Taking the Slow Boat (non-rant)

I've discovered something I really like to do: driving below the speed limit when I'm not in a hurry.

Sounds nutty, eh? But California is a huge state, and you just can't get anywhere unless you drive like a madman with both fists on the wheel, white-knuckled until they're bleeding, acid pouring into the tum-tum, and cell phone pasted to the side of your head.

Respect and Respect Totum Pole (rant)
I know, I know... I've turned into one of them pretty quickly, you're thinking. No. The funniest thing happened the other day when I realized that people from the Bay are *so* different than the rest of us hanging out here in Nor Cal. M.W. is from the Bay Area, so I'm treading lightly here.... but let's just say that all of the things that I love about where he lives -- the diversity, sophistication, all of the Apple stores, Starbucks, specialty bookstores, Clubs, and bike trails -- is why I don't mind living in the Valley -- it reminds me of rural Michigan, growing up, a lack of pretense, feeling comfortable with who I am, and generally being accepted on my own merits, instead of having to have connections.

I have both: Merits and Connections. But I hate that whole fat-cat, glad-handing, smiling at someone even when they occupy a perennial position at the base of your Respect Totum-pole kind of existance.

And it's not that M.W. is any part of the what I don't like about where he lives -- in fact, he's quite above it all, to the point where it doesn't even occur to him that he exists quite nicely in both the la-de-da points of life, as well as wearing sweatpants to the grocery store and eating fast food kind of life.

Actually my railing to the smiling fat-cats is more that I don't like the corporations to whom they belong... namely one to which I used to belong. While these business connections are great, it's irksome the ways that they do business. It's ONLY business, I know, I know... but what about the meteorology?

Shiver.... Blink... Swoosh.... Wow.... (rant-lite)
Weather is my life. I don't think I am out of line to say it's M.W.'s life, too. Families and relationships change and grow, but the wonder and beauty and awesome power of nature lies in our hearts. It's not just the desire to understand the weather and act as a liason to the public... no... of all the mets I know, none of them do it for the power, the glory, the money. Passion is what it's all about.

Rain, wind, clouds, hail, snow, lightning, thunder, hurricanes, tornadoes.

Peace

Dot.