Back to Tomorrow

I am back in Japan again. The was a rather large spider waiting on my front door. I lost him in a flurry of suitcases, and then rediscovered him in the linen closet this afternoon. I chased him around with a dust pan (the nearest good spider smashing object) and it took about numerous attempts to stun him enough to flush him down the toilet. Jungle spiders don't die as easily as Colorado spiders.
I am not sure whether I am happy to be back in Japan again. This summer has been an emotional roller coaster for me, and I associate the end of my summer vacation with the end of my summertime problems, but the fact remains that Peter is still deployed, even though I am back home. In the few days that I have been back, I have learned that it is extremely inconvenient not having a husband around. For example, I had to haul my three extremely heavy suitcases up three flights of stairs all by myself. I'm a weenie, so that meant I unpacked them at the bottom of the stairs and hauled them up in about six different trips. I had the same problem when I went to the grocery store. There I was, standing at the bottom of the stairs with a car full of groceries and no one to bring them up for me.

Another problem I had to deal with was my car. The battery died and I had to jump start it to get it to the shop for repairs. That was all well and good and I dealt with that, but once I got to the shop I realized that I didn't have my husband around to give me a ride home. I was lucky and they did the repair immediately, otherwise I would have had to call a cab. These problems would all have been surmountable with planning, because I do have friends around who might kill spiders and carry things up the stairs for me, but I'm not used to planning things like that around my friends.

I was a bit worried about my pets while I was gone. I have a dog who hates humans and has a history of escaping and a cat who spent the summer experiencing typhoons firsthand. So I was doubtful whether either of them would be there when I got in. But both pets were waiting for me, safe and sound, and surprise! a third pet was waiting for me as well. A dog that I fostered about a year ago was dumped by her new owner and the kennel called me to see if I would take her again. Her name is Tiffany, and she needs a home. She is a wonderful, sweet dog, and I will blog more about her later, but if anyone back in the States would like to adopt her, I will deliver her in October. Here is a photo of her: