Wow where to start? So much to cover, throughout the trip there was moment after moment, thought after thought where I made a “bloggable” checkmark in my brain. There were so many that they have run together so I will try to sort it out.
I left around noon from work on Monday to give me some time to get stuff together. We had some odd travel plans because I was doing 3 one way tickets while Ali was doing a conventional round trip. My flight left Ft Myers at 6pm, hers at 7:30 however they both went to Atlanta and then we were on the same flight to Vegas. When I got home. Ali told me the airline called and said my flight was cancelled and moved to the same flight as hers. Ah that’s cool, we get to fly together the entire way. With the later flight, we both had to deal with a tight layover, 30 minutes, before we took off for Vegas. Having the extra time was nice, it allowed me to hang loose, talk to my mom for awhile and fill her in on any updates to home maintenance that changed since she lived with us. We both agreed it was crazy that she hasn’t been to our house since Christmas. We left plenty early for the airport to allow for the possibility of getting mired in rush hour traffic. Luckily we sailed through without incident.
Our flight out was through Delta. We had a quick dinner at the airport Chili’s where I pounded 2 large beers to celebrate the beginning of our adventure. We boarded the plane and then within minutes of being seated the captain announces that there is a ground stop in Atlanta and we would not be taking off for around 40 minutes. Immediate panic and anger sprouted up all around the cabin. Some people were concerned about missing tight connections (like us), others were just angry that they had us board the plane before telling us about the problem. The drunk woman next to us was one of these people and she got into it a bit with one of the airline people as he walked down the aisle. She wanted to deplane and fly out tomorrow instead of getting stranded in Atlanta. When we asked what happens if we go to Atlanta, late, and miss our connection with no other flights available for the day, what happens, does Delta pay for a hotel room or offer any other compensation? The guy said coldly, “if it’s weather related we don’t do anything…” I understood that it wasn’t his fault, he had no control over it, yet his shitty attitude and bothered, callous response did nothing to help the situation. So we just sat there for a bit, unsure of how this was going to all unfold. Evidently they had some slop built into the estimated flight time and the ground stop was mysteriously lifted shortly after it was announced so we got going sooner than previously announced. We hit the air and got to Atlanta with about 15 minutes to go till our next flight was scheduled to lift off. The crew announced as we landed that passengers without tight connections should be courteous and allow the people that had to get the hell out of there off first. Of course noone cared about anyone else and clogged the aisles anyway as they had to get off the plane ahead of anyone behind them so they could be first to sit at their gate for a couple hours, assholes.
So we finally get off and double time it to the tram. We noticed that the takeoff for the vegas flight has been pushed back 10 minutes or so, so we had a bit of a cushion, we should get there with 5 minutes to spare. I expected to see the waiting area almost empty since boarding should be almost done. Nope, everyone is sitting there with grumpy looks on their faces. I double checked the boarding time and it didn’t change although it was 5 minutes away and noone had even stood up yet. Oh well, they must be boarding shortly. So after sitting there another 10 minutes with no action and no annoucements I walk to the counter and ask nicely “Is there some sort of delay?” The counter guy said they should board by 10 (it was 9:30) WTF, the boarding time was never updated and I heard no announcements, ugh. We were already scheduled to get to vegas at 11:30 vegas time (2:30 EST) further delay was not a good thing.
The flight finally started boarding about a half hour late. The flight to Vegas was long, 3 + hours. I tried sleeping a bit but it is next to impossible for me. With my long legs I am jammed in there, even worse so if the person in front of me decides to put their seat back. I loaded up Spiderman 2 on my gameboy in hopes of watching it on the plane. The last time Ali flew I loaded up a movie for her and she said on the plane it was too loud to hear it, even with headphones. This time I brought my computer headphones that had volume control in hopes of amplifying the audio. Well it still was too low to hear, damn it. So I played a few games on the gameboy, read some Men’s Health magazines I was backed up on and slipped in and out of consciousness until we finally landed in Vegas.
As we flew in we could see the strip, all bright and busy. The pyramid with the spotlight out the top is a pretty stunning sight. The severe drowsiness I felt lifted with anticipation of expereincing vegas first hand. As we got off the plane I was surprised to almost immediately be greeted by slot machines right in the terminal. For those who can’t wait to get to the casinos, you could get an instant gambling fix right off the aircraft, wild. Once we got our bags the next step was to get the rental car. I rented through Payless, the same company I had a bad experience with at the Philly airport, but I figured since it was at a different city, I would give them another shot. They still sucked. They seem to only have one van that is used to pick up customers and the round trip isn’t quick so we waited there a good 20 minutes till one showed up just as I was about to call their office. Once we got to the rental area I was greeted by a middle aged woman with bright blue eye shadow, a sallow complexion and annoying accent. It was late, after midnight by the time we begun our transaction. She punched in our name for our reservation, which was for a mid-sized vehicle and said we are going to give you a free UPGRADE to a PT Cruiser. Hmmm, when they first came out, I thought PT Cruisers were cool, although I knew they were smaller than a midsize car, my first reaction was to say “Fine”. She said it was in spot 35 and that I needed to extensively go over the vehicle to make sure there weren’t any flaws on the car (in the dark). She had me sign a paper before I inspected it saying it was all fine. I said to her “Why am I signing this if I didn’t even inspect the car?” She said “Oh, if there are any problems you just come back in and we note them” This was annoying to me. Why is it my responsibility to check out the car they are renting to me? Mildly angry, I go out to spot 35 to find nothing. I march back in and tell the woman there was no vehicle in spot 35 and no other PT cruisers in the immediate area. She comes out and verifies there is no vehicle there and then walks me back to an area behind the bldg where the vehicle was located. I drive it up front and try to park it the best I could under a light so we could begin the tedious inspection, just what I don’t wan’t to do when it is 3am in my native timezone. I let Ali have at it since she is an attention to detail person. She picked out several scratches and a small ding or two. As I am inside the car I try to find the remote trunk release or the power door lock button which I was unable to find. I figured I just didn’t know where to look. I had to go back in and tell the woman about the flaws we found to which she says “Oh are they just little scratches and stuff? Don’t worry about them” She had just told me a few minutes ago that we were responsible for everything, now it didn’t matter. Grrrr. Ok, whatever, adios.
As we drive away I am still trying to figure out how to work the power locks. I soon come to the realization that there are NO power locks. A rental vehicle with no power locks, WTF? To get all the luggage into the vehicle I had to fold the back seat down. As I was grumbling about stuff, Ali informed me she cringed when I drove up in the PT cruiser, she hates them, something I didn’t know until we were driving away. Payless sealed the deal to ensure they will never see another dollar from me.
