Kevin's Watch

It's not over till we cease visiting one another.

Thanks for posting the pretty photos! Las Vegas...I'm not sure what to think about that place. Feels like an amusement park for adults with deep pockets.

aliantha wrote:Your mother has a sick sense of humor, Frosty.

Tell me about it. Not sure if it's worse that I actually take these into active use instead of burying them into the closet.



Certain someone must be choking to laughter by now.


I was complaining about leg muscles cramping due to too much sitting a week ago, and now they feel sore from too much activity. We did 19kms of variable terrain and hillwalking yesterday; when the temperatures sink 20-15 Celcius compared to the festlands, one's energy reserves last far longer. After two weeks of cacti and whatnot desert-y phenomena, one almost begins to suffer from a color green poisoning.



Crawled into a cave. Attempted to find a cute Caveman, particularly as we speak the same Ur-Barbarian, but the mammoth herds had migrated elsewhere and the campsite remained empty.



Company.

Fantastic road trip there lorin and Uss. The SouthWest has some particulars and you hit on some of the Grand ones. Now you can say what Big Sky and real heat is.

The thing about Lost Wages is that its all facade'. Its sole existence is to separate you from your money and do it in a fantasy setting. I've never left there with out the feeling of being slimed.

Yes, lots of green there Frosty. What I forget is the Broad Leaf trees. I have to go to California or up into the White Mountains to find stands of Broad Leaf trees...its too dry in the Southwest for me to easily remember what its like to be under a maple.

With all these pics from everyone and this website, this efest will never end. Plenty here to continue it way into the future. Memories do that.

Frostheart wrote:It's not over till we cease visiting one another.

Thanks for posting the pretty photos!

Did you see the pics of the formation I put up with you in mind?

lurch wrote:Fantastic road trip there lorin and Uss. The SouthWest has some particulars and you hit on some of the Grand ones. Now you can say what Big Sky and real heat is.

The thing about Lost Wages is that its all facade'. Its sole existence is to separate you from your money and do it in a fantasy setting. I've never left there with out the feeling of being slimed.

Yes, lots of green there Frosty. What I forget is the Broad Leaf trees. I have to go to California or up into the White Mountains to find stands of Broad Leaf trees...its too dry in the Southwest for me to easily remember what its like to be under a maple.

With all these pics from everyone and this website, this efest will never end. Plenty here to continue it way into the future. Memories do that.

I have been in the Soutwest several times now,but not with the same reaction. I think it had to do with the road trip / no agenda thing. We stopped where we wanted, stayed where we wanted, left when we wanted.

What is that saying about Journey and Destination?

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” (or something like that)

Ha.. another difference is the obvious lack of time. Being retired allows for the freedom from schedule. Its sooo cool to see you have enjoyed that freedom lorin.

lurch wrote:Ha.. another difference is the obvious lack of time. Being retired allows for the freedom from schedule. Its sooo cool to see you have enjoyed that freedom lorin.

It actually is turning out to be a learned skill. Learning I/we are not valuable in the work we do but in who we are. Something for 30+ years I didn't know. When I was not longer working, no more kids there was a huge empty place. And it's easy to fall into the 'I'm not important/my life is meaningless' trap. Taking 'a chance' of just going was huge for me. And scary.

I can't wait for the day when you, lurch, get to make the same post of retirement. I know it's close.

Retirement is what you make of it. I retired from piano teaching about 10 years ago now. Changed from being my own boss, working when I wanted to, to becoming more involved with the Family History Society. Now I have deadlines, teams of transcribers and checkers who I have to keep in work and whose work I then have to turn into decent publications. So it's the other way round for me. The EFest was a wonderful holiday. No-one wanted to talk about Family History (except for Lucimay and I forgive her ). I wish I could have stayed another week. For the last few days I have been stuck at the computer checking surname indexes!!!!

I woulda talked family history with you, Io...

Nice wrapup, lorin.

