I consider myself a rather smart guy, but at times I can be rather dumb.

For example, I owned my house in Clendenin for over a year before it occurred to me that the house being 5 hours away meant that it was 5 hours closer to other cities where I want to go do things.

For example, there are cons in Columbus and Pittsburgh which I want to attend. These cities are 3 hours away from Clendenin, which means I can stay overnight in Clendenin and then drive to each city as a day trip. Yes, that does mean a lot of driving, and yes, this isn’t going to give me the full con experience of basically living at the con for the whole weekend, but it’s a lot better than not going at all.

You’re probably wondering why I don’t get a room in the cities I want to visit. The answer is cost. Between one thing and the other, I can’t justify the expense of getting a hotel room just to attend a con for fun.

That said, I am going to stay in hotels on a few business trips this year. I am exhibiting at a couple conferences in Nashville this summer, and at a conference in Niagara, NY. I’ll probably be staying the night in Clendenin on the way to and from Nashville because it makes the 10-hour drive more bearable by splitting it into 7-hour and 5-hour drives (longer, yes, but more bearable).