It’s good to be home

My first alarm normally rings at 4:30 a.m. on Mondays. Then I hit the snooze button four or five times, finally drag myself out of bed around 5:15 and hope to be in the office by 6:30 to deal with a 2 p.m. deadline.

This morning, I slept in until 6:15, but I had a good excuse. It was nearly midnight on Sunday when I finally got to bed after returning from San Francisco.

My wife, Lisa, and I landed in Dallas around 2:30 p.m. After waiting for our luggage, having just a tiny bit of trouble finding our car in the airport’s humongous parking garage and then grabbing a late lunch, we hit the road for home just before 5 p.m. We made decent time and had an uneventful ride until we got about 15 minutes from home. Then, four deer sprinted across the highway only a few feet from us. Fortunately, we had stopped on Highway 23 so I could relieve Lisa behind the wheel. From the passenger seat, she spotted the deer before I did and yelled in time for me to stomp on the brake and avoid a collision.

Ironically, the reason we stopped to change drivers is because a couple of weeks ago, Lisa was driving on 23 late at night when not one but two animals darted in front of the car too late for Lisa to avoid them. Both incidents happened so fast that we couldn’t even tell what kind of animals they were, only that they were significantly smaller than deer and that there didn’t seem to be any damage to the car. On Sunday, Lisa said she felt nervous about driving on that same stretch of highway, even though what had happened wasn’t her fault. So I took over driving duties. If I hadn’t, Lisa might not have been in position to see the deer. Had I been in the passenger seat, I might not have seen them in time, either. We didn’t know it at the time, but our decision to trade places in the car might have prevented a really bad situation.

Thinking about it, the circumstances strike me as a bit of a microcosm of life. We all make decisions every day, some big and some small. I like to think I have some reason for every decision I make, but you never really know what the consequences of your decisions ultimately may be. And sometimes luck and happenstance determine those consequences for you.

Forgive me for rambling. I’m going to blame that on being jet-lagged and operating on less than an optimal amount of sleep.

As for our trip, we had a wonderful time. We rode the famous San Francisco cable cars as well as a streetcar — there is a difference, and cable cars are definitely more fun. We had dinner outside on the Bay and lunch in Chinatown. We watched the sea lions at Pier 39. We dined at “America’s Oldest Italian Restaurant.” (I have no idea if that’s really true, but the food was delicious.) We walked, and we walked, and we walked some more. We spent too much money, but we had an experience we’ll never forget.

Now, if y’all will excuse me, I think I’ll take a nap.

•••

Scott Loftis is managing editor for Carroll County Newspapers. His email address is SLoftis@cherryroad.com.