the eye doctor. It was only $6, which just amazed me.

The appointment itself went smoothly. Apparently, my retinas look healthy, and I have no new problems. My eyes changed slightly, but not enough to warrant a new prescription yet.

Of course, I was useless the rest of the day, because I couldn't focus on anything close up. Not to be deterred, I had my mom pick me up, and I boxed up some more of my stuff from my old bedroom in her house. I invited her to come up and hang out with me while I went through stuff.

Included were a stack of records with such albums as Michael Jackson's Thriller, David Lee Roth's Crazy from the Heat and Hall and Oates' H2O.

There were some craft projects I made over the years, including some masks, one of which (the orange one) was a plaster cast of my face at about age 10.

Also, there were puppets I made during a puppet workshop when I was a child.

There was also my antique stereoptican, with slides.

Not to mention my high school band jacket (which still fit!) and my Brownie uniform (which didn't).

After filling up two plastic containers with such items, I stopped. It will probably only take me about one more trip to get everything else, including my doll collection, some shows on reel-to-reel I did while at WPSU at Penn State, and a number of miscellaneous things.

By the end of the evening, my eyesight had more or less returned to normal. Dad came over, at Mom's request, so we could all share dinner and hang out. Afterwards, we got to talking about my sister's wedding and wondering what sort of plans she'll make. Of course, we won't know until we talk to her. I gave her a call hoping she'd be home, but she wasn't so I left a message.

Dad and I got back to his place in time to watch American Idol, which I'm rapidly becoming addicted to. I fell asleep on the couch over a book I'm supposed to be reviewing for Wild Violet.

Thursday morning, I got up in time to see my dad off to work and then took my dog, Una for a quick constitutional. The next task was shoveling my car, which wasn't that difficult since the plow had done most of the work. Still, between shoveling and clearing off the car, the task took nearly half an hour.

The extra exercise was welcome, especially since I discovered that I've lost 3 1/2 of the five pounds I'd gained over the holidays. Good to keep up the momentum.

After my shower, I packed up the car, loaded up Una and headed home. It was a bright, sunny day and the roads were clear and dry. It was good traveling weather. As I neared Philadelphia, I passed a tow truck with a message on the back, "You are not alone."

 

More on my trip home:

January 29, 2004 - Rural Detour

Moral:
Some memories can actually be packed in a plastic container.