You know I’m real comfortable being me. I know that I’m not perfect, but I’m a pretty cool sort of guy. Also, at this particular moment, I’m very glad that I’m not Grams.
Most of the time Grams is a very organised person. When we are preparing for a trip she gives me all of the tickets and confirmations for our trip to put in the travel binder. As I said yesterday, the travel binder is essential to every trip and I’m in charge of the travel binder.
I also mentioned yesterday that we had received our Italian Rail Passes. Grams would usually put these with the airline tickets and hotel confirmations and then hand them all off to me. But today, as we were heading out for our afternoon bicycle ride, Grams looked at the kitchen counter and said, “Where’re the passes?” Glances were exchanged and shoulders were shrugged. A mad search through the house ensued. Grams was in tears.
I’ll spare you all the details and cut to the chase: as far as she could reconstruct, yesterday afternoon Grams had put the tickets back in the envelope for safe-keeping. Later, she had seen the envelope on the kitchen counter and, forgetting that she had put the passes back in, tossed it in the recycling pile. The recycling truck came by this morning.
Flash forward to this afternoon: Realising what had happened, Grams suddenly jumped on her bike. I was sitting in the basket of her bike. She took off like a banshee. I looked up at her face. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and she had a very determined look in her eyes. I leaned around her shoulder and yelled to Big Guy, “She’s headed for the recycling centre!”
I very carefully stood up and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Whoa! Cowgirl! They’re gone, okay? We’ll be okay.” By then Big Guy had caught up with us. He grabbed her by the back of her jeans. Her legs were flailing about. The bike was teetering. She kept sobbing, "I can find them, if I can just get to the recycling centre!" I took her face in my hands, "Everyone in the county has stuff there! Fuhgetaboutit!" After much reassurance and hankie borrowing, we all rode back to the house. Grams went to get on the phone with the people where she bought the ticket. “At least I bought the insurance,” she sniffled as she dialled the phone. Yeah, the insurance was for lost or theft . . . in Europe.
In the end, Grams found out that if she had paid attention to the guide at the website in the first place, she would have realised that she didn’t need to buy the passes. All of our train journeys in Europe are going to cost us in total about €76 ($90, ₤52) each, which is less than half of the cost of the rail passes. He also advised against buying the insurance when purchasing the rail pass. The process for recovery is far too cumbersome for it to be practical.
We have all agreed to get past this episode, but it will make for good family lore. She gives me evil look when I walk past her humming, “it’s not easy being green.” I was thinking of another variation “oh where, oh where, did my rail pass go, oh where, oh where, can it be?” But Big Guy said to me, “Actually, she looks so miserably unhappy; I think that we should give her a break.”
It is the first time she’s lost anything for a trip. So, I guess I should cut her some slack. Lesson learned: pay attention to the details (e.g. what does the insurance cover?), figure out if you really need it (e.g. look at the point-to-point cost and add it all up), and put them item in a safe place immediately (e.g. don't leave them on the counter).
Please give what you can to Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).
And, of course
平和 に 働 き
(hewa ni hataraki: work for peace)
UPDATE: I'm trying this little embed. It's just a test, so no rude comments. Hey, I never video'd anything before and Grams was helping. Need I say more?
*It's not that easy being green;
Having to spend each day the colour of the leaves.
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold...
or something much more colourful like that.
It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
or stars in the sky.
But green's the colour of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain,
or tall like a tree.
When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!
And I think it's what I want to be.
-lyrics by Joe Rapposo
Thanks Kermit.
Les commentaires récents