We navigate our way to the Sahara, the place we will rest our heads the first night. I had to remind Ali to make sure to lock all 4 doors, something we forgot to do several times throughout the trip. Manual locks become a real pain in the ass, especially on a trip that involves huge parking garages. The ability to flash the lights and toot the horn with a squeeze on the remote is a huge plus that you really miss when you have to rely on memory alone to find your wheels. Anyway, we go to the front desk that has like 20 booths but there is only a single one open with noone in line. It made it feel even later than it was. I gave our name and he found the reservation. He was a wooden sort of person that had the personality of an ash tray. For some reason, I felt the urge to verify that we were getting a non-smoking room, which was what I paid for. “No, they are all sold out” What the hell, he wasn’t going to tell us??? I argued that we paid for a non-smoking room and that Ali’s allergies to cigarette smoke could make it impossible for us to stay there. I said we would check out the room and if it smelled like smoke we would not be staying. The clerk mumbled something about maybe getting a maid to spray some shit in the room to air it out. Yea, ok at 1am we are going to wait for a maid to spray a room with freshener.
So we went up to the room and thankfully it didn’t smell too bad. The Sahara is an old place, the furnishings look to be straight out of the 70’s. We had a beautiful view of a roof spotlight out of our window (pictures forthcoming) It was adequate however. Even though it was approaching 5am EST, we felt compelled to go down and throw some money into the casino. We sat down at a video poker machine and let Ali play for awhile. She normally would just play slots. Video Poker is a better game as it involves decision making, which makes the process last longer. It also has a better pay out rate than slots. Ali did pretty well and we managed to stay a little ahead of even for a half hour. We stopped and were looking forward to Ali mastering the machines as the week went on.
We went back up to the room. The room was an icebox. There was a sign on the wall that said you couldn’t adjust the temperature, just the fan that pushed the air into the room. It sounded like we were back on the airplane when the fan was running, it was that noisy. So I turned the fan off which quieted things down. Unfortunately that also allowed us to hear next door which evidently was occupied by some very chatty asian women. They were speaking their foreign toungue, laughing, having a wonderful time at 2:30 am vegas time. Most other times, this noise would be annoying the hell out of me and not allow me to sleep, but I was so exhausted I managed to fall asleep anyway.
The next morning I woke up at like 8:30 Vegas time. Only 6 hours of sleep after being up almost 24 hours, but it was enough to make me functional. I cleaned up while Ali snoozed and then decided to venture back down to the casino. I thought I may be able to find some early AM craps action. There was one table open with only a handful of people around it, not a good sign. Well I was in Vegas so it was time to jump in. The table sucked, in maybe 15 minutes I had burned through 60 bucks after seeing 7 after 7 come up. Instead of trying to chase after that money I just took my lump and walked away, disappointed. By the time I got back up to the room Ali was up and about. We decided to give the Sahara breakfast buffet a try. It was a long walk to the buffet, the Sahara is a very large place. I was a bit surprised at the buffet price, 8 bucks a head. I thought they would pretty much give away the food in Vegas. The food, even though there was plenty of it, wasn’t very good. The eggs I had were slimy, the hash browns were burned and nothing else really jumped out as being notably good. It was interesting to look around the dining area at all the people, the contrast in what you saw was amazing. Every race, age group, gender and size of person was represented in large numbers. That was the first time I got the feeling that recurred throughout my time there how I am just a speck in the ocean. Being in locations where there is just a crush of humanity does that to me, airports being another one. I see all the people around and it makes me feel small, really really small. Insignificant is a good word to describe it.
After breakfast it was time to venture out. We checked out of the Sahara but left our car there as all casinos in Vegas offer free parking, a small perk. We saw the Stratosphere a few blocks out the window. The Stratospere looks like the space needle. The top of it is over a 1000 feet high. Ali hates heights but went up with me anyway. The ride up pops your ears, very strange. We started on the inside observation deck. I have to admit, even my legs felt a bit shaky as I peered out the slanted windows that allowed you to see below you. It was quite high. Then we saw one ride above us that looked like a roller coaster car on a girder that jutted out into the open air. We saw the riders screaming as the car rocketed towards the edge and then abruptly stops, leaving you peering down at a very, very long fall. Just seeing that made Ali freak out. It was odd to be at the level of airplanes as they approached the Vegas airport. It was a vantage point I never experienced before. It was time to go up a couple floors to the rides level.
I bought the pass that allowed you to go on all the rides as much as you wanted. It was a steep 30 dollar ticket but still cheaper than paying individually. I did the best one first, the Big Shot. This is one of those rides where you get shot up in the air and then free fall back. Starting the ride at over a 1000 feet puts a whole new twist on things. The anticipation of the first ride was pretty extreme with a brief countdown followed by being launched like you were on a rubber band. The ascent wasn’t bad as it happens so quickly that you hardly are bothered, but it’s when you hit the top and have that brief moment of free fall where it gets really intense. It’s hard to beat that for thrills. Ali was brave enough to venture to the outside area to snap some pics of me on the ride(s)
Next I went on the roller coaster. This was very tame as it just circled the structure a couple times. It was very low on the thrill factor. Then I went and jumped back on big shot. It was easier to take the second time around since I knew what was coming. It still was a hell of a rush. We then had to go down one floor to do the other 2 rides. I did the roller coaster on a girder ride twice. The first time I was 3 or 4 rows back from the front, the second time I was in the front row. There is quite a difference between the 2 seating areas. When you are in the front, you are literally face first into a speedy run which for a moment feels like you are getting thrown off the building. They hold you out there, angled down so you see all below you. It’s weird but this ride didn’t freak me out all that much. Many of the people in the observation area looked more freaked out watching us ride it than I felt. They rocked you back and forth, up and down a few times and it was done, a cool ride. The final ride was like a conventional carnival swing ride except they were attached to a crane that swung out away from the building, again leaving nothing underneath you but a whole lot of open air. This ride had the longest line. As I watched it, it seemed pretty tame. It didn’t appear to be spinning that fast. Once I got on it my opinion changed. The spinning that seemed slow from a distance felt much faster on the ride. The swings angled out so your natural view was down. I tried at one point to look up to spot Ali but it was all a blur and made me instantly dizzy so I returned to watching the world spin beneath me. I was happy for that one to end.
We spent some time in the gift shop and again looking at the sights and then headed down. I think we stopped and let Ali play some more video poker downstairs and then it was time for us to walk back to the Sahara to get our car to head out to the timeshare where we would spent the remaining nights. The walk back was hot, it was 107 degrees in Vegas that day. Yea it’s a dry heat but it’s still hot as hell. If Ali and I tried to hold hands, it wouldn’t take long till they were sweat covered. It literally felt sauna-like. We managed to find our car and took off for the time share place. It was about 7 or 8 miles outside of Vegas but pretty easy to find. I was nervous about it since we never have used our timeshare points and did not know if this would be another fiasco. When we pulled in you could tell the place was nice and new which was a plus. I was a bit taken back when we checked in and they said our names weren’t in the system. However it wasn’t a problem as they had plenty of units open. She said “Sometimes the reservations fail to get in for some reason…” Oh well, I ‘m glad we brought our email confirmation with. The common area was very nice with a pool, hot tub and fitness area. The mountains were in the background, making for some absolutely beautiful backdrops.
