Moving right along...

I am no longer staying with my sister. Actually I have not been since Friday at precisely 8:32 pm. I don't really know the time that accurately but it is more fun to say it that way. The next stop was Bryan Ohio. If you have not heard of it then you are obviously not from Bryan Ohio.

Its a nice little town with public greens and broad boulevards. Its claim to fame is that it is the "Fountain City". Just don't go there looking for fountains. The fountains are all underground (heck of a place to put fountains if you ask me). A little background work revealed that the fountains are actually Artesian wells. Apparently Bryan, Ohio did not make the short list of famous artesian sites, unlike a little resort a few miles from my home.

Bryan's real claim to fame is that it is home to Chris, Monica, Victoria, and Quinn. Their last name has been omited to protect the innocent. Chris is a household brother from the ol' college days. Monica is his wife, not a device in the RJG engineering department. (it's an RJG inside joke that I don't even know)

I would love to go into detail about all the fun I had while enjoying their hospitality, but really it was just good. The in-laws were in town, and Chris' parents live near by. It was a regular party with all the usual good stuff; BBQ chicken sandwiches, birthday cake, gifts, great conversation, chopping down large chinese elms, and hot breakfast; the usual.

After that lovely stay (and some more missing skin; log splitting demanded some) I am now at the Josephinum pontifical college visiting my seminarian brother. I will be providing an update of how that went when it's over. I can, however, promise in advance that it will involve trigger happy camera work and wet feet.

Sam's Summary

• I left Laura's
• I visited Chris
• I hacked up an elm
• I ate cake
• I wracked my noggin into a beam and was rejected like a Ben Wallace block
• I am now at Peter's "humble" place

Until.... tomorrow??

Just add water

One hundred sixty odd frozen bits and cold pieces later the basketball hoop is complete! That is it makes a nice lawn ornament. The directions for these things are clear, concise, and easy for anyone with phd in mechanical engineering to comprehend. Actually they were not too bad, I suppose it may help that I have built one before. As my brother-in-law noted, there were not even any left over pieces when I finished. It takes about eight hours to build one, seven of which are spent digging through unenumerable plastic baggies trying to find the part that they clearly specified for the next step.

So it is done. They just forgot to include water in the package. Without it the thing will not stand upright. Through no fault of his own, my brother-in-law's neighbor's hose was a solid rope of ice. It is none of your business as to why we did not use the hose here.

Thus, the game is suspended to such time as Michigan thaws out a bit. This is just as well, since my skills suffer mightly under the weight of four shirts and a coat. I like the cold as long as I am warm.

For those of you who are dying to know (read sisters) what I bought with all that cash I mentioned in the previous entry I am providing the too-cool-dan-in-new-duds-and-soft-light picture at right. (dang I have a little head, you'd think someone would have told me)

Sam's Summary

• The Hoop is finished
• We can't use it yet on account of it being so cold out.
• I wear many, many layers on account of it being so cold out.
• I sometimes take pictures of myself wearing my new outfits.
• I beat not a six but a SEVEN AND A HALF year old in the quarter mile. BMX vs feet.
  

The Clothes Make The Man

The clothes may make the man, but the man certainly pays for them. My sister and I hit the local suburban shopping mecca to try to make a significant dent in my savings, er.. that is retool my wardrobe. She is the family guru on such things. I am the type that marches into a store grabs the first thing that grabs me then I bolt to the first exit I can find. When I discover, upon actually wearing it, that it does not fit / clashes with highlights in my hair; I simply chuck it to the bottom of a drawer because returning it would require me to reenter that misers hell again.

I was, therefore, somewhat unprepared to discover that real shopping entails visiting every single discount rack in a five store area. Any item that could possibly be worn must be held to my face to check the color, pass my sister's exacting standards, and get tossed in the cart for further evaluation. "further evaluation" entails me spending hours in a changing room try the same pair of pants in 6 different sizes to find that perfect pair that has been waiting for since the dawn of... well the dawn of something...

Five hours, an unspecified amount of debit, and two plates of chinese later; I left with a pile of clothes that I had been unaware were necessary and a feeling of extreme satisfaction of a job well done, or was it exhaustion?

Hopefully between the bright colored shirts and the spiffy haircut she gave me, I am now fit to be seen in public with out random strangers dropping copper coins into my hat.

In a final note that no one cares about. I stubbed my pinky toe this morning racing Isaac around the play room. I now sport a very cute strawberry shortcake bandaid. Apparently there are no batman bandaids in this house.

