Four More Days in Austin

When I started this post, the title was “Five More Days…” Hopefully, I will finish the update I have wanted to give you this morning, and the title won’t change to “Three…”

The boys do not seem very upset that I am leaving soon, which is easier for me. This has been a week of goodbyes, so the fact of their resilience is a comfort. They know from my travels that I call them all daily when I am away, so this will merely be an extended period of mom-from-afar.

Kyle, on the other hand, seems pretty blue. Knowing I will be driving out of Austin on Sunday to go live 2,000 miles away is rattling both of us.

I am also sad about leaving these little chaos goblins. I wish I could take one of them along for company, but the Airbnb where I will be staying for the duration of my time alone in Bend has a strict "no pets" policy. They will fly to Oregon with the family when Lonza moves us next spring.

 

All of my mentally difficult chores are complete, ending on Monday with a prednisone/lidocaine injection in my left heel. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, breathe, breathe, breathe..." 

I hope to finally end the heel pain that has limited my walking ability this year. When I arrive in Bend, my first task will still be shopping for and purchasing a bike, but I want to hike again soon, especially in those gorgeous mountains. I am looking forward to some major lifestyle improvements in Oregon.

Speaking of my future new bike, as I had my last long coffee with a friend yesterday morning, I realized that the GoPro that I have been wanting for my music stand for the past two years is finally warranted. She asked if I would be filming my bike rides…absolutely! After saying goodbyes to my flute choir friends at my final rehearsal last night, I checked out the cameras at Best Buy. I came home, researched, and landed on an open-box Hero 12. I’ll pick it up today and record an orchestral flute excerpt I’ve been tinkering with for the past few weeks.

Brett and I played one last open mic at Batch on Monday night. We played the Irlandaise movement of the Bolling Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio (“Irlandaise, Javanaise, mayonnaise,” Brett laughs in my head), and a fantastic upright bass player from the crowd joined us. 

Here’s an excerpt from Monday night’s final impromptu performance, with Brett, a bassist whose name I didn’t catch, and me:

Here’s Sir James, doing the flute part better (and with the final piece of the jazz trio: percussion):

The next performance recordings I make will be from the Bend Pops Orchestra and Central Oregon Flute Ensemble. I am looking forward to those and counting on them to make my time alone in Bend pass more quickly.

I’m also taking my watercolors. Here are the fun things I have been working on this week.

I am also determined to see the lunch bag project through to the end. 

Eddie helped me remember this morning that I started sending decorated lunch bags for him and his brother when they went back to school in person after the COVID school-from-home period ended. I started making them just to doodle, but then, when Billy got to 6th grade, his teacher started collecting them, and she still does. So, I will be shipping lunch bags home in batches this year to complete the collection. Here's a sampling of some recent lunch bags.

Okay, that’s it for now. I will not bore you with tales of clutter cleanup, packing, and other logistics. The rest of this week will be continuing goodbyes, the last of Eddie’s halftime shows that I will get to attend in person, March-a-thon, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with friends and family…I may or may not post again before I leave, but I promise to begin posting regularly from the trip to Bend and beyond.