8 Minutes…

**Thrum**    **Thrum**    **Thrum**    **Thrum**   **Thrum**   **Thrum**   **Thrum**   **Thrum**   

WTF is that sound? As an owner of an older, not previously well-maintained home, any strange sound immediately brings fears of “What the hell is broken now?”

I start wandering around the kitchen listening to the stove, the fridge, the water cooler, the 2nd fridge, poking my head outside, the 3rd fridge (yeah, story for another time). The noise gently increases & decreases as I walk around the kitchen and into the hall. Nothing is definitive. Oh well, it will out itself in due time.

Walk down the hall to tell the wife that the Pillsbury orange rolls are ready. The sound goes away the further I walk down the hall and steadily returns the closer I get to the kitchen.

**Thrum**   **Thrum**   **Thrum**   **Thrum**   **Thrum**   **Thrum**   

I start putting my ear next to things to see if I can figure where it’s coming from. If I can’t stop the sound, it’s going to take me on that short trip to nutsville.

Wife looks at me and asks me what I’m doing.

Listening for the sound.

She points at my cell phone on the table which is vibrating to the no volume alarm that goes off at 8am every Sunday. It’s been going off for 8 minutes. 

I was so focused on there possibly being an actual problem, I failed to look into the middle of the room, inside.

Sometimes life is the same. We feel like there is a problem and we focus outward instead of inward. Always check (not assume) that you might be the one with the problem, before assigning the blame on others.

I’m No Ramblin’ Man, But…

You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

For any short duration (10 days or less) trip from one side of the USA to the other, the only logical answer is by airplane. It just takes too long via any other method.

For those in Europe or other countries where you can drive or take a non-bullet train to another country in any direction in under 24 hours, the USA is HUGE! Roughly 2800 miles or 4500 kilometers from coast to coast. If you were driving alone, sleeping a normal schedule & obeying all traffic laws, you could drive from Seattle (the furthest northwest major city in the lower 48) to Miami (the furthest southeast major city in the lower 48) in roughly 3.5-4 entire days!

If you had 2 friends, each driving 8 hours, one navigating for 8 hours, and the other sleeping for 8 hours, you could do it in about 2.5 days of continual driving while stopping only for gas, food & bio-breaks.

But if I had infinite time & money? Car no question. I have more control over my itinerary and if I want to stop and check out something interesting, I can do that without being beholden to anyone else’s schedule. Maybe break it up with a train now & again to get to some places it’s not practical to drive a car through, like the American Southwest.