and getting ready

 Doing laundry tonight. I should probably wash one of the little fleece blankets I have to take with me - it's supposed to be very cold for here Friday, and you never know what the temperature is on the train - sometimes it's hot, sometimes it's cold. And since I've been on the beta blocker I find I'm more sensitive to cold (and don't seem to generate as much body heat as I once did).

I will have to look up my list (It's somewhere on my hard drive) of what I need to remember to bring; in December 2021 I forgot some important things (including my make-up brushes) and had to make a run to the Walgreen's when I got up there. (In my defense: I think I was STILL dealing with broken-brain from the pandemic; my memory is not GREAT now but it's better than it was. Also I was dealing with mouse-problems in my house and that kind of distracted me).

I did start a little packing tonight; I have all the Christmas presents in my suitcase. I even found stuff for my brother's family's pets - some Christmas-print tennis balls for the dog (they have squeakers in them) and some little lightweight balls and other toys for the cats (and I can scavenge one out of the package for the cat of a friend of my mom's). 

I also got out the books I wanted to take (and I'll probably put The Light Fantastic, which I am reading right now, in the bag Friday morning). I've got an Armand Gamache mystery I've not read yet, and "Braiding Sweetgrass" (which I started a while back and never finished) and something called "In Defense of Kindness". 

I also decided on projects: will take the current simple socks, and the "SNaGs" sock pattern and a skein of the "new" reissued Sock-Ease (yes, I mailordered some when it came out: the colors are pretty and some of the combinations are unusual; I have one called "Last Word" that has magenta and green in it). And a shawl from KnitPicks called The Purl Thief and the yarn for it. 

Clothes will come later - in fact, some of them are still drying (some of the dresses I air dry; I think they last longer that way. And of course the handknits are dried that way). And on Friday morning I'll have to stick the toiletries and medications and all that in my carry on for on the train. 

I'm glad though. I didn't get to travel late-summer as I sometimes do, because of a combination of "no money" and "need to be home during the renovations" and it will just be nice to get a few days off and out of town here.

(I'm trying not to think about the possibility of a railroad strike maybe cancelling my Christmas travel - there's no way I could make it work if the trains aren't running; too far to drive, can't afford a plane ticket even if I could find one, and the bus is a BIG nope, had a bad experience on Greyhound once that I'd rather not risk again. Here's hoping labor and management can work something out - the issue seems to be time-off for things like sick days rather than money, so I'd hope management can make some kind of offer there)