Escape from the planet of the Hope Melons July 16, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , add a commentAh what a whirlwind weekend. I decided to start this post as I started the weekend, maybe for once it’d get finished. Who knows, maybe narrating helps pass the time. Tomorrow (remember, I’m writing this Friday) a fellow gc and Christian house alum is getting married. Various factors make me believe that this union will be a lasting one, most notably the fact that while I had him on the phone I wasn’t able to convince him to skip the wedding and go to Applebees. Now most of you may not know Brad, or if you do, only know him by name, but to put this into context, I suspect that this was the first time in his entire life that Brad, when presented with the idea of going to Applebees instead of doing something else, has not picked Applebees. Due to Brian and Brad being on such good terms with the Applebees closest to Greenville, it has become a tradition that no matter where we gather, if two or more of us are there (and sometimes I suspect, Brad or Brian go without even that), there will be a trip to Applebees before we head back to wherever we live now.
But anyway, I get ahead of myself, after all, I’m still driving, and worse than that, I’m barely a quarter of the way there. This is quite a day for driving, an emergency cropped up at one of our clients yesterday right before the end of the day. One requiring someone to visit them, and while normally I’m not the first to get sent out on emergency visits, all the people who would normally be so lucky were busy with a camera install. Something that is far more important than any of my plans for Friday (well ok, I was going to help with the install, but I probably wouldn’t have been as much help). So off I went at 9am, driving the 90 minutes to a town near Tulsa, returning after a fairly simple hardware swap at around 2, already having driven 3 hours. An hour or so went past, and after finding there wasn’t really much to be done around the office, I headed home to pack for the 8ish hour drive that remained. I eventually left, and so now will shower you with some thoughts from the travels.
Is the music industry so devoid of naming talent that we are really on “Now Thats what I Call Music Volume *25*”?
My car gets better gas mileage with the air conditioning on. I can’t figure it out, it seems so completely contrary to what I know of cars. It isn’t even that I’m comparing it to having the windows rolled down, no AC on beats vents on, windows closed over 3/4 a tank of gas.
Once again, driving through Little Rock I saw the sign for Toad Suck Park. This time, determined to find this oddly named park, I pulled off to chase it. I never did find it, it seems that it isn’t a park where they suck on toads, but a park that was sucked up by a toad, that then hopped away. For a while I had signs to follow, then suddenly *poof* no trace, as if it were a scheme to lure drivers from the road. I began to fear that I would never again find the open road, that I’d be eaten by suburban hedges. But hope, being that unpredictable thing that it is, had not vanished. Though rather than springing eternal like hope usually did, it was meloning. Several times on my journey back to the road I saw plywood signs by the side of the road upon which the words “Hope Melon” had been crudely painted. I had always considered the great Hope Melon to be a legend that neatly sat beside the Great Pumpkin on a dusty shelf. But it seemed that in this suburban sprawl, hope had come to rest. Courage returning to my tired feet, I found the will to escape the city, and find the road again. I never found Toad Suck Park, and maybe I never will, but I have been in the vicinity of the Hope Melon, and that will have to be enough.
The wedding went smoothly, though it seemed like the bride and groom had decided that they needed enough people on stage for a football team, I believe one count said 9 on each side of them. The groomsmen had some fun with Brad, apparently knowingly going out there without the ring. Thankfully an accomplice ran forward with it once they had established that none of the 9 had it. The crowd was amused, and Mandie didn’t kill anyone, so alls well that ends well. We had unexpected company in the form of Robby and Misty, both of whom we ran with at some point or another. Misty likes to brag about beating me in a road race, however I happened to be wearing the t-shirt that showed the times from the year before where I beat her by just over a minute.
Reception was fun. Only thing that was a little awkward was that after the customary toasts from the wedding party, the mic was left open for others to toast. I think every one of the bridesmaids said something, some more coherently than others, most of which could have been summed up by pulling them aside and saying Mandy you rock, Brad you better treat her well. Still a good time was had by all and afterwards I had time to catch up with Mary, another of Synthesys’s former employees who had escaped Greenville for greener pastures. Who thankfully never took me up on my offer to beat up one of my coworkers at the time (ok so I didn’t per say offer to beat him up).
After all the fun was done, we found our way to an Applebees (sans Brad, who begged out of it due to being married or something *shrugs*). Many entertaining stories were told, much nostalgia was shared and we left right before midnight because they threatened to make us help clean up if we didn’t leave.
Somewhere in here Luke suggested that those C-house alums form a pool to try to guess who would be the next of the remaining to get married. With Mark, Brian and Brad married, we had the obvious ones out of the way. Leaving Tim, Kristian, Luke, Nathan and myself seemingly all competing for last even if not purposefully. So come the next house wedding, someone will find themselves $160 richer (unless its a tie). Luke hasn’t emailed everyone to get their official vote yet, so it remains to be seen how the votes will be spread. I may have two up front, but we’ll see if the two who said they would vote for me recover their grip on their sanity before the voting begins.
Went to the church Luke grew up in Sunday morning, then raced back across the country side. Managed to get home right before sunset too, a rare thing. Though one lingering question from a sign for a zoo that I saw… does a Lorikeet have high ranks in Lore? And can I possibly ramble on any longer (sorry, had to make up for all my mom’s complaints about how I never post when I get back from trips and guess what).
New Theme May 21, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , add a commentJust updated the blog to the newest wordpress, and added a theme appropriate to my locale to play with some new functionality in this version.
*sigh* February 19, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , 1 comment so farOver 2 hours from home and with little hope of leaving for several hours.
Walmart 2, aaron 0 February 2, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , 3commentsI’m standing in a walmart right now, a much bigger one than
sallisaw’s. I find clocks, I find radios, but no clock radios. Can
someone else check their local walmart, I’m curious if this is a
localized thing.
On an evening like this… January 31, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , add a commentStupid walmart January 28, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , add a commentMy alarm clock is dead in an odd fashion. So I went to walmart to
replace it. Except this walmart doesn’t sell clock radios. They sell
clocks and they sell radios, but unless I also want to buy an ipod,
nothing that has a clock that will cause it to play music. now that’s
a quality shopping experience.
Dude that’s just wrong January 25, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , add a commentWhy is it that whenever squeaker has vile gas, he always picks that
night to sleep by my head (and right in front of my face no less)? I
finally just grabbed him and rotated him a little in hopes of being
avoiding the full blow next time.
And the other shoe falls January 22, 2007
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , add a commentSo I’m not sure what time it is but its early. We’ve discovered that
the cable runs in the ceiling of the office we were trying all night
to get computers ready for. What does this mean in layman’s terms? It
is 4:30, I haven’t been to sleep yet (and was up till 3am last night)
and while the computers are almost set up correctly, it doesn’t matter
a bit. I’m so tired right now I can barely function arguable I can
only type.
Back May 23, 2006
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , add a commentBack in Greenville, nothing new to report from the two days of travel. Except that in 7 days, 8 flights is way to many, especially when they are squeezed into 4 days of that.
Quick update May 22, 2006
Posted by Aaron in : From the road , 1 comment so farIt seems that a volcano in Purto Rico chose to start spewing ash yesterday. This is problematic because flights from Caracas to Miami were canceled yesterday, we still don’t know if the cancellations include our flight today. Before you start calling embassies mom, its safe to assume that no news will be good news (as it will mean we are somewhere w/o laptops… namely Miami).