Interests:'I want the world; I want the whole world!' (not to own it, but to experience it). I like to travel. Spain is my country. I'm a futbol fan (I don't watch sports, I play them). I love the Bible (main interest: relationship with God through Jesus Christ). I like photography (creativity in general). I read some. I like to learn. Rollerblading is the only way to fly (if you don't count jumping from high places, or airplanes). I like music - there's a song for everything. I enjoy playing my trombone until my face hurts. I'm addicted to boomerangs - flight is beautiful! Expertise:I'm no expert... but I know about theology, history, languages, religions, music, art, and hey, I just learned a little bit about HTML! Occupation:Retired Industry:Nonprofit
This weekend my roommates and I went camping. We've been wanting to do that for a while, and finally, since I'm moving out in a couple days, we just up and went. It was lots of fun - we went an hour and a half south of Dallas to a state park, got there right at sundown, and had a fire going and the tent up in less than 8 minutes. We cooked hobo packs in the fire (a first for me), and of course we brought a guitar, a whoopasstick, and a slingshot.
The next day we had fun with the sling, using the campsite's electical box to set mountain dew cans on, rather than for electricity.
The dew cans worked well. Then I tried putting a hole in a water bottle. Fail. Even from way up close it didn't make a dent!
I bought this wrist rocket when I was fourteen, and never used it on a living creature (not for lack of desire) until this weekend. Shortly after we arrived an armadillo tried dragging off a bag of our food, so I bounced a pellet of its hard-armored back, sending it bouncing away for safety in its awkward gait. Actually, if I'd been thinking, I might have ignored my roomate's cries for violence, and tried to sneak up behind it when it was blinded by his flashlight. I'd have tried to pick the cute little thing up in my hands… don't know if you can do that with anarmadillo, like you can with a hamster. (for some of you, hearing someone say an armadillo is cute is the same as someone saying a rat is cute. which I think they are . they're not like movie rats in real life.)
Wednesday morning I got my car's state inspection done. The one thing they told me was that I should change my rear tires. So I decided I would do that the next day.
Wednesday afternoon I drove up to pick Trevor up from work so I could take him to the airport - he was going to UCLA to check out a PhD program. He left his car parked at work, and we took my car to Dallas' main airport - D-FW. When we got there, we were worried by the fact that the sign telling us which gate to go to had a big empty spot right where it should have said "Northwest" which was the airline Trevor was taking. Trevor got his laptop out to check his itinerary again, and noticed it said, "Love Field". He quickly went to get his phone out to call and see if he could still make it, and discovered that he'd left it in his car! So we (safely) flew (in my car) back to his office, picked up the phone, and were on the way in the other direction to Love Field when my right rear tire blew. We were pretty determined to get to the airport in time (it was still feasible) so we dashed back to my trunk to get the spare. This was my first time dealing with the trunk of this car since it'd been given to me in october. There had been water standing in the trunk when I got it, which I fixed, along with the leak, when I first had it. So when I pulled up the carpet to get at the spare, it was basically glued to the tire! Meanwhile, Trevor was working on getting the jack out of the corner where it was found, and only succeeded in cutting himself on the rusted thing - it was fused to the car body! I found out there would be no point in using it anyway, since a thorough search of the trunk revealed no tire iron for removing the lugnuts. And there was no way I was chewing them off…. At this point we were two or three miles from Trevor's car, and amazingly enough, when my tire blew, only the outer layer of tread and steel radial came off, and the air miraculously stayed in the tire (though we could hear it hissing out). The air lasted (at 20 mph) almost until we reached the office, then we rode the rest of the way (10 mph) on the rim. We left my car at the office, transferred Trevor's luggage to his car, and took off once more for Love Field. We pulled up to the gate, he ran in to the counter, and found out he was just three minutes late for his plane. *sigh* When he arrived at the counter they asked him, "Did you just come from DFW? A lot of people are doing that, because Northwest changed airports within the last two weeks." (so he was right in thinking we were supposed to go to DFW, since his original itinerary had said so) They told him he could fly out of DFW in an hour for $700, or he could fly standby for free the next morning at 6. Things were really not going his way that day. We haven't heard any reports of his intended flight falling out of the sky, but we're sure there was a good reason for his missing the flight.
As it turned out, he was able to use his AAA to call a tow truck for my car. When the tow guy showed up at the office building, he asked, "Didn't you try to change the tire?" I showed him the condition of my trunk. He changed the tire for me, and gave me his tire iron! We asked him to follow us to the tire place, in case the not-so-quality spare also went bad, and he did follow us… for a while. About half way there, he took off. Weird. At least Trevor didn't get charged for a tow….
We got my rear tires changed, a little sooner than planned, and Trevor ended up being able to complete some last-minute business he wouldn't have been able to do if he'd made his flight. We had fun washing his car (which was buried in bugs from a recent 3,000 mi. road trip). I crashed at his place, then 'take two': at 4 in the morning I took him to Love field in my car. It was nice to be able to hang with him a bit, at least.
I just got back from my Grandaddy’s funeral in Sebring, FL. I flew down there on a last-minute flight out of dallas on Friday when it was thought that he could pass away at any moment. In fact, I didn’t think I’d get to see him alive when I got there. My mom called with regular updates, and I just couldn’t stand sitting at home. So I called a few airlines to check on ‘compassion’ fares and booked a flight for that evening. I flew into Tampa and went to rent a car. I was delayed at one car rental place and was frustrated, because though we’d thought he’d be gone by the time my plane touched down, he was still hanging on, and I really wanted to see him before he left. So I rented a car and drove the two hours to his bedside, arriving at 1 a.m. Amazingly, he was still with us, and I was able to say goodbye in person. And then, he improved. As family poured in from around the country, Grandaddy grew stronger, and stuck around to enjoy our company for another couple of days! It really hurt to see him in such a weak and painful condition, and it took a lot to process the fact that he was going to die, since he’d been doing so well just a couple weeks before. But it was an eye-opening time when the family gathered around and sang songs and told stories of the old days. I learned a lot about myself and why I am the way I am, and I learned a lot about my heritage, and my pride in it is boundless.
Dear xanga, I sold my betsy. It still hurts. I wonder every hour or two whether I did the right thing.
After thinking it through again I know I did, but I still feel bad, like I sold a friend into slavery. But I know good has been done here: a needy person got a good car for a good price, my brother's driveway is now clear, and he and I no longer have that extra possession weighing on our minds….
right where it should have said "Northwest" which was the airline Trevor was taking. Trevor got his laptop out to check his itinerary again, and noticed it said, "Love Field". He quickly went to get his phone out to call and see if he could still make it, and discovered that he'd left it in his car! So we (safely) flew (in my car) back to his office, picked up the phone, and were on the way in the other direction to Love Field when my right rear tire blew. 
