Austin Traffic

When we go to San Antonio, we typically bypass Austin and drive through the Texas Hill Country. It doesn't take any longer and it's less aggravating than the struggle of taking I-35 through the center of Austin. BUT we thought that since it was the Friday before a major holiday and we'd be passing through after 6 PM that it wouldn't be a big deal. We were very wrong.

The slow down started at Round Rock (as it always does) but it eased up after ten minutes, so we thought it would be smooth sailing after that. We were very wrong again.

It was crawl, speed up and slow down to a crawl again all the way through. I counted at least three accidents with police cars and wreckers. Seems a high number of accidents for the size of the city and the relatively small stretch of road. All in all, it added about 30 minutes to the trip, which wasn't too bad - it has taken up to an extra hour in the past.

I have to conclude that the folks in Austin just can't drive very well. I think we'll go home through the Texas Hill Country. Fredericksburg is such a pleasant little town. But then again, how much traffic will there be in Austin on New Year's Day?

A Good $6 Investment

Different people define investments in different ways. To me, an investment is one of three things.

1. Something that I'll be able to use multiple times so that I get my money's worth out of it.
2. Something that pays dividends.
3. Something that increases in value.

I bought a couple of Santa hats for us this year. I'm not sure they'll ever increase in value, but we've already used them multiple times since I bought them last Thursday and they've paid a remarkable dividend.

We were on our way to Oklahoma City on Christmas Eve. There is a road that runs between Route 82 and Interstate 35. No speed limit sign that we could see. But we now know that the speed limit is 55. We found out because we were doing 65 - 10 miles over the limit. From what I understand, a speeding ticket generally costs $25 for each mile over the speed limit - so in our case that would have been $250.

"Good morning sir. Do you know how fast you were going?"

"Good morning. About 65 I think."

"Did you know the speed limit is 55?"

"No, I had no idea."

"I'll need your license and insurance card. When was the last time you had a ticket?"

"I've never had one."

Thank goodness he didn't say "Well, that's about to change!" He said, "I'm going to run your license through the computer and if everything checks out, I'll give you a warning."

A warning! No ticket! No fine! It could have been because of Mark's stellar driving record. But I prefer to think that it was because we were wearing Santa hats. Really, who could give a ticket to an old git in a Santa hat? That's like a 4000% return on that $6. I'll be looking for bunny ears in a few months...

Paper, Pen, and Pretty to the Rescue

A long time ago (a really long time ago - like before everyone had a computer in the house) I had a Christmas card list "book". It was just a cheap little thing - a giveaway from a card company. It was far from ideal but it had columns for listing names, street addresses, cities, states, and zip codes. And then it had columns for "sent" and "received". These went out about 10 years, so the book served me well for a long time.

It's probably been over 10 years since that book's last columns were used. Without the sent and received columns the book ceased to be useful. But I didn't worry. I had a computer and I could make a spreadsheet with all the names and addresses and I could even add columns for sent and received. So I did. I can't remember whether I named the file "addresses" or "christmascardlist" or something else that should have been obvious. What I do remember is that I had to open the file at the end of the season to put the Xs in the received column (that practice was short-lived - too much hassle). And then the following year, I couldn't find the file. But I didn't worry, I'd made a print copy. I could recreate the file. So I did. And I repeated this process for a number of years. This year was no exception. It seems that I never actually bothered putting dates on anything and this year I found several files but had no idea which one was the most current. (You would think the file date would have been helpful, but for some unknown reason, all the files had the same date.) There were six different printed versions in my paper file and the only hints I had were the addresses of people who had moved. It looked to me like none of the files was current. This will not happen again.

A visit to the Hallmark store has solved the problem. The pages are laid out with plenty of room for each address, which is important because many of the people on our list these days don't live in the US and addresses in the UK, Australia, France and even Canada take up more lines. There are five years of sent and received boxes AND there are plenty of extra pages so that when the five years are used up, all I need to do is break out another page. I think this will probably do for the rest of my life, or as long as I can remember where I put it.

What's Happened to Us?

Yet another gun-related tragedy today. I think the last number I heard was 26 people, including children. I am sad and angry all at the same time. The America I grew up in was a safe place. My biggest childhood fear was that the Russians would drop a bomb on me. I had no way of knowing that they couldn't actually get to Ohio with a bomb without being intercepted.

Unfortunately, in my lifetime we've been attacked on our home turf, not by a foreign government but by a terrorist organization. But threats to our safety are not limited to terrorists. We have our own home grown nutcases to be afraid of. We've seen news reports of people shooting up malls, grocery stores, movie theatres, and today an elementary school. Add home invasions to that and it's hard to feel safe anywhere.

We keep hearing the mantra that "guns don't kill people - people kill people". Here's the problem, people with guns can kill more people than people who have no weapon other than their bare hands. In that sense, guns are weapons of mass destruction.

Look at it for a moment from the shooter's perspective. It's impersonal. They only have to fire. They don't have to look into the faces of their victims - they can do it with their eyes closed. Their victims are random, nameless, faceless - in other words killing with a gun doesn't require the killer to consider the humanity of the victim.

I'm not so naive as to think that people can't look into the face of a child and still kill. I know that they do. All too often we hear about mothers drowning their children and psychos abusing and killing children. But not dozens of children at a time. A gun makes it really easy. It's also easy for the shooter to claim that he was "temporarily insane" but miraculously better now. A harder sell if he's strangled 26 people.

