Think Fast - Don't Blink

Whoa! Things move fast when Ameri plans.

Ameri has been on her carwash job about ten days. She even had some days off in between. She put together a trip to see her boyfriend and she needed our cooperation to get the job done. The turn-around trip is just about eight hours. It is a very senic day time trip, but at night there are such hazards as wild boar, alligators and loose cattle to worry about. Every week there is some blurb in the newspaper about some unlucky soul plowing into a critter.

I started the trip with Ameri and Mom. We had to pick her up at work. Then took her to get her check cashed. And then we had to sit in dropped-jaw amazement at what the plans, and costs are going to be for the trip. Ameri's check was not going to cover the caper. A great argument ensues. Mom is attempting to bring some reality to the plans and budget. The gas alone was going to take more than half of the pay check. And, no we are not going to even start until we have the gas money in our hands. I did not get that far. I drove home, removed my set of keys from the ignition and let it be known that my part was now over. So Mom and Ameri take off into the sunset for a 200 mile drive with a fold-out map of the route from here to there.

The last I saw of the boyfriend about twelve days ago was his cheery face in the midnight light of the last hotel room available in a sleepy snowbird resort town. See ya.

Mom and Ameri drive to his new address and are surprised to find his current abode is on the shore of a major winter snowbird resort lake. His job provides a per diem allowance and the place is surprisingly nice. It is now coming on to the end of the season there and with Easter the place will become nearly deserted until after Election Day in November. Mom is relieved to discover that the manager of the place is a retired Midwestern woman of a very agreeable nature who runs the place in a no nonsense manner.

The trip took place over night, Saturday. Mom and Ameri were let into the apartment; a very large one room efficiency with a private dock and a panoramic view of the lake. Boyfriend had to pull an overnight shift on the welding crew at the job site so Mom and Ameri got a little sleep and then had breakfast with the boyfriend this morning. Everyone was muy simpatico. The nearby convenience store is hiring and Ameri may attempt to get on there. Or, so I am told. Mom got back home about noon today. She had a long nap. We talked about how this might work out. Everyone is so relieved - until the phone rings. It is Ameri. She is not satisfied because her phone is out of range of her provider tower and she is on roaming. CRISIS!

Ameri's other life is one of great drama and it takes place on the phone. She is in constant contact and conflict with about a dozen or so of her drama kings and queens from her travels of the summer through late fall. She does in fact have a very richly fabricated and embroidered life with those folks. There is not a word of it that is true but it keeps the cellular towers a-smokin'.

The day came to a close very much unsettled and fraught with gauzy pessimism.

My head hurts.