Dec 17 - Who is John Galt ?

Sue did her job yesterday, ensuring that we had a clear drive. Thanks Sue ! The only snow that we saw was already on the ground, and not much at that. I suspect that we'll see much more snow today, but am hoping that it's all on the ground too.

It was an easy drive, leaving the motel in Beckley WV at 7am and arriving at Stef's around 3:30. At the border the guy was very slow ... but the line was short. Of course we picked the wrong / correct line -- slow moving but easy going. What is your citizenship ... where do you live ... where are you going ... then a conversation about our lifestyle being able to get away from the snow when we want, growing up in Cochrane Ontario / North Bay ... never asked what we were bringing -- we had lists ! We were prepared ! Who cares !? Is it up to us to declare or him to ask ? I am not sure.

Abby was already finding it cold, standing on three feet. The temperature ranged from 18F in Beckley to about 26F in the afternoon. It was mostly sunny and very pleasant. This is the kind of winter weather that we love while we're on the road.

After getting to Stef's I checked with Sears locally and sure enough, they had our missing Christmas gift. We'd gone back and forth with Kim and David on this one, and still are (present for Meagan) but I headed over to Sears to pick it up. It's a good thing that I did. On the way there warning lights flashed -- low beam lights -- huh ? I thought that these lights were lifetime. Well, it turned out not. A plain ordinary H7 halogen bulb, the same bulb that I had in the 540i, is behind the lens. I found that out at the BMW dealership ... who gave me the wrong light but showed me how to get at it in an exploded diagram. Back inside I got a credit and then headed to Canadian Tire. On the way there I talked to Aaron and switched directions to a closer store, bought TWO lights (only $10 and sure as shooting the other will go soon) and re-lit my way back to Stef's.

Aaron went out after pizza .... we ate .... we opened presents. We laughed and laughed at Mya as she tore paper. She didn't care whether she had presents, she just liked to tear wrapping paper. Lauren wanted to play with her gifts. Aaron immediately started weighing things with the scales that I'd bought. I setup the bread maker for Stef ... but then later on it was smelling - that new appliance, burn off storage oil smell. We turned it off -- she'll probably run a cycle out in the garage to "break it in". It's the same bread maker that I bought for Florida -- it's the best of the three that I own.

Sandy got a set of three tea-light glass faces that match the ones that she has in Florida that we bought in Mexico. They are wonderful ! Now she'll have to decide which house they will grace. I got a very practical gift -- "Italian for dummies" -- a great idea -- three CDs and with all our driving perhaps I can learn to swear with the best of them ? just kidding of course ! Bike repairs / bike parts in Italian ?

Who is John Galt ? Who is Ayn Rand ? If you haven't read "Atlas Shrugged" then you probably don't know the answer to either of these questions. I would say that my two favorite books are Atlas Shrugged and Lord of the Rings. That's definitely two ends of some spectrum. I delight in the fantasy of the latter -- the detailed thought-out world -- and the philosophy espoused by the former.

As we were driving, I saw a billboard -- "Who is John Galt" -- that's all that it said. I really had to laugh. The only people, and they would be an extreme minority of Americans driving the Interstate, who would understand the statement that someone was trying to make, would appreciate the sentiment in today's bailout-driven economy. It's perfect.

Today ... eastward (hair appointment downtown) then northward to the snow.

Onward !