We were pleasantly surprised with the unit. It was like a condo with a full kitchen, laundry room, living room and more. It was nice and new and clean. The only difference from a hotel is they only have maid service come in once a week and when you leave you have to do stuff like strip the linens off the bed, throw the towels in the tub and run the dishwasher if you use any dishes, piece of cake. It was really sweet. It was nice to see the money we dropped on the timeshare actually pay off a bit. However we had little time before we had to go to see the Cirque de Soleil show, so we quickly showered and were back out on the road.
The show was at the MGM Grand so we dressed up and figured we could find a good place to eat there. We stopped in the lobby and asked the lady for a recommendation, keeping in mind that Ali is a vegetarian. She named a place that had pasta and stuff so we happily headed on our way. We went right in without looking at the menu. Our waiter came over and introduced himself and went into his speal. He went into to great detail describing the dishes and the subtleties of it all. I tried to hide my sticker shock from a menu mostly full of entrees 30 bucks and higher. The sold very few types of wine by the glass, rather mostly by the bottle ranging from 50 bucks a bottle up to 1300 a bottle. Oh my. I did my best to act like I cared about the woody flavor of a piece of meat because of the hickory it is smoked with. I accepted the fact that we were on vacation and vacation is a time to treat your spouse, so I did. Bring on the 2 eight dollar bottles of water, sure I’ll take a 5 dollar coffee and dont forget the 13 dollar desert! Of course the food was all very good, some of the best food we ever had, but it should be. 🙂 By the time we were done we set the record for the most I ever paid for a dinner for two.
We got done just in time to make the supposed 7:15 seating for the 7:30 Cirque show. The theater was huge and impressive. We had seats up front in the second row. These were 150 buck a piece tickets and I felt proud to have Ali right up front. Before the show there were various performers doing various stunts, hopping all around the place on wires which was very entertaining. Periodically, huge blasts of flame came from the stage area. You could feel the heat pressing against your face. Just as the show started. 2 older couples filled the seats to our right, 2 older, drunk couples. Their drunkeness translated into them being EXTREMELY chatty, talking almost constantly throughout the show, pointing at stuff, talking about how they did this, look at that, it was non-stop. There were several times both Ali and I gave them serious lean forward stink eye, hoping they would take the hint to shut their damn mouths. Thankfully most of the show had loud enough music to drown out their endless babble.
The show features some amazing technical aspects, including a huge stage that moves in all 360 degrees. It was amazing watching the coordinated efforts as the show flowed from scene to scene. Ka featured a lot of wire work where the performers were high in the air. Being in the second row, this made for a bit of a stiff neck as we were looking up for a good part of the show. Even so we really enjoyed it. I don’t know if it was worth the extremely high price of admission for me but it was to Ali so that is what matters. After the show we met up for a little bit with Rich, the soon to be married man. He told us about his experiences so far, about flickers, about how stuff looks close but is really far and how it is just crazy. We walked with him a bit out on the strip and had our first run in with “flickers”. Flickers are people that are normally in small groups of 3 or 4 that have a stack full of cards that remind of you baseball cards, but instead these are cards for female escort services. As you walk by them they stick out their arm, card in hand and flick it to make noise to get your attention and want you to grab one. They don’t care who they flick at. I was walking hand in hand with Ali and they flicked at me. They flicked at Ali later, it was crazy. You see these cards littering the ground, stuffed in bus stop shelters, everywhere. Then as we walked further some guy tried to give us some coupons to see a show we didn’t want to see. We politely said “No, thank you” As we took a few more steps the guy said “I don’t blame you, I wouldn’t want to go either…” It was funny as hell. Then a few more steps and we walked by an outside eating area where a performer just got done singing. There was a smattering of half hearted applause and then we hear some drunk guy yell “Don’t quit your day job!!” Hahaha, damn this place is crazy. The endless flashing neon, the video screens the size of my house everywhere, and the oceans of people are just overwhelming. Ali had uncomfortable shoes on and her feet were killing her, so we turned back and made plans to meet up with Rich the next night as well as making arrangements to pick up his fiance and her dad at the airport on Wednesday.
The jet lag was still hitting me hard and I was wiped. We made a quick stop at the 24 hour Albertsons to pick up a few supplies for the week, namely a 6 pack of bottled water, a half gallon of milk, oatmeal and a box of pop tarts. I took a shower to get the stink of smoke off me and hit the sack for a solid night of sleep. It was nice to not have screaming fan motors or noisy asian ladies invading my sleep.
Wednesday I woke up feeling a bit better. I decided I would meander to the fitness room. Stepping out the door I took a second to appreciate the very scenic mountains, washed bright by the early morning sun against a bright blue sky. Living in Florida for 5 years makes me appreciate nature’s skyscrapers more since everything is as flat as a board down here. The fitness center was basic with a universal machine and 4 or 5 pieces of cardio equipment. Noone else was there. I noticed the AC was set at 59 degrees, I suppose they need to keep it maxed like that to combat the heat. I did a pretty tame half hour workout. The room had a TV but I didn’t bother to turn it on. I instead just enjoyed looking out the front windows at the pool and clubhouse area. I felt pretty relaxed.
After I finished up we got ready to head back to the airport to pick up the bride to be and her pop. We got there a bit early and had some time to sit by the security area. Most airports I have been to have no nonsense informational videos running about security procedures, what is allowed, how to expedite things, blah blah… In Vegas they have these things too but they are done by celebrities and in an entertaining fashion. It was good enough that I was disappointed when I saw the first one repeat again, I wanted more. We picked them up and dropped them off to check in, agreeing to meet later to eat lunch.
