Cheaha State Park and through the woods

The kids and I made the most of the good day we had Sunday in the schizophrenic Alabama winter with a drive to Cheaha State Park to see and play, including a drive through the woods on a road that really wasn't.

It had been a while since we got to see the park, and the drive through what passes for mountains around here was quite the treat with its many curves, twists and turns. It seemed that in traveling by car we were in the minority, as we passed gaggles of middle age folk wearing overpriced leather outfits and riding motorcycles that cost more than my car were more or less continuous.

Once to the park we checked out Bald Rock overlook, took in the view and stomped around in the woods some. Given the gorgeous weather it was a nice surprise that the place was not crowded with others taking the place in.

Then it was past another flock of weekend bikers back down Talladega Scenic Drive into Clay County toward Talladega Creek,which I know for its accessible beauty in the middle of more or less wild country. I found that part of the scenic drive had fallen into quite the state of disrepair and too late saw that it really was no place to be driving my Honda Civic! But I pressed on, past mudholes and craggy rocks that had to eased over with hopes none reached up and broke something...luckily none did.

I talked with the kids as we crept down the 'road', and for the first time shared with them where my heart is at about why our family won't be back together as they, and at one point I, had hoped. It was past time for that to be said, and the fact that at any point the car could have been disabled and us stranded in the National Forest seemed somehow appropriate. I did not mind the car getting scratched up by limbs and branches and muddier than it has ever been, I just concentrated on the speaking my heart to them and navigating us through the woods where I had not really planned on being. Again, the ride and the talk shared eerie parallels.

Then it was back to play time as we acted silly and threw sticks and rocks into the creek, took more pictures and watched the sun go down before heading back west to Pell City and their mama's house.
When it gets to be predictably warmer weather at night I am going to have to take us camping out there. There's just something about the kind of quiet the woods has.

25 more

It's gone around again since last time I did it, so why not do it again?

1. In high school I was very proud when I got a letter saying I'd been accepted to Samford. A year or two later I learned they'd not turned anybody down in years.
2. I never quite figured out why anybody would want to be in a fraternity. I was friends with a bunch of guys who were, and I didn't have to pay them.
3. Every time I carry a pistol I pray that I will not need it, and for God to help anyone who leaves me no choice but to use it.
4. I think that everybody should talk abut hard times with someone who lived through the Depression before all those folks are dead.
5. Once in a while I run into the woman who taught me senior English in high school, and I act as if I liked her.
6. I'd go back to Alaska if I could take my son and daughter with me, but I might not want to come back.
7. I have still not figured out the appropriate course of action when someone I don't know wants to be facebook friends.
8. There is a big difference in fighting for one's country, and being sent to one's death in some God-forsaken part of the world for no good reason.
9. Even though I can take 'em or leave 'em myself, I grow tomatoes every year because people love it when I give them some.
10. Mick Jagger is within a couple of months of being the same age as my dad.
11. After 6 weeks of being incoherent after The Wreck, my first thoughts were how tacky the Thanksgiving decorations in my hospital room were, and the body odor of the nurse changing the dressing on my feeding tube. The morphine dreams don't count.
12. The smartest guy I have ever had as a friend--George McNinch--was also the only person who seemed to like Neil Young and distilled spirits as much as me.
13. My lawyer saw me through my divorce for free, and one of these days I'll figure out some way to return the favor.
14. God is not good, God is not bad, God is not your buddy, God is not your enemy. God just is. What are you going to do about it?
15. It frustrated me to no end that the radio station I liked for new music added overplayed stuff from the 80s to its playlist. I didn't like the Scorpions when they were new, and now they're supposed to be classic??
16. Slinging pizza is most assuredly a dead-end job, but my, there are some fun twists and turns along the way.
17. I've only ever shot at paper targets, bottles, and miscellaneous junk, but I am still proud that I can hit stuff with an old military rifle from a couple hundred yards away.
18. I am descendant from Appalachian hill folk on both my mother's and father's sides of the family.
19. Whether it's a car, electronics or plum wine, stuff made in Japan tends to be better than stuff made elsewhere in the world.
20. I laughed all day after I read the headline in The Onion: Black Man Given Nation's Shittiest Job.
21. I go to Wal-Mart not so much for the low prices, as I do for the walking anthropology study a trip there soon becomes.
22. Arguing on the Internet is like cheating in the Special Olympics.
23. Made-up baby names never cease to amaze me.
24. I thought there was going to be something to turning 40, but there wasn't really.
25. It's been years since I was through there, but I can still direct a person to an address in North Shelby County with ease.

