October 7, 2018. St.Paul, Minnesota, Air Travel.

We did it. And we are all in one piece. Gill just flew home from New York. She commented to me that traveling by air is no longer fun. I agreed with her but today during our flights, I tried to find something to make the event pleasant and not just a hassle. So this is what I found: People were kind and helpful to us, especially to Ken. A gentleman helped Ken get to the bathroom on the first plane and a lady got up to give me a chair so I could sit next to Ken who was in a wheel chair. The staff was unfailingly pleasant and encouraging. While we were waiting at the gate to board the plane to St.Paul, I chatted with a young man who was returning to The University of North Dakota. He was sitting beside me so I could not see him with my lack of peripheral vision but even though I could not see his face, he and I had a great rapport. He is a math major, in his fourth year, probably heading for graduate school. I asked him what he wanted to do with his mathematics degrees. Much to my great surprise he said that his dream was to work in the insurance business as an actuary. I was so surprised. No young person has ev er told me they wanted to be an actuary ...until now. Talking to him was worth a plane ride. Another young lady I sat beside waiting for the plane attends Bolling Green University. She is studying geology and she is a sophomore. She came to Boston with several other students who were working with high school students during mock mediation sessions. The class she is taking is Mediation for solving Disputes, so this visit was part of the course. Interesting. And all day I evaluated the clothing of the travelers. Only one man wore a suit and tie. Every one else was casual, some looking better than others. So I had a happy day. But we are weary. At the end of the day, I have decided that in order to have a pleasant day, you must work at hot.

October 6, 2018. Western Head, Nova Scotia. Evaluation.

Today the weather was beautiful with chilly air, rolling waves and full sun. A perfectly gorgeous autumn day. I am not sure I prefer leaving when the day is gloomy or when the day is fine. Anyway, we are leaving tomorrow. Everything is set. To complete our mixed up schedule, Ken was unable to check us in this evening. He does not know why. But we leave tomorrow morning with a hope and a prayer. Tomorrow we get to St.Paul where we will stay the night. Tomorrow afternoon we fly to Memphis to stay at The Peabody, the hotel with the famous ducks. Tuesday we board our boat. The new itinerary has been set, but is not yet in stone. Evidently we will travel up the Mississippi as far as possible, so we will visit Iowa and Missouri. We still arrive October 23 in New Orleans. So here we go. Ken and I have evaluated our stay here in Nova Scotia. Ken feels stronger than when we arrived. He does not know if that is because of his walking and exercising or due to the Photobiomodulation. Or perhaps the clean air and good company. He is not perfect but he is better than when we arrived. The next few days will tell the tale. When we booked our flight to St.Paul, we thought he would be better than he was two months before, and we were correct to make that prediction. Now the next three days will put us to the test. We leave our home in better shape than we arrived. The new living room furniture is splendid and the new deck functions well. This summer the weather has been better than ever, when it was hot in town but cool at Western Head. We enjoyed our company. Actually, we did not do much except enjoy the scenery and the weather, along with our friends. We spent little time with our local friends. But both Ken and I are pleased we were able to come. It took us until June until we decided to come. Now we wonder about next year. Tomorrow we leave this lovely place and as the weather is cool, it is time for us to move on. We gave ourselves an A for our decision. Now here we go.

October 5, 2018. Western Head, Nova nScotia. The Mighty Mississippi.

The Coast Guard has spoken. The upper Mississippi is unsafe for navigation from St. Paul, where we board the boat. Instead we must begin in Memphis. Same time just a different place. They have not told us the itinerary. Perhaps we will go upriver a bit or perhaps we will go up the Ohio. But for us, our already difficult situation got worse. My next month of chemotherapy is being delivered to our hotel in St.Paul so we have no choice. Ken and I will fly commercial to St.Paul on Sunday and stay at the St.Paul hotel. FedEx will deliver the medication on Monday morning. At 5:45 we fly to Memphis to stay at the Peabody Hotel. Tuesday morning we board. It might all work out. Katie has parked the truck in the garage. Three of our cases are in the garage ready to leave. Just one to go, which is Ken's small bag for medications and overnight. All windows are locked. The freezer is almost empty and all leftovers have been eaten. Ken and I are a bit tired of eating them but at least we have not wasted food. Ken commented that our meals this week was a bit like visiting memory lane. Tomorrow, Katie is bringing her daughter to visit us which will be nice. I just must organize Ken's backpack, so I do not have much to do tomorrow except to set the thermostats. And I get to watch some more baseball. We are pretty well set to depart to cruise down the mighty Mississippi River. But now we start in Memphis, which is almost home to Jackson. No matter what, we will enjoy. But first we must get there!!

October 4, 2018. Western Head, Nova Scotia. Katie.

