After last night’s late bedtime, everyone in the apartment slept in, except me. My brain gets going about 6:00 am, and although my body is trying to calm it down and get back to sleep, it won’t listen and gets busy producing a to-do list that drives me into full wakefulness. This morning it was the pictures of the party that inspired my brain to wake my body.
Pete had taken about 100 photos and 20-30 videos of people wishing Joel and Hailey well. As I lie in bed trying to ignore the thoughts in my own head, it occurred to me that I could upload the photos to Dropbox and email a link to Joel and Hailey so they could see the people that attended the party. The wifi in our place only accommodates 1.0Gb of data a day, between the hours of 8:00 am and midnight, so if I was to do some uploading, it had to happen before 8:00 am. So much for getting any sleep.
I use Dropbox on my computer, but rarely on my iPhone, so it took a few minutes to conjure up the correct way of getting the photos to Dropbox. Pete took multiple exposures of the same people, so first task was to sort out the best of each scene, then send them to Dropbox. That done, I sent a link to Hailey. I still had about half an hour before the 1 Gb use meter started running, so I thought I might try uploading some of the videos. Our download speed here is quite excellent-about 15-20 Mb/s, but upload is a lot slower. I got one video uploaded before 8;00 o’clock crept up on me. I sent Joel and Hailey the link.
I figured Andy, Jeff, Tabitha and Sally would sleep most of the morning away. I wrote, watched a movie, went for a walk while waiting for them to rise. Once up, we spent the morning and early afternoon lounging around, doing nothing. It is not the way I would choose to spend my precious time in Tuscany, but my priority is to spend time with my kids first, Tuscany second. Jeff spent a few hours researching how to get to Mannheim in an affordable manner, settling on a Flixbus from Florence for €50. It is a 16 hour bus ride. We played a game of pinochle, Sally and I sneaking out a close win.
I had wanted to go to the Caldwell’s and help clean up after the party. I knew Pat and Bill must be wearing down; entertaining friends and relatives, worrying about Joel, changing their traveling plans and a million other adjustment now that the wedding was off. Beth, Laura, Ross and Jason were up in Mannheim visiting Joel and had been since Monday. They we slated to get home about 8:00 pm tonight. I hoped we could go help with dishes, dinner . . . anything to give them a little time off and lessen the load. Andy and Jeff insisted the Caldwell’s had said it would be great if they came swam in the pool. We headed up the road.
When we arrived at the site, only Joel’s uncle Mike and aunt Bay were there. Pete, the girls, Bill and Pat had gone into town for Gelato. We attacked a stack of dirty dishes. Obviously, a few loads of laundry had be done and hung on chairs and tables in the wind and sun to dry. The wind was quite furious and clothes were scattered all over the patio. We rehung the damp ones and folded up the dry ones. Pete soon arrived with Crystal, Anna, Harp and his girls. Sally went up stairs to work with the kids. I continued monitoring clothing and folded it as it dried.
Pat and Bill soon arrived. I made a green salad under the direction of Crystal and Pete, then took down all the Chinese globes I had assembled the day before. I had not intended to stay for dinner, even though they were saying there were 15 pizza left and they needed to be eaten. I especially did not want to be there when the crew from Florence returned. Bill and Pat had not gotten a chance to see their kids and I did not want to be in the way. Sally and I ducked out about 7:45 pm and headed home. Laura, Beth, Ross and Jay arrived shortly after we left.
I was dog tired. Two nights in a row of little sleep had me hurting everywhere. I showered and was in bed by 9:30 pm. Andy, Jeff and Tabitha did not make it back until about 1:00 am, having stayed and visited with the Caldwell kids. Tomorrow, we on the road to Florence, about a two hour drive north, to show Jeff the Duomo and David, the Ponte Vecchio and Santo Spirito. Also, we had to get him on a bus at 8:45 pm to Mannheim, Germany to see Joel in the hospital. Looks like I will be the only one awake for the drive.
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