Our preparations were progressing smoothly yesterday, when Willem asked if I had taken my passport out. I confidently went to its usual storage place and opened the drawer to find the empty travel wallet that I usually keep it in. I looked disbelievingly at the wallet for several seconds, examining and re-examining every compartment before convincing myself that there was no way a passport could hide in that wallet without my seeing or feeling it.

That launched a search that became more intense after each place I searched proved not to be the one that held the wallet. I checked all the drawers in all the dressers, jewelry armoires, and nightstands; leafed twice through all the sweaters in the sweater drawer (I know. Sounds really dumb, but I thought I might have put it there to be out of sight when we were on one of our longer domestic trips. A robber probably wouldn’t be interested in sweaters, after all!); and finally went upstairs to look in my office. By this time, I was beginning to worry. I later discovered that Willem had already been running through a list of options in his head for the contingency that I wouldn’t be able to fly.

As I looked in vain in the cabinet drawers of assorted writing instruments, note papers, check books, and attachments for electronic gadgets, a bulb went on in my head and I asked myself if I could have put it in the file drawer. “Yes”, I answered. “But under what name?” I’ll try the blindingly obvious I thought to myself and, lo and behold, there in a folder with a tab marked, “Passport”, was the required document. I then recalled that I had put it there when I had gathered all of my legal documents together in one place. I held it up triumphantly, went downstairs and showed it to a very relieved Willem.

As it turned out, going through the sweater drawer was a good thing. It reacquainted me with my sweaters and reminded me that the latest forecast for next week in Rotterdam shows temperatures in the mid-50’s all week. I changed plans and substituted sweaters for the long-sleeved blouses and Ts I had set aside to pack. As my mother always said, “Everything happens for the best”, even if it involves misplacing a passport. I added the last part.

Earlier in the day, Mark, the young man who tends the lawn, had come over to get the key and learn about cat duties. He is going to look in on the “boys” for us to make sure the automatic feeders are working properly, scoop the boxes, and freshen the water. He will also water the potted plants because, after a solid 5 days of rain last week, the last few days have been delightful, but way too hot to be able to skip watering.

Tonight we pack, gas up the car, and do the electronic check-in.