Nonfiction's first CD approacheth
News ·Sunday September 10, 2006 @ 23:10 EDT (link)
I'm back from a week out East, visiting family in West Virginia and Ontario, and here are the highlights:
Friday September 1: I didn't fly out until Sunday, so I had a quiet and peaceful Friday night and Saturday. I picked up The Transporter and the sequel, and the Species trilogy, and watched all of them except Transporter 2 on Saturday, which I watched at the airport (SEA and at my layover in ATL). Unfortunately my laptop's DVD drive is going, or the connection; I was able to keep it working by tightly holding the drive to the laptop (Acer TravelMate 4500), but even that's not helping much any more. It's a removable drive, but I can't find anywhere selling replacements and if the connection's gone that won't help anyway. Looks like either a new laptop or maybe a USB DVD reader needs to be added to the shopping list (along with blinds for the dining room and a grill, among other things).
Sunday September 3: I packed in the morning and our friend LL picked me up at 1830; we stopped at a Red Robin to eat and she dropped me off at SEA at aroung 2015; the lines were short and I didn't have any trouble, so, as I mentioned above, I watched Transporter 2 in the C30 lounge. The flight was long and cramped as they are wont to be (to think that when I was little I actually liked flying...) but I managed to doze fitfully and my last ~3 hour nap was broken by an announcement of imminent landing at ATL. Naturally all of my gates were at the far end of the terminal, but walking is good exercise so no worries. I picked up a Coke in ATL (strangely no Pepsi), and a teddy bear for Honey.
Monday September 4: The plane arrived precisely on time, even a little early (0925, scheduled 0930); in contrast, Honey had been late and they lost her luggage, so they weren't expecting me until later. There were only six of us on the ATL to CRW flight, so I got my luggage and was outside at 0930 and read for about 40 minutes until the Hedricks arrived in their Scion xB (looks like a box on wheels).
Wednesday September 6: I left at 0900 to visit my parents in southern Ontario; my in-laws lent me their Chevy Lumina. I carried a jug of water to feed the voracious engine coolant tank (I topped it up about every three hours, which wasn't that much trouble and it was a decent ride, not too hard on gas either). Google maps says it takes 10h23 but I arrived at 1830 (9h30, with stops). Border traffic was light, and going into Canada they didn't even ask for my ID, just where I was going. My parents fed me when I arrived and we watched The Sting and then I stayed up until around 0400 gathering some things from my boxes in their basement: books, games, an original Nintendo (missing a power cable), etc. I'd brought an extra suitcase (I carried a smaller one in a larger) for this purpose.
Thursday September 7: Went to the prayer meeting at Brockview Bible Chapel in the evening; not many youth out; greeted several people; Steve's ISP dropped my email on the floor without sending a bounce message; a pox on all their houses.
Steve and (my cousin) Dave (and Jeff, who I don't know) have a band, Nonfiction, which is just putting the finishing touches on their first CD—the music is done, they just need to communicate with their printer since the artwork proofs had some issues. It sounds pretty good (their MySpace site plays a few tracks on entry), although MySpace is as annoying and teeny-bopper as I'd anticipated. They have a CaféPress store where they sell T-shirts. I'd pick one up but I'm waiting until they put out one with more of a message, rather than just the name of the band.
Anyway, as annoying as MySpace is, from their page I found my cousin Anna's graphics site, @nna ink. designs, a nicely laid out piece of web, and Jesse's page, which is mostly false and crazy as expected (hint: he's not a Vietnam war veteran; the picture is accurate, at least at time of writing). And it seems Emily G. is a Republican (seems strange for a Canadian living in Canada) and a fan of Dubya and Ann Coulter, good for her, or not, so much kidding around these days.
Dad and I got a coffee and donut on the way home from the meeting (at Tim Horton's, where else?); when we got home I decided to head out that night rather than Friday morning, since I didn't have anything else to do and everyone else was going to sleep (almost 2300). I left at midnight and drove for several hours before sleeping for three hours at a rest stop and then another hour a little later; I pulled into Mullens at about 1230, in good time for the cookout on the mountain which was delicious but yellowjackets and various arachnids frequently terrorized the girls.
Saturday September 9: We flew out at 1500 so subtract a few hours for driving and security (not too long at such a small airport as CRW), and off we went; we ate at Bob Evan's on the way. Our second flight out of Atlanta was delayed two hours due to a mechanical problem with the cabin pressurization; they had us remain on board while they diagnosed it and swapped out the part, but they at least started the movie, X-Men III, which wasn't bad (followed by Poseidon, which was entertaining for a while but got boring so got quit of it). MS from MS picked us up from the airport and took us home; I still feel really bad about the flight delay, even though we couldn't do anything about it and had no chance to call him (they never turned on the cabin phones). We got in around 1030, lugged everything inside, and went to sleep promptly.
