Rooting

As I type this I'm sitting at the Toyota dealer having my car serviced.  I expect it to pass 180,000 miles at some point later today or tomorrow, and there are a few relatively minor things to address.  My definition of "relatively minor" is > $500, and when you've got a car with that many miles on it staying ahead of trouble as best you can is a good thing.  I'm hoping to be driving that car for another 100K miles or more so we've agreed that if I treat her well she'll treat me well.  :)

It was a fairly quiet weekend here in sunny but chilly Charleston.  That's not a complaint so much as an observation.  When I got up this morning it was 28 degrees outside, but I talked with my sister in Rochester yesterday and she had already shoveled the driveway twice after getting more than a foot of snow there.  Yeesh.....

My life seems to have settled into the closest thing I've known to a "routine" in a while.  Work is busy but still interestering and manageable.  I have wrestling training two or three times a week.  My social life is active and I've enjoyed reconnecting with a dear friend.  My weekends are full and interesting.  I try to get to the gym on a regular basis, but to be honest other things have kept me away for almost a week.  There still seems to be more things I want to do than hours to do them in but my overall balance right now is very healthy.

I spent Saturday doing photography with a friend with whom I've never really done photography with before.  We had a lot of fun, and by the end of the day I was sunburned, wind-blown, and just plain pooped.

As I look to move this blog forward I'm investigating new ways to share photos and other media stuff.  I've loaded 3 pictures that I took with my iPhone yesterday into a slide show to share (see it here).  I'll tweak this stuff moving forward, but at least this is a start.  I'm open to thoughts/input/comments.

Whitney Houston died on Saturday.  It seems to have hit lots of people fairly hard as there are all kinds of tributes and things.  I hate to admit that I have no feelings at all on it.  I certainly appreciated her talent, but her passing wasn't the same for me as, say, Michael Jackson or Princess Diana or John Lennon or some others whose lives ended way too soon.

It does however, remind me about how things change.  I am very strongly hoping (and very optimistic) that 2012 will be the year that I finally get my "sh*t" together.  That is, I'm hoping to finally put an end to the extended long-distance separation I've had will all of my stuff.   Most of it is currently in Arizona, and finally getting it where I actually live is a priority for me because it won't truly be home until that happens. 

The first part of that equation was making the decision about  here home will be.  That's not as easy as it sounds and, in fact, has been my most pressing need for a while now.  Somehow I've ended up where I need to be and I'm very comfortable with where I am laying some long-term roots here. I call that "Rooting".....

The next part of the "Rooting" effort involves the various logistics, decisions, and work required to make it so. That journey starts this week with a flight to Phoenix followed by a 2,500 mile road trip back home.  I've got less than a week to do it all, and part of the saving grace is that the long driver back will involve brief visits with my son (Austin) and mom (Dallas).  Thankfully, the weather across the country is forecast to be relatively quiet for most of the week so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that turns out to be true.

I haven't been a road warrior for a while but it's one of those things that, once you've learned it, never really goes away.  As I get older I get a little easier on myself - I really don't feel like driving 1,100 miles a day the way I have in the past - so I may break it up a little more than I would a couple of years ago.  But getting in a car and just going is something I've got no problem doing as long as the car, traffic, and the weather all behave themselves.


Tomorrow is Valentine's Day.  I have an early evening flight and I've mentioned before that I don't put much value on that particular day as much more than a marketing bonanza (I saw something on the news tonight saying that the average American spends over $125 on the day).  Still, I expect to meet up with a friend whose face I'd most like to see before I go.

Tonight:  Dancing lesson #2 after work.  Wrestling practice at 6.  Get home and watch the end of the Syracuse/Louisville game.  Pack.  And get to bed at a reasonable hour.  As I say - lots going on.  :)