Until the Last Minute

Dearest Rachel –

This is really not my style, honey; you know that. Raised as I was, arriving somewhere fifteen minutes early was considered late. If we’re heading out to the island, I’d prefer to leave town as soon as possible – and have the car loaded up as much as possible the night before, so we could do so.

But that’s never how things ever managed to work – even though you’d be running around the house until nearly dawn trying to make it happen. Some things just have to wait until the last minute. One of the big things (volume-wise) is that Daniel’s bedding and pillows couldn’t be so packed until he’d woken up – and now that he’s got his degree and no need for a job, that simply doesn’t happen right away.

And let’s face it, it rarely happened ‘right away’ even back in the day; like you, he wasn’t an early riser (even less so today, considering that he seems to have taken his bath in the week hours of the night or morning) – although, I will admit that, even given your normal tendencies, compounded by a late-night packing frenzy, you would wake up early to get out to the island. In a way, you were like a kid on Christmas when it came to the island, and for much the same reason (minus, perhaps, the gift exchange). You’d have been looking forward to this trip for nearly the whole year (up to and including the collecting of media to watch while there), and you’d be darned if you were going to miss a moment of it. So you, too, wanted to get out onto the road as soon as possible – even once we started to take the opportunity to stay in the Toledo area overnight, and thus didn’t have the pressure of having to get to the ferry by some pre-ordained time.

The thing is, your eagerness to get everything together and get on the road was often offset by a constant need to grab “just one more thing” before we could leave. It got to be a running joke that even as I began to fire up the car, you would remember “one more thing” you needed to deal with – either something more to bring with, or to check before we left, or just one last trip to the bathroom before leaving – and you would dart back into the house to take care of it. As it was a vacation for me, it usually struck me as more humorous than irritating, my taste for punctuality notwithstanding.

I doubt we’ll have any of those moments as we prepare to head out this week, though, honey. I think that both Daniel and I are of the recognition that, whatever we might forget to bring with us this week, we can live without for the week until we get home. After all, we already know that internet connectivity is going to be spotty at best – which is the closest thing to a necessity for either of us these days – and we’ve more or less come to terms with that. Meanwhile, the one thing (well… person) we’re truly missing – and have been for these four and a half years – we can’t get back, and just have to learn to live without.

Of course, this time around, you’ve been sitting on the coffee table in the sunroom for years now, waiting for us to get ourselves together and off. Meanwhile, there are things that have to wait until we’ve gotten up and gone through a modified, extended version of our morning routine before doing so.

Additionally, there was some talk of from one or the other of the girls about them needing to drop some stuff off with us to take with to the island, as Erin’s car doesn’t have nearly as much room as ours does. She does, however, have a bike rack mounted on it, which is more than we ever had – and which frees up interior space that your bike would have otherwise taken up.

Not that we’re bringing any bikes with us; I haven’t ridden one since we were last on the island (or maybe even a year or two previous), and Daniel never bothered to learn. We’re going to be restricted to either driving or walking – which, given the size of the island and the endurance training I (and Lars) have given myself, shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, I’m starting to wonder if we’re going to be able to fit everything we intend in here.

Clearly, I’m not the expert in automotive Tetris that you were; although you’d probably point out that I handicapped myself by not putting the back seats down beforehand. This may be what comes of waiting until the last minute like this… or rushing without sufficient thought because I’ve waited until the last minute. I really don’t know. But I do think we’ve got just about everything we need here – even if I couldn’t necessarily grab any of it if I were called upon to do so at a moment’s notice.

At least I’ll only have to drive for about five or so hours before calling it a day. Until then, honey, keep an eye on us as we do so, and wish us luck. We’re going to need it.