Happy Halloween
Please enjoy images of last year's costume, which I never blogged about back then. What will this years costume be? Will there be a this years costume?? Time will tell...
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Road Trip, Day Three:
Mississippi: Flat, empty, and sometimes scary. I tell ya, those people know how to abandon a house. At one point the road we were on, an established route that was indeed on our map, became almost a dirt road, two lanes across with a permanent dotted yellow. It looked like someone's driveway and we had to turn around and confirm that we'd gotten the right road. It wasn't always spooky though. We did stop at the smallest Post Office in the world, which was very quaint. We listened to the Penny Arcade podcasts though Louisiana which are always a riot and we crossed over to Texas mid evening. I saw some genuine Bayou, signs for Plantations, and a lot of very very flat land.
We rolled in at 9 or so to a warm welcome. It's a nice place. It's a big city.
Adventure.
Mississippi: Flat, empty, and sometimes scary. I tell ya, those people know how to abandon a house. At one point the road we were on, an established route that was indeed on our map, became almost a dirt road, two lanes across with a permanent dotted yellow. It looked like someone's driveway and we had to turn around and confirm that we'd gotten the right road. It wasn't always spooky though. We did stop at the smallest Post Office in the world, which was very quaint. We listened to the Penny Arcade podcasts though Louisiana which are always a riot and we crossed over to Texas mid evening. I saw some genuine Bayou, signs for Plantations, and a lot of very very flat land.
We rolled in at 9 or so to a warm welcome. It's a nice place. It's a big city.
Adventure.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Road Trip
Day 2:
Set off bright and early (not as bright and early as we should have) and headed across the great state of Tennessee. Tennessee is quite wide and thus it took us most of the day.
Our first stop was about halfway across the state. Tomas had decided that we needed some Fireworks and we stopped at
one of the many many fireworks stores you can find along the highways. I have never seen so many explosives in my life. After much deliberating and browsing, I managed to escape only 25 bucks the poorer. I could have spent a lot more...
While tooling around iTunes last night I came across Barack Obama's new book for download. As I said I'd get a hold of that as soon as I saw it in audio form, I decided to follow up on that promise. The audio is abridged but still lasts almost 7 hours.
Listening to Obama talking about our country while actually driving across it was at once interesting, uplifting, and surreal. I can't wait to vote for that guy. He seems to have a pretty perfect grasp on just about every aspect of how life and government should be in this country, endlessly wise and even-handed on matters of politics, race, family, religion and industry.
Apart from being less than thrilled with the Bush administration's policies on... pretty much everything, I have been more or less apolitical throughout my life. This guy, however, I could really get behind. I worry about him though, and hope he'll have the opportunity to fulfill his potential. He reminds me of guys like Gandhi, Lincoln, JFK, Akbar The Great, Martin Luther King, Jr. These wise, reasonable men come along who have this vision for a better way for us to live together on this Earth. They have big, unifying ideas and start to change the world, but are never allowed to finish. They're all stopped by people too selfish and or stupid and or greedy and or scared to let things evolve.
We made our way across the state, shooting for Memphis and the home of all things Elvis. While I had little time or interest in the actual Graceland tour, we did go in with every intention of grabbing ourselves some of the most ridiculous Elvis stuff possible.
This led to one of the most bazzarre and surreal experiences I've ever had. We got our merchandise just fine. However, Tomas went out to grab something from the car and managed to lock his keys inside... This led to us being stranded in the Graceland gift shop on Elvis Presley Blvd. for a couple hours with nothing to do but watch Elvis videos, listen to Elvis music and stare at Elvis stuff... It was a bit hard for Tomas to explain to the roadside assistance guy where we were. My favorite part of their conversation:
nice lady from Progressive showed up to let us into the car in a flash) and resumed our travels. Right before we crossed the Mississippi border, we passed the largest roadside gentleman's club either of us had ever seen. This thing had to have been the size of a Wal-mart. Of course we had many miles yet to travel and could not investigate further. As we sped through the darkness of Mississippi, we were accompanied by the stand-up comedy stylings of Dane Cook, Mitch Hedberg, and David Cross.
Day 2:
Set off bright and early (not as bright and early as we should have) and headed across the great state of Tennessee. Tennessee is quite wide and thus it took us most of the day.
