Post 7: Great Days Today, Great Days To Come

Today is a great day! After much turmoil over my RTW ticket (yesterday i thought i might be able to fly to london on sunday given the stipulations of my ticket. The fact is i was a little lazy and relying on the travel agent too much. But when i would read the rules of the ticket I started to fill like i was drowning in lots of the bullshit that I hope to avoid by "getting away.") i think today everything will be finalized and to top that off i am getting out of the effing city and going to the Hamtons (a swanky beach town) until sunday, when i board a flight bound for London. My travel schedual is a little crazy at times, long layovers and serious jet lag lies ahead, but as long as i don't go broke ahead of time I think i am in for one hell of a trip and I hope more that you will all enjoy reading about it.

TTFN

post 6: mobile post

Hello,
I'm in the airport trying my first post from a mobile device. By days end I will be in nyc. Ann arbor was really fun. Too much fun. Means that today will be about recovery. Chris and Jess got married in the finest of fashions. A short but meaninful service, followed by a great reception that was amazing. I could tell there was a great deal of thought put into making the event enjoyable for everyone.

It was a great way to start my trip.

Ok I think that will do for now. Mobile post over

Post 5: Boredom

8/2/09

Location: Moultrie, Georgia

 

            I have a lot of free time here.  And there isn’t much to do.   I am staying in a bed and breakfast about 3 blocks from the pool.   The house is quite beautiful.  It’s defiantly an old plantation house, big and white with a huge wrap around porch It is over 100 years old.  I am sharing a room with my boss, Alik.  He has a king sized bed and I have a plastic inflatable bed that is comfortable, but slowly loses air.   Our room is in the garage/stable house.  It would be a nice place to spend a nice romantic week, but with just the two of us staying here it feels a little awkward.

            I can feel the boredom setting in.  My 2 divers do not arrive until Tuesday, which basically means that I am on vacation.  I have been watching TV all morning, first Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (classic) and The Bad News Bears (remake) on TBS.  What’s worse is that I missed a huge south wind yesterday at home which would have meant a road trip up north for some waves (Frownie Face of Frustration) Oh Well.  

This place (Moultrie) is tiny and surrounded by farms.  Yesterday we went to the Winn Dixie supermarket, I saw all the staples: McDonalds, Burger King, and Taco Bell, on the same road as the supermarket.  Don’t remember seeing a Wendy’s but next to Taco Bell there is a small stand that serves snow cones and funnel cakes, I would love to haven’t had a funnel cake in years, I believe that some folks call them elephant ears, but I sounded good to me when I saw it.  Moultrie is not big enough for Best Buy, but they do have a Radio Shack.  There is a Dominoes Pizza around the corner from our hotel and a CVS and Subway around the corner the other direction. It is sad that these things are the staples of many of our small towns in this country.  You can click on the blue text above to read more factual information about Moultrie. 

The natural landscape is amazing however, there are theses huge trees that have some kind of tiny vines or moss that hang down from its branches.  The air is super humid and it seems to rain every afternoon, which I love and which makes this place vibrantly green.  Even as I write this, the rain has begun to fall.  If there were an ocean, or “great lake” close by it would be a great little place to live because so far that people are very friendly.

 

TTFN-Ta Ta for Now

    -Tigger

Post 4

7/31/09

            Location: Airplane headed south(east) to ATL

 

I don’t really like having sharp Metal Objects in my mouth.  Even if people are trained to do put them there I still don’t like it.  On my most recent trip to the dentist (yesterday) I found out that I need a Root Canal before I fly away.  So I got one scheduled for august 18^th (fun).  My DDS, who I think was completely full of shit, told me that I have a ticking time bomb in my mouth that will eventually hit a nerve (literally) and I will experience “the worst pain known to mankind” (I thought it was childbirth but I bit my tongue when he said that).   So that will be a nice little bonus thing to do before I leave. 

It turns out that my DDS isn’t the only person who is probably full of shit.  When I was in Bloomington I turned on my (the hotel’s) TV and Fox News channel was on.  A Show called Red Eye.  It looked like a round table discussion between 4 “well educated” people, 2 men and 2 women, in their late twenties/early thirties, who can tell the difference?  Not me, no way.  Both of the women had blonde hair and both men had short dark hair and looked fairly similar.   They were sharing their opinions, which is  really what caused me to look at them as being so full of shit.

 One of the men said: “There are more TVs that people In America.   Most houses have 25 remotes, it’s a scourge.”

            The other Man responded: “Yea and most remotes got so many buttons that you don’t even know what they do, I mean you could push some of these buttons and someone 100 miles away could be getting electrocuted, cause I know that’s how I would make remotes.”

            Next one of the Women spoke:  “Yea but I have 7 tv’s and 3 cable boxes cause I know I don’t want to miss (some bullshit show) if one (cable box) goes out.  But you know what there’s less of, guns.  So I like to see some more guns for sure.” 

            Laughter ensued between them all and I imagined that not far from where I was laying some drunken business major was sitting in his room at his frat house laughing and agreeing with every word.  And thus we have the magic of TV, and the problems it can create.  4 people, all of them guided by a notion of perfection created for the sake of advertisement or to help them feel fiscally sound, sitting around on a TV show telling everyone how big of a problem TV is for American Culture, knowing full well that people will continue to watch regardless of what they say.   I Just wish that the lines between people actual opinions and the things they say to entertain TV viewers would not get so blurred.

As for the Gun comments, most people would already know that Fox News is quite a beacon of conservative political thought.  But interestingly enough, the idea of Guns for Everyone was a very liberal idea before the development of much more powerful weapons; guns used to be such a powerful object that to give them to the masses was thought to be a way to surefire revolution, and that was not far from the truth at all.  Now it seems to be a tied to conservative notions of personal security.  I myself do not own a gun, and have never shot anything other than a rusty coffee can (except for when i play laser tag and paintball).   And I have killed thousands, possibly millions, of digital people and Aliens on various videogame consoles.

 

Anyways I am way off topic so let’s transition back to more relevant news.   I will be in Moultrie, Georgia for the next 8 days at the US diving and Speedo JR National diving meet.  It is my last bit of work before I go, and the next few days will hopefully go smoothly.  This meet is the culmination of months of training so I will try and enjoy the experience and I will encourage my divers to do so as well because they have worked hard. 

When I get back home I will begin to furiously organize myself to leave (and take a nice relaxing trip to Canada).  This will involve an awful lot of cleaning.  Both my room and my Car are filthy.  My room is so dirty that my mother called it a “sore spot”, meaning if I don’t clean the hell out of before I leave she will shit a brick.  My Car is technically my Dad’s car and I need to clean it out because I know that he will also be upset with me if I leave a mess back home (or if I don’t turn all of the lights in he house off when I go to bed). 

In the process of cleaning I will probably give away lots of my clothing and things other things that clutter my life up at home, although I won’t be able to give away all the clothing in my closet because most of it belongs to my sister Skatie who might own more clothes and shoes than someone rich and famous who owns lots of clothes.   I think she made a wise choice in transferring to fashion school.

After I clean I will pack my bag for traveling.  Here is the inventory thus far:

1.     Tent

2.     Lightweight sleeping bag

3.     Water filter/iodine tablet for backup

4.     2 canteens

5.     Stove that will burn nearly any fuel (sounds like an advertising slogan)

6.     Cooking hardware

 

I feel like I have covered many necessities, clean water, shelter, food preparation. But I would still like to get my hands on a GPS of some kind and a waterproof camera so I can put some sweet pictures up here. 
As well as a good sharp knife.

The plane is now about to land in Atlanta so I will conclude abruptly.

 

 

TTFN