I tend to get anxious before trips. Doesn’t much matter where I plan to go— the next state or the next continent— I get increasingly energetic. Some may say “hyperactive.”

Deciding to get organized early, I discovered it spread the craziness from 24 hours to something like 24 days. My dear wife and in-house logician, tech-support department and chef even decided to drive to New York and babysit our grandson. I am completely on my own with a new wireless “travel keyboard” typing into an iPhone. It’s taken me all day to figure it out. And I still need to pack. Not that the last 24 days were wasted. I did buy a travel alarm clock, enough gigabytes of SD card to record an encyclopedia, and a paper map of Norway and Finland. Several rooms are spread with gear for the trip, very little of it clothing. It’s not good to take too much clothing. One change of everything and a pair of flip-flops should do. I can pack in the morning.

Writing about it makes me even more anxious. I think it would be good to crack an IPA and watch a Netflix movie. Maybe something about Caribbean cruise vacations or fly fishing.