Tag: packing

It is Going to Be a Long Day

It is about 7:30am. My work day starts at 9:00am. My vacation kicks off 8.5 hours later at 5:30pm.

It is going to be a long day. A really… really… long… day.

After that? I have to pack. I have to make a stash of protein bars to get me through the first couple of days in Florida. I have to figure out the camera situation… charge up the Z5 and put on the 40mm lens, fill up a bag with rolls of film, load a roll into Dad’s Pentax K1000. I’ve decided that Dad’s camera is coming with me this time. Normally I would take my Nikon FG-20, but this time I think I want to take the camera that hurled me down the film rabbit hole a few years ago. Yeah. I am weird.

Anyway. Yesterday I bitched about how the Bruins suck now. Last night they beat Ottawa and jumped three places in the standings. Not only are they back in a playoff spot, but they above the wild card spots and back into third in the division. What a world, huh? We’ll see how long this lasts. The standings are pretty tight these days.

Okay. Time to get the ball rolling on this Friday. Vacation is less than 10 hours away.

Things We Need to Do

We’re leaving for Florida a day and a half from now. What do we need to do before we leave?

Tonight we’re packing. I did all of the laundry in the house over the last couple of days. We need to sort, fold, and put away what isn’t going with us, and pack what is.

We need to pack toiletries. Everything that is coming along that isn’t going to be needed tonight or tomorrow needs to be packed.

On Friday morning before work I need to go to the grocery store and pick up some stuff. Bottles of water, maybe some Gatorade, and ice for the cooler… assuming we’re taking the cooler. Maybe we shouldn’t. It’s going to eat up a lot of room. I might be changing my mind on that one. I also need to pack up a ton of protein bars and sugar free snacks. I also, also need to figure out how to keep that stuff from melting in the car. Maybe the cooler is coming after all. I have an insulated lunch bag that I can throw an ice pack into that should work on a day to day basis, but we’re talking about a multiple day drive. I will also need to bring a stash of stomach safe foods to the parks each day, and I will need to have some for the drive home. That’s a lot of protein bars. I don’t know. I need to think about this.

What else? Chargers for our iPhones, Apple Watches, Air Pods, and laptops. All that needs to be packed. I also need to figure out exactly what my camera needs will be. One digital (my Nikon Z5) and one film (my Nikon FG-20, I think). Do I bring two lenses for the Z5? How much film should I bring for the FG-20? I also need a back pack to hold all of this stuff while I journey through the parks each day. I think I know what to do about all of this. I just have to pack it up.

Should we get an audio book for the long drive there and back? We’ve done that before. What book though? Do you think Jen will be down to listen to Isaac Azimov’s Foundation? Am I down to listen to that? Probably not. There’s a new Stephen King short story collection coming. Is that out yet? Maybe just go with the old standard and listen to a Harry Potter novel? I would be fine with any of them, but 3, 4, and 7 are my favs.

This seems like a lot of things to take care of before we go, but it’s really not. We’ll have everything set long before we load up the car and head out on Friday. The only real question I have is, will this place be open when we drive by?

Today is the Day

Today is the day! We’re starting our epic Disney World trip this afternoon. The epic trip starts with the epic road trip for me and Jen. The kids fly down later in the week and we hope to be there to pick them up when they land. The airport is something like 1400 miles away, but I think we can get there with time to spare.

The digital cameras, the Z5 and the little Coolpix point and shoot, are charged and ready but they aren’t packed yet. I think everything else camera related is packed. I still need to pack a few more things into my backpack, including my laptop, which I’m typing this post on. I brought some envelops and some pre-paid shipping labels (also tape to tape the labels to the envelops! Almost forgot about that) in case I want to send some film off to the lab before we leave for home. My pill caddy is full, but it’s not in the backpack yet.

What else? Let me check the packing list…

I have to pack up the CPAP machine. I got a shipment of new components two days ago. Everything I take, except for the machine itself, will be new. Last time I did that I forgot to pack one piece. I will never make that idiotic mistake again.

I added one item to the packing list this morning. Something key. Something I can’t travel without… My Red Sox hat!

One other thing that I can’t let myself forget, so I won’t. I will not forget it. My little food scale. That needs to come with me everywhere I go where there will be food. I watched a bunch of videos shot on the resort where we are staying and noticed the quick stop restaurant had a sign saying the kids menu was only for ages nine and under. Now that could be a problem because surgery boy over here was seriously considering only ordering off kids menus because the portions will be smaller and the food is likely to be more plain and straightforward. We’re going to have to see if I can game the system a smidge and get around any age restrictions. I mean, I’m 51 years old but my digestive system is only about eight months old. That’s gotta mean something, right?

