Picking up the Loot

Once again, a road trip has thrown me off. This trip, however, accomplished a major goal.

Back in March, our contact in Kenya brought back 24 pounds of arts and crafts for our nonprofit to sell. These items, $100 worth which we can sell for 5 times that much, have been sitting at a friend’s house in a little town in Michigan. My daughter Val has been coming up with various ways to go get this stuff. Because it is almost straight east of us, it isn’t that far as the crow flies, but there is this thing called Lake Michigan which lies in between. A ferry runs runs across the lake, but it is expensive and takes almost as long as driving around the lake. Val even checked with a friend who owns a plane, but his pilot’s license doesn’t allow him to fly over a body of water that large. Of course, mailing it was an option, but that would be expensive too and a hassle to pack up for the person who has been stowing it.

Some of the loot I brought home.

Last week my work schedule allowed me to take some days off, so I said I am just going to drive up and over the lake and go get this stuff. My sister volunteered to go with. It was close to a thousand miles round-trip and because we are easily distracted, the drive was almost ten hours each way. 

Frankenmuth's river boat

We stayed in the picturesque little town of Frankenmuth for the night. I was able to meet up with a writer friend who lives nearby and gave us a tour of the town. All in all it was worth it, except that after we got back to my house, my sister still had to drive another 40 miles to get home and she hit a deer on the way. Totaled her car. She has hit a deer with almost every car she has ever owned so she took it in stride.

You would think that taking off for just two days wouldn’t have been so bad, but I have yet to get back in the swing of things. But as already stated I crossed a big thing off my list.

READING

·         My reading goal is to finish four of the books that I started reading a while back. I finished reading “Deception”, which brings my total up to three. And with that accomplishment, I started reading two more books. Yikes.   

WRITING

·         Finish my novel.  I didn’t write on it at all this week, but with the trip to Michigan, believe it or not, I squeezed in some research. I needed a town just big enough to have a cemetery, a public library, and a cardiology group, which is a half-day drive from Chicago, so we drove the streets of Saginaw to see if it would fit the bill. I think it might work.  

REACHING

·         I will get back on track with my blogging, twice a week here and three times a week on my other blog. I had plans to write some blogs before going on the road trip, but that didn’t happen. I posted once here and twice to my other blog. Not going to beat myself up over it.  

·         Submit three pieces each Round.  Still at one submission, but I promise myself I will submit something today. Really.   

HOME AND FAMILY

·         My daughter and I are still working on our nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. We are planning a “friend-raiser” for June 1. That is my goal with the nonprofit this month: help with and attend the “friend-raiser”.  Today was supposed to be the friend-raiser picnic, but we cancelled it on Friday because the weather forecast was pretty bleak. Which turned out to be a good call, as it is pouring rain right now and doesn’t show signs of clearing. We have rescheduled to June 21.

·         Yard. I am trying to think. I don’t remember working too much in the yard this week. Last Sunday night the mosquitoes hatched by the millions, so you can barely walk out the door without being attacked.

·         Sewing. I did work on my scrub top this week. Hope to finish it today. With the steady rain, it is a good day to sew.

·         Running. I ran three times this week, twice for the full three miles. Ok, not that I really ran three miles, I still walked probably close to a quarter at that distance, but my time is pretty decent at that.