We've been up here since July 3, and it's a lovely place to recoup.
The plane trip (27+ hours of daylight) to SF (Almaty, official 4th of July reception, Moscow (Sheri I makeover a Breeze), Delta to NY, JFK to SF) was hard on me, stamina wise. All in all, there were no problems except the mind-blowing crowds -- JFK was the most crowded we'd ever seen. The Delta passprt area was handling 2 or 3 plane loads at once, so the "Disney Land" lines looked endless, but it wasn't too bad. But then we had to go outside and then back inside to get through security -- strange, and a little exhausting for me. But then we got upgraded to SF -- the flight was oversold. In fact the whole "airport" seemed oversold -- I couldn't even get near the restrooms!
I had my medical appointments in SF and then we came up here. Julia was here for a couple of days, and we also had a few days of quite warm weather. It's now back to the normal extremely pleasant and oh-so relaxing atmosphere. Chris is also here for a week -- he was to help me out when John was gone. It's great to see him and I am sure a nice break for him from the NYC summer weather.
I finally feel quite a bit more rested and in a lot less pain, although a morning with a shower, hair wash and blow drying still does me in. I have the pulley upstairs on the balcony door to use, along with my new PT purple dust mop with the long handle.
Unfortunately Mark's back has gone out and he has had to cancel the long-planned hiking trip with John who is handling the disappointment well. John has enough to do now, as we are as we speak trying to fit the new gas stove into a space that is literally about 1/2" too small -- Formica counter tops are in the way. Otherwise, the electrical and gas items needed have gone fine. We're doing other projects, too, including talking of closing in the 2nd floor and removing 2 sets of bunks to make a "room" and get a queen size bed in there. A bathroom up there is also under long term discussion.
