Some things are out of my control…

Like the fact that only the three of us (me and my friends Ken and Steven) signed up for the Nepal trip on the mid-September date. So I got a call from a nice woman at Gate 1 yesterday telling me that they couldn't run the trip for just 3 people, but that she had reserved slots on the trip leaving a week later, if we wanted them. When I talked to Ken about it, he found that their airfares would go up about $2K if they switched to the alternate date. He said they would probably do something else, perhaps a shorter Nepal trip that didn't include going to Bhutan.

I decided that I didn't want to go that far for basically 10 days in Nepal (the shorter trip), and I looked into combining the shorter trip with a northern India trip, but that didn't work out. I could certainly have gone on the trip a week later, but this is a very expensive trip and I decided to look around. (I didn't mind spending the money, but part of the fun was going to be doing things with Ken and Steven while there.)

To make a long story short, I'm going to South Africa in October instead. Qatar Airways flies there too, and the flights are actually cheaper than flying to Nepal. I'll have a change fee, but Gate 1 will reimburse that. It looks like I'll miss doing the Qatar stopover (which I was doing on the Nepal return), but I'm sure I'll get to do that sometime.

So, Nepal is on the back burner for now. I do still want to go there—maybe next year. And I'll already have the bird books!

Hmm, I guess I need to check my bird books and see what I have for South Africa. It's probably time for an online visit to Buteo Books!

We leave for Iceland in a couple of weeks (August 2nd). There is a volcano erupting, which I find more exciting that Paula does. I was all set to hike to the erupting volcano when I visited Iceland last September, and the darned thing stopped erupting 2 weeks before my visit. Of course, that could happen this time as well, plus our time will be limited. It's quite a hike to get there, but the trail is supposed to be okay. At the moment, the area is closed because they are worrying about toxic gasses, but it may be reopened at any moment. This pic was taken a couple of days ago, before they closed the area. Note: it's taken from quite a distance and the observers are actually at a safe distance from the lava.

I'm excited about going back to Iceland. Paula and I will have a great time, no matter what we do.

So, it's Iceland, then South Africa/Botswana, and then? Well, I'm still thinking about changing the Romania trip in December to something warmer. Right now, I'm thinking a 10 day trip to Costa Rica. I'll decide that soon.

Oh, that brings up something funny. I was talking to Jake today, trying to decide what I should do. I asked him what he thought, and he went to his desk and brought me his Magic 8 Ball. 🎱

Speaking of Jake, his MRI was good! The mystery mass has continued to shrink, and is down to 2 mm. We are seeing a neurologist this week, so we'll see what they think. He's still doing physical therapy, and when we see his oncologist next month, she'll decide when his next scan should be. But he's doing well!

My mom? Not so much. The bad day she had a couple of weeks ago culminated in 4 falls and two hospital trips (one for stitches from a fall and the other for out of control behavior). At the suggestion of the place she is living, we have started hospice care. It's not end-of-life care at the moment, but the hospice nurses have a broader scope of practice than the memory care workers do. They have access to more medications and other things that can help her. The hospice nurse will visit twice a week and will be in charge of her medical care. They've gotten her a hospital bed already. She was having trouble getting in and out of her bed, so they suggested that. I thought mom would throw a fit, because the bed she had was her bed from home, the one she has slept in since she and my dad got it in 1954 (it has had new mattresses since then!), but she was fine with the change. I'm going up to see her next Saturday. I haven't been up in a while, and I've been feeling guilty. Jake is great about going up with me. It makes it much easier to have him there.

Finally, for your entertainment, we've been having a bear visitor again. I've been able to get a few camera shots through my home office window, like this one:

He keeps carrying away bird feeders. Fortunately, he is timid, like most black bears.

I'll try to write at least once more before Iceland, but I hope to post daily once I get there.