Two weeks of catching up to do...

I've been reminded that, right before the computer quit two weeks ago, I left a few folks hanging as to what woes my parents had faced on their trip to Superior, WI.

They arrived, after a 12-hour drive, just as the supper call was made. With all due haste, the pair of them followed the instructions of the resident assistant who sat at the desk, front lobby, of the dormitory where they were to stay the week. Registered, they then made their way up the back staircase to find their door wide open. Quickly, they stowed their luggage, including Mom's purse, camera, and cross-stitch project, then shut the door behind themselves as they went to eat.

When they returned to their room, it was empty.

It's not such a big thing to realize that your credit cards have vanished, or that your thousand-dollar digital camera with all its attachments and extras wandered off, because that's all replaceable under insurance. But Mom nearly fainted at the notion that someone had taken her 32-stitch-per-inch portrait of my paternal grandparents. The darned thing was already 2/3 finished, and that figures out to be roughly 400 hours of labor (not counting the charting process, which is done initially on the computer with StitchCraft Software, then tweaked for fuller color and texture). Mom can live with the loss of cash and toys, but not with her work... And I fully sympathize with her.

So, she called in the RA, who called in security, who took down personal information and descriptions of all the missing items, and then she sat down with a phone and called banks and credit card companies to discontinue their numbers and to request replacements be sent to them up there ASAP. (And, yes, the cards came here instead. So much for "excellent service" from foreign help desks.)

And, then, while everybody was trying to piece together how to get through the week without clean underwear or credit cards, the RA said, "Not to be insulting or anything, but..." he diplomatically paused here, then went on, "are you sure you put your things in this room?"

Well, the door had been wide open when they'd arrived. They hadn't looked at the number, they'd only gone to the xth door on the right... approached from the back stairs. Their room was the xth door on the right from the front stairwell.

So, after that half-hour panic, they breathed deeply and at long last entered the room wherein they had stashed all their gear, to find nothing missing.

Mom has said that they will never again try to take a 12-hour drive in a single day. It's too stressful.

She's only now getting the debit cards working correctly. Of course, she's not so panicked any more, since she has her cross-stitch over which she can meditate.

It's a zen thing.