Old friends, regret, and redemption.

I got a message from a friend that they wanted to meet for coffee about midnight. I had been indulging in my depression for the previous couple of days and decided that a shower and a cuppa would do me good.

Experiments in Exile

This weekend, there was a significant chance that ice and snow would make the roads dangerous, so I decided to stay out near work. After debating, and flip-flopping repeatedly, I decided to stay at the office on Friday into Saturday.

Seeing family

So I got a message from my sister that I should come up to pick pumpkins with them on Saturday. I wiggled some money around and headed that way. The trip was fairly uneventful, until I got there. I was told that the family was getting together in the park for lunch and then going to pick pumpkins. . . I underestimated the amount of family that was meeting at the park. Significantly. I got to spend some time with folks that I have not seen in the better part of a decade and a few hours with my grandfather also.

Enjoy the pics. . . If you have any questions, fire away.

Traveling Locally and the Tolerance of Foolishness

I have not slept much since yesterday. I will start with where I got up early because it was special coffee day! Sump re-opened on Thursday and I was anxious to get back down there so I could not sleep real well on Thursday. I woke up early to get in a little bit of a workout and headed over around 1230ish. Drained a pour-over, a shot of espresso, and a cortado, bought 2 bags of Columbian to begin my summer cold extraction experiment, and headed to the Red Cross to pull my shift dispatching.

And I Manage to Get Completely Lost in a Hotel

As I parked my truck at the hotel the previous night, I knew I was close to but not over 200 thousand miles. I got up and out by 0730 and looked at the odometer and I was sitting at 199 999! Lots of pictures occurred. I slid toward the highway and picked up an extra mile and a smile.

SuperNationals!!

Today was a lot of rushing around for a minute then waiting. I started off trying to figure out where the nearest post office was, and realizing that I did not have any postcards to send out, I very much dislike trying to find post cards. But the experiment did lead me to a new way of doing things.

So, Yeah, That Just Happened

Today started off a little more hurried than usual. I was still recovering from a 13 hour workday the previous day and an inability to fall asleep this morning. I was looking forward to heading to my favorite coffee spot in the city. I loaded up the truck, grabbed the phone and camera, and then things went all wibbily.

The conglomeration.

I made a montage of my trip, it is fairly large, but as I put in about 6h or so on it. . . here you go. The original image is a 110 Meg xcf that uncompacts into just about 1.8G when loaded. The PNG saves a bit of space, but is still 24-ish.

Best picture I have taken in a while. . . completely untouched. . .

Homeward Bound

The last day, I woke up in Weatherford, OK. A smallish college town just west of Oklahoma City. On doing some research, I found a local coffee house that was listed as the best cup of coffee between between OKC and Amarillo. Having sampled the coffee in Amarillo, and given that this was a college town I had extremely high hopes for this coffee.

Aliens and Finding Myself Lost Again

I got a late jump on things. Not getting up until nearly checkout time at the motel. The only thing I really had planned today was to hit up the UFO museum which was supposedly less than 2 miles from where I was staying. Then I was going to head back to hopefully stay in Norman, OK for the night. My sister had one request for a picture when I was down in Roswell:

Taking the Long Way to Roswell

  Wednesday, I went and picked up all my stuff at my sister's place. It is amazing how much one can accumulate in a short time. Loaded up the truck and headed west. I figured I could not be this close to Roswell and not get to see it. I was really torn between Roswell and Taos. Roswell won out this time. When I get a spare month will hit up Taos.

Fiddlin' Around

Not a ton happened on Tuesday, but I did get to a concert by the end of it.

Why Yes, That IS a Naked Man

Monday was the big day, the touristy day, my sister and her husband were showing me around their city, Amarillo. They asked the usual questions (what do you want to see, where do you want to go?), I had no opinions. The schedule got set as follows.

Sunday Morning, er, Afternoon Coming Down

This song has meant a lot to me since I first heard the Shawn Mullins cover in the late nineties. I grew up a preacher's kid and was generally a bustling, angry environment in the mornings on Sundays growing up.

We can Rebuild it, We can Make it Stronger

The major thing that occurred on Saturday was repairing my nieces guitar. The tail side straplock had broken free and the 1/4 inch jack retaining nut had fallen off so that the jack was recessed inside of the guitar.

Coffee and a Party

First up, a picture of my 97 cent pour-over filter holder.

Voices in the Night and the Value of a Valid ID

My sister turned 40 on the 10th. I figured now would be a good time to make a trek to see her new place (have not visited to their place in better than a decade). I left in the afternoon, figuring that I would drive 10 hours, get off the road around 0200 and then only have about 3 hours to drive on Friday. This did not happen.

Heading South

So I am taking a quick run south to Memphis to assist a fellow ham in gathering some equipment and scoping out a few tower sites that he may be assisting in dropping in the near future.

Nero Days in Ohio

I am sick, very sick, well not very sick, but stay home from school sick at least. I am pretty sure I have a fever, and my ears are plugged up. I have three days to make it from Cleveland to Adrian.

Crashing Cleveland!

My GPS doesn't so much get Cleveland. It gives me bad adresses on famous places,it drops randomly to recalculating route, and many times even making the turns suggested by the gps would result in a recalculating route. I also decided to implement my voluntary nomadism during this phase of my trip to further strectch my comfort zone. Apparently, Cleveland got my intent and decided to test the bounds of my flexibility.

A Clarion Day

I am an idiot at times. Some times it pays off, other times I get the joy of knowing there are very few with the visceral knowledge that I have just gained.

It's Groundhog Day!

I started off a little late thanks to the misadventures in my previous post, but all was not lost. I was still able to meet some great folks, see the prognosticator of prognosticators and mail a postcard or two, or four.

To Punxsutawney!

Leg 2: St. Clairesville to Punxsutawney
So with the laundry done, sundries purchased and coffee drunk, I pointed Irene east and headed to Punxsutawny only two hours and forty-four minutes away.

Life on the Road

Learned a valuable lesson, it is easier to document things as they happen than go back and assemble them from memory. I wrote, struck and rewrote this post at least a dozen times, but none of it seems right.  The thoughts and images are not as vivid and seem inconsequential sitting here. My face is itchy from a bad shave, and I am still exhausted from the trip to Punxsy. It was amazing and I got to cross 3 things off my happily-ever-after list.
1. See the Groundhog Day festivities first hand.
2. Watched the film in a public theatre.
3. Completely unrelated, but has long been in my happiest dreams, staying in a theatre long after they close and eventually sleeping there.