Rolling Along

Next week, I go to Bismarck for a PIO class that is put on by FEMA. I’m kind of looking forward to it. Right now, it’s as slow as it’s been for me here and I’m ready for a little change up.

The class should be cool, but as I took the class that follows this one already, I’m not expecting to have any epiphanies in learning. I am, however, intending to have some Cracker Barrel, as there is one of those in Bismarck as well as a Five Guys. Mmm….

The part I dread is the drive. It’s about 110 miles, which really is really considered a short commute here, but the weather isn’t fun for driving.

I’m obsessing with the 10-day forecast and it looks like I’m going to have cloudy 8-degree weather with a 20 percent chance of snow. Unlike when there’s a 20 percent chance of rain, though, that means it WILL snow.

Ah well. Still hoping for the best as I roll along.I have a pumpkin suit and MREs in the car. I'm ready.

I’m sure that’s what Notre Dame was doing last night, too, but holy cow. Can we just stress one more time how far superior Southern football is to football everywhere else?

Since I don’t have ESPN, I drove to Hope Village’s rec chapel to watch the game. Figured it would be a good time to update all the laptops.

Well, it was a good game for what, as long as the National Anthem lasted? That was just a debacle. An excellent one, too.

Congratulations to Barry for willing his bowl poll.

I’m looking forward to heading to North Augusta at the end of February, when Karen is going to work me like a rented mule for a catering gig or two she’s got going.

I went last week to Delta (I detest their site re-do) and linked my reservation on there and discovered that, in a mere 60 days, I will already be BACK from my little respite. That was a little spooky to realize. Two months is nothing.

My travel is going to be brutal – it’s three legs from here. I leave at 7:30 a.m. and don’t arrive until 4:30 p.m. Is there a Chick-Fil-A in the Minneapolis airport? I have a longer layover there than Atlanta, but I definitely need to check out Chick.

Not sure how I’ll get to the airport. It’s an early flight to ask someone for a ride, but it’s a long time to pay $20 a day to park. I might check into a taxi.

We have a new guy working with one of our partners. He is staying at Hope Village now in one of the unused RVs. I figure I’ll ask to see if he would like to housesit for that little stretch of time. If so, maybe he’d be willing to drop me off at the airport. It’s really not too far from here (fewer than 10 miles, I think), but it’s just such a pain to drive in the bad weather and at that hour.

Really, it’s amazing that such a little town (45k or so) could have such bad traffic. There are two main north-south routes, with one being direct and the other a bit wind-y. The wind-y one isn’t always sanded and the hills are tougher in icy weather. Overall, the direct one is the more congested one, and the airport is just a right off that.

On Sundays, when I go to church, there is no one out. If I catch the lights, it takes me five minutes to get to First Presbyterian, which is maybe 5-7 miles away. I can usually catch the lights on Sundays.

But on Mondays: Big difference. It can take 10-15 minutes to do the same route.

This week, I’ve already driven more than I have in the two previous weeks combined. I had two meetings yesterday and another today.

Last week, going to church, it dawned on me that it had been awhile since I filled up with gas – my credit card closed on the third and I didn’t have a gas bill at all in December.

When I went to the book, I realized I hadn’t filled up since 11/28. And what’s scary is I still have just under half a tank left.

So far, I have put fewer than 1500 miles on my car since I arrived here. Of course, it took about 2000 miles to arrive, plus it’s been six months, so I am way overdue for an oil change. I need to look into that, but I’m not psyched about heading to Walmart any time soon.

We don’t have Super-Lube. I guess there are Super-Lube-type places, but I haven’t noticed any. My decision now is do I do it now or wait until after Bismarck?

Just not mentally prepared to make those tough decisions yet in 2013.