Flying with Cats

I've been doing a lot of research about flying with animals. When we finally get the family headed to California, we decided that making our 12, 13 and 15 year old cats drive for three days in a crate with a kid and a dog really isn't going to suit them. Instead, we're looking into flying with them in the cabin as carry-ons.

American Airlines charges $150 per pet to do this, and they allow up to seven animals in the cabin. Each animal has to be with a ticketed passenger. (MacTroll is asking his favorite American employee, Amanda, at Willard if X-man counts or if the passenger has to be of a certain age.) Animals have to stay in their carriers the entire flight and cats must be under 17 lbs.

The trick is that you don't want any kind of connection when you travel with cats. You want to go straight to your destination. So, we'd drive them up to chicago in a larger crate (Lily's dog one), and we'd go through security there and then get on the plane.

The next trick is that you have to take your animal out of the crate at Security, if you're carrying on. This is crazy, but in order to do that, we're going to put the cats in harnesses on leashes. Just in case they freak out among a lot of people in O'Hare and try to scamper, we've got an extra hold on them.

Then, once they get through security they can go back in the carriers for the five-hour flight to California. On the other end, we'll be checking them into a well-to-do pet boarding place until we've got our house purchased. Then we'll set up some litter boxes, send MacTroll back to get a traveler friend of his choice and our car, dog (who will be at Doggies on the Farm for a little while) and goldfish (who will need to stay with a friend for a bit) and drive them out for three days while X-man and I put the house together on the other end.

Organizationally, there are a lot of details. But I love this kind of thing. I like coming up with plans and contingencies. I love big picture ideas with layering of details. I am not intimidated. I'm a planner.

One Step

I stepped on my scale this morning not to weigh myself, but to weigh the pressure I put down on my leg now that I'm 5 1/2 weeks post-op on my peroneal tendon and ligament repair. The doctor told me that today I could try to stand on it and see what it could take. I was able to hold around 52 lbs of weight on it comfortably. This means I can put my foot down when I use my crutches, as long as most of my body weight is on the crutches. I'm slow, like really slow. But I can move.

However, I cannot drive, and when my foot gets used it starts to swell a bit and gets uncomfortable in the boot. So, I am taking it easy. The goal is a normal shoe on that foot by Dec. 13. Yeah, that takes a long time!


MacTroll and I did make it out to see Seven Psychopaths on Saturday. It was a decent film, and for once it was a film that didn't show all of the funny parts in the trailer.

I did have this one strange moment where we're sitting in the second row of the theater (our usual spot). I've got my foot up on my scooter, I'm thinking, "If there's some Batman psycho that comes in this movie and starts shooting at people, I'm totally a goner." And then I wondered if I should tell MacTroll to sit on the outside of me, so I could kind of body shield him and X-man would have one parent to take care of him.

Now, I'm not normally a paranoid freak. I don't believe that Savoy is a crazy dangerous environment. I know better. But when you feel -- vulnerable -- and aren't used to it, it does some weird stuff to your brain, I guess. I hadn't felt that panicked since I left X-man with a sitter when he was a baby to go see the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I had this suddenly weird feeling that the sitter was going to disappear with my baby. It made enjoying the film impossible. And I have to admit, I never saw another Pirates movie after that one.

Today is family lunch day at Carrie Busey. MacTroll and I are both going, but neither of us is eating at the school. We're also dropping off the pumpkin that X-man and I made for the library this weekend. He's feeling very fishy these days. So we made the fish from "Memoirs of a Goldfish" for the pumpkin contest. I also have to get started on his "Storybook Parade" costume.

Last year he went as the Smushy Bus. This year he wants to have a "Swimmy" by Leo Lionni costume. I bought a blue t-shirt and some puffy paints. So he'll be dressed as the "ocean" and the t-shirt will have all the red fishes in his family and Swimmy, the sole black fish. I like that X-man totally gets the spirit in which the Storybook Parade was intended.

