11/22/07

Ahh.... That feels good. The first solid night of sleep since I don't know when. I rolled out of the sack around 9:30am. Okay, now for the headache. Nope, gone. Oh, but the nausea. Hey, that's gone too. The joint pain, stomach cramps, dizziness, diarrhea? All gone. I'll chalk it up to the healing powers of money. More money = less aggravation = I'm all better. I know there's probably no science to back that up, but it works for me.

I have numerous tattoos, each of which has some meaning or symbolism for something that I consider important enough to etch on my skin for the rest of my life. On top of my right shoulder, there's an angel. On top of my left shoulder, there's a devil. To me, they represent the constant inner dialogue between right and wrong that each of us faces every day. The importance, and hence the reason it was worth the etching, is that we should never allow ourselves to forget to listen to both sides of that inner dialogue. If you just ignore the little devil on your shoulder, you might lose track of what he's saying. Then, somewhere down the road, you find out that he's speaking on your behalf all the time. You know the conversations I'm talking about:

Eat the last slice / Watch your cholesterol
Screw that guy, I'm in a hurry / You should slow down and let him merge
Try to get her panties off / You don't even know her name
Sweet! We got free cornflakes / Tell them the scanner missed an item
Think of a good excuse / Just admit your mistake

And so on, and so on...

So anyway... Today, about an hour after I got rolling, the little devil got started. I was approaching the exit for I-280, which would run me north to I-75 and up toward Detroit. Screw this. You've put up with enough crap lately. You need a day off. To that extent, he did make a pretty good point. The only catch was that Detroit was not on the way to Washington, which is my destination. Then I heard from my little angel. You could surprise your family on Thanksgiving. Wouldn't that be nice?

So there I was, thoroughly confused. These two never agree with each other. Then it continued:
You can have a few beers and watch football.
You can play with your niece and nephew.
Everyone else is going home, why not you? (He's been using that tactic on me since I was a kid.)
A lot of people would be grateful for this kind of opportunity. (She's been using that tactic on me since I was a kid too.)

So there I was. If these two agree, what can I say? I hung a right and headed home. Now I'll show up at Mom's house with a bag of dirty laundry and it will be just like coming home for the holidays when I was in college. I'll have four ten-hour days starting tomorrow and I should be fine. Then, my appointment is for 9am Pacific on Tuesday, which is noon for me, so I have that whole morning to make up for any lost time due to weather. Done.

I'll burn some extra fuel by taking this detour, but after thinking it through I'm pretty sure I'll save enough money to make it even out. I'll skip the rest of the tolls in Ohio and all of the tolls in Indiana, since I'll head west on I-94. I'll be cruising through Michigan at 60mph instead of Ohio and Indiana at 65mph, probably saving a few gallons. I'll take on around 80 gallons at the terminal, saving some more money. I'll sleep in my bed at home tonight, so I won't have to idle the truck to stay warm. And lastly, I won't be submitting a reimbursement form for the $15 Thanksgiving dinner that they offer to us, since I won't be buying food on the road today.

Being from Detroit, the Lions are obviously a traditional deal. I'm not a Lions fan though, so I usually have to manufacture some kind of rooting interest. This year it's simple. My 'Skins aren't catching Green Bay. That much seems obvious. If they have any hope of overcoming Joe Gibbs' amazing ability to blow games in the fourth quarter and making a playoff run, they will have to pass Detroit. Go Packers!

Game 2 has always been one where I have a clear-cut favorite - whoever plays the Cowboys. J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets!

As for the college games this weekend, I'll be driving all day through the weekend and my XM Radio is broken so I don't know that I can properly whore out my loyalty to any teams playing day games. I'll have to see who plays at night, while I'm stopped, and take it from there. Even then, the internet service gets pretty sketchy out that way, so I have no high hopes of watching football this weekend.

Anyhow, happy Thanksgiving everyone and we'll catch up with you tomorrow.