Ali and I went to the Monte Carlo and spent time in the casino. I couldn’t find any 5 dollar craps tables so I started eyeing up the blackjack tables. I never played blackjack at a casino and was nervous about it for no real reason other than I never did it before. After watching a few hands and getting some info from a dealer that had noone playing at her table, I finally sat down and jumped in. The table was a 5 dollar table with 4 people playing already which was good, because I could watch what they did to give me a bit of direction on how I should go. It took me little time to master the act of waving for no hit or tapping the table for a hit. I won and lost, staying pretty much even. It was a different kind of fun than craps. When we got down towards the end of the deck the dealer stops and puts the old deck away, pulls out a new one and then hands me a red card. I sheepishly ask “What do I do with this?” “Put it in the deck” she said with a smile. I guess they let the players set the cut point on the deck as a symbol of fair play, who knew? I quickly picked up on the general rules to follow, when to take a hit, the idea of doubling down and what insurance was. I wound up playing for at least a half hour and wound up 5 bucks up at the end of it. I couldn’t complain about that. Cool, now I have a new game to play. Ali played video poker and slots and had moderate success, at least losing money at a slow rate. We then got a call from Rich and Beth inviting us down to the Flamingo for the lunch buffet. No problem, we’ll be there. Ali told them we would be there by 12:30, it didn’t seem that far only a few blocks away. Well it took at least 25 minutes of high paced walking to get there, a full 15 minutes past what we said. I confirmed to Rich about the misleading distances in Vegas, you can see your target clearly yet it takes forever to reach it by foot. My legs were aching by the time we got to the buffet. We had a good lunch and then Rich had to head back to class while Beth, her dad and I walked around some more. We walked down to Treasure Island hoping to see the pirate show. Unfortunately we found out they only run it at night. Same thing with the volcano that explodes. So we went to Seigfried and Roy’s Secret Garden. It is a little mini-zoo with an elephant, some tigers, leopards, dolphins and lions. It was a cute little deal but not worth the 15 bucks a head we paid for it. We all stopped and played a bit in the casino for awhile and then we told them we would again meet up them later for dinner.
Wednesday was stormy with rain, a rarity in Vegas. There were lots of brush fires started from lighting strikes on very dry land. As we walked around we got rained on a few times, but with the warm temperatures it felt good. We stopped in front of the Bellagio and saw the fountain show. It is a little 5-10 minute thing where the fountains go off in cooridination with a music track. It was really cool. Like the Cirque show, the technical aspect of it amazed me. All these nozzles firing off precisely to create awesome visual effects. I couldn’t believe how high the water went into the air, a couple hundred feet I would imagine.
Our mission now was to get back to the Monte Carlo where we parked. We were both very tired from all the walking. We hoped we could take a shortcut through Ceasar’s palace but found out after walking the entire length, you can only get out at the one end, making you walk through all the shops and casino games twice, damn it. We were relieved to finally get back to the Monte Carlo. We did some more gaming. I did some more blackjack and had more success my second time around. Once I got up 20 or 30 bucks I started doubling my bets from 5 to 10 bucks. I hit a few double downs as well. I was up like 70 or 80 bucks. Ali showed up and instead of continuing my winning form to impress her, I hit a cold streak and walked away from the table up 30 bucks. It was a lot of fun.
We were both exhausted and went back to the time share to relax for awhile. I spent some time in the hot tub while Ali napped. I got to talking to a woman who gave me some info on timeshares as she was a veteran of them. There also was a cute little girl there that was running back and forth from the cooler pool to the warmer hot tub. I talked to her mom as well, a haitian woman that lives in Vermont. Later we talked to Rich and Beth and decided to hit the buffet again for dinner. A repeat of lunch but it was good food and I am never one to complain about revisiting a known quantity if it’s good. Plus after our triple digit dinner the prior night, buffet prices sounded great. After dinner we hit the casino a bit. The crew wanted to see me play some craps. Unfortunately all that was open were 10 dollar tables, something I normally avoid. 5 dollar tables allow me to ride cold streaks longer. So I bellied up and jumped in anyway. I had a bit of success here and there but it was basically a cold table. I tried to explain the basics to Rich and Beth’s dad. Craps can seem a bit overwhelming but in reality you can make it a very, very simple game. Well then some asian old guy with nasty halitosis steps in next to me. He is throwing chips around like candy, losing money quickly. Any early success had left me, then bad breath guy gets ahold of the dice. He rolls an 11 to cost me my pass bet, then he rolls a 12 to cost me another bet, then he finally opens and I place down some additional chips on the 6. Of course the old fart rolls a 7, says something stupid and scampers away from the table. Well I was down at least 50 bucks but it was my turn to roll so I decided I at least had to give myself a shot to make some cash back so I rolled. I opened the mark and laid down more bets and shortly thereafter rolled another 7, washing it away. F this. I picked up what I had left and looked for a 5 dollar blackjack table. Again, the lowest they had was 10 bucks. I found a friendly woman dealer with noone else at the table. We asked if Ali could sit and watch which she said was fine. It was cool cause she took some time to explain stuff to Ali. Unfortunately the ten buck table again left little room for cold streaks and soon the rest of my chips were history. Ali didn’t even care I lost and enjoyed sitting there just watching how it all goes. There was a big part of me that wanted to reach into my wallet and throw down some more cash to try to get back even but I resisted. It’s hard walking away as a loser. We managed to find our car in the parking lot and went back for another good nights rest.
Thursday was the day for Rich’s wedding and Ali’s departure (at 11:45 pm) however we had some slack time in the morning which decided to do something not even remotely connected to the glitz and glamour of vegas. About 15 minutes away from our place is Red Rock Canyon. There is a scenic drive and multiple hiking paths available. The drive up to it was awesome with bright colored mountains around every turn. When we got to the visitor center we found out the driving portion was closed due to the fires but there were multiple hiking trails open. We decided to tackle one called “First Creek Trail” It was listed as a 1.5 mile hike each way and moderate/easy level. We parked and saw the destination a couple mountains that didn’t look very far away, maybe we should have picked a longer/harder hike. Hahaha. Just like the Vegas, the proximity was misleading. We were basically hiking though desert with scrub brush, cactus and a few lizards and rodents here and there. It was a challenging hike through soft sand, loose rocks and enough incline to get us breathing heavily. We eventually came up to a crevice where there was a lot of green plant life. We found first creek to be at the bottom of the crevice, a tiny little stream in the middle of the otherwise arid area. We pushed on as I was looking for a definitive end marker for the trail. As we continued, the trail split at many spots only to come back to the same general area. We walked and walked for a good hour and a half in one direction with no end marker in sight. Finally we were close to the foot of the mountains and what was left of the trail looked to go back down into a ravine and then back up. I knew Ali was getting really pooped as was I, so I had to concede to go back. The walk back seemed easier. It was weird to be out in the middle of the wilderness like that with hardly a sound to be heard and know that a half hour away you could be smack in the middle of the vegas strip. On the way back we stopped back at the visitor center to see if there was an end trail marker. He said nope, the trail just continues up the mountain. I was relieved to hear I didn’t quit short of a non-existent marker and I would guess that we walked much further than the 1.5 miles indicated on the map. We were dirty, hot and tired so we headed back to clean up to prepare for our last full day in sin city.
