Twenty years ago tonight, I was in Northglenn, CO. I was spending the night in a hotel there just off I-25 waiting for a snowstorm to end rather than try to cross the Rockies on I-70 in a snowstorm. Lucky for me there was a gasoline station with a mechanic nearby because my car had a problem just as I got off the highway.

It was around 3:30pm when I decided to stay in the Denver area for the night. Since my car was having a problem, I took the car to the service station. The mechanic said to come pick it up before 6pm (MT) / 5pm (PT) when the service portion of the station closed. I walked back to the service station to pick up my car, missing the beginning coverage of the World Series game on TV which had started at the top of the hour. The service station had a grainy TV where I saw the news that there had been an earthquake in San Francisco. I paid for the service to the my car and rushed back to my hotel room.

Less than three weeks earlier I had been living in Central Florida (in Altamonte Springs near Orlando). I had obtained a new job in Sunnyvale, CA and decided to make the big move west. I don't remember the hotel room. I don't remember what I was feeling. As I recall it now, I think I felt determined. Determined to build a new life in the Bay area. Determined to continue on my journey west. Determined to continue on my self-journey.

It's strange ...


I feel like I'm in an airlock.

I've shut the door on what used to be but haven't opened the door to the future yet.

As I am unemployed, I listen to a lot of radio (specifically, NPR) while trying to spend my days constructively. I notice something in the chatter which I wish people could notice and work to improve. I think it would help tremendously. In fact, it's the first two words of the previous sentence, "I think". Unless what you're saying is a well-established or irrefutable fact (such as gravity), I think it would help foster dialogue to state or even to opine what is fact and what is opinion.