This morning at 5:45 I loaded Jackson the dog into the car and charged off into the darkness and snow headed to Texas for Christmas. My 91 year-old Aunt and Uncle live in Midland and I want to spend Christmas with them, and if that means a three day drive, so be it. Originally this was to be a more leisurely trip, with an open ended itinerary guided only by good dog parks, beer stores, and bar-b-que joints, but nature and the legal process intervened. I had to tread water in Syracuse to take care of some legal stuff, and then got delayed by a big snow and ice storm. So a seven day window shrunk to three and the anticpated leisurely amble to Texas became a forced march.
I am also running from grief this holiday season; with Liz not here, there is not much to keep me in Syracuse but a whole lot of lurking ghosts. And though I love her family dearly, as one friend perceptively put it "you are traveling to find comfort among the people you've known for much of your life." So true; hope it works.
The last few times I went this way I was headed to the Mayo Clinic and had Miss Lizzy in the back. When I would look in the mirror , I would see her lying flat due to the spinal fluid leaks, napping or reading or just staring into space. But this time I see the curly brown eyed little dog snoozing and breaking wind almost perpetually. Liz would approve.
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