The Ugly American
A really really good weekend...
Even if it was way too short, it was still one of the best weekends ever!
It started Thursday afternoon. I finished up the class I was instructing and headed down to San Bruno, Ca. What I did was move out of my hotel up in Santa Rosa and move closer to the SF airport. It's an hour and a half drive and I didn't wanna try to get up that early in the morning and turn in the rental and all the other stuff that goes along with checking in at the airport. So, I moved down close to the airport, turned in the rental and tried to get a good nights sleep. Good luck iwth that one Andy!
I finally did get to sleep. I don't remember what time it was when it heppened, but I wasn't worried about it. I could always sleep on the airplane. I mean, I had reserved myself a good enough seat, so even if I didn't get the upgrade, which I rarely do anyway, I'd be alright. Good luck with that one too Andy!
I checked in Friday morning and I went from my really nice seat to a middle seat right in front of the exit row and if you know anything about airline travel you know that those seats don't recline! Why, you ask? I guess they believe that the 2 inches or so that the seats do recline would interfere with people attempting to use the emergency exit row...at least I had a relatively small person sitting on one side of me!
There's more to complain about with US Air, but why spoil the story of a great weekend? I made it home...hey, even my luggage made it this time! My youngest picked me up from the airport...'cause she loves me and we headed home.
Right after I got there my family showed up...not my girls...my mom and dad and brother and nephews...pretty cool! Pop's doing great! New heart tickin' along no problem. We were all together for a special day. The Mug is graduating from HS...man is her mother ever getting old!
The kind of day that brings tears to a proud fathers' eyes...
I remember us buying her a shirt when she was in Kindergarten...it said Class of 2007. I remember thinking...man, that's so far away! It really seems like it was only a short time ago. My girls are all growd up!
Now...how do we get them out of the house???
This picture was sent to me...
I met this guy named Jim here at the hotel in Santa Rosa. We were discussing photography...you know...'cause I have this most awesome camera and stuff...and he was telling me about a time when he was sitting in his friends back yard, near or after dusk, I can't quite remember, and bats were dive bombing the pool in the back yard...you know how they do...skimming the water top snatching bugs out of the air.
Anyway, he told me that he tried to snap some pictures with a plain old digital camera and he had snapped a good pic, but it was really dark. I didn't think anything of it and then I got an e-mail from him...I had told him about my web site...that's where he got my email from...in the e-mail was this...
click on it and make it bigger...you might be able to see something...but it's tough...
So I used the program that I got with my camera...called digital photo professional and this is what I managed to pull out of it...
I just started using this program, I'd be willing to bet that somebody else could do even better pulling that bat out of this pic...
If you've ever seen the way bats fly you have to know how difficult it is to even get a shot of one in flight. I figured I'd share this with you. I thought it was pretty cool! But I'm silly like that!!!!!
Have a nice day!
Harmony my eye...
I went to this thing here in Santa Rosa called the Harmony Festival today...it was okay at first...but then...in between musicians...people were up on stage bitching about the president and the war and shit like that...how is that in any way harmonious? I mean, I'm not a fan...but I wanted harmony...not some whinny asshat talking shit about Haliburton and Bush...STFU! Luckily there were stages all over the place...but I'm tired now!
There was a funny thing that happened when I got there though. I was at the window in line waiting when I heard this lady say to the person behind the glass that she wanted her money back. She said, I'm a christian woman and they're promoting drug use in there...we walked in there and people are openly smoking marijuana and they're selling pipes in there! I have my daughter with me for goodness sake! Her daughter looked to be in her twenties! They told her she had to go somewhere else...she was pissed!
There were stands there promoting medical marijuana...I'm told they have places where you can buy it if you have a note from a doctor! Not quite Amsterdam, but getting there. One sign I saw showed a picture of Al Capone and had the caption, "Remember Prohibition?" It didn't work then and it's not working now. You know, it's illegal to grow hemp in this country? But tobacco is cool...'Cause they can tax the hell out of it all while subsidizing the hell out of it!
Like I said, I'm tired...have a nice day!
