Just pulled in to a Colby, Kansas Motel 6, off I-70. I am trekking across the country with Aidan to collect a big wooden trunk/coffee table that Agi and I had made in Hungary. Family friends of ours agreed to haul it home for us in their container, as it wouldn't fit on the pallets we shipped last May. It's in Missouri, and in looking at the calendar, I knew I'd have to get it now or wait at least two months for my work schedule to clear up.
So naturally everything went wrong today. We had planned to leave as soon as we woke up this morning, but actually woke to a cold house--our furnace went out. By the time we got a repairman lined up (the circuitboard was shot) we didn't leave the house until 11. Not too great when we had the first 729 mile leg of the trip in front of us...
And naturally I forgot to pack the camera--meaning no photos for this little travelogue. Which sucks, since we passed some breathtaking sites--Capitol Reef National Park, Vail, Aspen, etc....
Not too fond of Vail now. Got caught in the mother of all traffic jams, in the middle of a storm, and crept forward 12 miles in two hours at the top of the Rockies, through the Vail Pass. Means we didn't get through Denver until after 8 PM. Once clearing Denver though, all traffic magically disappeared. And I mean DISAPPEARED. We had the highway to ourself for the remaining 212 miles between Denver and Kansas. Apparently there is nothing worth visiting past Denver, despite the brochures we picked up proclaiming the stretch of I-70 between Colby & Topeka "America's Main Street". I wouldn't know. We drove there in the dark.
I've had a blast with Aidan--torturing him with the music of my youth. Specifically for this trip I loaded my ipod with tunes from that lost period of the eighties, with a few choice cuts from the seventies as well. I covered the gamut, from cheese like Eddie Money (Take Me Home tonight) and Rick Springfield (Jesse's Girl) to classics from Kansas and Springsteen. And all points inbetween (hello Nightranger, Bon Jovi, Asia, and Toto...) Most of these tunes (with the exception of Springsteen's finest) I hadn't even heard since Jr High in Payson, so that was fun... Aidan handled it pretty well--thumbs up to Eddie Money and Alphaville, not so much the Asia...)
Ah well. Leg two starts tomorrow, as we stop in Granby, Missouri to pack the van with our stuff and visit the Burdens. Then on Monday its a six hour detour south to the Denton TX area to drop in on Janene and Bill. Provided they ever decide to respond to the emails I sent informing them of our desire to crash their house... :-)... If you read this Janene, call me at 435-213-7198...
Signing out from ice-cold Kansas. Seriously. Its like below zero right now....
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The era of peace and prosperity has begun...
With a WHOLE LOTTA CLASS!
Seriously, I saw this live yesterday and was utterly disgusted with the hordes of losers who had the classy manners to actually BOO an outgoing president. Say what you will about conservatives and their distaste at having a pseudo socialist lightweight as commander in chief, they have been extremely supportive of the guy and respectful as he begins his term, with some columnists even being seduced over to the dark side by the charming personality of the new president.
Funny, and more than a little hypocritical, of the lefties to now blather on and on about "unity" and coming together as one America" after they all went DefCon 1 when Bush was elected and spent the next 8 years throwing every vile epithet they could at the guy. Yeah. Now we are all magically one happy country when THEIR guy gets elected. And the funny thing is, respect or at least respectful disagreement has been exactly what the right has been offering up. And that'll continue.
I am not unaware of the historic nature of the event--our first black president is a big deal, and symbolically means a great deal to the entire planet. As the symbolism fades, and he has to really lead, I do sincerely hope he continues on the moderate course reflected by his keeping Robert Gates on as SecDef, and his backing away from the instant pullout from Iraq he promised at every turn on the campaign trail. I've always thought that reality would set in once he started getting his daily intel briefings.
That being said, I give a big thumbs up to the outgoing commander in chief. Despite his failings on the domestic front (huge new spending in medicare, inability -no thanks to intemperate democrats- to reform social security, and blase attitude toward vetoes that allowed for profligate amounts of government spending) he did get the big items right. We didn't see another attack on our soil, got two very qualified originalist conservative jurists on the Supreme Court, and you have to love the guys absolute willingness to do what he thought was right, regardless of public opinion. Based on the actions of the crowd on the Mall yesterday, ignoring American public opinion is usually a wise choice.
