"On My Way Home"

The travel day taking me home always seems to last forever. From the hotel I drive to the plant. Then from the plant I drive to the airport. There it takes a good 15 minutes to return my rental car. Then to the airline counter where today I had further delays. First off I had to go and see the “Doctor” if I was flying to the US. This meant filling out a medical form and then waiting in line to get it rubber stamped. It’s not really a medical test but rather a stupidity test! If you're too stupid to fill it out right you don't get the rubber stamp! Then back to the airline counter where I knew I was going to have more trouble. Sure enough they couldn’t find my reservation and so that took another half hour of aggravation. Then through security and more waiting at the gate. Then finally boarding the airplane but with the last minute insult of taking my water bottle from me, as I didn’t hide it well enough. And then the plane ride, followed by American immigration, followed by a 30 minute ride to the border and Canadian immigration, and after 2 more hours driving finally back home.

I suppose it feels like forever because of the accumulated aggravation of travelling but I think more so simply because I’m going home. The greatest value I have gained out of my travels is a great appreciation for the place I live and for the people I live with. Something I witnessed today really put some perspective on the difference between where I live and so much of the rest of the world. While driving down the freeway to the airport, a major 4 lane divided highway, I seen a person laying on the grass. Not laying there like they were having a rest, but rather like that’s where they had fallen unconscious….I even though as if dead! The form looked like that of a woman but I passed so quickly that I couldn’t be sure. The point is not so much that someone was lying there but that I didn’t stop, nor did anyone else. By the time my mind processed it I was too far past to do anything, or at least that’s my excuse. I think probably an excuse, because if it was anywhere on the 401 in Ontario, I would still have gone back to check it out, but I was afraid to. Afraid of what I might find, and/or what I might get involved in. I just wanted to go home.
Home…where my lover is, where my children hang out, where my “stuff” is, and the only place I get close to contentment. Home is where the heart is.

I’m grateful for the permanency of my home because to many people in my industry it is not the case right now. Many have had to relocate in the past 6 months just to stay employed and even worse many who have relocated in the last year or 2 to further their careers, now find themselves without a job, and even without a permanent home. They now struggle with the decision whether to go back to their towns/cities/countries of origin and try to start over or to try to make the best of it in their new surroundings. I do not envy them.

I’m sure I’ve bragged enough about the company I work for and we are indeed the best of a bad lot, but things have changed beyond anyone’s imagination. We are at the point where even those who are still employed are being asked to take pay cuts and or take unpaid time off. I’m fond of saying that it’s a correction the auto industry had to go through, and yet I always thought that meant everyone else….not my company!

That’s why I’m glad to be going home. I suppose I shouldn’t take even that for granted but for now I’m going to. It provides a roof over my head, a place to plant potatoes, and someone to share them with. Please be grateful for your home if you have one, and maybe even figure out how to help someone who doesn’t. Don’t keep on driving. Next time I’m gonna stop….no matter what. I promise!

Oh, by the way, my travel day was topped off by a Border Protection guy at the airport who forgot to stamp my form, resulting in my being "escorted" back to the entry point to repeat the process for the second time. And the guy escorting me was the slowest walking son of a bitch I have ever met. I wanted to pick him up and carry him. I almost exploded with the pain of it. Ces't la vie!

I wish to dedicate day 247 to the unconscious, probably "homeless" lady beside the highway.

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."---Maya Angelou

“Almost any man worthy of his salt would fight to defend his home, but no one ever heard of a man going to war for his boarding house"---Mark Twain

….and this one even though it’s not relevant today I loved it too much to keep inside. Thanks to peter who sent it to me today…

“And those who were seen dancing were though to be insane, by those who could not hear the music”---Frederich Nietzche

love
peter