At this point no one knows what motivated this shooting spree. Whatever it was, it won't matter to the families who've lost a child or a loved one. I don't care what kind of stress or strain this guy was supposedly dealing with. He didn't deal with it properly.

What's happened to us? Things like this didn't happen when I was growing up. Are people crazier or did we just lock them up back in the 50s and 60s? Why can't we lock them up now? When they catch them and put their pictures on TV they all look looney. But I suppose you need a better reason than "he looks insane" to lock somebody up and I'm sure there are lots of people who look a bit looney but are quite harmless.

Are guns more deadly or more easily available? I suspect they are, on both counts. When I was growing up my dad kept hunting rifles in the house. We didn't have any assault weapons. No matter what the NRA says, no one needs an assault rifle for home protection. I also know that we have "gun control" laws in place but they don't seem to have any teeth. I remember back in the 60s when my dad was buying a hunting rifle. The store clerk asked him what he intended to do with it. Really, if he'd intended to kill someone do you think he'd have told the store clerk? Here in Texas they have gun shows. I went to one once years ago with my ex-husband. You could buy any kind of weapon you wanted. And believe me, there were lots of looney-looking people hanging out there.

It's a complex issue. All too often, authorities make laws/rules that don't address the real problem. (Happens in clubs, corporations, and government all the time.) And in this case, I'm not at all sure what the "real" problem is. I don't have the answers. I do have a gun. I've never fired it at anything other than a paper target. I hope I never do.

Can You Give Me a Hint?

I just got a call from Verizon wireless on my land line. They were actually calling for Mark but, alas, he wasn't here. (They should have called his mobile number!) But I offered to help. After all, I'm the one who handles the bills.

"Let me see if your name is listed on the account. Yes, here you are. Can you tell me the account password?"

"No. I have no idea. Can you give me a hint?"

"I can't."

"Can you tell me if it's letters or numbers? Maybe a name."

"I'm sorry, we're not allowed to tell. I can leave you our toll free number and Mr. Elliott can call back."

(Not allowed?? Really?) "Alright then. But tell me, is there a problem with the account or do you want to sell us something?"

"I just want to tell him about some promotions we're offering right now."

"I'm SURE he'll call you back as soon as he can."

(Yeah, that'll happen.) Little Miss Perky "Not Allowed" rattled off the toll free number, which I did NOT write down. I just don't think I should have to know a password to be annoyed by a telemarketer. I understand they want to prevent an unauthorized person from making changes to our account. But I didn't call them, they called me. What are the odds that someone broke into my house and tied me up with the intention of answering my phone and buying everything that every telemarketer was selling? Besides, I know Mark well enough to know that I'm not the only one who doesn't know the password without a hint.

The Christmas Tree Workout

Mark has been pushing to get a pre-lit Christmas tree for several years. The only reason he's given in favor of it is that it's more "convenient". It wasn't enough to convince me. I was resistant for several very good reasons.

1. If the lights go out, you have to buy another tree, not just a $2 string of lights. This seems impractical to me.
2. You can buy a plain tree and 10 sets of lights for far less than you can buy a pre-lit tree. So it doesn't make economic sense.
3. I really like the Andover "pencil" pine that we have. It's "thin" and doesn't take up the entire room. I've looked for a replacement that's a similar size and shape and so far, I haven't found one. To get something with a bigger diameter would involve moving more than a coat rack.

These three points have been the basis of my resistance. But now, my resistance is gone. It was melted away by five days of limping and pain. We put the tree up last week and I finally stopped hurting yesterday. Usually Mark gets the tree out, "adjusts" the branches and puts the lights on with minor assistance from me, and then we both put the rest of the decorations on together. This year, I had to adjust the branches and put the lights on without his help because he had to finish a report.

Let me tell you, getting those lights on the bottom branches is back-breaking work. Talk about sore muscles! I'm convinced that all I need to do is take the tree down and put it back up every day. All that squatting and bending - I'll strengthen those quads and glutes in no time. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except my morning walk turned into a morning "hobble" for about five days. (But I'm sure I'm stronger now.)

Why didn't he tell me it was killing him rather than "inconveniencing" him? I had no idea until I did it myself. I'm convinced. Right now, I'm really excited about buying a pre-lit tree at the after Christmas sales. Of course, I'm still planning to keep the old one, just move it to another location and maybe not put so many lights on it. We may end up having to move furniture to accommodate a new model, but that can't possibly be any worse than all the stooping and squatting to get the lights on the old one. Maybe I can put the bottom part of the tree on a table to get those lights on before assembling the entire tree. I guess part of me wants to believe that "no pain no gain" applies to Christmas decorations.

Why Cruising is Better than Flying

Mark and I love cruise vacations and we're so fortunate that neither of us suffers from seasickness. Cruising is one of the best vacation deals around. Here's why:

1. No one from the TSA gropes you before you board.
2. You can take as many bags as you want - no charge.
3. Cruise line food is good. Plus there's a variety!
4. You don't have to sleep sitting up.
5. They may misplace your luggage for a while, but they don't send it to a different city or country.
6. There's more to do while you're in transit than read a book, watch a movie, or sleep.
7. You don't have the added expense of a hotel.
8. No one else uses your bathroom, and someone cleans it twice a day.
9. You can stroll around outside.
10. The other passengers are smiling.