I'm Driving My Life Away

Well the midnight headlight find you on a rainy night

steep grade up ahead slow me down makin’ no time…

Gotta keep rollin'…

I was wondering, after spending about 36 hours in the car, just how much time I spend (lose?) driving or riding. So, I asked my math whiz husband and he started figuring it out. He always amazes me when he can start figuring that stuff in his head. All I could say was wait, you’ll have to tell me again because I’m never going to remember all that.

He said, well, you spend 2 hours a day driving, for sure, going to work and back. So let’s see, that would be 10 hours a week. Ten hours a week goes to 40 hours a month which would be about 480 hours a year. Each year you spend a full 12 weeks just driving to and from work. That comes out to 60 full work days or three months time. So you spend approximately 1 quarter of your year driving to and from work. That doesn’t count the distance driven for work after I get there. My work area, geographically, is 37,553 square miles! Wow.

When you spell it out like that it seems amazing I could spend that much time just driving to and from work.

Then of course, there’s the ‘leisure’ driving. The nearest large, and that’s a relevant term, town is either 30 or 50 miles away, depending on the town you are visiting. That’s just to the edge of town. If you actually go somewhere it’s further.

When the kids grew up and left, they didn’t leave to anywhere close. The boys went to school in Golden, Colorado, which is a mere 750 miles, one way. Then Bryce graduated and moved to Tulsa. That made him 570 miles one direction and Ty 750 miles the other direction. When Ty graduated he moved to Vernal, Utah. That’s only 954 miles. Callye is the closest because she only lives 100 miles away. That’s nothing!

When we moved to Crane it was from Portales, New Mexico. I had come from Albuquerque and it was 234 miles to Portales. I thought that was far and took forever. Portales to Crane is 226 miles. Crane to Albuquerque is 425 miles.

It’s easy and probably pretty accurate to say that I spend, at the least, another 480 hours in the car. This would be visiting my parents or the kids or just going on a leisure trip. So that’s approximately another three months in the car. That’s half a year driving or riding. It sounds crazy, doesn’t it!

If I ride I usually get to knit. It’s not possible to (safely) drive and knit. I bet you wonder how I know that. But at least riding is a little bit productive. If it’s something simple I can even knit in the dark.

In a couple of days there will be another 36 hour ride back home. It’s straight through, in case I forgot to mention that tiring fact. I’ll get to knit some and I’ll get to drive some too. And hopefully somewhere in there I’ll get to sleep. It won’t be bad. What’s another day and a half in the car when you are driving your life away?

Those windshield wipers slappin’ out a tempo

keepin' perfect rhythm with the song on the radio…

Gotta keep rolling…

Bottle Brush Tree in Kissimmee...Very pretty!

Day 346 of knitayear, March 12, we make a fast trip to Lubbock, for my birthday. We have to get home, pack and do some other things before the trip so we don’t get to do much there. The littles were going fishing and that would have been fun but there’s just not time. I’m rushed but cherish the time we did get to spend together. I choose off white fun fur. It’s March 13, day 347, and I’m still getting everything together for the trip. Alan runs errands, and takes care of a lot of things while I get the rest of our stuff together. We load into the suburban and we’re off on our big adventure. It starts out great but San Antonio brings an unexpected bus breakdown. A solenoid in the transmission went out and we’re rushing to get a U-Haul, unload, reload and make arrangements for the bus to get to a repair shop. The kids from that bus are loaded into one of the other three and we go on. When I say school bus, it’s not the common yellow bus that comes to mind. The school buses these kids are used to are charter buses and the school owns at least four of their own. I choose a lavender color that’s part of the new yarn. Hoping it brings a peaceful feeling! Day 348, March 14, and we aren’t there yet. We are at least 3 hours, and probably even more than that, behind schedule. Everyone is tired. Finally we’re there and we have around 20 minutes to change clothes before dinner. We got to go to Planet Hollywood. It was fun. We were too tired to go anywhere else but back to the room. There’s tomorrow to explore and sleep calls. No, sleep screams! I choose for this day a black sparkly fur, from the first time it was popular. It kind of fits the place! Day 349, March 15, is the day the kids get to march in the parade. One of the other buses is acting a little strange so after the kids are situated we get it checked out. That took most of the day. Then it was time to eat and again, and we went back to the room. Tomorrow we are going to explore. I hope anyway. It’d be a shame to come to DisneyWorld and never see a bit of it! I feel guilty for resting and wasting the chance. I choose a pale gold yarn for this day. It’s my golden opportunity to see DisneyWorld! And to gear up for the long trip back.

Planet Hollywood at Disney World

Welcome CHS Band!

From the fourth floor and we climbed the stairs.

Not our bus!

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlej....

Hey waitress pour me another cup of coffee

pop me down jack me up shoot me out flyin' down the highway…

Lookin’ for the morning…

Oh, I'm driving my life away, looking for a better way, for me.

Oh, I'm driving my life away, looking for a sunny day…