Next week is my birthday. My parents are meeting me in Avila Beach for a celebration. The drive to Avila from Palm Springs is over four hours, so I’m staying in Goleta for a night, where my favorite coffee shop is.

But anyway, I’ll have to gas up the tank entirely. It costs me fifty bucks, roughly, when I’m on empty. I figure I’ll run out of gas by the time I get to Avila Beach. So I’ll have to gas up again to drive back to Palm Springs. You do the math. That’s a hundred dollars to gas up to go there and back, which can cost as much as a plane ticket to some parts of the country.

I look at gas as something that should be free. That’s my mind for you. I guess some people value gas differently, but I would rather spend my hard-earned money on another commodity. Whatever the case, it’s gonna be a travel from here to there. I just hope there will be no traffic along the way. There have been wildfires near Gorman on the 5 freeway, which has altered the course for some people. That could be the direction that I’m going. If that’s so, I’ll just stop on the road more often.

I can take my time getting there, as I have all day to get to Goleta on Sunday. I’ll stay the night, hit the coffee shop in the morning, and work on my manuscript before I drive to see my parents in Avila on Monday. That sounds fair. I’m taking the whole week off from work. Thank God. To work is to suffer, and I love traveling anyway, especially to those parts where it’s cool by the ocean. I’ll eat my favorite pizza and my favorite Danish. It’s something to look forward to.