Day One-hundred-and-sixty: Crying, Cards, TV, ...

In addition to crying, cards, TV, ..., there was a whole lot of visiting and laughter. (The laughter was aided in part by a joke book, Plato and a Platypus.)

The day started similarly to other days with whole wheat pancakes from a recipe out of Food for Life. I also baked the "almost no knead" olive bread I had mixed up the night before. If all I ate would have been what I made, the day's food consumption may have been at reasonable levels. Unfortunately there was a lot of other food prepared, primarily by my mother.

After my youngest sister left with her oldest daughter, I got cleaned up. Everyone left around me was grateful.

Then my parents and I shared. It was helpful. I have always known that I am not alone in my loss and grief, even as there are aspects that are unique. I feel that a lot of this trip is about crying again with my and Marilyn's family. I hope it is healing for everyone and not a further wallowing in it.

Through the tears, maybe even partly because of the tears, I recognize that life must go on. Indeed, I want this Life after Layoff to go on.

I have received word that the symbol and the words under it: "The Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund," is now a trademark.

As far as the cards go, I won as much as I lost, cards that is not money. Even in losing I felt like a winner. I am visiting my parents in a Christmas card setting.

Day One-hundred-and-fifty-nine: Winter wonder land?

It was a long snowy drive from Columbus, Ohio, to just outside Glenville, West Virginia. Snow was on the road most of the way. I was glad that I started out early as it took much longer than I thought it would, namely five and one half hours.

The important thing is that I made it safe. I'm more careful in my Life after Layoff, particularly on drives in WV. As I was going down a snow covered hill with a car in the ditch on my side facing me with skid marks from the truck stopped just before the car, I made sure I didn't have the same problem by going no faster than three miles per hour down the hill. Just a little before this hill on the same road, I had totaled a 280Z. In point of fact it was on clear dry roads in October of 1977 as I was coming out to tell my parents that I had met someone, Marilyn. (She was visiting her ex that very weekend to find out whether she was over him. It turned out she was and as I was driving a Duster for a time after that weekend, was obviously not attracted to me for my car or my money.)

I used the Prius' Navigation System almost the whole way out even though I didn't take many of its recommendations. First it tried to send me out I-70 to I-77. Instead I went down 33. There were portions of 33 that were not on the Prius' maps. It was quite interesting to see the car symbol move across open country.

Then once in West Virginia, it was directing me almost on any road but 47. It did so all along 47 until after Smithsville. Then it recommended taking 47 to its end on 5. Instead, I turned off on the "cutoff" at Burnthouse. (This way I got the after the fact fun of driving on some real snow and saw two cars in the ditch. It definitely wasn't fun while I was doing it. However, I only got the lack of traction warning light once and it wasn't on this road.) I turned off the guide feature at this point but maybe it knew more about the road conditions than I did.

Day One-hundred-and-fifty-eight: Offline for WV

I'll be on the lookout for a hotspot somewhere around where my parent's live but, even if I do find one, with all the visiting I don't think that I will be doing much posting over the next couple of weeks. Instead, I will have to rely on my old fashion note taking and catching up, as if I were making daily entries.

Today has been a full day as I am typing this coming up on midnight. It started with me getting up at six to do my almost no kneading. I then went back to bed for another hour and a half. After my timer went off, I heated up the Le Crusett and then baked the whole wheat olive bread. While it was baking I got cleaned up and dressed. (The number of times I report that mundane fact must make you think that either I'm obsessively compulsively clean or am just one dirty person.)

Then I cleaned up the last of my mess and took my car to the dealer for servicing early. They accepted it and in addition to the planned and prepaid for servicing, sold me four new Goodyear tires. (After this trip, I will need to use my motorcycle to slow down the use of the Prius. Until then, I'm going to enjoy my car and go everywhere I can!)

After lunch and a walk with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, I improved my attire for a Columbus Symphony Christmas Pops concert with one of my sisters-in-law and her husband. Lunch and dinner were at two different locations of the Northstar Cafe. I had different dishes but both were truly good.

Good food, good company, good music, full days, ..., what a Life after Layoff. It simulates very well the life of the idle rich.

Day One-hundred-and-fifty-seven: First destination

Since I knew I didn't have far to go, I decided to sleep in. But, I woke up around 4:00 AM anyway. I wrote a little bit then turned the TV on and went back to sleep. (I don't know whether I bored myself or it was ultimately the TV that did it.) I finally got up around 8:00 AM. By the time I went down for breakfast, read the free USA Today, and went back up to my room for cleaning myself up and packing, I was checking out at 10:00 AM. I then drove across the road to a service station to pump up my low tire, again.

It was indeed a short drive into Columbus and a stop at one of the two Columbus, well, one is in Upper Arlington, Whole Foods. (There may have been others on my trip across the country but I didn't have the right city name to enter in my Prius' navigation system.) While at the Columbus Whole Foods, I purchased the ingredients and some of the cooking implements to make cupcakes, gingerbread, and whole wheat olive bread. I also dropped off another flyer for the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund.

