The Gate to the Hundred Acre Woods
When I was young, we lived on a rural farm in Oklahoma. No other kids to play with, nothing else around for miles except lots of land, cows, farming equipment, abandoned oil well equipment, and undiscovered ways to amuse yourself with the isolation you haven't yet realized will start to make you a weird kid.
The ambient sounds. Oil pumps scattered out on the land, working day and night and going up and down to pull the sludge out from the earth. You could see at least three at anytime in any direction and they made a drumming noise in repetition; thut thut, thut thut, thut thut thut. You fell asleep to this noise in the distance, you woke up to the same. Menacing looking machines too, as dangerous as any rail road crossing. Where I went to school, we didn't watch films about the dangers of drugs, we watched films about the dangers of Rail Road Crossings.
The lost art of an adventure
So, as a boy, I remember getting on a plane for the first time and waiting for the plane to take off, the thrill of zooming down the runway into the air, the wonder of the clouds as seen from the other side. It was as if you were as important as the astronauts before you because you were seeing a sight unknown to man for most of civilization.
And then came growth, bad management, and well, everyday American greed.
Today I was supposed to fly out with my son from Oklahoma to Chicago to New York City. He's been looking forward to coming back with me for a long time and today was the day. He was excited, anxious and ready to go travel like an adventurer and see the big city. The excitement was squelched a bit when we got through all of the normal security process and saw the insane line of people at our gate. Then the announcement came to tell us this wasn't our line, it was another flight and our flight was delayed. They'd let us know more when they could.
Two hours later they are telling us very little except another hour or two and they might have more news. I tried to talk to someone at the counter but they said they can't do anything for me until the flight had been given a status as to how delayed or canceled. So, we wait some more.
After checking on the internet, two things are discovered without the help of the people behind the counter with access to all sorts of radios and gadgets for gathering information; First, there are no more flights I could connect with to Make New York tonight after missing the Chicago connection today. Second, Southwestern Airlines does not honor that now famous passenger bill of rights contract where they have to find you a flight on another airlines, in fact, beyond getting you on the next available flight, they wont do anything else. Not even get you a hotel room like say in Chicago if you arrive there and no more flights are leaving out. But they don't tell you this until you demand to speak to someone and get just enough irritable to get attention but not to overdo it as to shut down their customer service abilities altogether.
My son's big adventure today was spending almost five hours in the Oklahoma City airport and doing nothing only to have to collect our bags again and head back to the house and try again tomorrow morning as a standby on another flight.
Tomorrow is going to be a long day.
Ode to the Falcon
My old car, the Mazda Millenia (Millenia Falcon, get it?) was killed by Paula a few weeks back in the ice storm that covered the midwest (she's okay). Actually, she didn't kill it, someone else slammed into her so it wasn't her fault, but still; she's a car killer and she knows it. She killed my Ford Taurus many many years ago as well and car-Jesus will be seeking revenge on judgment day.
Anyway, it wasn't until the car was totaled and replaced with her new car did I feel any real loss for the old car. We had been all over the United States on many road trips, including;
- All over the state of Oklahoma.
- All over the state of Texas.
- Oklahoma to Colorado, at least 20+ times. (crested butte and aspen)
- Some terrific thunderstorms while passing through Texas panhandle.
- Speeding tickets that exceeded 110 mph. (V6 Miller Cycle Engine for speed boats)
- Oklahoma City to Dallas, TX at least 20+ times. (dallas, houston)
- Oklahoma to Kingsport, Tennessee, and to Daytona Beach, Florida and to Panama City, Florida.
- Oklahoma to Idaho, to Portland, Oregon, to San Franciso, to Los Angeles, to the Mojave Desert, to the Grand Canyon.
- Oklahoma to Tennessee.
- Oklahoma to New Orleans, Louisiana.
I will miss your moon roof, your broken-in leather seats, your butt warmer seat ability, your key scratch a jackass put on the hood, and the slickness of the leather seats in the back so when I turned a corner fast, I could make Nathan slide across and slam into the door. Good bye Falcon, may you find peace from those that killed you on an icy Oklahoma road this winter.
(pours some of my 40 on the curb and lights a candle)
If you don't like the weather in Oklahoma...
Then wait a second for it to change. An old saying well deserved for the state. Oklahoma is all over the news today and was declared by the governor as state of emergency in all 77 counties. You could almost call it "The Perfect Ice Storm" of sleet and freezing rain that occures in Oklahoma thanks to the arctic Canadian cold air slamming into the warmer air from the south. Remarkably, my son's school decided to still have half a school day so they didn't have to make it up at the end of the year. Riddle me this people, if the kids are all at the school THEN during the course of the day the freezing sleet and rain covers the streets, they still have the challenge of getting home, don't they? As of now, Police are having to reroute traffic and many semi trucks have turned over. Roads are described as dangerous but you know, 4th grade has to still go on..
Dear Time Magazine
Grow some m&^%#'ing balls. I'm the man of the year? Awesome! Wow, way to not offend anyone you punks. This from the ballsy people to once declare Adolf freaking Hitler as their man of the year (Jan 1939), thanks for giving me something in common with mein furrer, you pricks. For the next issue, why don't you make the same gutsy move and declare Chocolate as tasty?
Sincerely,
Beau Wade
Dear Nintendo
You can bite the hairiest part of my ass. Hey, lets get everyone sold on the idea of a m%*#@'ing Wii then send out like 30 to every state. Great plan, way to go Ass Wipes. After showing up in line this morning at 3am to wait for them to open to get their last shipment in and there was a sign on the door saying they will only have 3 units today (last shipments available before Christmas from Nintendo) and 5 people were already in line. This is idiotic. I am not killing myself for your system and I am not paying double the price. So to sum up in short Nintendo, blow me.
Sincerely,
Beau Wade
No more solving quadratic equations
I enrolled in an online Math class this past semester and I have to say it has been kicking my butt. I managed to go my entire college career without taking any real math class. This was because back then you could substitute a computer science class with a math class. Anyway, after stressing over the final exam, It was taken yesterday and I am pleased with the result and my overall grade. So no more set concepts, no more solving quadratic equations by factoring and by using the quadratic formula, no more systems of linear equations by using matrices, no more probability and statistics. Although, those were the two chapters I did the best on.
No more stressing about an exam over math while trying to juggle deadlines at the job. I'm glad I did it and now I am glad it's done.
the dancing man can..
You know that saying "dance like no one is watching..."
As much I was laughing at this guy, I admired him at the same time.
Time and Temperature
okc : 1:11pm 103 F (39.4c)
nyc: 2:11pm 79 F (26.1c)
Today it is supposed to reach 108f (42.2c) making it the hottest day on record. Oklahoma was on the news today as being the hottest state in the US this week.
Today in the car
nathan: "Oh bother."
me: "heh, who says that?"
nathan: "Winnie the Pooh."
(pause)
nathan: (cracking himself up laughing)
me: "what?"
nathan: "I said poo(h)" (more self cracking up for about 5 miles)
Yea, good times.
