Yesterday, the_child and I drove to Seattle to visit friends. (Well, I drove. She passenged.) I’d originally thought to put her on the train, but the kiddo wanted a father-daughter trip.

Now mind you, I started driving just last for the first time since last September. Four+ hours on the highway was kind of an overwhelming experience. Especially with the heavy curtains of rain and the ridiculous Friday afternoon I-5 corridor traffic. Made all the more delightful by an electrical gremlin in the Genre car which caused a brief, unscheduled stop at the mechanic, and several hours of low-grade worry afterward.

The gem, though, was that we got to talk a lot. the_child asked me a number of very straightforward questions about my cancer and my treatments, which we discussed at length. We also talked about boys and dating. Beyond that, we talked at some length about technological progress and the concept of changes in the rate of change, that following on a hilarious lunchtime conversation between her, me and Lisa Costello which can boiled down to: “You kids today don’t know good you have it!”. Let’s just say that ENIAC, rotary dial phones and the Engima machine were invoked in the discussion. Plus she shared some of her taste in music with me, via the Genre car’s in-dash iPod connection.

So, yeah, it’s good. Today I’m working on my non-fiction project, and making my heart attack potato salad for people coming over later. Recipe here, if you missed it before: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]. Life, it do go on.