where is everyone going in such a hurry?

I looked at the sky on Saturday and saw all these jet condensation trails.  I wondered “where are all those people going?”  Why are they in such a hurry?  Don’t get me wrong, mostly I would rather fly than drive.  But just go with me for a minute.  There are 6 contrails visible.  There were at least that many that I did’t get in the picture.  Figure 200 people on a plane, that is 2400 people in a hurry to get somewhere.  I am a lot like them.  I like to get where I’m going and not dawdle.  My favorite son-in-law told me that he is on vacation when he goes somewhere.  He isn’t in a hurry to get there.  He would rather be refreshed  and a little late than on time and worn out.  I could tell stories about his driving, but I will refrain.  He has always gotten my babies to me in one piece.

When I was younger, so much younger than today, oh sorry John and Paul, we lived in South South Florida and would drive to the mountains of Virginia.  On a good trip it was 20 hours, on a bad one 24.   We would drive straight through.  We were young, we were stupid, we needed a day or two to recover from the idiotic trip.  When we stopped half way, we felt better but convinced ourselves that it took too long, even though we had a driving hangover for two days each way.  We were in a hurry and never stopped to enjoy the scenery or savor a meal or sleep in bed we didn’t have to make up in the morning.  On the trip back, we would get to Jacksonville and think “we are in Florida!” but still had 8 hours to go.

Going on a trip used to be an adventure, but it has turned into a chore over the years .  What an adventure it would have been to travel from the Florida Keys to Virginia during the days of Flagler’s Railroad.  Imagine getting on a train in Key West and traveling North all the way on an old steam engine powered rail car.  Or even going on horseback or stagecoach from St. Augustine to Charleston or Norfolk.  Or taking a wind powered sailing ship from Miami to New York or New Orleans or Galveston.  No air conditioning, no Quik Trips, no road side motels, just the weather and the bugs and the rough sleeping and little indoor plumbing and … well you get the picture.  By being in a hurry, we might lose out on seeing the world, but we also miss out on all the “mess”.

Going paperless update:  Not there completely yet.  I have found a way to get all my business receipts online via an iPhone app, let you know how that works over the long haul.  I love Evernote for keeping my handwritten notes in the “cloud”.  Write my notes and take a pic and throw away the paper–easy to do, no paper to file, except file 13.  I still like the feeling of handwriting my notes, it helps me remember, but I like even more the feeling when the note paper goes in the recycle bin.

Baseball update:  First Pitchers and Catcher report date is in 10 days, can summer be far behind?  Although one of the coldest nights I ever remember was one April night game in Turner Stadium.  The wind must have been 40 mph and it was freezing.  We sat through the whole game and the Braves still lost.  But it is still one of my fonder memories.

Site updates:  I have added an RSS feed button, if you have to ask, you don’t use it.  I also started a Twitter tweeting thingy.  If you follow my twitter feed, you will get a tweet when I post something new (@cwt725). I don’t have the whole tweeting process down yet, but I’m trying to get myself out there.

Apple fanboy status:  I kept trying to use my MacBook as a touch screen today.  It would have been funny if someone hadn’t been standing right next to me.

Enough giving you reason to question my sanity, goddess knows I do that enough myself.  See y’all later.