BillTracker: Across the Mojave

After a blistering, fantastic, full-on lightning storm in Altadena last night (window open, the smell of a hard rain almost as if I were home in the Midwest), I woke up this morning and drove across the desert to Las Vegas.

It was the first time to do the LA-Vegas drive and the roads were blissfully empty.

With the help of John Berendt's new book about Venice (City of Falling Angels) being read to me by some actor I've never heard of, the ride went quicker than I could have hoped for (just under four hours) given the circumstances -- that being that large swaths of the Mojave were getting drenched by that same storm front, lightning dancing along the distant horizon.

While it's the first such trip, it won't be the last. In fact, as I was saying to my Star-Trib friend Lisa Clausen on a piece of the drive, my life is in jumbo chaos mode for a while. (Though perhaps not as chaotic as their household where my big, dumb, sweet lab, Steve, is still wreaking havoc.)

If splitting my time between L.A., Las Vegas and San Diego weren't hard enough, my L.A. landlord has sold the house and we basically have two months to get everything together and move on.

Now, if only I knew where I was moving on to, that would be a lot easier. The idea of moving twice in short order makes my stomach hurt.

Still interviewing, still considering the entire consulting option, still enjoying working with the Sun. But some sort of decision will have to be made sooner rather than later.

So, for the few of you who really need to know (or care) about such things, I've created a temporary "tracking" mechanism so you have an idea where I am at any given time. It's call BillTracker. You'll find the link over there to the right. Just under T-Ball.

There's still lightning out in the desert as I write this tonight. Perhaps the Journalism Gods know that Judith Miller is in town tonight, readying herself to talk at SPJ in the morning.