To say this has been an amazing year for my family would be akin to saying Duluth is a bit chilly in January or Amboy is rather warm in July. It has been an incredible time of blessing and sorrow, grand adventure and mind numbing tedium, prosperity and expense. For the foreseeable future, at least through the weeks of December, it looks as though the pattern will continue.
Today it will begin with adventures at the office. People are on the move giving me the impression someone has kicked over an ant hill and that means the truck rental business is a busy one.
One aspect of this that I find most fascinating is the trend toward people not really having a plan in regards to moving and a second is the locations they are moving to. In recent weeks, a large percentage of my rentals are to destinations such as Iron Mountain in Michigan, Buffalo in New York, Boise, Denver, and Lincoln, Nebraska.
I feel this helps explain a great deal about the current political climate in our nation. I mean the fact that people are moving to these locations from Arizona just as winter is about to begin provides clear indication of the level of confusion in our nation today. After all, birds, and even Canadians go south for the winter.
The next item on the agenda will be to make a valiant effort to finish cleaning out mothers house. This is no easy task as she has lived there for more than thirty years. Compounding the problem is the fact that she moved in with items in tow that had not been used since 1959 but were deemed to important to throw away.
At some point in the next two days, I will also need to get a haircut, write a minimum of 4,000 words to keep the Route 66 encyclopedia project on something that vaguely resembles a schedule, finalize a few arrangements for the trip to California that will provide a vacation of sorts for my son as he becomes the master of the castle when we leave, and prepare the Jeep for another grand adventure.
For more than thirty years I avoided the Los Angeles metropolitan area with more zeal than a used car salesman with ten minutes of free air time for a commercial. As an additional safeguard I worked six days a week which prevented long weekends and then when we did travel it was often to locations tied to an assignment so we could afford the trip.
In the past two years opportunity has lured us to the depths of the congested labyrinth that is the greater L.A. area numerous times. There is the very real possibility my dearest friend and I would be able to find something enjoyable in a trip to Siberia in January but the choking congestion on the roadways in Los Angeles and the surrounding area taxes our ability to find good in all situations.
This is not to say we do not enjoy our adventures into the belly of the beast. Nor do I mean to suggest we are not looking forward to our next adventure.
This excursion will include a visit to our favorite book store (Auto Books – Aero Books) in Burbank, an interview with Jay Leno, the Malibu farmers Market, a stroll on the beach with my dearest friend, a visit with Dan Rice and his precious wife on Santa Monica Pier, a stop at the Farmers Market in Los Angeles, a bit of business at the Peterson Automotive Museum, and, if all goes according to schedule, our first stay at the legendary Wigam in Rialto. The trip will culminate with breakfast and friends in Wrightwood, and a leisurely drive home across the Mojave Desert on old Route 66.
Coloring our adventures this year have been a lengthy series of triumphs and tragedies. This too will continue in the weeks to come.
As my little sisters health continues to deteriorate there is the specter that before the year is out we have two funerals in our family. This will also be the first Thanksgiving and Christmas for our new grandson.
This was the first year our photography became a source of income, that is if you consider a few hundred dollars as income. A print was sold to an international collector through the Lile Fine Art Gallery in Amarillo and a couple of photos were sold to a corporate entity for their website.
I suppose a succinct descriptor for the next few weeks would be “and the fun continues.”
