Travel 'logue

well, another chapter ended, another chapter begun.  this is what life is, what writing is, what creating is.  but this is also what pondering is, what contemplation is, and what sadness in motion is.  and they are all relevant, as it a healthy dose of directly applied spirituality.  sorry about the delay, but riding is hard on a body these days.  easier to cruise down star lanes on a pre-programmed flight plan, but driving for about 6 hours on a concrete road takes it out of me.  but enough whining.

over the days off, this will have to cover.  prayer, both days.  some rest, but not enough, until yesterday evening.  on Wednesday, i had my meeting, so that was the main focus.  i did get there, we just had a discussion and it was a pretty low morale affair and i tried to bring it back into the Step and Tradition focus with my comment.  i hope i succeeded, and if i did it will be by the grace of God, because i could feel the despair of what they were saying, but it's not always necessary to hit someone with the bitterness all at once.  you have to give someone a chance to get their own thing off.

then Syd was texting me that she didn't know if she really wanted to go, but she was using the excuse of being afraid to go with me, telling her mother she didn't want to be that far away from me and her grandparents, and not telling me the reality that Chris is waffling again.  which is not surprising, but it doesn't matter.  i talked to Chris as well, who also said nothing about these things, though she did talk nonsense about perhaps being given another chance to do things better concerning her children, who are now all grown.  suffice it to say, i talked to Chris, talked to Syd, and Syd brought her stuff over and was on the road Thursday morning.  that's where the fun truly began.

So. Yesterday morning we got up, mom's car loaded already, and prepared to hit the road. We took off and before we even got to Salt Springs the car was indicating an overheat. I stopped, filled the tank and the coolant reservoir and we resumed, to the same issue. So i turned around, Syd loaded her stuff in my car, filled it up and we left.

We made it in good enough time considering construction. We landed at Ronda's house, i hung out for a bit and talked to Ronda while i gathered myself. Then i got back on the road.

now, i believe in God, i believe in miracles and i believe wholeheartedly in Jehovah using whatever He chooses to do His will.  but it was some strange happenings, that i've not encountered before, that made me think in terms of this journey being the right one somehow...

for starters, i was exhausted.  watching Syd moving into adulthood slowly and painfully is hard, and sleep did not come easy to me on Wednesday night.  so i was tired.  and it was hot.  and my car has no a/c.  so i was slow roasting all the way there.  it was humid, building up to a heavy rain that was forecast.  i sat in Ronda's house, nodding and fighting the nod.  so when i got rolling again, i knew it was a mistake.  i stopped just outside Columbus, Fredrickstown, i believe, to get something to eat from BK, but the line was unmoving at all.  and it was hot.  and i was sleepy.  so i went back to my car, knowing that the closer i was to Youngstown, the less distance i'd still have to cover.  but i was nodding while i was driving.  and i knew i was doing a bad thing, pushing on...

when all of a sudden, a bee crashes into my glasses through my open window and lands on my leg.

never happened to me before.

i was startled and shocked into full wakefulness.  the bee was knocked unconscious, apparently.  i know bees are having a hard go of it these days, so i decided no killing.  i made it to a Wendy's, got out as the bee was again stirring, got him onto my phone and out of the car.  there's more, but that's not the point.

i ate there, got back in and drove, and started nodding again. but the bee and the lunch gave me enough to make it to a rest stop, where i parked and fell asleep for a power nap...

which ended when a fly chomped me on the back of my hand, which got me up and moving, completely refreshed.  made it through construction, around trucks, settled into my 72 mph cruise control in spots and listened to some hard rock and metal.

i got a text from Rachel telling me they'd had to reschedule the doctor in Cleveland because of an accident on the freeway, that they couldn't have left youngstown.  as i approached the city, i saw what she was talking about.  took me a minute to see the news on it, but a truck ran into another truck through construction and caused a chain reaction crash.  and i realized that, had we waited for my mom's car to be fixed, or delayed our departure, that might have been us, we could conceivably have been a  part of that accident.  we left 4 hours earlier, at 7.  should have been 5 hours earlier, but could have been much later.

so, Syd's in Columbus, an accident was avoided, a bee and a fly helped me get home, and i have to work today.  i am truly grateful to Jehovah God for his love and protection.