Testing..testing..one..two..three....

Today is "Test Packing To Go" day. We fly out late tomorrow, but tomorrow is Saturday, which usually has meant prospective buyers dropping by, so we will likely need to be out of the house most of the day. Everything needs to be packed now so if any changes need to be made, it can be done before tomorrow.

Yesterday we test drugged the cats to see how they would do with the medication. Kitty Prozac I'm calling it. Tiggie slurped down wet cat food spiked with a quarter tablet, and within twenty minutes his inner eyelid had slide over half his eye, and he was staggering and missing jumps up on the furniture.

Hart got a pill popped into his mouth. It took a really long time for him to get loopy, and Tiggie kept trying to beat him up.

Tiggie also wanted to eat. A lot. Munchies is a side affect of this drug?

This morning they are back to normal.

They will fly with us in the airplane cabin. Whoo boy...did you know they have frequent flyer programs for pets too? And just to ride under the seat is over a hundred bucks. Yeah for B.'s company for picking up that tab.

Yesterday we had to chop down our two large Japanese maples. They both died suddenly, green one day and crispy brown 48 hours later. Turns out is is a soil borne disease; there was nothing we could do to stop it. Still it was a sad task to saw down the two trees that we loved so much.

Last night I started my test packing. I get two duffel bags to put on the plane, each of which can weigh 70 pounds. One is now full of clothes and weighs less than that amount. It would be SO much easier if I knew when we would be selling the house and having all our stuff shipped to Utah. Should I pack snow boots and sweaters? More cold weather clothes or ???? It could be warm there through October, or we could have an early winter.

I guess if I need to, I will just have to get to know the SLC clothing stores. I just hate to shop when I know I already have what I need back home.

The biggest headache is figuring out what files and cosmetics to take. I realized last night that I would have to take my "good" or sentimental jewelry with me on the plane as it isn't wise to put that in luggage. Ugh...more weight in my back pack that will also hold my laptop and assorted files. I think I will request NO MORE good jewelry!

(I may rethink that later, so don't hold me to it.)

I will feel much better once everything I want to take is in the bags and weighed. Last night my mind kept suggesting other "important" things...and I had to wonder each time if I should just plan on replacing it in SLC if I actually needed it.

Here's the mental kick in the pants about all this: Back in 1880, my great great grandmother left German with two daughters under the age of ten and came to Salt Lake City.

She left behind her oldest daughter who had recently gotten married, and a son.

Later her brother brought the son over.

They were coming to SLC because they had been converted to Mormonism.

The oldest daughter came to SLC ten years later with her husband and three daughters. After they arrived, my grandfather (my mom's dad) was born. They had another son, and then the whole family went BACK to Germany, had another kid or two, then CAME BACK TO SLC AGAIN!!!

And great grandma did all this while PREGNANT!!!!

(Think about it...making such trips with no disposable diapers, not ipods, no videos playing in the back seat, no fast food...long boat ride, train trip...)

The married daughter and her husband and children were not Mormons, and never become Mormon either. They were in Utah during the 1890's when Utah women became the first women with the right to vote.

(Actually a sneaky ploy to get more votes...no good Mormon wife would dream of voting in any other fashion than exactly the way her husband or father told her to vote...and remember some of those husband's had lots of wives and daughters. A unique way to stuff the ballot box.)

My grandfather went back to Germany as a US soldier during WWI, then he moved to California, married my grandmother and they moved to San Diego.

The point of this ramble is this: My ancestors managed to travel by boat and train with INFANTS and multiple kids, with just a trunk or two. No "rest of the stuff will be shipped later" nonsense; just go!

In honor of what they did, I have pledged not to whine about my plight.
(At least not too much.)

If they could put up with such a time of testing, then by golly, so can I.