We met up with Rich and Beth’s dad at a bar near the wedding chapel. I drank for the first time since I had been in Vegas, downing 4 beers in quick succession. Ali asked for a peach margarita that she thought was gross, so I asked the bartender to make it again a different way but she still wasn’t crazy about it. So I did my best to drink the rest of it. By the time the ceremony came I was pretty toasted. The ceremony was held in a very cute little tropical type chapel with beautiful landscaping all around the area. It went fast and the ceremony was done in probably 15 minutes. While they had some additional pictures taken, we asked the bartender for recommendations for a post wedding dinner. He mentioned several choices, the most feasible being a steak house just down the hall. We went ahead to make a reservation. Almost all restaurants seem to have good looking women greeting you at the door. Not this place, instead they had an old, fat man with more wrinkles in his forehead than I could count, slumped in his chair. He talked deep and slow, he reminded of a mafia boss. However he said they could accomodate us. A quick look at the menu showed prices that were not cheap, but not at the level of the place we ate at the MGM, ok this will work.
After the pictures were done we all said our congratulations to the new husband and wife and walked down to the restaurant. The godfather greeted us and they escorted us to our table. If I was sober I would have probably been really annoyed with the waiter. He was as sterile, wooden and serious as you could imagine. He was as inviting and friendly as manure pile. He wasn’t rude just very serious. He took our orders with no additional small talk or smiles and took off. The food we got was ok but nothing fantastic. During the meal I took a minute to read an Apache wedding prayer that was on a card that we got for our wedding. It was really simple yet powerful, to me at least. Unfortunately I had printed this out on a very small piece of paper and folded it up into my wallet. I hadn’t rehearsed it more than once or twice and being drunk and trying to read something like that, portraying the feelings you should, was very tough to do while drunk and straining to read very small print. I tried my best but I’m not sure how it came off. When dinner was over, the plastic waiter didn’t even offer desert, he just plopped the check down. I joked that he would say something concise and to the point like, “I would appreciate it if you left me a generous tip, goodbye” It was really bizarre.
After dinner we went down into the casino some more. Rich wanted to watch the end of game 7 of the nba finals, so we did that and gambled a bit at the same time. Actually I didn’t gamble, I just fed Ali some money to give her one more go round at substantial success at the machines. I was feeling a bit remorseful that our time in Vegas was coming to an end. The game ended the Pistons lost (good, f Larry Brown) and we said our goodbyes, I had to get Ali to the airport and we still had to go back to the room and pack.
Once we got back to the room we flew into action, as Ali showered I worked on packing stuff and pulling out what I would need for PA. We got everything together and got her to the airport in plenty of time. It was sad seeing Ali go while I had to turn around to spend my last night in Vegas alone. I got back to the time share, took a shower and set the alarm for 4:30 am. That gave me about 4 hours sleep.
The alarm sounded and I was up pretty quickly considering the brief slumber time I had. I checked out without issue and headed to the airport. I had to first return the rental car and I was ready to give them some shit about the “upgrade” they offered me. When the guy asked me for my papers I realized that the woman never even gave me the rental papers. That opened up the door for me to complain about the Cruiser and how it was ridiculous to say a car that is smaller is an upgrade. I also asked him how they can rent cars without power locks. “I never ever have rented a car without power locks” I said. “Well some times they don’t come with them” was his braindead reply. He said the PT Cruiser was a “specialty” car and usually costs MUCH more to rent. A specialty car? You see one every 30 seconds on the road. Yea right, whatever, give me the receipt. Never again.
My flight to PA was with Frontier Airlines, whom I never flew with before. Wow they were nice. The 2 planes I was on were new, they had slightly more leg room than normal, seats that reclined in a more comfortable manner and also each passenger had their own personal video screen. If you paid 5 bucks you could either watch a recent movie or directv programming during the flight. If you opted not to pay you could still watch one free channel or a channel where they showed the in flight progress and statistics. They brought you drinks AND a real meal with chips and a sandwich and came around later to see if you needed anything else. I didn’t think airlines did that stuff anymore, big kudos to Frontier.
My flight arrived on time but then as usual in Philly, the baggage took forever to come out. Then I had to wait again for a loooong time for the rental car van (this time Alamo) The ticketing clerk and lot personnel were very “laid back”. When I went out to the lot to get a car I asked the guy which one since the paper didn’t say. “Uh, any of these 5” “Any of them?” I said, “Yea….” Ok, picked out a Chevy Malibu which seemed more like a full size than a mid-size but who cares? I was on my way to Reading. I talked to my brother in transit and he told me something about them going out to a restaurant with the neighbors to drink and stuff. It seemed he thought that I would be eager to hop off the plane, with a 3 hour time difference, after traveling all day and having to play a volleyball tournament the next day, to stay up and party. I also didn’t understand why they would agree to do something with the neighbors the same night company is coming in. It set the tone for the rest of the weekend which I’d rather not even go into so I’ll skip to the volleyball tournament.
The forecast for Saturday was hot as hell and humid, 95 degrees plus. They hit it right on. I met up with Charlie a little before 7 am. This was only the second time I played doubles with Charlie, the first being last year’s Rumble. He is a little bundle of energy and a lot of fun to play with. We got there early, signed in and set up our tent. I found Jim Speese there but didn’t see anyone else I knew, of course I didn’t go out actively looking for anyone either. My dislike for small talk makes me hesitant to talk to most people I haven’t seen in awhile because I never know what to say. While it was in the 60’s driving there, it started to warm up very quickly. At the 9am meeting they gave instructions and then asked for a moment of silence for Jesse, the guy I knew from vball that was killed in the car accident over the winter. It sort of sucked because the PA volume was too low so a lot of people didn’t even hear the announcement and kept talking. Well it was a nice thought anyway.
We were the number 2 team on the net which is the worst spot because you have to sit 2 matches between each one that you play, leaving extended periods of time for you to stiffen up. However we payed the first match. Our opponents were 2 guys in their late 30’s to early 40’s. One guy was wearing a big brimmed hat with a tail on the back held on by a chinstrap which looked ridiculous. He also was playing in a long sleeve nylon top. Although I mocked him at first, I later asked him what the deal was and he said he wore that stuff in lieu of pouring on sunscreen repeatedly during the day. Just like last year, we lost the first game. Charlie got fired up and we came back to win game 2, 11-6. That was our last loss in pool play of the day. We basically improved as we went along beating solid teams along the way with a lot of hustle. We made some mistakes but were able to overcome them. It was shoe melting hot by mid-day. Jim later told me that 11 people were taken to the hospital that day.
Our 7-1 record got us first off the net and a number 10 seeding, much higher than last year. Our first playoff game was against another older team but both seemed to be very solid. We wore em down and won pretty easily, 11-4. We were feeling pretty confident and checked the playoff tree to see that the next team we played was the number 7 seed. We hoped to at least play one lower seeded team before we hit the harder ones but hey, you gotta win em all anyway.
