Crisis Averted!

Less than 24 hours ago, I threw out a sort of distress signal, just
before hitting the road for another day of driving. For those who
missed my "tale of woe," I'm including it below. It's so sad it's
almost funny. What made it extra funny is that right after sending
that message yesterday morning, I thought, "Oh well, time to start
the long, boring drive to Houston, and then home," only to gaze
outside and see what looked like a freaking hurricane--trees
leaning over from gail-force winds, a complete downpour, etc. Oh,
and the driver's side window of the car I was using didn't roll up
all the way. Yippee!

Because I have an extremely dumb phone (as opposed to a "smart
phone"), I have hardly any contact with the outside world while on
the road. So I flung out my plea for help right before hitting the
road, and then drove through blinding rain, lightning storms, and
tornado warnings--and that was just North Carolina.

To get to the punchline here, I cannot begin to express my
gratitude for the outpouring of support that happened, unbeknownst
to me, while I was driving yesterday. I haven't had time to add
everything up, but at this rate, I fully expect that: 1) I will get
my car back; 2) I will more than break even on this 7,200-mile road
trip (that was supposed to be 4,800 miles), and; 3) I will feel
slightly guilty at doing a lot better than breaking even, just
because I pitifully whined for help. Of course, Tessa and Elyssa
are hugely grateful too, back in snow-covered Pennsylvania. It will
be another several days before I see them again, but at least when
I see them, they won't be frozen solid, huddled around an empty
kerosene heater. Yippee!

But seriously, thank you so much to those who basically saved our
butts from this drastic series of unfortunate events. I hope this
message of "We're not doomed anymore!" spreads as fast as the
message of "Help!" did, though it probably won't. Rest assured, if
we end up with excess, it will simply free up more of my time to
keep battling the plague of authoritarianism. And on that front,
things are looking pretty dang encouraging in a lot of ways.

Now it's time to hit the road yet again, and be out of contact with
the outside world for another eight or ten hours. And miles to go
before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.


Larken Rose
larken@larkenrose.com