Doing better than my plant

Rubber Plant: could go either way

Made it!

My lower back and neck need a little work but I at least look better than my rubber plant which apparently enjoyed the week of travel far less than I did.  Maybe I should have been taking it out of the car at night?  Ah, well.


Monday afternoon I was driving through Eastern Kentucky thinking about how I blew out tires several times on my drives to and from Cincinnati in grad school. About 20 minutes later my car suddenly started making a lot of noise and I, in momentary hopeful denial, thought:  "maybe the road is really bumpy here."


Apparently all this driving time put me in some type of telepathic harmony with my front left tire as I had successfully predicted a really impressive blow-out.  After pulling over I took a look and there was just about no rubber left on the wheel.


Waiting for AAA to call me back, I kept myself occupied by listening to Morehead College Public Radio which featured detailed discussion of the tornado clean-up from West Liberty, 30 miles away -- the community hardest hit in the weekend's devastating wind storms.  About 25 minutes later I still hadn't heard from AAA but a car pulled over and then backed up along the shoulder.  A man sprung out of his car, holding a toolbox.  He was extremely nice, jacked up the car, tried to pump the spare with his 12-volt air pump when we discovered that my battery had also died.  He then kickstarted my car which was pretty risky given that we were only feet away from trucks whipping by at 70 mph.


He informed me that there was, thankfully, a Wal-Mart a couple of exits ahead with mechanic services.  $200 and an hour later they had me on my way.  I have to say that everyone I encountered in rural Kentucky was extremely nice and if I didn't mind living somewhere with ubiquitous "Hell is Real" and "Abortion kills a beating heart" billboards as well as radio stations that range from country to deep country to conservative Christian to super right-wing lunatic Christian I would definitely consider a move!


Maryland is a much bigger state than I had envisioned.  My joyful reading of a "Welcome to Maryland" sign was followed by three additional hours of driving before reaching my parents' house in Olney.  And they're only a little more than half-way through the state!  Who knew?  It looks so tiny on a map.


Movers came and took my yellow duct-taped boxes into the house and then we drove to the storage facility where they crammed every square inch of a 10' x 10' locker with my remaining possessions.  I had originally thought that I could perhaps retrieve some items as needed from the locker but after seeing the puzzle piece-tight configuration of furniture and boxes my brother pointed out:  "You won't be getting any of your things out of there before you move into your own place.  If it's in there it's dead to you."  Funny, sad and true.


Purim is tonight -- the holiday observance mid-way through a Jewish month (Adar) that carries the commandment to "be happy."  It's actually a very appropriate night to be going to a silly service to celebrate the absurdities of life.  I think I need to be taking myself a bit less seriously these days.  In the scheme of human circumstances, my life is extremely easy and blessed.  This holiday is a perfect reminder.


Happy Purim to all!