Tue 27 Nov 2007 @21:09
Last week, for the first time ever, I had ALL of Thanksgiving week off from work. So for the second time in 23 years I had Thanksgiving with my family. [The other time is a story in itself... for another time.]
You may know that where I come from, distance is measured in minutes. ["How far to the store?" "About five minutes...."] Nearing the end of the long drive, I passed a sign that indicated Louisville was 145 miles away. Traveling at highway speed [70 mph... or a little more] I thought, “Two more hours to go!” [Yes, I converted minutes to hours in my head before talking to myself....] About 20 minutes later the speed limit was down to 60 mph due to construction and I passed another sign. This one said that Louisville was now 120 miles away. And I thought, “I was two hours away 20 minutes ago… how can I still be two hours away?” I imagined that every few minutes I would run into a lower speed limit and I would be two hours away forever. For. Ever.
Is it wrong that I am thankful that it wasn’t me that spent Thanksgiving in the hospital with pneumonia? Even though my brother did? It made for a weird week for all of us. But it sucks to be him the last few days.
On Friday and Saturday nights there was a reunion of my high school class. I haven’t really kept in touch with anyone from high school. Moving 850 miles away from home has a lot to do with that, but I’m not sure I would have even if I still lived closer. Still, it was interesting to see what has happened to some of my classmates. There are a few lawyers and doctors [at least one neurologist and one reconstructive plastic surgeon], several career military, a few teachers, firefighters [including a chief of the local fire department], and various engineers, tradesmen, and business people. Most had families [and several... um, second or third families] with children and a few grandchildren — one girl [a good catholic girl, not that I want to reinforce any stereotypes] has 10 kids. TEN KIDS! And a 15-passenger van as a family car….
Did everyone who owns a car take it on the road on Sunday? Because, really, it seemed like we were all out there. And I’m still really tired. But, is it wrong that I’m thankful I wasn’t in one of the accidents I passed on the road?
November 28th, 2007 at 20:43
I wonder what kind of mileage one would get in a 15-passenger family car.
I’ve been thinking about mileage lately since seeing all of the “petrol” signs in England this past week–the average price per LITER is 1.07. Multiply that by the current exchange rate of 2.11 and that’s 2.2577 dollars/liter, which means that gasoline costs around $8.54/gallon. And since the average Londoner spends up to one hour per day idling in a “queue” you can see how quickly these prices add up. AND they have to pay a daily congestion charge of eight pounds, or roughly 16.88 per day just to drive in their own neighborhood. Expensive!
So I doubt that a 15-passenger family car would be particularly cost-efficient in the UK, which is, of course, apropos of nothing but that I am hopped up on flu medicine right now and think numbers are funny.
Numbers are funny. Except 144, which is gross…. ~Tim
November 29th, 2007 at 21:39
Yes, you should be thankful!! I read somewhere that there was a car accident every 15 minutes here the in the US.
Given the number of vehicles on the road, I would believe an even higher number. ~Tim
November 30th, 2007 at 16:05
We flew for our Thanksgiving, which made me a little nervous but we did Sat - Sat so I think that helped it a little bit. I heard horror stories of the roads here on the Wed and Sunday after the holiday so I think I’ll try to avoid going anywhere far in the car on those days.
I think I would be more nervous flying at the holidays — just the control freak in me. ~Tim
November 30th, 2007 at 20:25
I don’t ever think it’s wrong to appreciate the things you have.
–snow
And sometimes the things we don’t have. ~Tim