The Last Checklist

A measure of my excitement about going to Congo is that I have one week left and I am packed. Yes, packed. It wasn't easy, but I admit that going from a late cool spring here to the tropics means that the things I am packing are not at all the clothes I am wearing now. For example, I do not need to take my heavy William and Mary Rugby #5 sweatshirt, which has come to feel like home in the current weather.

That syrup looks deceptively small.

After organizing. A walking Rite-Aid.

Today I took the bold step of actually closing a suitcase and weighing it. Oops. It was 57 pounds, seven pounds over the per-suitcase limit. After some juggling (and amazement at finding out just how much that gallon of syrup weighs), I managed to get suitcase #1 under 50 and still have a few pounds in #2 for the meds and toiletries.  It seems the older I get (or the more cautious), the more space has to be allocated to my personal drug store mix of OTC remedies and prescriptions.

This time I am adding two sport knee braces. This is good news. It means I have a plan for managing my unstable knees. The braces are hardly fashionable, but I am hoping to get through the summer with their help and a cortisone shot to the left knee today. After struggling with this particular body part for well over a year, today I saw the MRI results. As pretty as the x-rays were, they were not able to reveal the torn ligament discovered by the MRI.  "Degenerative," the doctor said, to clarify it looked different than a tear a 17 year old hockey player might acquire in an on-ice collision. Not going to get better, but can be cleaned up, with the hope of forestalling further damage that might lead to other adventures in bionic body parts. Clean-up to be scheduled for the fall. Feeling grateful Stro and I gave up on that slog-through-muddy-water and hike a lot of miles trip to see the lowland gorillas up in the mountains. Instead, we will find them in a reserve closer to Brazzaville.

My next packing challenge is to keep the carry-on bag as light as possible. For someone who is continually anxious about having enough coloring books and other diversions as well as healthy snacks available at all times, this always approaches a crisis. Even a short trip to Woodstock brings this on. This time it is complicated by the fact that the outgoing trip lasts two days. So I need a change of clothes, a real book, a notebook, said snacks, and at least some of those meds have to go with me in that bag, along with the electronics--iPad, Kindle, iPhone at a minimum. At the moment I am trying to figure out ways to avoid taking my so-heavy-it-should-not-be-called-a-laptop. Looking for ways to create and store documents, using my iPad and its own little detachable keyboard. So I have been undertaking learning adventures involving Drop Box, Google Docs, and other cloud-like resources. It is important to solve since I have promised Stro there will be no competition for time on her keyboard.


If I succeed in keeping that carry-on pretty light, and I can find the Luggage Store at Heathrow, my reward will be a quick Tube trip into London for the day during my 12+ hour layover there between Newark and Addis Ababa. The price of failure will be the credit card bill after trying to keep myself occupied at Heathrow for 12 hours while roaming through the tax-free shops.

The Kindle is loaded and my folder of Important Documents is assembled. I have my leopard print compression socks (http://www.montpelierpharmacy.com/). All these first-world problems will abate as soon as the trip commences and the real adventure begins. In the meantime I have a whole week to enjoy farewell lunches, movies, and general idleness before take off. And it even looks like my daffodils may bloom before then!