Dinner with Sarah at Tad’s on Thursday night. It had been a disturbingly long time since I’d seen her, so this was a very good thing. But I still forgot to give her that book I’ve been holding since December or so…
Speaking of books, I picked up a complete 1935 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia in Stockton on Sunday. One of the first things I checked (having learned much of what I knew about the subject as an 11-year-old from a much later version of the same source) was the article on “sex”. But there was no article on “sex”, only a pointer directing me to the article on “mental conflict”. Interesting, that…
Another interesting note: in 1935, Greensboro, Fresno, and San Jose all had about the same population of around 50,000 people. I think San Jose won…
And now it’s laundry day…
I’ve said if before and I’ll no doubt say it again. Eureka CA has the best weather in the entire world. It never gets hot, it never gets all that cold, and there’s more rain in Eureka than just about anyplace else in California. It’s a shame they don’t build a city there. I’d move to it if they did…
That said, yer humble host is feeling like absolute crap today, and I’ve decided that it all stems from the fact that the weather has been absolutely fucking miserable here for most of the past week, with abundant sunshine and highs above 80, and my body is rejecting summer. Next week looks even worse. Come on. It’s San Francisco. It’s not supposed to be like this here…
Anyhow, Mark and I have our tickets to North Carolina now. More details to come, but the best part is that we get to miss pride week completely. The down side, of course, is that it’s REALLY miserable in North Carolina in late June…
I’m sad about the renumbering of Highway 666. Aside from the fact that I’m tired of the Bible-thumpers getting their way (again), this also means the loss of yet one more artifact of the original Route 66, since U.S. 666 got its name by being an offshoot of the more famous road…
Anyhow, Mark and I did a little road trip of our own this weekend, and I got to see one of those few remaining chunks of California I’d not yet visited. Details and pictures to follow…
As for this week, seems there’s a visitor in town…
Lastly, I’m working on a bit of a reorganization of the journals section, so don’t be surprised if some random links don’t work for a few days. Should be fixed shortly…
In case you’re wondering if I’m dead or alive, I’m actually just doing a little re-working and re-configuring on the site, and it’s taking a little longer than I’d planned, so look for an update in another day or two…
OK, so I’m alive, but don’t look for any new content for another ten days or so because I’m leaving for North Carolina tomorrow. So there…
By way of updates:
- I’ve had this annoying cold/allergy thing going on for three weeks now and it’s getting on my nerves. If it screws up my trip, I will be pissed.
- The cardiologist decided yesterday that my heart is quite healthy and strong yesterday and that my thyroid is pretty well normal, and that I’m ready for that procedure which should get me back to normal after two years. That happens on 18 July.
- I’ve been to Susanville and have lived to tell about it. Pictures and stuff soon.
- I’m still in the process of reorganizing this site a bit, but it’s OK for now. Some older journal permalinks may not work for another week or so until I get all the redirects in place. Sorry.
Coming soon:
- My rant on this whole idiotic Gray Davis recall thing. For now, read this rather reasonable commentary on the subject.
I’m gonna go eat barbecue and drink Cheerwine (and probably sweat a lot) now. See you in ten days or so…
Assorted motel and rental car reservations are now complete…
Why am I so strangely paranoid about aspects of this trip? Not about the actual trip or its itinerary (or participants), mind you, but the logisitics. Maybe it’s because I haven’t flown since before 11 September 2001, and I’m not sure how much more annoying that part will be nowadays. God knows, it would be hard to make air travel any more of a pain in the ass than it already was, but if there’s a way, the airline industry is sure to find it…
This is also my first cross-country trip with a slew of medications which have to be taken everyday, thanks to that thyroid-related heart condition (which may be eliminated soon at long last), so I’m being obsessive about that as well…
Of course, it’s also the first time I’ve seen my mom in over eighteen months and my dad in over two years. And I’ll be expected to show Mark all the excitement North Carolina has to offer when he shows up on Wednesday. Gosh, what pressure. OK, not really…
Anyhow, bags are packed, bills are paid, reading material is being contemplated, and I’ll be gone in eighteen hours, happy in the knowlege that I’ll be missing all the stupid “pride” nonsense around here, not to mention avoiding all its assorted irritating participants…
Mark dropped me off at the airport early in the morning on his way to Fresno to see his own parents. I settled in for a very long day of plane rides and airports and cravings for food, nicotine, and a chair which didn’t have another chair six inches in front of it.
My layover was in Dallas, and the size of that city’s Sunday paper plus my new used copy of All the President’s Men kept me relatively entertained in the air.
Mom and Dad were waiting for me in Charlotte. They fed me at a Waffle House there and headed northeast for Greensboro. I marvelled at the highway construction along I-85. We just don’t have that much highway construction in California anymore.
Up early to go pick up the rental car. It turned out that a weekly rental actually cost the same as a four-day rental so I opted for the former.
We drove around town a bit in the afternoon, covering downtown and my grandmother’s old neighborhood (which is where I just might want to live if I moved back to Greensboro), and sort of generally seeing all the sites and getting me re-oriented. What I noticed, mostly, was how much more green and attractive North Carolina is compared to California.
My mom and I stopped in at a big band concert by the lake in High Point to meet up with my aunt and my cousin’s wife, but it was just too damned hot and mosquito-filled. All the same, I planned to spend as much time as possible with my parents during these first few days because I knew things would get hectic later in the week.
I didn’t go for the free cigarette tasting because I hate all the pretense, the palate-cleansing, and the pressure to buy. Besides, the place seemed to be closed. So my mom and I went to Yum-Yum and had hot dogs and ice cream instead.
Actually, I stayed pretty close to home today, going through boxes and boxes of my stuff which my parents have in storage. I do some of this every time I’m home, just to try to reduce the bulk a little. It seems each passing year makes me a little more ruthless and allows me to throw away more stuff. This is good.
Dinner at the cafeteria again. Lest I sound bored by this, I’m most certainly not…
Tonight, I went out on my own and did my little circuit of Greensboro, visiting all the neighborhoods my parents would just as soon skip (including the increasingly ghostly and creepy shell of the former Carolina Circle Mall), checking out the supermarkets, etc.