Sat., Feb. 20

Today I thought of getting in the car and driving somewhere. Then I looked out and listened to the traffic and decided not to. Then Sandi called me up and said, “You should really get in the car and drive somewhere.” So I got in and drove around the block.

Andrew and Rachael texted me, and after about an hour of messing around we got the video chat feature of Gmail working. Randy got on and then for some reason none of us could see each other. Finally, after Sandi called again telling me “You should really go somewhere and have a relaxing drive,” I did. I got in the car and headed east to a place called Arrowhead Lake. It’s the first time I moved the car since I’ve been here. After about 5 minutes on the freeway of watching maniacal frowning drivers hunched over steering wheels with a cigarette and Red Bull in one hand and texting with the other hand driving 70 MPH, I had had enough of an enjoyable relaxing drive. I stopped and walked slowly through a Wal-Mart full of screaming kids to calm my nerves. Andrew wanted me to get a headset with a speaker anyway. They didn’t have one. Probably the only Wal-Mart in the world without a headset speaker.

Anyway, I worked up my nerve and got back on the freeway again still headed for Arrowhead Lake. It was a little overcast in Loma Linda and it was a lot overcast in the direction that I was going. The elevation climbs as the road leaves the city. Which city? I don’t know. About 2 miles out of town the road narrows to a two-lane, and there’s a sign showing that you’re now entering San Bernadino National Forest, and right beside the sign is a scrawny, little, spindly, yellowing six-foot pine tree, evidently, the forest. It was the only tree visible for miles. As the road got curvier the traffic got faster and the clouds got thicker. Pretty soon the cars’ speed hadn’t decreased, but the visibility was down to about 15 feet. Since I think I may have been overlooking Arrowhead Lake and I couldn’t see it I turned around and came back. I’ll save this drive for earlier on a weekend morning and on a clear day.

I entered in the San Juan Street address and it took be back a different way than what I had come. Now, I’m really glad that Sandi bought this Mazda with the GPS Guidance System, or I may be having surgery right now. I can’t imagine finding my way around here without a navigator or one of these. I had no idea where I was until about 5 minutes before I parked in front of the apartment. It’s just a good thing that cities were smaller when we had paper maps.