I came up with the title about reading faster back when I signed up to blog today. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm a fast reader and I have a friend who is, as she says, a thorough reader.I've read a lot more books. She's immersed herself in the details of the ones she's read for longer.
Truth is, I have no brain power today to explore this issue. Our family has to ready the house for the house sitter and prepare for a fun-filled day...or two...in the car to converge upon my sister's home and join the extended family gathering for the holidays.
I will enjoy the visiting. The car? Not so much.
So, what I really wonder on this, Wondering Wednesday, is: why haven't the scientists caught up to the science fiction writers and given us transporters like in Star Trek? How lovely would it be to step into the family transporter and say, "Beam me there, Scotty." Yeah. I'm tired. Two books in seven weeks, work, work, and more work. Kids. Illness. So what's new? Nothing, except I'm seriously considering stepping into the shower, saying "Beam me there, Scotty," and refusing to leave until it happens. I'm immersing myself in that wonderful image. Yum.
For anyone wondering if I'd really do it? My hot water heater wouldn't hold out long enough...I really hate cold showers.
Scientists...are you listening? It's me, Kelly, dreading the next big family trip.
4 comments:
We leave for our next trip as soon as it sounds like the roads are clear. While I would love to be beamed up and transported, our boys have always been good travelers, partly because we never have lived by family and have to make regular road trips to see any relatives. We also like the time away from everything that needs to be done and before cell phones, no one could find us while we were on the road.
A trick I learned to help my guys with the traveling: Instead of just giving the boys a bag with treats for the trip, I would wrap them each individually. Nothing big. A pack of gum for themselves. A small activity book and crayons. A baggie of crackers. I would write a time on each package and that's when they could open it (I would keep them with me when they were little and hand them out at the right time). As they got older, the time between treats was longer and they would usually get one big treat (a gameboy game, for instance, or CD) near the end of the trip.
They're much older now -- able to share in the driving -- but I still keep a couple gifts wrapped for the trip. The fun keeps us going!
We take 2 long car trips every year, from FL to NY and then back again, spending 2 nights on the road, arriving at our destination the afternoon of the 3rd day. We drive so that we'll have a car for the several months we're in NY, and also because I won't put our rather large dog on a plane. My husband and I average one rip-roaring argument per trip, while Indio sleeps in the back of the SUV, sharing his space with the luggage, oblivious to everything. We've driven through torrential rain and snow and fire-ravaged I-95 where we got stopped by the Highway Patrol for hours so that new fires could be put out. Not what I'd call a fun trip. If there were only some way to get us there without the drive. Something like matter transmission. Although, come to think of it, if you ever saw that movie The Fly, maybe that's not such a good idea, after all.
We grew up out west, in Oregon's remote ranching country miles from the nearest highway, then spent the early decades of our marriage in Phoenix, so anywhere we wanted to go involved at least an 8 hr drive, which is why we have no problem driving 8-9 hrs (depending on traffic) to DC every few weeks so I can play Auntie Mame Gramma. Driving to our place in SC, which we just sold this year, took about 9 hrs, which, although I had every mile memorized, still wasn't as boring as crossing the desert from AZ to the Pacific so I could have my every few weeks ocean fix.
When we made the huge -- for us -- move east across the Mississippi, we spent 6 months driving around the entire southeast with our ancient doggie and equally ancient, and insane siamese kitty (who'd been suffering for several years with kitty Alzheimer's), in tow, trying to find a new state/town/house.
The only really bad part of the trip (other than the horrible day we had to find a vet in College Park Maryland to put dear Kitty Scarlett to sleep) was having to call my editor about revisions from pay phones at rest stops with trucks roaring by in the background. That was 8 yrs ago when cell phones were still iffy for miles at a time.
I don't mind driving anywhere; never did, even when our son was younger (we'd hit the road at 4 in the morning, so he'd sleep the first 4-5 hrs), and we never get into driving arguments, even when we're lost on the wrong side of the road in Ireland. It's especially nice these days when you can listen to a book most of the way. And yes, as silly as it sounds, we also listen to the unabridged versions of my books when they come out, which take up most of the 9 hr drive from TN to DC.
Yet, make me do air travel these days (I had to leave my NYC hotel at five in the morning a couple weeks ago to catch my filght out of JFK) and THAT'S when I'd give anything to have Scottie beam me up.
See, to me I would enjoy the car trip, and the visiting not so much ;)
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