Christmas 2005

Friday we picked up the daughter-unit and drove the annual 400 mile trip from Marin to Los Angeles. All along the way the traffic signs said to tune into AM 1610, but we refused to. Why not? I'll tell you why not.

A couple weeks ago, we drove into the city for a company party, and a traffic sign said, "Traffic Alert. Tune radio to AM 1610." I fumbled with the radio to switch it from FM to AM. Who listens to AM anymore? Then I fumbled with it to tune to 1610, since that's not one of our presets. We don't have presets on AM. I did this at about 80 mph, my standard cruising speed, and I managed not to hit anything.

After all this effort, would you like to know the nature of the traffic alert that caused me such distraction while driving? Was it a missing child? High wind warning? A high speed police pursuit? No. The recorded message said, "Please drive safely. Don't drink and drive."

That's the traffic alert? I was so mad I was tempted to drink and drive. Now I no longer pay attention to the signs. One day the bridge will be out and I'll drive right off the end because CalTrans cried wolf.

We got to the Grapevine (a hilly, winding road north of Los Angeles), made it to the top of the hill, and began the last leg of our journey into L.A. In the darkness on the other side of the freeway was a car fully engulfed in flame. Welcome to L.A.

I don't know if anyone was hurt. I hope not. It's a terrible way to start the Christmas holiday.

As we slid down the hill into the Santa Clarita Valley, the temperature seemed to shoot up 15 degrees in less than a minute. Last week I was up to my knees in snow, and now I'm turning on the air conditioning at 8 o'clock at night. If you've seen Melissa's recent photo on her blog, you'll understand why she's in a bikini at Christmas.

In the past few days, I've had at least two dozen people try to kill me.

I miss driving in Los Angeles. Driving in Marin County is like a kiddie ride at Disneyland. Boring and uneventful. Driving in Los Angeles requires an alertness comparable to cruising Baghdad. If you don't drive defensively, you'll become a statistic. There were the cars that didn't bother stopping at stop signs, the ones changing three or four lanes at once, the ones that cut you off and slow down, and the ones that just drift from their lane to yours. I think Los Angeles needs some more drive-by shootings to get the drivers to start paying attention again. Tonight I passed a woman putting on makeup while talking on a cellphone in freeway traffic. Driving in L.A., I feel alert and alive. Game on!

All that aside, we had a great time. I got some nice gifts, got to see friends and family, and ate way too much. Last night alone, I had ham, turkey, candied yams (that I made), fruit salad, potatoes, and apple pie. I didn't have the poncit. (Sorry, Melissa.)

Over the course of the next week, I hope to make a couple trips to Oregon to move more of our stuff. If all goes well, we'll then begin living there, and subsequent trips will be from Oregon to California to retrieve yet more of our stuff. Connie and I have been together for 30 years now. We have a lot of stuff.

I have two new gadgets that have made these trips more tolerable. I got Connie a Garmin StreetPilot i3 GPS navigation system to help her find her way around in our new home. I liked it so much, I got myself one. I also got her an XM satellite radio. No more hunting for radio stations every time we drive out of range. No more static. No more commercials. No more loss of signal in the hills. This is nice when you find yourself driving thousands of miles. I wish I got frequent flier miles for driving.


Blog Tag: Chatter