Wow...craziness. And Lorin, I found the strip in Las Vegas a bit less of an overload than Times Square in New York. But then again, I understood that Vegas was all about excess, so I was a bit more prepared for it when Carla and I got married there. And in our photo of the Excalibur the first night we were in town (we actually stayed in the Luxor, right next door to the Excalibur), there was an eerie green glow around the castle, like it had acquired a part of the Illearth stone or something.

And U...what are you doing with your non-driving hand in this picture?

And that is why you are my brother, Cag!!! I thought the same thing....

aliantha wrote:I woulda talked family history with you, Io...

Good job you didn't. We'd have been up all night!

Iolanthe wrote:

aliantha wrote:I woulda talked family history with you, Io...

Good job you didn't. We'd have been up all night!

We practically were, as it was!

I am told to tell you that U. is incommunicado in Toronto drinking pina coladas with no computer so he will defend his honor as soon as he gets on line.

lorin wrote:I am told to tell you that U. is incommunicado in Toronto drinking pina coladas with no computer so he will defend his honor as soon as he gets on line.

No doubt he will protest too much...and the rumors will only magnify.

dlbpharmd wrote:Great pics Lorin! The pic of Irish Mike makes me realize that all of the progress that I made in teaching him Southern English has been undermined by you with your New York accent. The lad showed such promise, too. Makes me sad.

I just read this............... WHAT New York accent???? I don't have a New Yawk accent?!??!

random shots from the road



one of u.'s many random 'over the cliff' give lorin a coronary shots



the burned trees looked silver and glistened from a distance. Quite a strange site.




have I mentioned I have a fascination with dead trees?



even he needed a break from the heat


the sun the heat the sun the heat........delirium

rdhopeca wrote:

lorin wrote:I am told to tell you that U. is incommunicado in Toronto drinking pina coladas with no computer so he will defend his honor as soon as he gets on line.

No doubt he will protest too much...and the rumors will only magnify.

I will also lay on way too much McDuff and claim to be smart toooo! I am slightly more communicado just now but I will need to wait until I am back in Hibernia before I can address all the assaults on mine honour!

This one I shall address right now:

Cagliostro wrote:And U...what are you doing with your non-driving hand in this picture?

If there was a picture of the back of the car you would not need to ask this question

u.

P.S. Did lorin mention that I got to tick my 'interaction with the authorities' box on my 'Fest wish list?

ussusimiel wrote:P.S. Did lorin mention that I got to tick my 'interaction with the authorities' box on my 'Fest wish list?

What, you got arrested?

ussusimiel wrote:P.S. Did lorin mention that I got to tick my 'interaction with the authorities' box on my 'Fest wish list?

She did not. Thereby hangs a tale, I presume...

ussusimiel wrote: P.S. Did lorin mention that I got to tick my 'interaction with the authorities' box on my 'Fest wish list?

Welllll ..............I didn't want anyone to have a worse impression of me than they already do. We were going through the town of Hurricane, Utah. I was doing a cool 72 in a 55. Yep - got pulled over. I think that is where I let Mike down. He had such high expectations. He wanted it all. He wanted the princess to pull over and do the whole rant thing. He wanted an NYPD attitude from the cop. He wanted the full monty. But I'm too smart to land my ass in jail. So I got out of the car and said to the cop that I was totally wrong, that I was speeding and I apologized. I bated my road bleary eyes and asked for forgiveness. So the officer, who was disappointingly nice and friendly, reduced the ticket to under 10 miles over the limit, thereby cutting the fine from 250ish to 120. I then thanked the nice man and we went on our way.

Mike was let down in so many ways. Mostly though, I think he was expecting a full on japattack. I had been priming him all week with small outbursts and breakdowns so he was ready. Conservatively I had at least 10 meltdowns throughout the road trip. Some of them were pretty damn funny, even to me.

U, if you want to interact with the "authorities", all you need to do is walk by a cop car, stop suddenly mouth agape and wide-eyed, and turn and run in the opposite direction.