My train trip was excellent in every sense of the word. Huge seats on the new Renaissance trains! Baggage under the seat, not out of sight at the front or back where anyone could abscond with it! Free WiFi and an electricity outlet for one’s computer-object! Fair trade and organic tea, served in a compostable cup! (The tea bag was even given to me on the side without having to be requested. So civilised.) Things went so well that I was safely ensconced in my parents’ dining room eating roast beef sandwiches around 12:30 PM. I made my connection in Union between VIA and the GO with time to spare, even though the VIA train was about five minutes late. It helped immensely that not only was my VIA train the first out of Montreal and thus not as popular as later trains so there were fewer passengers, but it wasn’t anywhere near rush hour in Union so I didn’t have to navigate seas of commuters. There were only two people ahead of me in the ticket line, and my westbound GO hadn’t even arrived when I bought my ticket. The departure screens showed it ready to board just as I got to the waiting area.
It was four degrees and there was suspicious white stuff floating around in the air in Toronto when I arrived. Just saying.
Today, however, it is sunny, and I hear it’s supposed to be something between ten and fourteen degrees. Mum, who really is doing O most excellent well and is quite mobile, has expressed a wish to visit the library today.
Notable things so far: All three of my parents’ standoffish cats have come to see me, even Cordelia. She even let me pat her, and kiss her on the head, and Seamus and Rufus hang around me quite happily. I have changed two beds today, something that I enjoyed doing because hospital corners please me, and I can’t change our bed at home because the mattress is too heavy to shift. (Granted, that may be my lot; the rest of the day may be very light work out of necessity… but it was fun.)
Despite testing my webcam at home on the Mac, when I set the one up here and we tried to Skype with HRH at home last night the sound on his end wasn’t happening. I couldn’t troubleshoot it because the Mac and PC interfaces are different, of course, and I couldn’t remember the Mac setup properly. We ran through what I remembered, but nothing worked. Still, with a phone at one ear we could hear what they were saying, and so it wasn’t so bad. The boy, as I expected, cheerfully showed off a parade of stuffed animals and cats, and was quite recovered from his distraught tears of the morning when my train left (everything was A Big Adventure till I actually got on the train and Mama Being Gone for a Week became very real). Tonight we’ll set the laptop up next to the speakerphone; that should help. The call will be shorter, too, as we won’t be trying to fix things.
My online presence is going to be limited this week. I may poke around once in a while, but I’m looking at this as a vacation of sorts, so I’m not ignoring you personally if you e-mail or leave notes for me, I’m sort of ignoring everyone in general.