Christmas, parts 1 and A

We travel during the holidays. Always. Being the childless couple, there's never been any question of whether or not we'd be traveling to our various families' homes for the holidays, only which one we go to first. For 23 years now.

Both my parents are gone now (just FYI, my father died New Years Day, 2000, and my mother died two days before 9/11, which was a very bad week for us). So every Christmas belongs to Rich's parents, who live in Denver. Yes, Denver did get some snow this year! That's actually a little unusual, since the snow usually falls in the mountains (duh), and the clouds have nothing left by the time they get to the city. But this time there was snow. And freezing packed snow. On the roads. I finally witnessed how one drives on icy roads. Swear to God, I had heard people talk about it, but they never said what you actually do differently. You slow down, for one thing. Way down. You also leave a boatload of room all around you. And so does everybody else. It's a cooperative system, and works well when everybody knows what to do. I drove myself to church on Christmas Eve, successfully, feeling like such a big girl!

Then we left for home. I-25 south was great, and everything was fine until we got to Wichita Falls. Or, actually, to about 20 miles north of Wichita Falls, where we started running into re-frozen packed snow in the underpasses. And when I say "re-frozen packed snow" I mean huge ruts, 6 or 8 inches tall, high enough to scrape the underside of the van. Brutal! Then they weren't just in the underpasses where the sun hadn't melted the snow, they were at random spots on the road. Then they were all over the road. Non-stop. And there were other drivers who scorned slowing down or leaving plenty of room. They went zooming by, slowing only when they slid off the road. We saw dozens of cars that had gotten stuck one way or another and been abandoned. I'm guessing the next warm day in Wichita Falls will involve a bunch of people looking for rides to their cars.

We finally, finally made it to the south side of town, where we asked about the road ahead. All bad. We checked into a cheap motel (where we both decided showers could wait 'til we got home the next day) (and, in fact, we both wanted to use hand sanitizer after touching the bathroom light switch) and waited 'til the sun came up to finish the trip. The fine workers of Wichita Falls had apparently been working all night, and the sun did its job, so the roads were fine the next day.

One night at home and we were off to see my family.

So we're in San Antonio right now, where icy roads are never an issue (thank you, Jebus!). I'll be going to a Spurs game with my sister tonight, we'll open Christmas presents tomorrow night, and there's be lots of games and good food!

I feel bad about leaving the cats again so soon. Not the dog, because our pet sitter is so good, the dog doesn't even miss us. The cats are a little more standoffish towards her (and her significant other, who also moves in when she pet sits, and I'm grateful there are two of them there), so they get a little lonelier. However, since I never intend to leave home ever again after this marathon travel adventure, they won't have to go through it again.

Yes, I know how long it's been

Anyway....

I think the back of my neck is aging faster than the rest of me. Not because the skin is crepier (that's crepey-er, looking more like crepe) than everywhere else, though I wouldn't be surprised if it were (I really haven't looked lately). But because it's always cold. I have to wear high collars all the time, now that the weather's gotten cooler, at least while I'm at home. When I go out and have on a jacket, I'm fine. But sitting around the house, the back of my neck will be freezing, even if the rest of me is comfortable.

It's true that it might be because we keep the temperature pretty low. The thermostat is set at 68°F, partly because we're trying to use less energy to offset the summer when, dadgummit, we're not going to be burning up all the time so just go ahead and crank up the AC ahh that's better. We're also both pretty hot-natured and tolerate cold well. Except, lately, the back of my neck.

Why do you suppose this kind of thing happens? I can understand why one's knees might cause problems, or teeth might start to hurt, or even if your skin became impossibly dry as you age. And I might think it's hormonal except that ship sailed long ago and, anyway…just the back of my neck?

I guess there's not really much to do about it except wait for it to change. (That's one thing I've learned about aging: It's going to change.) Maybe I'll knit an around-the-house neck warmer, or grow out my hair. It is curious, though.

Sometimes you just have to live with the puzzlement.