So good luck GWB. Enjoy retirement in Texas. I am fully confident we'll see a different sort of retirement than the one on permanent display by Clinton--that involves flitting about the globe on a private jet paid for by Saudi money, taking money from every despot on the planet for his "Clinton Initiative", and being seen with one skanky ho after another at yet another hotel in yet another foreign capital. You stay classy, Bill!
On a personal note, I took a month off from these updates mainly because I was tired every day. for these first couple weeks of January (through last Friday) I took advantage of an offer to go into our company's shop and help tear down and gut incoming pipe from the field, all in an attempt to really get an insiders view of how our system works. It was kinda fun--becoming a blue-collar joe. Yep, uniform, grease, heavy lifting, operating heavy machinery, and cutting stuff up with big-ass grinders was fun. But left me comfortably tired at the end of each day, and more than willing to just trudge into the house and watch the tube. And prepare the occasional Sunday School lesson.
I've got two weeks off now before getting back at it, so I'll probably write a little more. I don't lack for material. Like this:
Ashton came into the kitchen over the weekend one morning with a very heavy, sad look on his face, obviously troubled with something really weighing on his mind. I took a break from scrambling up the eggs and crouched down in front of him...
"What's wrong buddy? How are are you feeling?".
"Dad", he whispered, kneading his thoughts and words very carefully---
"When Barack is sworn in on Tuesday, will we have to start calling breakfast, Barack-fast?
Can't make that stuff up...
Seriously, I saw this live yesterday and was utterly disgusted with the hordes of losers who had the classy manners to actually BOO an outgoing president. Say what you will about conservatives and their distaste at having a pseudo socialist lightweight as commander in chief, they have been extremely supportive of the guy and respectful as he begins his term, with some columnists even being seduced over to the dark side by the charming personality of the new president.
Funny, and more than a little hypocritical, of the lefties to now blather on and on about "unity" and coming together as one America" after they all went DefCon 1 when Bush was elected and spent the next 8 years throwing every vile epithet they could at the guy. Yeah. Now we are all magically one happy country when THEIR guy gets elected. And the funny thing is, respect or at least respectful disagreement has been exactly what the right has been offering up. And that'll continue.
I am not unaware of the historic nature of the event--our first black president is a big deal, and symbolically means a great deal to the entire planet. As the symbolism fades, and he has to really lead, I do sincerely hope he continues on the moderate course reflected by his keeping Robert Gates on as SecDef, and his backing away from the instant pullout from Iraq he promised at every turn on the campaign trail. I've always thought that reality would set in once he started getting his daily intel briefings.
That being said, I give a big thumbs up to the outgoing commander in chief. Despite his failings on the domestic front (huge new spending in medicare, inability -no thanks to intemperate democrats- to reform social security, and blase attitude toward vetoes that allowed for profligate amounts of government spending) he did get the big items right. We didn't see another attack on our soil, got two very qualified originalist conservative jurists on the Supreme Court, and you have to love the guys absolute willingness to do what he thought was right, regardless of public opinion. Based on the actions of the crowd on the Mall yesterday, ignoring American public opinion is usually a wise choice.
So good luck GWB. Enjoy retirement in Texas. I am fully confident we'll see a different sort of retirement than the one on permanent display by Clinton--that involves flitting about the globe on a private jet paid for by Saudi money, taking money from every despot on the planet for his "Clinton Initiative", and being seen with one skanky ho after another at yet another hotel in yet another foreign capital. You stay classy, Bill!
On a personal note, I took a month off from these updates mainly because I was tired every day. for these first couple weeks of January (through last Friday) I took advantage of an offer to go into our company's shop and help tear down and gut incoming pipe from the field, all in an attempt to really get an insiders view of how our system works. It was kinda fun--becoming a blue-collar joe. Yep, uniform, grease, heavy lifting, operating heavy machinery, and cutting stuff up with big-ass grinders was fun. But left me comfortably tired at the end of each day, and more than willing to just trudge into the house and watch the tube. And prepare the occasional Sunday School lesson.
I've got two weeks off now before getting back at it, so I'll probably write a little more. I don't lack for material. Like this:
Ashton came into the kitchen over the weekend one morning with a very heavy, sad look on his face, obviously troubled with something really weighing on his mind. I took a break from scrambling up the eggs and crouched down in front of him...
"What's wrong buddy? How are are you feeling?".
"Dad", he whispered, kneading his thoughts and words very carefully---
"When Barack is sworn in on Tuesday, will we have to start calling breakfast, Barack-fast?
Can't make that stuff up...
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