I’m eating some eggs for breakfast right now. When that’s done I want to clean out the car, take out the trash and the recycling, put away the load of laundry I already did this morning, and do a load of dishes. When all of that is done, the house will be clean enough to not be an issue when we eventually come home. Also, the car will be ready to load up. I’m planning on putting all of the suitcases in the trunk and anything in bags that we might need to get while we’re on the road into the back seat. That stuff can be loaded right away. The bags need to wait for the kids to get here, sometime around noon.

No troubles.

Okay, kids. Lots to do, lots to do. Updates will come as the day and the trip roll on.

Happy Epic Road Trip Day!

Nine Minutes to Go

I am probably going to jinx things, but there are nine minutes left in my work day before the start of two whole weeks of vacation. I don’t know if I can hang on for the final nine, now eight minutes.

My clothes are all packed but I still have to pack my camera gear and my food/drink stuff and all of the toiletries and phone/watch/ear pod chargers. There’s still a ton of stuff to take care of. The punchline here is that we’re not leaving for three days so… maybe I’m actually WAY ahead of the pace.

The further punchline is that Jen is upstairs packing her clothes too. I think we’re both a little excited for this trip. Six minutes to go.

The last vacation we took was in February of 2020 when Harry, Jen, and I went to Disney World for Harry’s school vacation week. That trip wasn’t really planned. It was just a last minute idea that Jen had so we just jetted off like crazy people. We all know what happened when we got home… Covid… that prick. We’ve been more or less locked down ever since and have been afraid to do any traveling or any anything, really. We were supposed to go to Disney World for Harry’s high school graduation in June of 2021. That got postponed to June of 2022 and then re-postponed to January of 2023… next week. I don’t think anything shy of an asteroid colliding with our house would keep us away this time. Enough is enough. Let’s freakin’ gooooooo.

Three minutes left. All quiet on the Western front.

Two minutes left………

The Last Work Day Before Vacation

It’s Friday. Tomorrow is New Years Eve. Monday is New Years Day (celebrated). Tuesday is the first day of my two week vacation. That means that I am officially on vacation at 5:30pm today. Nine hours and 13 minutes from now.

I haven’t started packing yet, but I have done some pre-pack preparations. We have a dining room table full of toiletries that are ready to pack. Last night I went to a department store and bought three pairs of jeans. I’ve been buying new clothes every 5-6 weeks or so, and it was about time anyway. The new jeans are, shockingly, TWO sizes smaller than last month’s jeans. I’m not sure, but I think my waist size is 16 inches smaller than it was a year ago? something like that. I really cannot believe it.

This morning I wrote up a packing list that (hopefully) is ridiculously thorough so that I don’t forget anything. It was so over the top that Jen actually suggested I drop a few items because they were overkill. That’s okay with me.

Plans for the weekend are mostly up in the air. The kids are with Dad for New Years Eve, but they said they would come over for a visit in the afternoon. I am so happy about that. I was thinking maybe we could sneak out to the city after they leave and pretend we are not afraid of Covid and stuff like that. The temperature is supposed to be super warm, but it’s also supposed to rain all day and night. So much for that plan. I want to visit both of my parents before we leave. I need to do a little more travel supply shopping, but mostly just for protein supplement stuff. The kids are coming to our house on Monday before we leave. Actually, when we leave sort of depends on when they get here. We want to spend a little time with them at home before the chaos commences. There’s also a little NHL Winter Classic game happening at 2:00pm that includes the Boston Bruins and Fenway Park. If we’re home, I’m watching. If we’re on the road, I’m listening on the radio.

Jen and I just added our Disney passes to our Apple Wallets so that we can use our phones and watches in place of the Magic Bands we used on the last couple of Disney trips. That’s pretty cool. We’re both hoping we can leave all of our various cards behind and do anything we need to do through Apple Wallet via Apple Pay and what not. It’s time to embrace the future!

I punched into work a smidge early today, just to get a jump on stuff on my last day. At this point I am eight hours and 35 minutes away from my two week, epic vacation. May today be a quiet day at work while still managing to not drag. Fingers crossed on that. Happy Last Work Day Before Vacation, everyone!