The drive to work tomorrow won’t be much different.

It will be in my truck, and I’ll leave the house earlier. But it will still be me listening to morning drive radio as I take 104 to 590 to 490 to work.  Oh, and I’ll be alone.  

Yeah the morning commute won’t be much different.

But that drive home.

The drive home won’t be much fun, let me explain.

For the last few years, my daughter Rachel has worked at the same company I work.

We have very different jobs, and don’t see each other during the day much, but we have rode together each day.  Most mornings she got in the car and promptly went back to sleep for the 45 minute drive.  Once at work, we would go to our areas and get to work.   We’d usually see each other at lunch time, but didn’t ‘connect much during the day.

But that drive home.

At the end of the day she’s come to my office and wait for me to finish up, then we would head out to the car for the drive home.  

And she would come alive.

You might say she is a bit like me,  more of a night person.   In college I didn’t have any classes before noon, most of the time and usually was up late.   I was pretty slow to get going in the mornings, but the afternoons were when I came alive.   I see that in my daughter.

So on our drives home became a wonderful time of the day for me.

I would get a download of her day, what she had done, interesting customer interactions.

Then it would be an update on the latest podcast she had listened to, true crime was a favorite topic.

We would then argue about the car radio and what we were going to listen to.

In all that time, I never won one of those arguments.

We would usually settle on a music channel and she put up with my constant puns about mixing up the signers.

Oh this is that new song by Kelly Perry or Katy Clarkson or some other dad joke.

Sometimes she would take mercy on me and play music that she knew I would like.  Shows we had seen together and could both sing along too were fun.

My favorite times would be when she would sing along to a song and harmonize.   I love to hear her sing, but she doesn’t like it when I play recordings or her.  So when she would sing along with a song she really likes, it was beautiful.

I would just listen quietly, sometimes I’d turn down the radio with the steering wheel controls so I could hear more of her voice.

It’s been a fun couple year, but she is starting a new adventure.  She liked her old job, she was good at it,  and it was a good job, but she wants to strike out on her own and take a chance on something new. 

Knowing my career   history, I’m in no place to tell her not to.  So I gave her advice when she asked for it, and tried to stay out of the way the rest of the time.

I changed the oil in her car, checked the tires, got a nice milk crate for the trunk and stocked it with oil and coolant, jumper cables and windshield fluid, tomorrow she takes off on her own.

I won’t be there when she gets up for work, I’ve got to leave early.   The drive in won’t be that different, just me and AM drive radio.

104, 590, 490 to work.

There is a truck to unload and customers to take care of.  Reports to run and spread sheets to spread.

I’ll be busy all day  and won’t have time to miss her much.

But that drive home.