Our first stop was about halfway across the state. Tomas had decided that we needed some Fireworks and we stopped at
one of the many many fireworks stores you can find along the highways. I have never seen so many explosives in my life. After much deliberating and browsing, I managed to escape only 25 bucks the poorer. I could have spent a lot more...While tooling around iTunes last night I came across Barack Obama's new book for download. As I said I'd get a hold of that as soon as I saw it in audio form, I decided to follow up on that promise. The audio is abridged but still lasts almost 7 hours.
Listening to Obama talking about our country while actually driving across it was at once interesting, uplifting, and surreal. I can't wait to vote for that guy. He seems to have a pretty perfect grasp on just about every aspect of how life and government should be in this country, endlessly wise and even-handed on matters of politics, race, family, religion and industry.Apart from being less than thrilled with the Bush administration's policies on... pretty much everything, I have been more or less apolitical throughout my life. This guy, however, I could really get behind. I worry about him though, and hope he'll have the opportunity to fulfill his potential. He reminds me of guys like Gandhi, Lincoln, JFK, Akbar The Great, Martin Luther King, Jr. These wise, reasonable men come along who have this vision for a better way for us to live together on this Earth. They have big, unifying ideas and start to change the world, but are never allowed to finish. They're all stopped by people too selfish and or stupid and or greedy and or scared to let things evolve.
We made our way across the state, shooting for Memphis and the home of all things Elvis. While I had little time or interest in the actual Graceland tour, we did go in with every intention of grabbing ourselves some of the most ridiculous Elvis stuff possible.
This led to one of the most bazzarre and surreal experiences I've ever had. We got our merchandise just fine. However, Tomas went out to grab something from the car and managed to lock his keys inside... This led to us being stranded in the Graceland gift shop on Elvis Presley Blvd. for a couple hours with nothing to do but watch Elvis videos, listen to Elvis music and stare at Elvis stuff... It was a bit hard for Tomas to explain to the roadside assistance guy where we were. My favorite part of their conversation:
"Is there anything around you not named after Elvis??"Eventually we made it out of there (a
"I'm guessing not... We're in Graceland."
nice lady from Progressive showed up to let us into the car in a flash) and resumed our travels. Right before we crossed the Mississippi border, we passed the largest roadside gentleman's club either of us had ever seen. This thing had to have been the size of a Wal-mart. Of course we had many miles yet to travel and could not investigate further. As we sped through the darkness of Mississippi, we were accompanied by the stand-up comedy stylings of Dane Cook, Mitch Hedberg, and David Cross.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Headed to TexasDAY 1:
Set off at 8am, loaded up on granola bars and snapple at the local grocery store. The first leg of the trip was fairly routine. We had to go to Harrisburg. But soon unfamillar territory was reached as we went through the skinny part of Maryland and into West Virginia. Our first roadside stop was none other than the Mystery Hole of Ansted, West Virginia!
"Wooo, it's exciting!"
Tomas is unimpressed by the hole.
It would have been the perfect roadside stop... if it hadn't turned out thet the Mystery Hole is mysteriously closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.Tomas is unimpressed by the hole.
After recovering from this blow and regaining our composure we continued through Virginia and stoped for the night in Bristol Tennesee. At this point we enjoyed some much needed time with the Internet. My laptop hadn't been online since I left New York and there was much software updating and iTunes storing to be had.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Last Night in PA
This is it, folks. It's my last night in PA for awhile. At 7am tomorrow, I and my trusty mexican guide and manservant head off across this great nation of ours towards our final destination of Houston. We ope to make 5-600 miles a day for the next three days. I leave much behind, but I take more with me than I'd like to. (It's mostly equipment though, I'm taking little else.) I got much accomplished before leaving however. My room is mine again, my worldly possessions in order, my folks visited.
The open road is my home now. Adventure awaits.
If you'd like to catch up with me, I'll be a captive audience. Gimme a call in the next three days. If you know the number, I'd love to hear from you.
Wish me luck. I probably need it.
This is it, folks. It's my last night in PA for awhile. At 7am tomorrow, I and my trusty mexican guide and manservant head off across this great nation of ours towards our final destination of Houston. We ope to make 5-600 miles a day for the next three days. I leave much behind, but I take more with me than I'd like to. (It's mostly equipment though, I'm taking little else.) I got much accomplished before leaving however. My room is mine again, my worldly possessions in order, my folks visited.
The open road is my home now. Adventure awaits.
If you'd like to catch up with me, I'll be a captive audience. Gimme a call in the next three days. If you know the number, I'd love to hear from you.
Wish me luck. I probably need it.
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