The Slice: On the road again

Let’s start with the story of a summer vacation road trip.

This is from my friend, Jim Clanton.

“We did not take many vacations back in the day, but somewhere around 1961-62, it was decided that we were going to take the quintessential summer vacation, Disneyland. From Dallas, Texas, by car, with my paternal grandparents along.

“My grandmother was a peach of a woman, but my grandfather was an ornery old cuss. My dad was not a particularly patient man. My lovely sister, four years older than I, loved nothing more than to make my life miserable (and vice versa). Both my mother and father were chain smokers. So what could go wrong?

“Well anyway, off we go. I cannot remember the full details, but I do recall things were getting pretty tense by the time we hit the Colorado border. We were starting to go up over the Rocky Mountains.”

At about 10,000 feet, their old Ford wagon would climb no more. It just would not go any higher.

“At that point, my dad had had enough. He flipped a Uey, headed downhill and basically did not stop except for gas, snacks and cigarettes until we got back to Big D. Needless to say, that was the last of the summer driving vacations.”

Slice answer: Steve Heaps saw the question about fantasies of filling in for an ailing musical performer at a concert.

“Though he is not a group, everyone knows I’d fill in for Bob Dylan, vocals only – ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ then ‘Tangled Up in Blue.’ ”

Civilian applications of things learned in the military, continued: “My initial response to the question you posed two weeks ago was, I’ve yet to find an equivalent application to safeguarding, storing, transporting, and deploying tactical nuclear weapons,” wrote Bill Reichert.

Then he thought about it some more. “I realized the sub-tasks associated with my days in Special Weapons included the following (which apply to just about every civilian occupation).

“A. Being on time. B. Being prepared. C. Being coachable. D. Attitude and work ethic. E. Effort.”

Warm-up question: How long should a “While I’m away on vacation” note be from a co-worker for whom you will be covering during that person’s absence?

Today’s Slice question: What’s going to be your Second Half of the Year’s Resolution?

(Resolutions Do-Over Day is Friday. It’s also Canada Day. So maybe you could resolve to visit British Columbia or Prince Edward Island this summer.)

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Does excitement about a chain restaurant bring out the snob in you?