Nothing in particular

Getting perilously close to a month since the last post here, which I don't like because I don't want to this to become one of those blogs that doesn't get updated very often. In the the time since my last post I have gone right on living and thinking; I just have gotten slack about telling!
Why not start the telling with the Internet browser that is running this very instant? Back late last year I read about an alarming security hole in the browser I used at the time, MS Internet Explorer. I shut it down right then, went looking for another, found Mozilla Firefox and installed it. What a nice surprise! Not only does it do everything MSIE does, but it also catches typos as you make them...pretty damn cool, I say. It sort of reminds me of what Netscape Navigator used to be like.

It turned out that Microsoft patched the hole in IE the very same day I heard about it, but I am not going back because Firefox kicks ass! It's free http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/
Also since I last posted, I have continued ripping my old records and tapes onto CD, albeit at a slower pace since I closer to getting done and that box of stuff ultimately bound for the thrift store is getting fuller. I have shared copies of my reborn music collection with others, and they liked hearing them, so that was a bonus.

The job I continue to work while looking another job took a turn for the better in the past month when the store was moved to a much bigger and better location. True, the needs of a pizza joint are not very complex, but it's nice having room to stack up our stuff without having to move other stuff around doing it. For those wondering, Domino's is now in Cropwell, back behind The Country Store in the same building with Trendsetters salon. I've affectionately named our new neighbors "the hair honeys" and it has already been fun taking them the carryout orders they place for lunch.

What else...OH...I can't leave out me making use of Internet trying to meet somebody. I've tried a few of the over the past few months, geez, how many sites? 4? 5? The sites are marketed with varying approaches from too much intellectualizing and waiting around to overt sexuality to just throwing one's self up on a bulletin board (singlesnet) to a combination of those (match.com) And I won't glorify any of them with a description...except to say that it and every last one of the other them all sell the very same thing: loneliness.

It is a free site by the name of plenty of fish that I wound up liking more than any of the others. While the response rate (less than 10 percent) I've had in trying to contact women hasn't changed, the site gets WAY more traffic than the others, plus has discussion forums to which I have had fun contributing while waiting around for something to happen. And then there is the fact that it has yielded what the other sites touted but seldom delivered: getting to meet somebody interesting! Hell, yeah...

25

Here's a note from my profile on facebook (where I can be found if you are so inclined) and thanks to a friend there for the idea.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

1. My experience with these type lists as peeks at one's persona has been somewhat inane, so I'll try to make this one interesting.
2. I am just about the only person I know without a cell phone, and I remain wholly uninterested in getting one. I don't have a credit card, either.
3. At the end of The Raiders of the Lost Ark, they crated up the ark in a box numbered 9906763. Cats and bears are alike in that they both lack collarbones. In seventh grade my locker number was 785 and the combination was 7-9-39.
4. I have long since given up hope of trying to make sense of my retention of useless knowledge.
5. There is only so much a person can do for someone who has made up their mind to be unhappy.
6. With ceaseless frustration I read typographical errors and poor grammar penned by so-called reporters whose better I am.
7. Even though I have had plenty of them, I know that regrets are ultimately for chumps.
8. It would be hard to choose which is better: doing something you know you like, or finding out about something you were previously unaware you liked.
9. Rap music was a lot better when they actually said something.
10. I didn't vote for Obama but I am pretty sure he is going to do better than the pissed-off old man for whom I did vote.
11. I tend to shake my head when I read a sentence ended in a preposition.
12. Working outside when it's too hot, I can accurately judge the onset of hyperthermia by whether or not I can mentally diagram a sentence.
13. I need more guns like I need chiggers, but I remain on the lookout for a sweet deal on something I do not have.
14. While I can't say I am proud of never having graduated college, I am unable see that it would have made any difference.
15. These list of entries are coming a lot easier than I thought they would.
16. Fans of 80s popular music tend to conveniently forget how very much of it sucked.
17. I keep a blog that not many people read and fewer still comment on, and I persist for the sense of accomplishment it gives me.
18. My best friend in the whole world died inside my shattered car in 2001 and has yet to be rivaled on my friendship totem. The world is still a less-interesting place without you, Mark Howard!
19. I have always taken a small amount of pride in the fact that not everybody gets my jokes.
20. People who make a big deal about their resentment of Mexican immigrants ought to be reminded that unless you're Native American, your people were immigrants, too.
21. Men who find it necessary to ridicule overweight woman generally see nothing wrong with wearing flip-flops with jeans.
22. Though I am fully aware of her being married and probably having stalkers, there is not much I can think of that would be more appealing than a date with Robin Meade from CNN.
23. There are a wide range of emotions and expressions of one's self that do not translate well on the Internet, but those are largely limited to those who do not communicate well in person, either.
24. I have a good friend whose well-being I can judge by the amount of fwd:fwd:fwd spam emails he sends me. And I know when it's an email he wrote by himself, because it won't have a subject line.
25. I don't care how comfortable Crocs are, you look like a dumbass!

