On and Off the Road

A blur.

That's the nature of day-on-day travel. My sister in law called me one morning, she on the East Coast and me in LA. To be honest I had no idea what day it was and what city it was. No wonder she laughed.

Bizarre Getting ready for landing in Denver this morning, I caught a glimpse of a bullfight on the in-flight television. What could be more odd? A man slowly butchering a wild animal, the audience not sitting in a Hemingway-esque bull ring but in a metal tube 20,000 feet above the earth, air conditioned, banking over the Western plains where Native Americans had done the exact same thing with buffalo.

Anger In Denver, the most disorganized, chaotic McDonalds in the universe. Five or six lines with 10 people deep. Teenagers overwhlemed. An up-ended, broken cash register sharing space with Happy Meals. An old man finally loses it -- "I wanna talk to the manager!!!" -- in a dispute over a $5 bill. Time stops.