Of course, they didn't have everything I wanted, so I went on to Sur La Table. It's really nice having a navigation system. What was even better, the only Sur La Table in the area was directly on the way to my sister-in-law's. The store next door was the Diamond Cellar, so I bought a longer chain for my and Marilyn's wedding bands. They are also fixing the engraving on the heart. I am to pick it all up December 23rd. (A Christmas present from me to me.)

Of course, I forgot to get all the stuff I was intending to get at Sur La Table and still needed to go out for olives. So once I got my car unloaded, I went out for the olives.

The nice thing about all the driving I've already done in and around Columbus is that I happened to drive by the Toyota dealer I will be taking the car to tomorrow for servicing. I won't even have to set up the navigation system. It's nice knowing where I'm going in my Life after Layoff. I just wish that were true in all aspects of "where I'm going." (Hey children, if you are reading this, note the correct use of the subjunctive mood.)

Day One-hundred-and-fifty-six: Last hotel, for a while

Another four state day but in 135 fewer miles with almost 40 of the 565 I did log due to my going around Indianapolis to deliver a Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund flyer to a Whole Foods north of town. I also delivered one to a Whole Foods in St. Louis earlier. Yes, I'm finally in Ohio but couldn't drive on any more.

When I got in my car, just before 8:00 AM CST, I noticed a weird symbol lighted on the dash. I looked in the glove compartment for a Prius manual but finally figured out that it meant a low tire. I stopped at the very next exit, which fortunately had a gas station with an air pump. It cost $0.75 to fill it back to where the light went off and it didn't come back on throughout the day's driving.

The day was overcast all day and started spitting rain the middle of Illinois. This left me driving with my wipers on either intermittent or low continuous the rest of the trip.

I tried drafting behind trucks in Missouri on my way to St. Louis. The first truck turned off. I turned off for a rest area from behind the second one. (Caffeinated tea this morning.) I traded the third one in on a faster truck but gave up on all of it when they all turned in to a weigh station. The last truck I had trouble keeping up with, which may have mitigated the draft effect, if there was one to begin with.

Driving behind trucks for whatever reason has a couple major drawbacks: my visibility as a driver was very limited and I couldn't use cruise control. The truck's speed, regardless of how fast they were going varied constantly.

Just after I made an appointment to have my Prius serviced Friday morning, my "MAINT REQD" dashboard light came on.

I listened to most of the albums on what was Marilyn's iPod in today's drive. I just started going through them in alphabetical order. I tried but couldn't listen to Placido Domingo's "Perhaps Love" album, perhaps because I bought the CD especially for Marilyn as a collection of romantic love songs.

I don't know whether it was a joke or real, but it was cute regardless. St. Clair, Missouri, had two water towers next to each other. One was labeled "COLD" and the other was labeled "HOT."

In St. Louis, my Prius navigation system kept wanting to send me on I-64 to get to the Whole Foods. The only problem was that the road was being completely redone and not open for any cars. I finally got far enough away by going at a right angle to I-64 that the Prius calculated a route that didn't involve it. At least the attempt to find an alternative way took me through an area of quite upscale houses.

As it turned out, just before the Ohio border, there was a gauntlet of billboards. While I first thought the Ohio border occurred just before that line up, after I saw the location of the real border, I realized that it was Ohio that had the greater billboard restrictions and the border Ohio businesses were using Indiana's looser laws to advertise their businesses.

Up until Indiana, the truck and car speed limits were the same on the expressway. (In Texas, they were the same on the country roads as well.) In Indiana, they were just five miles apart, typically 70/65, with the 65 for truly huge trucks. Once in Ohio, the speed limits became 65/55 and for much smaller trucks. Of course, this had the effect of making the right lane a solid wall of trucks that frequently slowed the fast lane down as the somewhat faster trucks would slowly pass the somewhat slower trucks. As a result, I guess I drafted a little more than I really intended. While most of my Life after Layoff thus far has been simply slowing down, it's hard in traffic to avoid hurrying up both in an attempt to avoid slowing down but ultimately only to slow down anyway. I did consciously try to avoid having it affect my mental outlook, but that is an old trap that was too easy to fall into. Deep breathing while driving helped, when I recognized what I was doing.

Day One-hundred-and-fifty-five: Four states

I started on the road this morning just before 9:00 AM CST in New Mexico. I bought gas in Amarillo with 500 miles on the tank but only 131 miles for the day. At the 424 mile mark, I had 59.2 mpg. But with the wind and speed in Texas, by the time I bought gas, it was down to 57.6. I still had two bars on the gas gauge but managed to stuff $18.91 worth of gas into the tank and fill tube.

After Amarillo I made a beeline for Oklahoma City on I-40. There I hooked up with I-44 and am now at Marshfield, Missouri, some 695 miles further along and in my fourth state of the day. Sunday I was also in fours states, if the two times I was in Arizona count.

I started my iPod music right away today. I'm working my way through all the albums. Of course I turn it off when I'm talking on the phone. I did that for about an hour today. Interestingly, I was listening to Shania Twain's greatest hits just as I entered Texas. The last time I listened to country was when I lived in Texas, 22 years ago.

