Bon Voyage

John has just left for the airport, chauffeured by Jason, who, it turns out, is much less expensive than limousine service.

We've all been buzzing around over the past two days, helping John make lists and find his sunglasses and weigh his suitcase. He's allowed 30 kilograms, so there were several solomonian choices to be made. Which to take: umbrella or a fistful of photos of our grandson, Hayden? (Photos.) Cql manual or sweater? (Manual.) Extra pajamas or Tim Horton's coffee? (Coffee.) We talked him out of the sunscreen, but we couldn't talk him out of taking along a ziplock bag half-full of English coins, even though they must've weighed nearly a pound.

I think John is excited; I know he's nervous, and I suppose he has every right to be. He's got a lot of hard work to do once he arrives in Halstead - finding a place for us to live and getting ready to meet his new students and colleagues. We're looking forward to hearing from him tomorrow about his trip, and I'll try to post again then. In the meantime, you may attribute any typos in this post to the fact that the little red line under misspelled words is hard to see when you're feeling a bit weepy.