valeriesbookofme

One year ago we said our farewells to Sierra Vista and were on our way to Scottsdale, thence to New York, the Queen Mary, England and, ultimately, Ireland. And today I am sitting in our sparsely furnished but comfortable rental house back in Sierra Vista, quite glad that I am not en route again. Not that we are by any means settled. The rental is for six months and one month of those six is already almost over. We have looked at houses to buy, houses to build. We have talked about the relative merits of Utah, Oregon, Phoenix, even back to Santa Fe. We actually still have a toehold in SF in the form of a condo that may or may not be reverting to us at end January. Another of life's complications. But nowhere strikes either of us as "home." Not that either of us knows quite what home looks like at 65 years old with our childhood homes forever changed and no place along our life's journey thus far having been able to lock us in. I was looking at a few "Home&quo

Over a month since we left Ireland. It's like a kind of dream now. I was showing some of my photos of our 10 months in Ireland to my 95 year old mother-in-law here in Alberta; so beautiful, such an experience. And finished. On to the next episode of life, whatever that may be. Although all of my grandparents uprooted their lives several times, emigrating from the "Old Country" to Canada, moving from place to place as their financial circumstances, job circumstances, prescribed, by today's standards the adventure that we undertook from Arizona to Ireland was an odd one. Not because of job, not because of family (although family had a strong influence on me on the decision to come back), why did we do it? A year later, I honestly can't remember. It was an adventure, just an adventure. We did it because we were able to do it. And now we are back because we were able to come back. But, in the words of a song,  So what happens now? Another suitcase in anoth

Fitting goodbye to Dublin Arriving at Gatwick Leaving England Passing over Greenland Approaching Los Angeles From Atlantic to Pacific within a day Night view of Los Angeles Approaching Phoenix Airport The Irish adventure is over. It officially ended at 4:45 pm on Tuesday, Sept 12th when we flew out of Dublin Airport to Gatwick. The days leading up to our departure had been very frantic as we tried to ensure that we left nothing crucial behind, sold what we could sell of the appliances we had bought, said our goodbyes. David-the-mechanic came through big time by arriving exactly when he said he would on Tuesday morning with a good sized SUV that fit all of our luggage, carryons, Mitzi and ourselves. We hope that David will be able to sell our car quickly! But he certainly was a man without peer to me on Tuesday. He even waited with us at Mitzi's drop-off point and was very supportive as I shed a few tears. She travelled like a t

Six more mornings left in our stay in Ireland. The past two days have been very "active" packing wise. Putting stuff in, weighing, taking stuff out, changing our minds about luggage: we jettisoned a smaller bag and bought a larger one. Figured it was cheaper than trying to mail stuff or leaving it behind. Looking back at the start of my blog on this adventure, I read that I was doing the very same thing in Scottsdale last December. Weighing suitcases, taking stuff out, making trips to Goodwill. Our total worldly goods, except for a few paintings, a couple of small pieces of furniture, a couple of lamps back in a storage unit in Arizona, fit into three large suitcases and two carryons. We own no car, no bed and we have no set place to live until November 1st so it really is just us and Mitzi. It is kind of scary.  But no more scary than what people are experiencing today around the world. When we sighed this morning about having to book into a spartan Extended Stay bac

As I wind down my sojourn here in Ireland, I had been thinking of the places I hadn't yet visited. One place that is fairly close to us is the Rock of Cashel.  It is this massive, castle-like ruin on top of, well, a huge rock in Tipperary. The traditional seat of the Kings of Munster, there is also a legend about St. Patrick and the Devil--one of the many! It is about an hour and a half's drive from here and a hugely popular tourist attraction. Which is why I avoided it until the end of August. But Sheila's visit from England was a great opportunity to go and on this mostly sunny day I drove over, stopping briefly at a favorite breakfast stop, Dove Hill just outside of Carraig-on-Suir. The Rock certainly didn't disappoint. Much like Edinburgh Castle it looms over the small town of Cashel. You see it as soon as you turn down the road into the town. And then it disappears from view, you park your car and trudge up a winding road and, voila, there it is again.