Road trip

Today is Pungenday, day 72 in the season of Confusion, 3271.

Today's plan:

Take this boy from Fredericksburg to Greenbelt. I'll be able to get my doggie fix this way since I can't have one myself. Of course it would be better if I wasn't driving, but a dog in the car for an hour is better than no time with a dog at all.

Detox

About a week and a half ago, I decided that I was going to try to cut back a lot on the amount of caffeine I consumed over the course of the day. Given the rate at which I consume Diet Coke, plus the minimum two cups of coffee a day in the office, I tended to have a little bit of blood mixed in with my caffeine stream. I know better than to think that I can quit cold turkey; I tried that once and spent two solid days in a dark room wailing about the godawful headache that painkillers couldn't touch, and then was back on it again after a month or so. This time I've taken to drinking only caffeine-free Diet Coke (most useless drink ever!) after lunch in an effort to start weaning myself off of it.

I could have a Diet Coke, or even a small cup of coffee if I was inclined, right before bed and it wouldn't bother me in the least. I don't notice when I've got a lot of caffeine in my system, but boy howdy do I notice when I don't. The first few days, I'd come home from work and would be dragging and ready to go to bed by 11:30. (Those of you who know me realize how very unusual that is, since I'm definitely a night owl.) On the other hand, I've been having much less of a problem getting out of bed in the morning lately, even if I've been up until 2 AM; I've moved my alarm back from 8:30 to 7:45 and haven't been out of bed any later than 8:15 in the last work week. I get up in time to putter around, read email, check LJ, reload the iPod, eat a small breakfast and take all my pills, and still get to work on time. I like this more than "get up at 8:30, stick my head under the shower, slam down the giant handful of morning supplements, run out the door and still be technically late for work".

Once I cut the caffeine almost entirely back, it will be time to work on breaking the addiction to Diet Coke. That's not caffeine-related, as I get the same cravings for the caffeine-free version; it's some sort of psychological addiction that I have. I think this will be harder han cutting back the caffeine, honestly. Maybe I'll try switching to flavored seltzer water to see if it's the carbonation that I really want.

And now, time to go get laundry out of the dryer and head down to Fredericksburg to meet a doggie.

(no subject)

Six hours (roughly five and a half spent behind the wheel), 160 miles, and one mild sunburn later, I've done my first transport for driveforlife, Fredericksburg to Greenbelt.

Mapquest said 48 miles from home to Fredericksburg. It also said 58 minutes, which I knew wouldn't happen. I added 50% to that estimate and left the house a bit before noon. Heh. Heh heh heh. The trip down 123 to 95 was a breeze, but once I hit 95 just past Occoquan the average speed dropped to 13 mph (according to XM traffic). And it stayed that way for a very long time, past where the HOV lanes merge in. Then there were the random near-stops for no apparent reason between Triangle and Fredericksburg, which put me in to the meeting point half an hour late, and just under two hours after I started out. Guh.

The fun was not to end there. Headed back north, there was a several-mile backup because somebody'd managed to jackknife their trailer and block the two left lanes on 95 North at Woodbridge. So we ended up with another two-hour trip back up, although it helped that once the accident was passed, average speed went back up to the normal 80 or so for that stretch of road. Luckily both of the people I was meeting up with were understanding of the traffic delays, and everybody got where they needed to be safely.

You don't really want to hear whining about traffic though, you want puppy pictures. Chance is a total sweetheart, albeit a very stinky sweetheart at the moment. He has a lot of knots in his fur that will probably need to be cut out and he is, shall we say, pungent. But he's out of the shelter and alive and headed for a rescue and hopefully a home. Once he gets a much-needed bath and some grooming, he'll be gorgeous. Chance was a great passenger; once we coaxed him into the car with doggie biscuits (I think he was about done with being in the car, seeing as he'd come up from North Carolina), he spent a few minutes looking out windows and then settled down to relax and nap most of the way.

( On to the pictures )