The Open Roads

For years, I was stuck driving in heavy congested LA traffic to and fro work.  Hours of my life were wasted away inside a car, listening to morning talk shows and afternoon rush hour radio, monotonously moving or wondering what accident was ahead of me, trying to catch up with friends on the phone, or just trying not to fall asleep.  Traffic consumed my life.  I absorbed Sigalert, launching it in my browser, hoping for a preponderance of green, only to be met with lots of red and speckles of yellow.  Often, the results of Sigalert convinced me to stick around work or go to happy hour, wait out the traffic, and inadvertently, I was accused of being a workaholic, despite socializing with co-workers (if it's work related, it's work).  Even after work no longer called for a disgusting commute, outings were carefully planned around traffic time.  Andy and I would discuss the potential ramifications of leaving for the Westside between 4 and 7 PM on Friday afternoons and eventually, we'd enjoy each other's company in traffic and call all our family members while in the car.  Yes, traffic was a huge part of my life, an inconvenience I saw as normal, expected, and just addressed by carefully planning around it.

And now, years later... for the first time in my life, I do not know what traffic is. 


Everything actually takes 20 minutes or less to get to.  The accuracy of estimated travel times per google maps is astonishing.  


This weekend, we ventured off too pick some strawberries and we were running behind (shocking), but even with the delay ... we made it to lunch at this cute coffee shop that serves food (it's owned by one of Andy's residents) in the opposite direction of where we'd eventually head for strawberry picking, but we had to do it all within a few short hours knowing we'd have to make it back by 4, at the latest, to start dinner for the Missionaries we were having over at 5 PM for dinner.  


If it weren't for the lack of traffic here... we'd never have been able to pull it off!

Yes, they are indeed gourmet hot dogs - one with baked beans, bacon, white onions and mustard, and the other with grilled pineapple and red onions with BBQ sauce.