Just before Amarillo, I saw a pheasant cross the road in front of me. Before that, I was on a rather narrow road where the speed limit was still 70 MPH. I wasn't going that because the semi in front of me wasn't doing that. I finally passed the truck and returned to 72 MPH. Darned if that truck didn't keep right up with me until I turned onto 87. I sometimes wish I had never seen "Duel" starring Dennis Weaver.

Other than the really ancient buttes around Amarillo, the rolling hills, really just dips that periodically cut off cell phone signals, were not that interesting. By the time I hit Missouri, it was dark. So all I could really note that was interesting was that almost every exit had either an Adult Video store or a Fireworks Supermarket.

An even longer drive today resulted in a shorter blog. It may be because this drive was more tiring. I don't think I will be going back the reverse of this drive in January. Once in a Life after Layoff is enough.

Day One-hundred-and-fifty-four: Long day, long blog

At least, it will be if I write up all my notes.  Today I had my note pad on the seat beside me and whenever I had an observation or thought I wrote a note to remind me.  I wrote more in the morning than I did in the afternoon, and didn't make any notes after dark.  Yes, I drove after dark today for a total of over 575 zigzag miles.  My stop is in Clayton, NM.  Otherwise, I would have had to drive on to Amarillo, TX, which I figure I would have made around 11:00 PM, if the time zone doesn't change to Central.  (I haven't checked.)

This morning started out before dawn, which in a way undermined my decision to stop early the night before rather than driving on in the dark.  But an early stop led to an early night and I was rested earlier the next day.  But while the sun was not quite up, the skyline was still visible.  My first "sight" was the power plant, smoking or steaming fully.   (All my pictures today were taken from the car, while it was moving and mostly through glass.  There were a couple shots taken out of the driver's side window where I thought to roll the window down.)

The buttes just out of Page, AZ, were at first just stark silhouettes but very slowly their red and white banding was revealed, which led to my first question of the day:  If the light after the sun sets but before full dark is called twilight, what is the light before the sun rises and full light called?  Twidark?  (Obviously not from my spell checker.)

In this beautiful country, there was still trash along the side of the road.  But Arizona had one road feature that California should import,  memorial signs.  I didn't think to check how often they occurred until they stopped occurring.  Anyway, they looked like they were paid for.  California has thousands of miles and needs the money.

By the way, driving southeast at dawn is not the smartest direction.  There was no way the sunshade could reach that low to block the sun anyway and if it could, it would create severe visibility issues of its own.  Thanks to my zigzag course, I was soon going northeast.

It's just my supposition but the best scenery seemed to be either into the sun or in my rear view mirror.  But it didn't matter.  What I could see was still spectacular.

In the middle of nowhere I saw a person standing by the side of the road.  I assumed he was hitchhiking but with my car sprawl I didn't have any place for him even if I had the inclination to pick someone up.

While there were long sections where I appeared to be the only vehicle on the road, it seemed that the only time there was traffic was when I came up behind someone.  On the other hand, most of the vehicles that passed me, really zoomed around.  They were all gas guzzlers to boot, large pickups for the most part.  My cruise control was set for two to three miles above the speed limit.  (I don't know for sure that the odometer is calibrated properly as the "your speed" flashers never seem to say what my speed says.)  This leads to my second question:  Does cruise control set in fractions of miles per hour?  If I am slowly increasing my speed and set it just before the next mph registers is it close to the higher number or does it always set in the middle.  Since my Prius can display in kph as well, I could set it to the kph number that is relatively higher in the mph display.

The first view of truly snow covered peaks was breath taking.  Of course, I was always fond of mountains.

For some reason, I enjoyed silence this morning, well, except for the road noise.  After about four hours when I found myself singing "I've been a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king.  ..." in response to a sign that read "Pawn and Propane," I started up my iPod.

New Mexico has their speed control signs grammatically correct.  Unlike California, and most other states I've been in, whose signs say "enforced by ...," New Mexico's said "Speed monitored by aircraft" and "Speed checked by radar."

I saw all kinds of animals, many I couldn't identify because they were either road kill or it was dark and I saw them too briefly.  Lots of crows.  Lots of dogs, horses, cows, donkeys, and goats.  I saw at least one owl and a couple other raptors I couldn't identify.

While the first consistent snow I saw was 16 miles before Dulce on the north facing ground, the first full covering, thank goodness not on the road was at the continental divide.  The high point with a full blanket of snow that looked to be at least eight inches was at mileage marker 193 on US 64.  I kept looking for an elevation sign but never saw one.

I got to Taos around 3:00 PM MST.  It and the brief time I drove on 160 in Arizona brought back memories of Marilyn.  I ate quickly and at least the lentil soup was hot and got on the road to Clayton.  Marilyn and I had driven the loop to Eagles Nest in 2004.  I just drove the US 64 portion backwards to our direction then.  I didn't realize before I drove into Taos that it crossed the Rio Grande River Gorge bridge.  We made a special trip out there as well.

After making a special stop in Taos for some hot food, I arrive at the Kokopelli Lodge, a Best Western in Clayton, to have a hot dinner, and breakfast, as part of my stay.

Believe it or not, this is not all of my notes.  It is, however, all of my typing.  I'm deliciously tired in my Life after Layoff.