The Cel Joins The Blog

Way back on September 28, I pointed out to Marcia that we were 107 days away from embarking on our 107-day world cruise.  So I suggested that at least once each day between then and our actual embarkation we should imagine ourselves aboard ship.  As September drifted into October, and October chilled toward Halloween, terror was my overriding emotion.  "What have I gotten myself into?" was a frequent thought when I awoke in the morning and imagined the ship rocking on a violent ocean and that I was about to begin another of those impending 66 sea days that were the bulk of our long, long journey.  September 28 felt lonely and distant; January 13 looked alarming and looming.  
November's first undeniable blasts of relentless winter that found me outside two or three times a day to clear the snow from the walks while imagining myself aboard ship, drifting through the South Pacific summer temporized my terror.  At those times, the trip did not seem to be such a terrible idea after all.  Still, there was so much to do and so little energy with which to do it!

As we booked the overland excursions that became available (and so evaporated some of those 66 sea days) and our research (and our bills) accumulated and somehow (despite Marcia suffering one malady after another for what seemed an interminable duration) we managed to arrange insurances and visas, research and buy the necessary electronics such as an ipad, portable hard drives, cameras and accessories (nothing like a good spending spree to take away some of the fear and cheer you up!), obtain the necessary immunizations (nothing like reading about all those diseases in all those countries to bring the fear back with a vengeance!), accumulate more expenses, and (oh yeah!) prepare for Christmas, terror surrendered to anticipation.  This is going to be great!