Since we arrived at home here in Western Head, Katie has helped us. She haas worked Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. She is fun and funny and we like her. She is trying to get ahead, which is difficult. Being a single Mom with no help from anyone, she is on her own. Somehow or other, she does not get many breaks. Part of her problem has to do with the choices she has made but other things are just bad luck. Her Father died when Katie was 12 and her Mother died when Katie was 19. Her sister is married with two children and live in Lunenburg but her sister has a neurological disease and shakes most of the time. So not much help from that side of the family. She has an aunt and uncle in Lunenburg but they are busy and only see Katie at Christmas. She has worked with Earth Angels for four months. She has her certification from the province. She has worked steadily since she joined the organization but now she is worried. When we leave and she stops working with us, her schedule from Earth Angels is not steady. She needs to work every day. If Earth Angels have no steady clients, they can not guarantee her a job. She gets paid when she works. Since she started working here, she has moved. She was renting an apartment in Bridgewater and had been there for one year. She found a trailer on a nice lot in Mahone Bay. I asked her about a lease and she assured me she had a one year lease and after that it would be month to month. But she did not look at the lease, which said that after one year, unless the tenant has given notice to vacate, the lease is automatrtically extended another year. Oops. The landlady released Katie from the lease but withheld the deposit. Katie has rented a place with a yard. It is also $160. less than the last place. So that is good. She is moved in. But the water pump has broken so she has no running water. That certainly is not her fault but it does make difficult for her and her daughter. Poor Katie. She is wonderful with Ken, making sure he does his exercises twice a day and chattering away with him cheerfully. But her future seems bleak. Except she loves her daughter. Now if she can continue to stop smoking, lose weight and get a full time job perhaps she will really get aheads. I hope so. She has been a wonderful help to us this summer. And we will miss her. And we wish her well.

October 3, 2018. Western Head, Nova Scotia. Alterations.

Sherry lives in Liverpool on Old Port Mouton Road. Her house is old, as is the barn but a large room has been added to the old house so Sherry can sew. Her work room is large but cluttered so the room seems small. She works at a table in the center with three machines across the table. She is a lovely lady who does good work. I always ask her what she is working on and she shows me her work, which is beautiful. Last year she had just made two bridesmaid dresses and one bridal gown. Nifty. Yesterday she showed me a dress to be altered. The young lady is in a wedding and she ordered the dress on line. Sherry will make it fit properly. When I returned from the Ontario wedding I knew I needed elastic in the waist. I intend to use that outfit on the cruise. So I took it to Sherry on the Tuesday after my return. She promised to be finished in time for my departure on Sunday and she was true to her word. I picked the pants up yesterday. On the way over I told Katie about Sherry. I told her two facts: The first was the quality of her work and the second was that she under charges. In other words, she under values her work. Sure enough, when I asked what I owed her, she told me $6. I gave her a ten dollar bill, for which she was grateful. Last year in Mississippi, I had the same thing done to a skirt and I was charged $30. Katie and I were trying to figure out her charges. We wondered if she gets paid by an hour and figure out the time it took to complete the task? Or does she have a scale based on a chart? Last year when she fixed my old dress, she charged me a small amount to put on new pockets. Her charge was small and when I suggested she should charge more she told me it only took twenty minutes. But she does not take into account her brains behind what she does. What she did for my dress was clever. What I suggested her to do was nothing what was done. It was better. I am pleased she stays in business in Liverpool. One day I will ask her about her pricing. But for now, I am happy...and so is my pants.

October 2, 2018. Western Head, Nova Scotia. Lunch With Larry and Jan.

Larry actually enjoys cooking and Jan does not mind entertaining so an invitation for lunch at their home means we are in for a special treat. Everything is prepared and from the moment you arrive you are treated like an honored guest. I always feel special. We were a party of eight: Don and Doreen and Ken and I along with Mary and Walt. First we sat and talked in their lovely living room and admired a new painting Larry purchased at an auction for $85. The last painting that sold at auction by the same artist sold for almost $4,000 and he paid $85. Clearly no collectors where in attendance. We all loved the painting. It pays to attend auctions. After an hour of sipping and nibbling, we were directed to the dining room. A large platter covered the table, filled with a most wonderful Greek salad. Mary dished up the salad, pretending to be the mother. I could have eaten three servings but instead ate only one. But I did pick out a few extra olives. Next course was a dish that I can not spell. Larry put6 chicken on a stick and cooked them on the barbecue. First he had placed the chicken pieces ion a marinade. We wrapped the chicken and a special sauce into a flat bread, heated to just the right temperature. They were delicious. I ate two!! We ate and talked and talked and ate for ages. For dessert we ate fresh local blueberries. We eight retired back to the living room while we digested our wonderful meal, Being invited to Larry and Jan's home iS a special event. This lunch held a couple of weeks ago did not disappoint us. This time, I did not spill a glass of red wine on their white slipcovers, so perhaps we will get invited again. I certainly hope so. Our lunch was wonderful.

October 1, 2018. Western Head, Nova Scotia. Out of Sorts.

Walt and Mary came over the afternoon. As Mary came in the door, she said, "Be careful. I am out of sorts today and I am likely to be cross.." Walt agreed with her. And we all laughed. I had to admit it that I too had been sharp with two people on the phone this afternoon. For me, that was unusual. Even if I am irritated and not patient, I usually am polite. But not today. The accountant's assistant called for questions, which I had already answered months ago. Now of course, I must look up the answers because I had paid not attention to the answers the last time. I had never spoken to the lady before. Barbara, the head of the company is my friend. I hate inefficient people and I told the assistant how irritated I was. I was not kind. Next I wanted to watch the baseball game and could not find it on my TV. I knew the game was being played and I again was irritated. So I called Eastlink only be told that in order to switch one Chanel for another they must cancel the order to put my system on vacation because they can only process one order at a time in their system. Stupidity in action. I finally gave up. It took me thirty minutes to process the order putting thee systems on vacation and I certainly did not wish to repeat the process. Next season I will get it straight. But not today. Then Mary came and we all laughed and I realized I had been ridiculous. The problem I think was my feet. Normally I wear wool socks when the temperature drops. Today was a lovely autumn day but I should have put on my socks. Tomorrow I will not forget and I will try to not bite off anyones head. It was all the fault of my socks.