Some updates, weekend- Day 1209 (Year 4, Day 114)

Clarksville, IN / Louisville, KY

I'm happy to report that I'm finally on the upswing.  Not completely there yet, but was well enough to go to shul on Saturday, as my coughing and nose-blowing was greatly diminished (although not 100% gone).  I was just feeling very weak as all that coughing and nose-blowing drained a lot of energy.  Today (Sunday), I felt like I gained back a great deal more strength.  Still not at 100%, but enough that I wanted to go out and do something special, especially since this may be the last week we're in the area (we'll probably know for sure tomorrow, when Mitch meets with his boss from the utility company.  As to where we'll be heading - more on that below).

The first order of business was to take down and store the sukkah, which we completed by 10:30 am.  We also needed to stop at the rabbi's house to deliver our bag of money (we have a "tzedakkah" (charity) box in which we contribute all our loose change and sometimes bills.  When we're ready to leave an area, we ask the rabbi (or local clergyman) to give it to a needy person or family.  We also needed to restock some items (chocolate, everything spice, and kosher meat) at Trader Joe's (near shul) as we're not sure if there will be another one nearby at our next location. 

The main event of the day, however, that I wanted to do was visit the Louisville Science Museum (we still have a ticket for it).  Unfortunately, when I went to the website to look up the hours, there was a traffic alert.  Apparently there were 2 huge events taking place in and around the downtown area -- Iron Man Triathalon, and Susan Koman Walk for a Cure.  It seemed that pretty much every road going into the city and many within the city were going to be closed for much of the day, so there was no hope of going to the museum as there was no way to get there.  We landed up just doing those few chores and hanging out watching movies the rest of the day.  Mitch was going to clean out the basement or truck, but it was raining on and off and very windy and he didn't want to work outside in that weather.  So we'll see... if we're here an extra week, or if his assignment ends sooner than Friday, maybe we can make another attempt to visit the museum.

Regarding next location - as mentioned in previous posts, we were told they greatly needed people in Houston, especially after Hurricane Harvey.  However, last week we learned that a friend was given an assignment in NJ and also made us aware of something in VA Beach.  Mitch spoke briefly with his national boss who said he was out of the office and needed to speak with other folks regarding the contracts and he and Mitch would hook up again on Monday or Tuesday so he can provide more information. So as it stands now, there's a very small chance we may get to go to NJ.  On the positive side, that would be awesome because so many of our friends and family are there who we haven't seen for a while.  It's also much closer to Raleigh, making it easier to visit our daughter for Thanksgiving.  On the negative side, it's not exactly the state I want to be in during the winter (cold and snow), and the only choices of campgrounds are either (1) about 60 miles away from the work area, or (2) a very convenient but extremely costly place which is basically a large parking lot, with no sewer hookup and no water during the winter (hopefully they have a service that will come to the site and deliver water and dump our tanks).  Alternatively, maybe the company will pay for an extended stay hotel, although we'd still incur the expense of storing the rig somewhere.  But we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

I'll post again in the next day or 2 as plans become more concrete.