DISTANCE IS RELATIVE

Sierra Vista is the size of town people complain about it taking more than 10 minutes to get to Target, and a 20 minute commute is a LONG one.




But I can very easily remember my hour and a half commute one-way to work daily while in the DC area.


Driving from Kalamazoo to Los Angeles was fairly easy.


Taking the family from Baltimore cross-country to Oregon wasn't much of a task.


And for several months, I was driving up to Tucson twice a week, and it just to be just a hop, skip and a jump.



Now I have to do it tomorrow -- and it does seem like an awfully long way now.

DEAR DAD:

A book I am reading suggested that we write a letter to those who have made significant and positive impact on our lives.

Immediately I thought of you

You were always my cheerleader - I was the brightest, prettiest and nicest girl in the world - at least to hear you talk about me. I can't think of anything you did not support me in. You encouraged me to follow my own path and always to do what I felt was right. But you didn't rescue me when I did fall flat on my face (more than once or twice) - you would let me feel the consequences and learn from the experience.

I realize as an adult and a parent now how much shielding from Mom you did for both Brad and me. I'm sorry that Brad and I both let you know what she did do, but I know you did the very best you could possibly do.

There is a lot about your life that I still don't know - you never wanted to talk much about being in the Pacific during WWII. 

I never really understood why you wouldn't marry Joann, but I'm glad you were together for as long as you were - she made you happier than I'd ever seen you.

And it was really only after the obit was published in Kalamazoo that I realized how many of your students were influenced and moved by you - I got a lot of letters and emails.

I am so incredibly sorry that the last two years were so miserable, but I'm so glad you were already living down here and Wilt and I could both help.

I would have given almost anything to give you back your music and your writing, and that was the most comforting thing when you did pass - I am certain you are writing and composing beyond the veil right now.

I miss you - but thanks so much for being such a great dad.


And I will see you again - and then I'll get the chance to say, "told you so!"

Love,
Hopie

DRIVE VS. FLY

Someone, probably my husband, sent me a link to this dude's web/blog. And with a last name of "Snider," what else could you do beside make (and publish) snide remarks?

And although I'd make the argument that your name helps make you who you are, but I've been proven wrong way too many times (Joy, Angel, Jayne, Bruce) to try that dance again.

You make what you want out of your life, regardless of the label your parents stuck you with - look at Engelbert Humperdinck (who was actually born as Arnold George Dorsey in India - and next time you are in a game of trivia, use this information to your advantage... no charge).

But some thing that this guy wrote.... well, at least it gave me a topic for tonight.

The first part I do kinda agree with (again, this is here, I am simply parroting what he wrote) - "Traveling is an ordeal. I don't know why anyone ever goes anywhere. Our ancestors had the right idea: live your entire life in the village where you were born, and if you venture out on a trek, assume you're going to freeze to death, get lost, or be attacked by ring wraiths. "

Especially the part about being attacked by ring wraiths.

But his next paragraph... "Air travel, which is supposed to be the fastest and most convenient method of transportation, is actually the most arduous. Even when things go smoothly, it's exhausting. Our bodies simply weren't designed to be shoved into giant metal cylinders and hurtled through the air at several hundred miles per hour. They definitely weren't designed to withstand baggage fees. "

Okay, well, that the last sentence is true.

But has this guy ever driven a real distance? I love driving, and I hate flying... but I have also driven from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Torrence, California.

Non-stop.

With a puppy.

Now, I'll admit this might have been a once-in-a-lifetime trip - I mean, how often do you get to:

- Deal with hard, driving rain the entire trip, completely destroying your plans to camp-out several nights on the road (thus saving on motel costs and reinforcing your self-image as an environmentally-aware-and-Mother-Earth-type of the brave 70's woman) and forcing you to drive about 2,000 miles with only intermediate gas and restroom breaks every 4-6 hours

- Getting to know a complete stranger who responded to your note on a shared-ride-bulletin board at Western Michigan University but of whom you know nothing more about than she needs to get to Las Vegas as quickly as possible. Las Vegas. 'Quickly'. Hmm.

- Handle a six-week old mutt puppy who had just left his mother (one of the few times I could use the word 'bitch' and actually be politically correct) and his fellow litter-mates to drive in a car for three days straight, 24 hours on the road (times 3 makes, what, 72 hours?)

- Drop off your passenger (and the puppy) in Las Vegas, sleep for two hours in the car, and then drive five hours to get to Torrance California

Now, honestly, would it be in any way possible to have this kind of adventure if you had been stuffed into a commercial jet for three hours?

NO.

Which is why I feel flying over lengthy distances is perhaps worth the pain and torture of waiting perhaps an hour at the airport, going through 15 minutes of the security check, watching either a grade-B movie or three episodes of a television series, and actually having to WAIT 5-10 minutes for your luggage to arrive after you have raced from the gate to the baggage arena.

Anyone out there wanna express their opinion?