The owner of this house is a man for whom I have immense respect. It’s always fun seeing the neighborhood historic presevation nazis get it from behind…
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…
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…
So Mark and I went to Greensboro and Charlotte and Atlanta, and we ate a lot, and we didn’t see anyone but family, and a couple of famous old bigots (and one civil rights pioneer) died, and sodomy was legalized just hours after we’d committed a felony in a Motel 6 in Charlotte, and we ate a lot more, and there were thunderstorms, and we brought back vinyl and liver pudding and Diet Cheerwine, and it was all pretty damned exhausting, but fun…
Details to follow, along with apologies to everyone I didn’t see…
You know it’s going to be a strange day when your first piece of email in the morning starts with “you must be getting lots of hits after the CNN article”. If anyone has any idea what that’s all about, please let me know. I think it has something to do with Carolina Circle Mall in Greensboro, and I sort of hope it doesn’t have anything to do with this…
New and exciting for your Sunday afternoon: pictures and commentary on the recent trip with Mark to Greensboro, Charlotte, and Atlanta.
Some afterthoughts:
- I would now, without reservation, consider a move back to the east coast, probably not to Greensboro, but to Charlotte or Atlanta. Anyone with a spare job in either city, please let me know.
- I think Mark was enamored of the region as well.
- I miss my mommy and my daddy.
As much as I’d prefer not to give a certain radio talk show host (and, ummm, FORMER TV personality) any more publicity than he’s already received, I will point out that it’s very unappealing to watch a self-described “conservative” (who should, one assumes, know better) whine about how his First Amendment rights were violated and what a “victim” he’s become…
First, as I’ve said before, one’s right to free speech does not include the right to use anyone else’s facilities for this expression (despite a wrong-headed ruling by the California Supreme Court). Second, I was under the impression that taking responsibility for one’s own actions was rather high on most “conservative” checklists…
But, of course, this realization could only come from a logical, rational, and thoughtful analysis of the issues, which is not something for which this particular personality (nor most of his “nation”) is well known. After all, reasonable commentary generally doesn’t work well when shouted…
On a completely unrelated note, I really crave one of these (thanks to Jim in NC for the pointer)…