brrrrr!

We're back home and it's rather chilly here. We heard that it was in the 40's in St. Louis, but by the time we landed, it had "warmed up" to 57. There we were, dressed in short sleeved shirts and sandals. Don had one pair of long pants with him and wore those today, but I only had shorts or capris. I don't know why it didn't occur to us that it might be cold at the end of October.

We started the day out with a bang. We heard Rachel and Lance's phone ring in the adjoining room at the Doubletree in Houston. We looked at the clock and it read 4:45 a.m. Man, why were they getting a wake up call so early? Don got up and hopped in the shower while I made some coffee (which was very good - Wolfgang Puck coffee made in one of those single cup machines). Rachel opened the connecting door and asked how we were doing. I hopped in the shower and thankfully, decided not to wash my hair, because as soon as I got out Rachel asked if we were about ready to go. "WHAT?! I asked. It's 5:15." "No, she said, it's 6:15." "No, it's not, I said, not on our clock." "Well, your clock is wrong. It is 6:15, we've gotten our wake-up call and we need to be down on the airport shuttle at 6:30." Boy, did we hustle. We threw everything together and hauled suitcases out into the hall. The door slammed shut behind us just as Don said "oh no! I still have one suitcase in the room and I left my key inside. Who has a key?" No one. We went to the elevator, thinking we had to go to the desk to get another key, and that's when I remembered that I had put my key in my purse when we went down to dinner the night before. Don went back to get the suitcase and Rachel waited for him. Lance and I went down to grab the shuttle and get him to wait. It was chilly when we stepped outside. That's when I remembered that I had left my longer sleeved shirt up in the room and just knew that Don would never see it. Otherwise, I was wearing onl a tee shirt. I met Don in the hallway, got the key and went up to the 7th floor to retrieve my shirt. The shuttle waited. This was way too much commotion before a second cup of coffee.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We arrived in St. Louis, got our luggage, got picked up by our friends Pat and Carl. They took us home to drop off bags and change clothes and then we took them to lunch at the Pasta House. Once back home, I looked in the empy fridge and realized that someone had to go to the grocery store, at least to get the essentials. Don opted to clean our shower, which had dripped and molded, and I (wisely, I thought) had elected the grocery run. Only I couldn't find my car keys. Anywhere. Jim and Kathy had taken us to the airport 3 months ago in my car, and we had asked Jim to drive my car once in a while. I called Carl to see if Jim had passed the keys on to him after Jim and Kathy moved away. No, he didn't have them and never had. Well, this was not good. I couldn't find the piece of paper that I had written Kathy's new cell phone number on, and they hadn't yet moved into their new villa in Illinois, were staying with various relatives and so had no landline or e-mail. Bummer. I found a spare key, minus the key fob, and went out to start the car. Nothing happened. Ok, this was getting worse by the minute. Don came out, checked under the hood and discovered that the battery was nearly dry. He filled it and put it on the battery charger. We sold Don's car before we went to Roatan and are now a one car family, so no grocery run today. And I still have to track down Jim and Kathy and the missing key fob.

It's kind of surreal being back in the States. The heat's on, the air is dry, and our skin, eyes and throats already feel the difference. We were surprised and delighted to see that the trees had not only not lost all their leaves yet but were just turning colors. Nice. I'm sure tomorrow won't be so nice; it's supposed to be even colder, and I'll have sticker-shock when I get to the grocery store. We'll see if my peaceful, laid-back mood lasts when I take to the road again.