Monday, December 05, 2011

the planning for the trip

it was mid october when i really began to think seriously about coming back down to chile.  i had a decent amount of air travel miles, so i started to explore those options, there were some pretty decent flights available for 20,000, and even more appealing was a 1st class seat for 35,000 (miles, not dollars not pesos, miles).  i was getting close to clicking the buy button, i simply had to contact several people in chile to see if they would be home to receive me (summer is round the corner, much of the country heads to the coast or mountains).  


before i'd heard back from anyone, i received a notice from the los angeles county court system, that i had been randomly selected to serve for jury duty during the week of nov 14th - 18th (that's what you get for voting) the problem is, the way the system now functions is that they have you on hold, so you don't have to appear in person, you call in the night before and their system notifies you if you are obligated to appear the next day, nice because you don't have to show up everyday, however there is the risk that you could be called upon to appear the last day of the week and if chosen to serve that case could cross over into the next week.  


so i was unable to commit to a ticket or date not knowing if i might be held over.  and so i waited, survived the week without having to appear. but all those great flights were now gone, suddenly the 20,000 mile fares had crazy itineraries - lax to phoenix 23 hours at the airport then a flight to dallas and 9 hours more.  the first class flight was long gone.  the next option was buying a flight or ponying up another 10,000 miles for a more reasonable flight;  all the lax flights were still anywhere from 9 to 12 hours of layovers some over three flights.  then i saw a flight out of burbank and jumped on that: it was burbank to dallas, a 1 hour and 10 minute layover in dallas, then off to santiago.  


with ticket in cyber-space, i set about the task of preparing to get everything ready to go:  the boat; i wanted to clean the bottom, get everything buttoned up topside and interior, tanks, electrical systems, bilge, and address some leaky spots in some of the ports.  the biggest inhibitor to beginning these tasks came from the presence of my laundry, which seemed to be strewn about the boat, with a variety of mail that required shredding, dirty dishes in the sink, a fridge that needed to be shut down and cleaned out, it was a bit overwhelming.  to distract me more from the seemingly insurmountable task at hand was a friend who had need for some serious medical attention.  several members of the congregation came together to get him into a county hospital so as to address his condition which he'd been living with for several months with no sign of healing.  the six days that he was in the hospital seemed to have had a positive affect on him both mentally and physically.  


in addition i wanted to see my siblings and their new babies before leaving, this self invitation came with a warning that both households were sick.  i felt it was worth the risk, so i went down on that saturday afternoon, and enjoyed a few hours of time with them all.  that sunday afternoon i went back to the hospital to visit our friend with another friend (zara) from church, she claimed not to be able to smell.  later that week on tuesday i cleaned the bottom of the boat, the water didn't look so good, so i pulled the boat half way out of the slip so while i cleaned it would be in a less confined space.  where am i going with this? well; i got sick -- was it the babies, the hospital, proximity to zara or the dirty sea water, only One can say, but the prospect of being toxic and in a state of weakened immunity on a plane was not very appealing to me.


the procrastination had continued long enough i needed to do my laundry  . . . 


this saga will continue







3 comments:

Anonymous said...

peter, i had no idea about your aversion to capital letters at the beginning of sentences... it explains a lot. haha

God protect chile in these upcoming months!

-maria

peda said...

mi tentativa en la humildad antes de Dios --

Bridget said...

Glad to see your blog back up! I will be following your adventures, love your style ;)