Back to the Same Old Routine

Sunday was a lazy day, but we finally hit the local mall and planned to see the spectacular light show at the Living Desert after we finished shopping. Imagine our surprise to arrive about 4 pm so we could get a parking space only to learn that the park closes at 5 pm. The light show, which is a huge attraction, was open over the long weekend, but did not include Sunday. It will reopen between Christmas and New Year's, but that's it. I was completely disappointed as it's such a wonderfully festive kick off to Christmas, but I guess financially it's become an issue that has forced pull-backs.

The trip to the airport was short and clear sailing, but could just as easily have been a traffic nightmare such as the one I encountered returning from teaching Monday classes. In the middle of YV, the highway was shut down! No traffic control officers in place to untangle the snarl of four lanes filled with all manner of vehicles. As a local, I was able to make a quick left and run parallel to the problem, which should have been the direction provided by traffic control had there been someone assigned to that task.

However, on the other side of that obstruction was a major accident! Again, I hopped onto surface roads to make my way around the new shut-down, only to find a disabled natural gas delivery truck blocking the roadway, surrounded by a huge wrecker in the process of changing a flat front tire. It was challenging to get around that obstacle without being hit by all the other vehicles trying to get around the two accidents that had shut down the major thoroughfare as there are those drivers who have to whip around you to get there ... first? It must be a game to some drivers to go full throttle through the congestion, weaving in and out, but I'm all for letting them have their way, rather than being the next accident on Highway 62!

Once I was back on the road and headed down the YV grade toward home, I was slowed to a crawl by another accident: a Jeep tangled with another natural gas delivery truck and came out on the losing end. It appeared that the Jeep had both rolled and skidded along its side, ending against someone's front yard landscaping. Finally, on the last leg of the trip, a couple in an SUV evidently swerved off the road at the big sweeping bend in the road and landed in the soft desert sand callawampus, as we used to say, the back end buried. Another wrecker was in the process of pulling them out onto the road.

Mia was glad to see me, but kept going to the couch where g'son slept during his visit and then down the hallway to the guest room, looking for the other humans we shared space with for a few days. We all had a good time, but the days rush by too quickly when you live so far apart. I got the call last night that both dotter and g'son are home safely after a long, but good day of travel.

And life returns to the same old routine!