We started the next game with no warmups as we were warm from the last match. They won the side/serve choice and elected to serve. The guy serves a hard, flat high serve that jams Charlie for a point. Next serve he spins the ball as hard as he can and hits it with an inside out motion that makes it come across the net hard as it bites to the left. What looked to be a pass to Charlies right winds up being a last second pass to his left which results in another shank. This guy was doing this so easily it was pathetic, BB my ass. Before we knew it we were down 8-0 and only 3 points from elimination. The couple times we had plays where we thought we were getting a point, instead turned into sideouts for the other team as they made some incredible saves. So we called a timeout where we basically grumbled about playing such a blatant sandbagger but resolved to turn things around. Well it didn’t work and instead we lost the last 3 points to get blanked 11-0. Yea it was embarrassing but that stuff happens. His serve had us totally off balance and the few chances we did get we didn’t convert on. The poor finish didn’t take much shine off the day as I was proud of how we did all things considered. Physically my knee was hurting before we even got going from all the walking in Vegas and the lack of flax seed oil in my system for the last week.
After it was all over we packed up, feeling dejected yet hopeful to give it another go next year. We repeated our now two year old tradition of going to A&M’s in Werversville for celebratory cheesesteaks. I used to love that place when we lived on West Gaul street. We took the cheesesteaks back to Charlie’s place where we recounted the day’s events while we watched Predator on TV. It was a real good time.
On Sunday morning I got my first chance to interact with my neice since she was in bed both of the nights by the time I got there. She hasn’t grown all that much since I saw her last but she was much more vocal and active than I remembered. She’s a precious little girl. I got to play with her for a few hours in the morning before I shoved off. First I stopped to see my grandmother at the home. It’s not a fun time for me but I know it is the right thing to do so I try to see her whenever I am in PA. We talk mostly about the facility cat, Smoky. Her short term memory is pretty weak so I try to deal with subjects in the past. I spent about 20 minutes with her, gave her a hug and a kiss and said my goodbyes. She never said my name so I suspect she wasn’t even sure which relative of hers I was. Sigh.
Then before returning to Philly I met up with my buddy Troy for a late breakfast. Troy and I seem to have an easy time talking to each other, something I rarely find so it’s good to see him. We exchanged the latest while eating at the luxurious Wernersville Family Restaurant. He told me stories of his success at craps in AC which I took pride in since I preached to him the virtues of the game. After a nice conversation about various topics I pulled out for Philly, a bit worried because of the Sunday afternoon Phillies game and the traffic it brings.
The trip back was fine and I got checked in, although the process was annoying as hell. My flight back was with US Airways, the company I have one of my airmile cards through. They basically suck as well. They have old planes, they have bad service, no perks and the airmile program is a joke. They upheld their reputation with another bad episode. I got into line for the e-check in. There were about 20 electronic kiosks. About 10 of them were working. They way this works is you check yourself in, your bag tag prints behind the counter and the clerk asks for id and gives it to you. Well for those 10 check in machines they had 2 people handing out tickets which was ridiculous. So you checked in and waited, no time savings at all. They were so far behind that they lost track of which came out first. Me and another couple stood there for 10 minutes after we checked in, waiting for the tags. Finally the guy asks the woman what was up. She starts giving attitude like he was rude for asking and she said that she announced that you should come up and give your name. BS, if she did that, it wasn’t in the last 10 minutes. She angrily gives the guy his tags (that had been sitting there all this time) and then starts bitching to a co-worker about how she is so stressed out because she has to deal with rude people and how she doesn’t know how much longer she can keep her job because she is going to snap. Blah blah blah, hey you know what, I’m the customer, that isn’t my issue. US airways sucks. Once we cash out our last free ticket, I am going to try to avoid them like the plague. No wonder they filed chapter 11, they have old tired planes and shitty customer service.
Well I found my way to my gate with time to spare. I wondered a bit and found a pair of “noise cancelling” headphones at the news shop. “Hmmm maybe this will allow me to hear my gameboy movies on the plane…” I took one last 35 dollar gamble that went bust. Nope it didn’t help one bit. The flight back was late landing due to US Air screwing around with luggage in Philly. I was both glad and sad when I stepped back out into the muggy Florida air. It was great to be back to Ali, Nicki and all that was familiar yet a bit melancholy to have put an exciting 6 days behind me.
Congrats on reading the longest blog entry ever….
Since the gnome dropped off the active reader list, comments are very few and far between, except the daily deluge of spam comments I get for porn, real estate, drugs and a million other stupid things. I normally get at least 10 a day. Well after being gone for almost a week I spent a good half hour cleaning this junk up and got fed up so I closed all commenting, at least for now. Perhaps if the spammers find that they are no longer able to drop their shit here, I will get taken off the list. Annoying. Huge blog entry recapping the last week to come..
The standing water on our property dried up after a week with no rain so we capitalized on the dry conditions and mowed, everything. I jumped on the tractor and spent 3 hours plus mowing and weed whacking the back of the property. The grass was high and the blades are less than sharp so I had to go slow. To do the entire property I bet we spent over 6 hours total. It was 94 and humid both days this weekend so we were sweating buckets. However the end result was great, our property looked as good as it has in a long time after everything was trimmed and groomed. Everything that was brown and dead is now deep green.
When I was mowing in the back I was startled when a bird flew up off the ground. I was within 10 feet with the loud tractor before it took off which I thought was odd. Plus, it didn’t fly very far away. I after looking closer I saw why. It was sitting on 2 eggs on the bare ground. It was a type of bird I hadn’t seen before. I felt real bad for disturbing the momma bird and quickly steered away. She returned almost immediately. I wondered how that works, the bird just sits on the eggs all day? She obviously has to leave them unprotected to eat or drink once in awhile. Hopefully they make it.
We also spent time getting the inside of the house cleaned up for my mom’s arrival. While I was doing this I realized that my mom hasn’t been out to our house this year. That is unreal. She is so paranoid about driving now that our house may as well be in PA, she doesn’t want to drive out there. It’s a shame, I’d like to see her more.
I work a half day today and then leave for Vegas at 6pm. Since I have a non-conventional 3 way legged journey, we had to get creative with travel arrangements. I leave an hour and a half earlier than Ali, but we both wind up in Atlanta, then we take the same plane to Vegas. We get to Vegas after 11 their time so it will be early in the morning here. To say we will be a bit tired is an understatement. The first night we are staying at the Sahara casino. By the time we wake up it will be time to check out. The rest of the nights we are staying at a place we got through our timeshare program, I hope it isn’t a disappointment.
The week is going to be jam packed with seeing the sights, a show, gambling and attending my buddies wedding. Ali takes a red eye out Thursday night back to Fla, while I head out at 7am Friday morning for PA. I get to Philly in the afternoon, have to drive to Reading, crash at my brothers and then get up bright and early to play in the Pottstown Rumble, the tournament where I had my greatest vball victory ever with Rich. I fly right back to Naples Sunday. It is going to be an exhausting and action packed 6 days but hopefully it will be filled with lots of lasting memories. Pray I don’t roll too many sevens.
