Time to Go!

Time to Go!

“‘Just in case’ is the curse of packing.”

Alexandra Potter

Let me say this: I’m terrific at stuffing the travel belongings of five people into a mid-sized SUV. But the very thing that serves me in packing a car hurts me in packing a suitcase. I pack too much, as anyone who has seen my bag can attest. 

I enjoy organizing things, and you would think this talent would apply equally to both car and suitcase. It doesn’t.

The reason is that all it takes to pack a car is to get what we already packed to fit inside or on top of the car. A suitcase, on the other hand, is an unwilling space for last-minute additions. And I always pack at the last-minute, because I dislike packing in the first place, and who knows what will be clean and available at the time of departure?

Which brings us to this little story. We have a beautiful timeshare down toward San Diego that our whole family enjoys going to. It’s well-appointed and comfortable, and it feels like our second home.

One year, on the day after our arrival, I noticed our then-teenaged son, John, using the washing machine. Surprised, I asked him, “How can you be washing clothes? We just got here.” 

John replied informatively, “They’re dirty.”  

“Yes. But why?”

“Well, I take the clothes from my hamper, since they’re the clothes I’m most likely to wear, I dump them into my backpack, and I’m ready to go.” 

You can’t argue with genius, especially when your own bag is over the fifty-pound limit, so I let it go at that. 

-Hank