señor taco’s travels

Well, it’s now about one day until I depart for New Zealand. I’m mostly packed, the snowboard is waxed and ready to go. I’m feeling really good health wise (still at about 230 lbs., but I’m stronger now than I was when I snowboarded last).

Right now the anticipation is about to kill me. The work day is going really slowly and thankfully I’ve gotten some stuff done. I can’t wait for tomorrow. Sure, the four hour layover at LAX is going to be sucky, but it’s all in getting there.

Last night as I was waxing the snowboards I kept thinking “This is August, this is wrong somehow,” but it’s not. I’ve been working hard just to get to this vacation and it’s going to be a welcome time. I’m glad I’ve gotten in better shape. I didn’t hit my weight goal of 220 lbs., but I’m feeling okay about that. 230 and maintaining. I keep sliming down and that’s the good part.

I’m not sure what my connectivity will be like, but I’ll be sure to post pictures and notes as I can. See you all in a couple of weeks.

Well, I’m back in the bay area after a nice week long trip to Texas. The major
reason I went down there was that my sister, Amanda, was graduating from
UT Austin. Yes, that makes her a
sip now. Anyway, she actually has to finish up classes this week and
start looking for a job. She’s got a few leads so we’ll see where that ends.

Austin was a lot of fun. I got to see a lot of family and some friends. I
had forgotten what a great town Austin is. My friends Jodi and Rich took me
out to dinner after I got to see their great house.

The other part of my trip was getting to stay with my best friend Matt and
his wife Susan. They got a new pup (rescued her from a culvert actually) and
the licking and jumping ensued. She was so adorable. I’ll have pictures up
shortly (there was no time last night).

So, over the last weekend I made a long trip back to NY (fly out Friday, return
Monday sorta thing). My good friends Chris & Athena were throwing a
Halloween party that Saturday and far be it from me to miss it. They hosted
the shindig in their 4,000 sq. ft. space in Peekskill (which by the way is a
great space to throw parties in). So, I helped out on Saturday and got things
ready for the party that night. C&A had already decorated much with the
help of others so it was mostly just putting things in place, getting the
alcohol, and making sure everything was setup.

Then the party started. People filtered in and the music was pumping. The DJs
for the evening played a great mix of music. There were many great costumes
but by far the best part of the night was surprising people that didn’t know I
was going to turn up. My friend title="KP Spek Reall Gud!">KP was the best by far. He fell over with
laughter, literally, right onto the floor, laughing.

There were many good costumes and many great friends that I miss terribly. Big
thanks goes out to C&A for putting me up and getting me from the airport
and for selling me into slavery making cheap lighters where the flame comes
out of a naked woman’s breast.

This last week was my friends Mark’s birthday. To celebrate there was href="http://www.ventanawildernesscampground.com/" title="Ventatana
Campground">camping in Big Sur. On Friday night I met Keith and Ian at
Pixar, we loaded up my car and struck out for points south. We knew that since
we had to leave later in the day traffic was going to be against us, but we
survived.

There was hiking at the href="http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=582" title="Andrew
Molera State Park">Andrew Molera State Park on Saturday. The beach there
was cool. Keith and I came back Saturday evening as we both had things to do
on Sunday. Some hi-lights of the trip include:

• the cute dog we saw while in traffic. he couldn’t keep his tongue in his
  mouth and kept licking with his tongue flopping around the whole time. it
  was very cute.
• the great windy drive in the dark down Highway One.
• the awesome large redwoods at the campground.
• the very cool sound the water made at the beach as it ran back into the
  ocean over the vast surface of rocks. it sounded a bit like clapping,
  very cool and quite unexpected.

• the fabulous drive back up Highway One in the evening. Some truly
  amazing scenery.

There are pictures, including my first attempts at panoramas, but I haven’t
yet cataloged them nor done the stitching yet.

Not a bad day of driving. Over the mountains and into Cali I went. John met me at the apartment I’ll be taking over from him. It’ll be great for a while until I can find where I want to live.

I’m so glad to finally be here. No more long days of driving and no more cats getting freaky when it’s time to leave.

More later, for now I nap and then go find some food.

Eastern Wyoming is beautiful. Western Wyoming is much less so, much more arid and scrubby. When you stack it all up though, they are both 100000 times better than Salt Lake City and the salt flats.

When I drove through Salt Lake City two times 4 years ago the I-80 through downtown was closed, forcing a drive around the city on I-280 (the loop). Well, seeing as the Winter Olympics were coming it was kind of expected and Matt and I just vowed that we wouldn’t like Salt Lake. Well, now I got to drive through the city center and guess what?!?!?! The roads suck. I know it’s been four years since then and about a year or so since the Olympics, but if you are going to close a major east-west road like that then the resulting construction better be great roads. Instead they were crapy and bumpy and poorly signed when you got towards the mix-masters.

The cats did way better with the ear pressure today than last time. Last time Joe was howling at one point, but today they just chilled in the back. They were so well behaved today I almost didn’t know what to do.

I finished Dreamcatcher today, it ended just like I thought it would. Good, solid, and long is how I can best describe the book. I also got through Eiger Dreams (it was only like 5.75 hours long). I’m really glad Keith suggested that one to me, I should pick up Into Thin Air now (same author).

Not much else going on today. As I pulled into Wells there was a big storm from off the mountains to the south. Lighting, a little rain, and lots of wind. The car was rocking and things were flying. There was so much dust kicked up at one point that I couldn’t really see, it was like a fog. As a result of the strong winds the power was knocked out so I’m sitting in a naturally lit motel room with no power. Wooo! Thank Gord for the laptop so I can write this down. I ended up switching motels as there was no one at the one i got a reservation at and the sign said “Will Return” and had a clock showing 4:30. Well, I waited for an hour and then went down the road. Sorry Charlie, I know you’re a small business, but I wanted out of my car.

