Saturday, July 3, 2010
7:34 AM

That is CENTRAL Standard Time, so in God's time it is really 8:34.
My body shrieked at me as I fell out of bed an hour ago, "ARE YOU CRAZY?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!! IT AIN'T NOON YET, SO GET BACK IN THAT BED!!"
Nope. I have miles to go today, and many things to see before reaching Beaumont, Texas tonight. (That is, "If nothing happens." My grandmother used that phrase in regard to almost any future plan -- a certain way to guard against hubris.)
I staggered out of the elevator and felt my way along the walls to a booth in the hotel restaurant. There are small television screens at each booth, and all the tvs are muted until a man sits in the booth next to mine and turns the volume up. WAY up.
I prefer reading the captions scrolling across the screen, as this is quieter and less invasive this early in the morning and I have no newspaper.
"BAR ATTACK IN COLOMBIA KILLS AT LEAST EIGHT . . . . ." Oh my god! Eight people killed by a bear in Colombia?! I didn't know they even had bears in Colom . . . . . . . Oh. It was a BAR attack. Not a BEAR attack, as my brain initially signaled me. Is this mis-firing of electrons (or neurons or w-h-a-t-e-v-e-r) in my head a result of the early hour, or what? Too tired to think about it now.
It's beginning to get busier here now -- more folks coming in for breakfast. Occasionally -- and this is NOT a misfiring -- I hear just the beginning strains of "Dixie." (And it isn't a custom-made car horn on a pickup truck, as I have sometimes heard near Canton.) Where is that coming from?!
I hope my head clears before I pack my car and start out toward Jackson.