Yesterday Alison worked late to get totally caught up before our week long vacation. So I picked up Nicki after work and decided to do something I don’t do very often any more. grab food at McD’s. I parked the truck right in front of the drive in window, locked it with my spare key and left it running with the AC on so Nicki would remain comfortable. Ali gets very paranoid about leaving Nicki unattended. The reason I parked and went inside instead of the drive-thru was because my hands were all dirty and I wanted to wash them. So I went into the nasty bathroom, tried to ignore the disgusting toilet stalls and washed my hands in the very dirty sink.
My standard McD’s meal is the 2 cheesburger value meal with hamburgers instead of cheeseburgers with a diet coke. I went out to the counter and was greeted by an uncharacteristically friendly McDonald’s employee. She was a woman that was very petite, tan and was decent looking. Then she opened her mouth, she had a hispanic accent but not a bad one, what was bad was the teeth that were in there. It looked like she had a mouth full of shrapnel. I felt bad for the woman as I could tell that like me, she is conscious of her teeth and tried to cover them the best she could. I made sure to not draw attention to her teeth so I glanced over at her name tag, her name was “Dorkas”…. poor, poor girl…
In WoW, characters are ranked by level from 1 to 60. The higher the number, the higher your power in the game. Well my original character is very close to hitting the highest rank of 60. After 6 months of off and on effort he is almost to the pinnacle. Once you hit that rank the game changes from being an effort to raise your level to one of getting the best “stuff”, the best armor the best weapon, the best mount, that kind of stuff. It’s an accomplishment that I am proud of in a vapid, meaningless sort of way. I will grind out the last few xp points in the Western and Eastern plaguelands, probably mostly killing ghouls and skeletons. The plaguelands are in the northern part of the eastern kingdoms. However I need to first fly to Kalimdor and specifically UnGoro Crater where I need to go to the top of the Burning Steppes to make a key that will later open the door to get into the Scholomance instance. It’s a bit of a pain to have to go that far just for that but it has to be done sooner or later. Perhaps when I stop at Tanaris I will pick up some more Nogenfogger Elixir. It’s cool stuff that either shrinks you down or turns you into a skeleton for 10 minutes. I also need to spend some time in Tanaris at some point killing a bunch of Wastewander guys to build back up my stock of pumpkins, cheese and health potions. At my level I get no xp for killing these guys anymore but the stuff they drop is valuable none the less. I could go on and on….
Ok, depending on what time of day you check this, it will look incomplete as I wil be saving as I go to not lose stuff this time around. Wow it’s taken me 2 days to get the time to continue this. Let’s see if I can recreate my train of thought from Monday.
Over the weekend, Alison and I were driving along and pulled up behind a Cadillac Cimarron. I said to her “There is one of the biggest jokes every in the automobile industry….” The Cimmaron was Cadillac’s attempt to get into the low cost, compact car market. They basically took a Chevy Cavalier, put different headlights, taillights and badging on it. It was a total joke. The particular Cimmarron we were behind was beat up, the paint was faded and was in overall dilapatated condition. The signature mark for this vehicle was the big, stick on block letters on the rear passenger window that said “EVERGLADES PEST CONTROL” The driver of the vehicle was a middle aged woman with a big straw hat and large black sunglasses. The dashboard of the vehicle was covered with various adornments. What a piece of junk.
Over the weekend Ali and finished watching the 3 original Star Wars flicks. It was cool watching it on the big screen with the surround sound cranked up. However watching the originals after viewing the new threesome gives you a different perspective on things. Here are a few things that stuck out.
In the first movie when Obi-Wan and Darth have their battle it seems much more anti-climactic. After seeing their long history portrayed in the new movies, you would have expected much more out of this battle. Nevermind that compared to the new movies, Obi-Wan and Darth look like they are fighting underwater, there is just very little emotion or dialogue that you would expect. It’s sort of like oh there is Obi-Wan who I haven’t seen in 25 or 30 years, the guy that cut off my legs, the guy that taught me how to be a Jedi, let’s fight.
Princess Leia was hot. In Return of the Jedi she is in some super skimpy outfits that showed off a top notch body that I didn’t quite remember. Mark Hamill’s transformation from a good looking guy in the first movie to a weird looking freak 6 years later is more than a bit disturbing. He also is just a tiny guy. The scenes where he is with Vader he looks child-like in comparison. I also didn’t quite understand how Darth Vader in the final movie, in the final battle was kicking ass, having little problem with Luke and then with a snap of the fingers when he reads Luke’s mind about Leia, Luke gets his second wind and drives Vader back. Then Vader collapses onto his knees and Luke cuts off his robotic hand. Somehow losing the robotic hand has put Vader on death’s door. That didn’t make sense then and makes less sense now. However it still gave me chills when Vader picked up the emperor and threw him down the hole. Of course again it made little sense the emperor, with sparks flying out of his hands, would not be able to use the dark side of the force to thwart Vader before he throws him down the shaft.
I found it quite interesting that in the last scene where the ghosts of Yoda, Obi-Wan and a younger Annikan Skywalker appear, they erased the original Annikan and pasted in the new kid from the new movies. Kind of freaky.
On Sunday, instead of doing our 4 mile walk to the convenience store that was so miserable the week before, we decided to visit the track at the middle school that is less than 3 miles from our house. We walked a few laps and then ran a mile straight. I didn’t expect Ali to be able to do a mile off the bat but she did. It was very humid and warm so we worked up a good sweat very quick. The pace was slower than I would run on my own so I didn’t feel too bad. It was cool being able to time laps and have a definitive measurement of what you accomplished. I think we will continue with it as long as my knee problems don’t flare back up. After we ran we headed over to the local golf course practice green and let Ali try out her 10 year old putter I got off ebay for her. She did very well. With a few lessons and practice I think Ali could be a pretty solid golfer, something I’ll never be.
I saw that Tyson lost AGAIN and this time he is retiring. I don’t get it. Even though he is older he looked to still be in rip em up shape. I remember in his early days, it didn’t matter how big the guy was, once the big oaf got hit by a few of Mike’s sledgehammers you could see the fear in his eyes and then shortly there after Tyson would beat him into submission. It was gripping stuff in a gladiator type of way. You got the feeling you could put a grizzly bear in there and Tyson would kick its ass. Even though throughout the years he has proven himself to be a first class thug, a convicted rapist and just an all around asshole, there is still part of me that feels sad for the guy. It’s sad to see him lay down like a dog after once being the ultimate power puncher. Hopefully he stays retired, I don’t need any more pathetic performances to water down my memories of when he was a human buzzsaw.
Michale Jackson was found innocent of all charges. I had heard before that it was expected he would be acquitted so I wasn’t all that taken back or outraged as many people I talked to were. I saw the Martin Bashir piece so I got a good taste of just how eccentric and weird this guy is. However I also am very aware of the depths of human behavior and the idea that many people have no problems making up events in order to make huge personal profits is a reality. Michael is a huge, easy target with infinitely deep pockets. To be honest I have no idea and no real basis to say he was guilty or innocent. I do know it’s creepy to me but creepy doesn’t necessarily mean he molested children. Evidently the jury agreed. I expect Mikey to move out of the country in short order.