Riverchase Gonorrhea

Pardon my affectionate name for our state's biggest mall; I gave it that nickname long ago and for some reason it stuck. Geez, has that really been 20 years ago??It had been awhile since I darkened the door of the Galleria, and I knew full well that Alabama's High Temple of Consumption would be in full swing 13 days before Christmas. Ordinarily, I would consider me willingly visiting the place to be a hint that needed my head checked. But I remembered loving a taste of holiday hustle and bustle when I was a kid, and thought Griffin and Carlie might like to see it. I was right.We didn't use "flyover" express exit lane that was added several years ago, and judging from traffic conditions, it would not have mattered much if we had. We entered from U.S. Highway 31, passing two conspicuously vacant buildings among the mall's outparcels and the Wynfrey Hotel. One of the main mall's anchor stores was vacant, too, and for some reason, the much-needed parking area in front of its entrance was ROPED OFF. We drove past that, and past more roped-off parking (valet area that time) and the hunt for a space began. Once parked, the walk was not bad, though I did carry Carlie to minimize my effort of keeping track of kids.We got in and walked, and walked, and walked. The mall was pretty much the way I remembered it, minus the arcade and a few very esoteric stores, replaced with stores that appeared to offer equally useless stuff as the ones that were gone. I was perturbed to find that the space that used to be nothing but bathrooms was also gone, but we went into Belk's to take care that business.Overall the whole mingling-in-a-crowd thing was not bad, actually enjoyable at times, to my surprise. The only sore spot was the food court, where the number of diners far, far, exceeded the amount of seating. We ate our Chik-Fil-A sitting on the floor like many others.The kids loved playing at the few toy stores the mall has, riding the glass elevator and the escalators--every time! At Radio Shack, of all places, I got them a little something that the like playing with to take home, which coincided with them asking, is it time to go yet? And with that, we were out of there.

You know you speak Pellinese when...

Some of these came to me while I was driving yesterday, so I wrote them down and more followed. Surely there are more...please contribute!

You know you speak Pellinese when...

...you heard Dr. Haynes tell you to quit smoking, and noticed the pack of Pall Malls in his shirt pocket.

...you suddenly forget how to use your turn signals when turning from Comer Avenue onto U.S. 231.

...you give driving directions using landmarks that aren't there any more, and the person still gets where they needed to be.

...you are glad when you hear a sick friend or relative wasn't admitted to "our" hospital but was sent to Birmingham instead.

...you know we are getting a theater about the same time monkeys fly out of your butt.

...you still remember which Wal-Marts are closest, and which of them are nicer, from the time before we had a Wal-Mart of our own.

...you can accurately predict (within a month) how short-lived the latest restaurant will be at the old Rexall downtown.

...you can tell when local newspaper reporters are being lied to because you know what kind of person their source is.

...you remember when Eastwood Mall was as far into Birmingham as you ever needed to go.

...you know how to get around stopped traffic on I-20 while the others motorists have to sit there and take it.

...you no longer have to read the menu at restaurants in town because you know them all by heart.

...you don't eat the Steak House because you are not old enough yet.

...you see a house that is always for sale, and know why.

...you are unable to figure out why someone you know on the City Council wants to be there.

...you see high school kids hanging out at Sonic, and realize it's just the new Dairy Queen with better car stereos.

Bass Pro Shops

Checked out the newest humongous retailer in the area Sunday, and it was quite the trip for the kids and I. I'd been to Bass Pro Shops before, in Atlanta-land and in Missouri, but I still was impressed by the new location in Leeds, a whole lot closer to home.

I could not really tell that much difference in the store in comparison with the others I'd seen, other than the inventory being a little different and the conspicuous lack of snow-related gear. There were parkas and sleeping bags rated to temps well below zero, which I saw shoppers checking out, perhaps unaware that they will never get a chance to use that stuff around here without sweating.

Also present were aquaria with native fish, and I was impressed to see a massive alligator gar (probably about 80 pounds) as the boss of the tank. There were people wondering aloud what kind of fish it was, where it may have come from and hoping they never saw one in person. I kept to myself that the alligator gar has swam rivers around here, for oh, a million years or so, can breathe air, gets well over 100 pounds and several feet long, and has several dozen razor sharp teeth.

It was a job keeping the three of us together in the big crowd there, so we did not buy anything. We did have fun checking out all the stuff they had, and will have to go back once the crowds have subsided.