Ramblings from my Christmas “Vacation” (long)

[PKRWUD]

Greetings All!
Happy New Year, and all that! Well, I’m back home from Florida, and I have 12 days worth of thoughts and observations to share. My journey started at 5:00 am December 20th when the shuttle company I use to go back and forth to the airport picked me up in a Lincoln Towncar. The driver jokingly said he was sorry that the regular vans were all in use, and did I mind the Lincoln. I flew out of Burbank instead of LAX in hopes of avoiding the crowds, and was quite successful. There were only 3 people ahead of me in the line to check in, and I never had to wait in any lines, other than security. I had to change planes in San Francisco, where I was scheduled to have a 3 hour layover, but because of rain, we circled the airport for an hour and a half, and I actually found myself somewhat rushed once on the ground. Fortunately, a very nice young lady named Tonya, who sat next to me on the flight, also had time to kill, so we killed it together. From San Francisco, I flew non-stop to Orlando.

Florida is a beautiful place this time of year. It rained alot, but the temps were great. Very patriotic people there, too. Where I live, about one in every 50 cars and one in every 30 houses has a flag flying. Where I was in Florida, there were easily twice that many, maybe more. Granted, Patrick Air Force Base is only 15 miles away, but I don’t think that had anything to do with it. The best pizza in the world, IMHO, is from a restaurant called Bizzaro’s New York Style Pizzeria, on the beach in Indialantic, Fla. The steak houses there are excellent as well. Almost as good as in the mid-west. The one thing that I find really cool about this little town, is that every single year, on Christmas eve, they get a few police cars and a firetruck with Santa on it, and they drive, with their lights flashing and sirens screaming, up and down every single street in the town, throwing candy at the kids who gather in front of their houses to see. This may be a common event in little towns, but I've never lived in a town that was small enough to pull it off. I think that's really cool. On the down side, Florida needs smog laws. Flying into Orlando, I saw a really thick brown layer of haze that was worse than the one I saw today flying into Burbank. Denver’s smog was the worst. The other reason I think Florida needs some smog laws was the noise. It was nothing short of annoying. It wasn’t high performance exhaust systems, it was mostly falling apart pick-up trucks with the exhaust rusted away. I heard a few nice sounding systems, but most of the noise was purely due to a lack of both money and concern.

Speaking of which, can someone explain to me why cars in Florida (and most of the east coast, for that matter) rust out so badly and so quickly? I was always told in the south it was because of the ocean air, and in the north because of rock salt in the winter. I live on the beach, and there are hundreds of cars around here that are 50 years old, or older, that have been here since they were new, with little if any rust. Ojai, the little town Skyman lives in, is about 12 miles inland from me, and is a gold mine for old cars in excellent condition, yet even in Orlando, 45 miles from the beach, it’s rare to see a car 20 years old that isn’t falling apart from rust damage. There were far more factory performance cars there, too. I saw more newer Mustangs and F-bodies there than anywhere, and several were Cobra’s and SS’. Lots of Corvettes, too. The street my Mother lives on is about a half mile long, with the Indian River at one end and the Ocean at the other. There are maybe 20 houses on each side of the street from end to end. At any given time, there were at least 5 Mustangs, including 2 Cobra’s, 4 Camaros, including 1 SS, 2 Z28’s and an RS, and 3 Corvettes, all ‘97 or newer, parked in driveways or in the yards. Neighboring streets were similar. I only saw 3 or 4 obnoxiously riced out imports, including a Celica with a 4 foot wide Toyota emblem decal across the back window that had been pulled over for something. In fact, there weren’t that many imports at all, really. Mostly Camry’s and Accords. I also love the parking lots in Florida. My Mother says it’s because there are so many senior citizens driving big cars, but whatever the reason, the parking spaces are huge! Everywhere! The aisles are wide, too. I saw a piece on either 20/20 or 48 Hours a couple months ago that said 6 of the most dangerous intersections in the country were in Florida, but their parking lots are safe! I did hate the way they string the traffic lights diagonally across the intersections, though. It made it especially difficult to see if you were in a left hand turn lane. That may have something to do with their having so many bad intersections. The two real pet peeves I developed while there were the shear number of different license plate designs (I swear to God I saw at least 30 different designs, from college and Space Shuttle plates to “Save the Manatee” plates), and the number of people who drive with their parking lights on. I don’t have a copy of the Florida Vehicle Code, but here that’s illegal. There is, after all, a reason why they’re called “parking lights”.

The women in Florida were rather remarkable, especially at the beach. It was kinda scary seeing 10 and 11 year old girls out with their parents wearing a thong bikini, but I guess that’s why so many of the college age ones looked so very healthy. Very healthy.

My Mother is the only family I have, and although we both love each other, we argue alot too. As I age, I find myself becoming Agnostic, and this upsets her. She confuses Agnostic with Atheist, and that upsets me. I believe in God, I just don’t believe in organized religion. I love Christmas for what I think of as the Christmas Spirit, not because of what it says in the bible (which, BTW, I’ve read, and think is a worthwhile read if you haven’t already). One of my favorite movies is the original Miracle on 34th Street, and AMC ran it back to back for 24 hours from Christmas eve through Christmas day. That movie expresses the love and joy and passion and caring that Christmas is all about in the same way I feel about it, and doesn't have one single religious implication. The message the movie has to offer is simple: “Faith is believing in something when logic tells you not too”. I have faith, I just seem to have it more earthly bound than heavenly bound. I don’t proclaim to be right, or that anyone else is wrong, this is just how I feel at this point in my life. My Mother can’t seem to understand that.

The journey home had me changing planes in Denver, and the skies outside of town were very clear. Having only been to Denver once before on an overcast day, I was surprised to see that the land to the east of Denver is flat, arid desert, while the land to the west was breathtaking snow covered mountains. The western United States from 36,000 feet is truly awesome. We flew right over Hoover Dam and Las Vegas. I was startled at how small Las Vegas really is. I’ve been there several times, and it always seemed big, but from the air, it’s down right puny. It was comparable in size to Barstow, which we flew by a few minutes later. Landing at Burbank was cool because our approach took us in over Van Nuys, in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, which is where I spent years 12 through 18. I grew so much in those years. I changed from an innocent preachers kid to a street racing party animal. From my window, I could see dozens of familiar sights, including two of the high schools I was kicked out of, my first apartment, the house I lived in with my parents before they got divorced, the Sepulveda flood basin, which is where I learned how to ride a dirt bike, and Woodley Park, which is where I spent the better part of the summer of 1983, drinking beers and smoking weed. These were all memories I haven’t let my mind visit in years, and they felt good.

Overall, it was a nice trip. My Mother bought me an iPod for Christmas. That thing blows my mind. If you own a Mac, and are into MP3’s, you have to get one. It holds over 1000 songs and transfers them from your computer to the iPod at a rate of about a full CD in 7 seconds. FireWire baby!!!

For those of you who are still reading this, thank you for letting me share my Christmas experience with you. I truly hope yours was wonderful!

Take care,
-Chris