7ToF: searching for my lost shaker of salt

It's Thursday night, 11:17 at this moment, and I still haven't written a post for tomorrow. Usually I come back from vacation all revved up with things to write about, but for some reason it didn't happen this time.

1. Vacation reading report: I only finished two books, although there are a couple of others I'm still working on. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (same guy who wrote Gentleman in Moscow) and The Summer Before the War, by Helen Simonson. I loved them both, but they are not fast-paced page-turners. Gently plotted books about interesting people. I found them both completely absorbing.

2. Gretchen Rubin of the Happier podcast did an episode on travel hacks this week-- tips and tricks to make travelling easier. There are some good suggestions, and it got me thinking about my own travel tricks. She mentions one I've been doing for twenty years now, ever since we got past the point where we were so broke that I couldn't imagine keeping two sets of anything: have a separate set of toiletries for travel so you don't have to pack them up every time you're going somewhere.

3. And I'll add my own twist that I've just started doing in the last year: refresh and refill your travel toiletries when you return from a trip instead of waiting until the night before you go on the next trip. That way it's fresh in your mind what needs to be refilled and what you wished you had with you.

4. I gave Dean a set of packing cubes for Christmas 4-5 years ago that he has never used. So I've gradually taken them over for packing various things, even though I wasn't sure the packing cube theory worked for me-- why is it so much better to have things zipped into cubes? But I have to admit I'm kind of growing into it. I've used one for chargers, cords, and headphones for a a couple of years now, and on this trip I used another one to pack up a swimsuit and a change of clothes. We checked two bags and only took one carry-on for the three of us, and that way I had a change of clothes in the carry-on in case our luggage got lost.

5. Where do you stand on the checked bag vs. carry-on issue? Theoretically I like the idea of not having to go to baggage claim when we arrive, but for a weeklong trip, those roll-aboards don't have much space. It's not the clothes I have a problem with-- I can fit a week's worth of clothes in a carry-on sized bag with no problem. (Another one of my travel tips: you never need as many clothes as you think you will.) It's the toiletries that are the problem. I cannot fit a week's worth of toiletries in a quart-size ziplock bag. Not happening. My days of getting by with a travel-size tube of toothpaste and the hotel shampoo are long gone.

6. I turned 57 last week. For some reason the difference between 56 and 57 feels much bigger to me than turning 56 last year. Maybe because now I'm unequivocally in my late 50s. But this transition isn't nearly as hard for me as turning 50. I think when when I was in my late 40s I had this self-delusion that I was still young, but turning 50 sort of ruins that dream. Now that I'm more comfortable with being older, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Of course my internal age still feels much younger than my actual age (I feel like I'm 38, or maybe 42, how about you?), but that's universal. I don't think anyone in our age range feels as old as they actually are.

7. As I've told you about a dozen times before, the 40-year-old house we live in isn't air conditioned. Most of the year this isn't a problem, but for the last couple of years, mid-July through August has been pretty miserable. I broke down this week and went and bought a couple of those free standing room-size A/C units. It took a couple of days of fiddling to get them figured out, but I think they are going to help.

Currently reading: Love Walked In (fiction) by Maria de los Santos, Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done (non-fiction) by Laura Vanderkam, The Tenth Island (memoir) by Diana Marcum.
Movie we watched this week: Ant Man on DVD, because I heard the sequel was fun and we might go see it. The first one was OK but not great.

Listening: Jimmy Buffett, since I'm learning to play "Margaritaville" on my bells.

And that's all the news from here. PellMel and her boyfriend are coming next week for their vacation, but I think I will still have time to write. (If nothing shows up, you'll know what happened.) Have a great weekend.