On Monday night I woke up Ali and myself from talking (yelling) in my sleep. I blurted out “Get your ass on the ground!” If I remember it correctly I was in some sort of security role, this guy was giving me attitude and I snapped.
This time next week I’ll be in Vegas, hopefully happy with my early returns from my craps playing. I will have already seen the Cirque De Soleil show the night before.
I just noticed I crossed the 10,000 view mark on the blog. It took 2 and a half years but the hits have been steadily increasing over time. I am always amazed when I am contacted by people I never knew that stumbled across the site and come back to read on a regular basis. It’s a cool thing.
Todays one liner (this one I came up with and used in an email to the VP of GE Capital when I was angered about layoffs and general BS that was going on)
“You can put sugar on shit, it’s still shit…”
That email earned me a discussion with our local manager who advised me against this sort of behavior.
Was right in the meat of a good entry and the computer took a dump…..
I’ll see if I have the motivation and time to piece it back together.
On the drive home we go through an elderly residential area where the speed limit is 25 and they have huge speed bumps every couple hundred yards to keep us young whippersnappers from going fast. Well instead of a conventional curb, the road sort of has a little congrete gulley along it for drainage water. Yesterday on the way home it was raining again, pretty steadily. As I rounded a corner I see a man with a gas blower walking up and down along his part of the curbline. He had the nozzle right by the water and was blowing ithe rain water up into the grass. He just paced back and forth, blowing water into the grass which was instantly replaced by more water from the rainwater flowing down the street. I spent the next 5 minutes or so trying to figure out exactly what the point of this fruitless act would be. Eventually I concluded he just thought it looked cool to see the water get rocketed away by the high winds from the blower, nothing else made much sense at all.
Now for today’s deep thought which I can take no credit for creating:
“You can’t sail a ship on yesterday’s wind…..”
I have used ebay so many times over the years I just assume that when I buy something off there I am saving a considerable amount of money versus paying retail. Last week I decided to finally replace our spot steam cleaner. I knew the model I wanted so I jumped right on ebay and found it. 34.99 +14 bucks shipping, a little steep on the shipping cost but hey I am getting a great deal on the price so that makes up for it. So I happily paid the buy it now price and immediately paid for it with Paypal, good deal.
That evening after work while was wasting time before pickup up Ali, I was at wal-mart picking up a couple things and I happened to walk by the vacuum cleaner section and figured, “Hey I wonder if they have those cleaners, let’s see how much money I saved..” The price, $35.24….. so with tax the total would have been around 37 bucks. Instead with shipping I paid a little less than 50 to wait for it for a week. I was rather perturbed to say the least. I’ll never blindly buy off ebay again without checking conventional pricing first.
I finally got my purchase yesterday. The situation went from bad to worse. The auction had the item listed as NEW. It was in it’s original box but it had obviously been used. The manual was creased and water stained, the brushes had some hair around them, there was dirt on the casing and the liquid compartment had condensation in it. Oh well, I was angry but as long as it worked I was going to let it slide. I flip it on and the brushes spin and there is suction, great. Well then I thought I should put water in it and make sure it all works. I filled it and fired it up. I squeeze the trigger once, twice, 25 times… nothing comes out. Son of a bitch! The damn thing is used, I overpaid for it, had to wait a week and it doesn’t work right! Argh!
So I fire off an angry email to the seller accusing him of falsely representing the product and demanding a refund. His initial response was condescending and smart ass in nature saying I could return it and the would either repair it or send me another one so I quickly replied. This time I went into more detail about all the issues with the product, how I paid for a NEW one so a repaired one would not do, established I indeed knew how to work the unit and that I was not an ebay novice and indirectly hinted that he should simply refund my money or else the negative feedback would be scathing.
His second reply was more amicable and he agreed to refund the purchase price if I sent it back. I’m still out the shipping that I had to pay twice. It was lesson that I won’t forget. I’ll be going to wal-mart after work to buy a brand new unit, like I could have done a week ago and saved myself 30 bucks. Sigh….
It’s weird but since Saturday I have had 3 acts of animal rescue. On Saturday as we were driving down a 3 lane wide road, in the distance I saw something moving across the road, slowly. Oh shit, it’s a turtle. I didn’t want the ill advised turtle to become roadkill so I sped up to it and whipped off to the road shoulder. There were cars coming but far enough away that they would have time to slow when they saw a man running out into the road in front of them. I scooped the turtle up and got to the median. As I was holding him he used his only natural defense and tried to pee on me. Once traffic on the other side cleared I ran across and set him on the far bank and made sure he was continuing on his way.
Yesterday, after I picked up Nicki after work, I was turning left out of the nursing home. As I did I spotted in my mirrors something trying to slide across the road, obviously it was injured. I continued on but then swung around, parked the car to see what was going on. It looked to be a full sized bullfrog. His one front arm looked like it was crushed and he was trying to drag himself across the street by pushing his back legs. I assumed some idiot that wasn’t paying attention hit him but I didn’t know for sure. He was big, as big as my hand. It was so sad. I had an empty cigar container I found discarded by the street that I used to pick him up with. He didn’t really struggle much as I held him. I carried him to the edge of a lake at the golf course across the street. I thought that possibly even though his arm was no good for walking, maybe he could still swim. I sat him by the edge to see if he would go in on his own. He just kinda sat there. So I gave him a little nudge and he went in the water. However once in, all he could do was roll, he was unable to swim. Well I didn’t want him to drown so I scooped him back out. I wound up carrying him over to some bushes nearby and setting him under there, hoping that at the least he could die in peace. I sat him down, petted him and told him to rest as he just looked at me . Poor thing, made me feel like shit.
I told Ali of my attempted frog rescue. As we drove home we ran into some heavy downpours. As we were within a couple of miles of home what do I see but another damn turtle trying to cross the road. I pull off again and hop out into the pouring rain. There was a van with a trailer coming and instead of slowing and trying to avoid the turtle, he kept normal speed and straddled the turtle with his wheels. I yelled at the asshole as I ran out once he passed. Luckily the turtle avoided getting clipped by the axles. I picked him up and ran him across the road and set him on his way. By the time I got back in the car I looked like I jumped in the pool with my clothes on. I was still furious at the jerk that ran over the turtle. People are idiots, the older I get, the less I want to deal with them.
Mexicans may be hard workers but I have found that they also have no ideas about littering. Evidently Mexico is such a shithole that littering is just a fact of life. Our property constantly has empty cans of cerveza, plantain chip bags, and pork rind sacks littering the roadside. It’s annoying.
