Day 3460

I've been going back and forth all day about whether to fly or drive to Florida. Surprisingly, the cost is about the same either way. My car gets atrociously poor gas mileage and I'm not much of a long distance driver anymore, so there would be more stops along the way than you might expect. Airfare isn't exactly a bargain either since I need to have the flexibility to change my schedule at the last minute. It's hard to decide. I don't like to drive, but I don't like to fly either.

If I do decide to drive, my car is ready. The dealership called me this morning and said the service department was slow today. If I wanted, they could put on my new tires and do the other maintenance I need now instead of waiting until next week. Why not. I drove up to the dealership and picked up a loaner for the day. They gave me a Jaguar SUV. New cars are so totally electronic that they are confusing to me. I had to get someone to come show me how to get the car out of park. It wasn't intuitive at all. I also had them show me where the little button was that keeps the motor from shutting off every time you stop at a traffic light. Having your car die every time you pull up to a traffic light is unnerving. What if it won't start again? Does this feature really save energy or just cause road rage when the gizmo fails in heavy traffic?

When I was taking my walk today, I saw some guys from a local work-working store loading hardwood logs from somebody's front yard into their trailer. This never even occurred to me before. Neighbors are selling their downed trees to woodworking shops. My Dad was a wood carver and would frequently pay what I though was a lot of money for choice blocks of Walnut or Cherry wood. Since our part of town is full of old hardwood trees, there's probably a lot of valuable wood. Some people will throw this wood away. Others will use if for firewood. A few have wood stoves or like to grill using wood. The city seems to prefer to grind the wood up and use it for mulch. All I really wanted was to get the wood out of my yard. I don't think Elm is a very desirable carving wood anyway. People use Mesquite and Hickory for their smokers, but I'm never heard of anyone using Elm to smoke their meat. I've heard of Elm being used for furniture, but my tree wouldn't make many chairs. The wind turned it into a bunch of jagged splinters.

I've been really tired lately. This isn't new, but I thought my energy would return when I started getting more sleep. It isn't happening. Everybody slows down as they grow older, but it's hard to find a reference point. I know people my age who have a lot more energy than me, but I know other people my age who are dead. I'm doing better than either of my parents were at this age, but I can't keep up with Janet. I guess this isn't a big deal. Very few people can keep up with Janet.

It's off to the gym again tomorrow. Going to the gym is good. The active people I know seem to live much longer than the sedentary ones. Maybe a good workout will make me more decisive. I'm going to have to make the fly or drive decision soon. The whole country seems to be on the move. It won't be long before the planes fill up the same way the hotels in Florida did.

Shadow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day