Bookends

It is around 2:00pm on Christmas Eve and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is playing on HBO as I leave to run a few errands including taking a friend to LaGuardia airport. The scene playing is the first heist at the chicken farm. When I return in the evening, around 10:00pm or so, I turn on the TV and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is on; the scene playing is the first heist at the chicken farm.

I wake up at 3:30am on Christmas Day so that I can be on the road to visit family in Maryland. After shaking cobwebs, showering, and filling up on gas, I strike out into the blackness of 5:00am. I always take the same route: 4th Ave. to 92nd St., then over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, across Staten Island, over the Goethals Bridge, then I-95 beginning with the New Jersey Turnpike, the Delaware Memorial Bridge, then 895 via the Harbor Tunnel in Baltimore, then Ritchie Highway. Google Maps says it should take around 4 hours to make the 212 mile journey - I tend to average around 3 hours. Driving through the darkness with fewer cars on the road is very relaxing and I entertain myself singing along (when I can) to my guilty pleasures playlist on my iPhone playing through the audio system. After about an hour and a half of driving, I begin to notice the sky changing color to that piercing indigo such as when the moon is full. I then switch the playlist over to Rush - great driving music.

I finally meet my newest niece... I mean, my grandniece (I'm getting old), Abrianna, and, yes, she's a cute baby. She complains a little but is mostly smiles which is kind of mesmerizing to see. The other nieces arrive and are very surprised that their uncle is at their grandmother's. Food, merciless teasing of one niece in particular, surprises, laughs and Wii excitement until it's time for me to head back. The first thing I notice before I get back in the car is that the sky is the same overcast white-grey it was when I arrived 7.5 hours earlier.

The drive is mostly uneventful with the exception of the idiots out there who continue to cruise in the passing lane thereby forcing other drivers to pass on the right. If you do this, you suck because you are now creating an unnecessary and extremely dangerous situation. It's very simple: If you are not passing anyone, stay out of the far left lane. I digress...

Three hours later and I'm back in Brooklyn; the last hour is spent listening to the songs of Neil Finn. And the sky is as black as it was when I left.

I do enjoy the little moments.