“And though Lisa was born in England, she too has never seen Ireland, so this trip will be a first for both of us. She’s been busy monitoring the weather in Dublin and Galway — generally in the high 40s to low 60s, windy, rainy, typical for this time of year apparently — and doing practical stuff like finding hotels for our roundabout of the island by car over the course of two-plus weeks. Me? I’ve been obsessing about shoes, finding the perfect jacket (waterproof not water resistant!), and researching compression socks. Who knew compression socks were a thing?”