Passin' Over, 2007.
Yesterday was the family gathering up in North Wales, PA (Google Maps unavailable) for Passover. This was the first time in the last few years that I was unable to take koshkaphoenix and Munchkin with me (yes, you were both missed!) but it allowed me to do something I haven't done in as many years: I got to drive home alone. More on that, later.
For some reason, yesterday was also the day that everybody I'd ever want to hang out with was available to hang out, but I wasn't. I got several calls saying "hey, wanna' hang out," but when I'm 150 miles away at a Seder, my options are kinda' limited. So, to anyone who wanted to hang out yesterday: I'm back - and please by all means cash in the rain check whenever you like.
Driving up to PA with my mom in the car can be fun or it can be hell; just depends on how much of a badgering pain in the ass she wants to be. Yesterday's drive up, totaling 3h15m, was about 40% mom griping about "you need to..." this or that. I guess that's what she's there for.
The seder itself was, as always, cool. I got to catch up with many of my cousins... most of whom are either in college or will be in a couple of years - I'm the only one who's really in between the younger (20 and under) set, vs. the older (near 50) gang. It's always been strange being the only one my age around there, but it doesn't necessarily suck. The older ones don't really regard me as a kid anymore, and the kids still think I'm cool (must be the association with fast cars), so I enjoy it. A few relatives couldn't make it (thanks to this being done on a Tuesday, which monkey-wrenched it for a lot of us) but a few "new" faces showed up to make it a packed house.
The drive home ran me exactly one hour less than the run up. 150 miles in 2:15, not exactly burning up the pavement, but with the number of speed traps I went through along Interstates 276, 476, and 95, not too shabby. Driving home alone at night when the trip is only a couple hours, is always a treat. My music gets as loud as I want it, I stop only when I need to (once, to refuel), and basically the entire trip goes according to whatever I feel like doing. It's different from the long-haul down to Sebring, where I'm trying to make it there in one shot on absolute endurance - it's more like a sprint run, than a marathon. Any trip I can make on one tank of gas, qualifies as a sprint. It was somewhere in the 5 minutes' worth of Delaware I drove through, that I was able to get a nearly full dial of both Philly and Baltimore radio stations. That track, 10,000 Fists by Disturbed that's been getting rotation lately? Yeah, it's great at high speed. :) Anything by those guys, goes good with caffeine and smoked pavement.
Got home at 02:15, having left at 23:59, settled down to watch the premiere of "The Shield" (yay, it's back!!! Thanks to koshkaphoenix for setting the tape!), and promptly passed the hell out.
With Sebring now three weeks past, it's finally starting to feel like Spring in DC.
For some reason, yesterday was also the day that everybody I'd ever want to hang out with was available to hang out, but I wasn't. I got several calls saying "hey, wanna' hang out," but when I'm 150 miles away at a Seder, my options are kinda' limited. So, to anyone who wanted to hang out yesterday: I'm back - and please by all means cash in the rain check whenever you like.
Driving up to PA with my mom in the car can be fun or it can be hell; just depends on how much of a badgering pain in the ass she wants to be. Yesterday's drive up, totaling 3h15m, was about 40% mom griping about "you need to..." this or that. I guess that's what she's there for.
The seder itself was, as always, cool. I got to catch up with many of my cousins... most of whom are either in college or will be in a couple of years - I'm the only one who's really in between the younger (20 and under) set, vs. the older (near 50) gang. It's always been strange being the only one my age around there, but it doesn't necessarily suck. The older ones don't really regard me as a kid anymore, and the kids still think I'm cool (must be the association with fast cars), so I enjoy it. A few relatives couldn't make it (thanks to this being done on a Tuesday, which monkey-wrenched it for a lot of us) but a few "new" faces showed up to make it a packed house.
The drive home ran me exactly one hour less than the run up. 150 miles in 2:15, not exactly burning up the pavement, but with the number of speed traps I went through along Interstates 276, 476, and 95, not too shabby. Driving home alone at night when the trip is only a couple hours, is always a treat. My music gets as loud as I want it, I stop only when I need to (once, to refuel), and basically the entire trip goes according to whatever I feel like doing. It's different from the long-haul down to Sebring, where I'm trying to make it there in one shot on absolute endurance - it's more like a sprint run, than a marathon. Any trip I can make on one tank of gas, qualifies as a sprint. It was somewhere in the 5 minutes' worth of Delaware I drove through, that I was able to get a nearly full dial of both Philly and Baltimore radio stations. That track, 10,000 Fists by Disturbed that's been getting rotation lately? Yeah, it's great at high speed. :) Anything by those guys, goes good with caffeine and smoked pavement.
Got home at 02:15, having left at 23:59, settled down to watch the premiere of "The Shield" (yay, it's back!!! Thanks to koshkaphoenix for setting the tape!), and promptly passed the hell out.
With Sebring now three weeks past, it's finally starting to feel like Spring in DC.