Road Kill Tally:

• 3 URKO
• 1 deer
• 1 elk
• 1 rabbit
• 1 Ford Focus (yellow, PA plates, stuck nose first in the salt flats)

This picture is for KP. It’s where I started my day in Iowa.

Nebraska is one heck of a long drive. Western Nebraska is pretty: big rolling hills, big blue sky with white puffy clouds. Good stuff. Oh yeah, Nebraska’s license plate is butt ugly. Wyoming, however, has very nice license plates. I wonder if I can buy a sample of one sometime.

License plates courtesy R.T.’s Blank Plates.

Oh yes. Almost every single driver from Colorado heading west was blowing down the highway (and the speed limit was 75, thank you Nebraska) going way to fast and Gord forbid if you were in their way, they’d ride your butt to where you couldn’t even see their headlights. Asses. I know not everyone from Colorado is that way, but I’m going to think it’s most people from those loonies. Strangely, on the major interstate in Nebraska I didn’t see one State Trooper (or any law enforcement for that matter).

Speaking of wanting, I also want one of these signs. It’s probably one of the best no signs I’ve ever seen.

More Dreamcatcher today. The third part, it turns out, is only about 6 hours (rather than 8) and as a result I only about 45 minutes left. It’s pretty good, but very detailed and sort of ‘bouncy’ in it’s flow. The audio books are good. I’m sure I’d be sick of music by now.

One thing that really sucks is that I don’t have an intarweb connection and I desperately want to look up some stuff about CSS and such. Oh well, only 2 more days. I’ll live. I’m sure the spam is piling up right now, that should be fun to handle once i get to Oakland.

Road Kill Tally:

• 4 deer
• 4 raccoons
• 3 URKO
• 2 prarie dogs

Today was an easy day to drive. It was sunny and warm all day (unlike yesterday which was pretty much just rain or rain-like clouds all day). The operative key phrase for the day is bug guts. Don’t you just love them splattered all over your windshield (and the front of your car)? Traffic was light and construction was nowhere near as bad as when i did this last time.

While in the Indiana/Illinois messy-plex of highways I saw a truck that had that writing on it. I’m not sure what it says (probably some company name) but because it had “zim” on it it made me start yelling at the crapy drivers. Things like “move you filthy humans!” and “you darn worm babies!”. Unfortunately neither of my cats were willing to act like Gir and fetch me my weapons.

The cats were better today. Polly only blicked a little, but no drool. She and Joe mostly just chilled out in the space I setup for them in the trunk. For a little bit both Polly and Joe were asleep on the pillow on the front seat, but that didn’t last that long. At one point Polly got freaked out by me getting back into the car and tried to go between the seat and the B column. Once she realized she was stuck (no room to go further back, no traction to back up) she started squeaking so I had to pull her out.

More Dreamcatcher today. I’m having a hard time imagining it as a movie. I just can’t imagine what would be cut or changed. I guess I’ll have to rent it sometime.

At one point I did take a break from the audio books and put in the Johnny Cash album I got. Wow! It’s a really solid album. There are quite a few covers and Cash does an excellent job of making them sound like something other than the originals (Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode, and a few others). I know this will be going into my regular rotation right along with the punk and stuff. I also listened to the Gob. I think I need to listen to it some more. I like the last album a lot and this one has great stuff in it, but I was itchin’ for more audio book so i didn’t listen too hard.

Road Kill Tally:

• 6 raccoons
• 4 deer
• 3 possums
• 1 skunk
• 1 URKO

Yay for Maumee, Ohio. I could have driven farther today, but forcing myself to 9 hours (or so) driving each day is a good thing. I left New York at about 6:15 this morning so I got into Maumee at about 3:45pm (or thereabouts). Like I said, I could have driven farther, but I was starting to feel it and the cats seem to like the break from the car. Tomorrow I think I will leave a bit later, sleep more, repack the car a little differently, etc.

Speaking of cats, they did okay today. Polly cried a bunch and did the flicking her toung out and drooling (what I refer to as “blicking”). She’s fine now that we’re in the motel room. Most of the time she and Joe were in the trunk area hiding. Polly did sit out on the front seat and actually slept a bit, which is more than I expected her to do. Joe spending most of his time in the trunk was a bit of a surprise though. He kept trying to climb on me and I think got scared when I pushed him away (there’s just not enough room and I don’t want him in the way when I’m driving).

I listened to Less Than Jake and NOFX. Both are great as usual. The LTJ is a bit odd. As my friend Matt noticed the horns are mixed different (more like a guitar and less like a vocal like on past records) and “Look What Happened” was re-recorded with no friggin’ horns! What the?!?!? Someone needs to ask them. Hmm, note to self, do that once you have intarweb access again.

I also listened to most of the first third of Dreamcatcher. Man, at seven hours in it’s crazy that the story is only about 1/3 over. Steven King is nothing if not detailed.

Road Kill Tally:

• 6 raccoons
• 4 deer
• 4 porcupines
• 4 Unidentified Road Kill Objects (URKO)
• 3 possums

So, I’ve moved all of my stuff (sans air bed) into the living room so I can just wake up, deflate the air bed, and then cart it all out to the car. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to tetris it all into the car, but it will all fit, and there will be room for the cats to chill out. In any case, tomorrow morning will be interesting.