"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday." - Don Marquis

Awkward!

I am exhausted. I did fewer miles today but they were much tougher miles. About 2 hours after leaving Williams I started climbing. That meant 2-lane freeway with speeding cars and struggling semis. It's not up one hill and down the other. The drive through northern CA and southern OR means always going uphill or downhill, none of it in a straight line, never mind the constant lane changes. My brain is dead.

Observations from 10 hours on I-5 on July 4:

• Semi drivers don't get the day off. 
• 80% of non-commercial drivers are on vacation.
• 50% of those are speeding.
• 2% of those are getting tickets. Cops everywhere, either hiding or writing.
• There were car shows this morning. I don't know where, but I saw caravans of high performance muscle cars on trailers, Miata-series racing cars on trailers, and hot rods all in a row.
• Getting gas in Shasta City is not possible. The main drag, where the gas stations are located, is shut down for a parade that brings out everyone in that tiny town and more from I-don't-know-where. The local I talked to said, "Give it up. Your only option is the town of Weed, 5 miles up the road." (All I bought was gas.)
• Secret revealed: even when the sign says, "Full" the OR state parks have sites available. They always hold a certain number back for "emergencies" (huh?) and if you show up late enough they'll release one to you. So I'm in A-43 at Champoeg State Park. They also hold handicap sites back, which they release for the general public at 7 p.m. if not taken. 

I'm just about finished with that Ludlum novel. I have two and a half CD's to go, which I'll finish on the 4-hour drive to Seattle tomorrow morning. It's a good story and the guy who reads it is very good. 

But a person could get paranoid from reading (listening to) it. 

Do you trust your govt? I figure I've got nothing to worry about because I'm not even a minnow. I'm one of those tiny little fishes barely visible to the naked eye that cause hydroelectric dams to be demolished and lumber industries abolished. Big Brother ain't paying me no heed. But...

One of the requirements of the new health act is that ALL medical records be digital and accessible online so that treatment efficiencies across providers are maximized. Sounds reasonable. And HIPPA laws protect patient privacy, right? 

Uhm... in theory. 

Like I said, do you trust your govt.? Never mind the Chinese. They're busy hacking the Pentagon. But if I were an activist for some cause a politician or agency didn't like and had an STD, or if I wanted to work for one of the huge corporations and had a history of mental illness, or....

Seriously. In an age when Facebook knows that I bought a GPS unit and Amazon will make recommendations for books I'll like do we really think our health records aren't accessible to anyone with a modicum of hacking skills? Half the freshmen at any university with a program in computer science can call up your medical history. 

I gotta stop reading this kind of stuff. 

And the other book-on-CD I got, for the drive home, is a John Grisham novel.

By the time I get back to Sun City I'll be ready to wrap the whole house in tin foil.