I'm home after a successful though stressful AA trip. Almost everything
is set.

The dogs will go as excess baggage, and the cats and Cleo as cargo.
Since the dogs, especially Dante, and their crates are the heaviest,
I save a lot of money, Thank God. Bringing the animals wont devour my
Soc Sec in advance, I'll still be able to bring some possessions, and
they'll come on the plane with me.

Kris thinks she can be the one to pick up the cats and Cleo and take
them through cargo's Customs while I'm taking myself, the dogs and
baggage through passenger customs. That will save a good bit of time
and make it easier on the animals.

Now I need to define finally what to bring with me in the way of
possessions. What a relief that will be -- to finalize it after all
these months of back-and-forthing about what I could afford. The
process of being confident of things and then having that turned
upside down, again and again, was one of the hardest things about
this. It also makes me see how easily I feel persecuted. I mean there
is persecution here, but it is not personal, really, and it is hardly
life-and-death. But it's been too much stress for too time.

I've been reading a novel that takes place during WWI, and several
characters are in a hospital for shell-shocked soldiers. A main
character is one of psychiatrists who care for them, and some of the
conversation is about what causes shellshock. The book presents it as a
process of erosion, rather than the result of a single climactic event,
though that can be the last straw. Prolonged stress where you feel you
have no control. It was good to read about. I do like getting things
defined. Context and perspective.

11 days till I leave and 13 till I arrive. The only thing that could
be a problem is the inspection of the animals by Customs on about Oct
24. But it is VERY unlikely that there will be trouble. Huh? Am I
crazy? So many times I have been so confident everything was working
out well, and BANG, it wasn't. If there is a problem, it's -- again --
VERY likely that Abrahame can send some of the cats slightly later.

So it is all looking good.

BTW, it looks like the government will eventually seize the car and
the sewing machines, etc etc. Amazing, huh?

[Posted in FML 7939]