In other news, I found another house in California that would be ideal if we lived there. I did the Google Street Map view and saw a ton of boys playing on the Cul-de-Sac. I also find it entertaining that it backs into the all-girls Catholic School, what more could a boy want over the next 12 years, right? It's also only 3 blocks from the public elementary school. Alas, we'll see what's out there in six months. I keep looking around my house noting all the work I'll have to do since I got off my feet. So many paint touch ups!

Maybe I should have a paint party. Anyone want to come help out?

If I was moving today (which I'm not)

I would totally buy this house.

Come on Fruit!

Mama needs to buy a new house in California next year...

This news, if proven true, would help greatly in the process.

Every day week I'm at Zillow.com seeing if new listing have popped up in the 95125 zip code and then seeing if the houses magically appear on the map within the 4 streets that define the Booksin Elementary neighborhood. Are they closer to the main street or are they closer to school? Have they been redone in the last 40 years, or has someone just died and or retired and is trying to get the same price for something where nothing has been done as the guy down the street who totally renovated within the last three years?

I know. I have 10 months before my house is on the market. Who knows how long it will take to sell, or if it will sell. But it can't help to look, right? See what's in the area?

In other news, Clawdio got two teeth removed. He's been a much nicer cat and his heart didn't give out while he was under the anesthesia. So that's a win/win. It was 400 degrees outside today. All of my students were red cheeked and sweating.

X-man is very excited about his school carnival next week. But he's torn between wearing his Scooby Cat or his deep sea fish hat for Cap Day tomorrow. Today, he wore his "That's How I Roll" Rollerskate T-shirt that he got from Bubba. He was so happy when he pulled it out of the drawer. :-)

Looking Forward

So here's the deal. Should I sell my house, I'm going to have a mess of housewares and furniture to unload, because I know -- right now -- that I'll never have a house in California as big as mine. Plus, um, some of the things in my house I got when I got married 12 years ago... and in all honesty, there's no sense paying thousands of dollars to move old stuff across country. That just seems -- well, stupid.

So, from time to time I'll post things that I'm planning to unload before we go. If you like them, and you live nearby let me know. I'll post what I think I want for them, you tell me if that's a deal, or if you have a counter offer. If no one takes them, then off to Goodwill or the Restore it will go.

Now, if you're a friend of mine and you know you have something of mine you think you might like... let me know. We'll see if we can come to an agreement about the exchange, and I will literally go put a sticker with your name on it for after we sell our house.

Seriously... this summer/fall will be all about cleaning house to make it look less stuffy. And the Tolono Public Library is probably about to get a gigantic bunch of DVDs from us.

Prairie Fields Playground

One of the hard conversations I have with myself over a potential move to California is the anxiety that X-man will feel about the relocation. He already has some issues with transitions at school -- and, well, this is a major life transition. So, we talk about it as a family from time to time, but we don't talk about it as if it's a foregone conclusion, because let's face it. If we don't sell our house, we could be here for years... It's just the way it is, and just because it takes me years to be comfortable with a subject doesn't not mean that everyone needs that much time to warm up to a concept and organize their lives for it.

But now that I've got my Sunshine Pills we're putting "sunny" in the plus category not as an "extra bonus" but as a "health care" positive about moving. :-)

When we lived in Prairie Fields, a friend of mine worked for the village and built the Prairie Fields Playground. He's a very nice man. And he did a stellar job. I didn't know him then, but in our house, we celebrate that park and the people who built it every day. I always said that I saw no point in putting a jungle gym in the yard when we can just walk to a giant park.

X-man has grown up at that park. He learned to cruise in the toddler area at that park. It was his first slide and his first outdoor swing. These are the memories I'll always have of Savoy.

A couple weeks ago when we had a day of nice weather, X-man and I walked over to the park for our first visit in 2012. We played our usual "fireman" pretend play game. We climbed the climbing wall and looked out over the construction that will be Carrie Busey in the fall. We watched kite flyers in the soccer field and visited with some neighbors. And I wonder if it'll be this way in California. I wonder if it'll feel so comfortable, so much like home. 

I hope so.