Sam's Summary

• I spent too much money on "bargain" clothing.
• It was a laborious project (but hey I stimulated the economy)
• I ate chinese food.
• I stubbed my little toe.
• I have a strawberry shortcake bandaid
• I must now go finish the basketball hoop

Take care,

On Idle

I went to outer space today. Actually I just took my four year old nephew and two year old niece to the park. Nothing like a grey drizzling day in March for a nice trip to the local play ground. It is especially fun if you are of a preschool age and there are puddles the size of small ponds laying about. Yes we equipped them with rain boots. The play ground is one of those wonderful wooden castle types, with lots of stairs, tunnels, and towers. One of the towers was painted like a rocket. No, it WAS a rocket. We launched after a very short countdown. (preschoolers not being too good with long count downs) After which there were electric swords and hot lava involved. I am not sure how it all fit in, but in a dream like way it worked.

So I am playing uncle. I would be better at it if I had not been nursing a cold when I arrive, which is now waxing to a lovely and congested crecendo. I still have a basketball hoop to finish building and my sister is going to take me shopping tomorrow to see if she can't do anything about my horrendous fashion sense. Hey I'm an engineer! what do you want?

Friday I will set out to a not-so-old college friend's house in Ohio. I here he has a tree that requires hacking into bitsy bits of firewood. Should be fun.

Sam's Summary

• My imagination is every bit as good as a four year old's
• I have a cold
• I don't have a sense of fashion
• I will be helping friend Chris hack up a tree on Saturday

Thanks for reading.

Lift Off!! sort of.

*Note* I will be adding a section at the end for the dyslexic and ADD enabled called "Sam's Summary" in Honor of my brother Sam who thinks he can't read good. For people with other disorders such as OCD I can only suggest reading the first post once, the second twice and so on.


Today marked the official launch of my trip about the USA. 9:30 AM was the time out of the drive, but 7:00 pm yesterday was the official start of what I am sure is going to be a string a travel related mistakes. That is when I began packing my car. The first chore was to make sure that my bike fit into the trunk. Normally I use a trunk mounted bike rack or fold down the rear seat. Neither was a viable option on this trip. As my bike figures to feature prominently on this trip a solution was absolutely necessary. It was much easier than my imagination indicated.

Can I get an amen!?

It still takes up alot of room but I expect it to earn it's keep. The real fun began when I shoved my brand new sleeping bag in on top of the bike. I should have been alarmed when the trunk light went out. I went back to check on the light an hour or so later and discovered to my complete amazement that I managed to melt a trunk light bulb over half way through the synthentic fabic; effectively welding the two halves of the sleeping bag together. Please don't judge me if I had a very strong case of the " I want my mommies." Having a glass bulb embedded into a shiny new sleeping bag is not the best way to start any adventure.

Luckily Mom came home and according to the legend she made it all better. Smashing job really. She cut out the offending area and patched with some excess fabric from another area of the bag. I did not get a picture in time to show the actual carnage. but here are the cleaned out holes.

From now on may the only thing embedded in my sleeping bag be me.

For now I am publishing from my sister's house in Lansing. I will be playing exausted uncle for the next few days for these thugs. I'll let you know how that goes.

Sam's Summary

• I fit my bike into my trunk :-)
• I melted a hole in my sleeping bag :-(
• Mom fixed it :-)
• I am at Laura's.......
  

What's the Hold-up!!

The intent was to head off to my sister's house on Friday, March 6th Anno Domini 2009. That would be today. Well I need to see some people one more time, who I like enough to see one more time before heading out. Besides, I completely forgot to get my snow tires taken off my car. The catch being that I may very well need those snow tires just to get out of Michigan.

All the pieces (short of a good haircut) are now in place. I got my kick butt alienware computer on Tuesday. There is something nice about those little Windows Vista performance score numbers. I get a kick out of seeing the image at right.

The only thing I am not too tickled about is that Alienware screwed up my order. I ordered the more reserved case design, they sent me the You-Can-Tell-It's-An-Alienware-From-100-Yards design.

Oh well, I called in and complained just so they have a record of it in case I decide to send it back in for repairs after the trip.

The New ETD is Sunday morning.

Traveling Kit on order

I have been busy, in a lazy sort of way, since my last post. A camera has been purchased. A data capable phone procured. And the car has been through a trip to the shop. All it needed was an oil change, new rear break pads, a new tie rod on the driver's side, and an alignment. Well that and new front break pads and a bit of touch-up paint to keep it from rusting out from under me, but those I can perform myself.

The computer is still on order and will be until tomorrow. The contingency tent and sleeping bag should be ringing my door bell at any moment now. If you are one of those people who check links in blogs (I don't either) please note that I paid nothing near the list price on any of it. No, I am not getting paid to advertise.... Yet.

On a side note, I have yet to decide whether or not to take unemployment while I travel. They stipulate that I must be actively seeking and be ready to work. I will actually be seeking and be somewhat ready. I will however, be doing it on my own terms. I will not drop everything because I got a lucrative offer to be a greeter at E-Z Mart. If anyone is aware of the ethics of this situation please enlighten me. While I am pretty sure it would be morally ok. I will after all be seriously looking for the next thing, I am not sure my uncle Sam would see things the same way.

ETD Friday morning.

See you at lift off.