h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wow! There's Phil...and Madame President...and the lady with a head full of .

We hope to find DB Cooper on this trip. Also see the George S. Patton tank museum in the Mohave.

We've checked or Kansas equipment list twice:
- Night vision goggles and extra batteries
- Black gloves, black turtlenecks, black jeans
- 200 feet of rope
- boards
- stakes
- Black ski masks
- Infrared camera

Out around Salinas, Kansas we figure we'll have 12 hours of complete darkness on an overcast night to construct the mother-of-all crop circles in one of those endless wheat fields and call in a UFO sighting..

Did I mention they found DB Cooper's parachute yesterday? We're in hot pursuit.

It's always better to be in complete darkness in Salinas.

There was a good Midsomer Murders episode about a crop circle. Funny.

My goodness, isn't this nice? for everyone.

phred, are you still losing tennis matches?

I've always wanted to communicate with alien life forms. Good luck with the crop circles.

(staggers back in with a huge sack of lollipops .... having failed to find a good deal of corncobs ... )

yay ... ... hullo Hyp luvvy ... and hey there's Leo also ... (attempts NYC-type cool greeting ... ...

anyone want a lolly?

better food I think than corncobs ...take them on the road y'know ... the inner road ... the outer road ...the road that leads to the road that leads to ....

(as everyone scatters) ... OK bye then ... ..

checks Firecloud plans re proposed wheatfield almost-alien-art activities ... uh oh ...

now that is one scary sighting .. the black turtlenecks, goggles and ski masks ...





I would know who DB Cooper is ...its just that I forgot ... but all things can eventually be realised ...

..



I wonder if Alien-Otherworldly-cropcircle artists are as sensitive as Earth artists .. like .. ohmigod my cropcircle just came out sooo not right .. my line quality my line quality .. my perspective ...oh ... ..




(heads off eating strawberry lolly ... to think about many uncertain things ... which balance precariously on the edge of reason .. )

PS

(comes back in again ..)(grabs another lolly)

oh and ...

I didn't mean to suggest that all Earth-artists were incredibly sensitive about their line quality.

(paranoid moment ....)

I was speaking purely for myself of course.... And for a few Alien-Cropcircle artists I happen to know ..



erm. right.

(exit pursued by an unidentified atmospheric entity in a black turtleneck)

Wow.

I feel resurrected.

I saw that DB Cooper news ... I think he planted that little package of 'lost' money as a false clue.

I've been a prisoner in my head for the past many moons. It's slow going, but week by week, session by session, the window to the bright world is growing.

I bought a kayak. I've had it in my head for about 3 decades that kayaking is pretty neat. I remember a collapsible one that a friend had, at some Alpine lake in Austria once upon a time.

Suisun Bay. Grizzly Slough. Yolo wetlands. Lake Shasta, Mono Lake, Clear Lake. (my wish list) At present, I am exploring the local Lake Berryessa, bit by bit (it's quite large), and so far I've only made an acquaintance with the southwestern quadrant. Planning to head out today, in fact.

The kayak... http://folbot.com/aleut.html

I'm dreaming about starting at the Port of Sacramento and cruising down to the Bay, out to the Golden Gate, touch one of the pylons and return. Obviously, I'm going to need to exercise my paddling muscles very strenuously for that.

...

I have frequently thought about you all, but have been struggling to put myself into any sort of sociable context. It's like having an anti-muse that whispers, "There is nothing worthwhile in your head, only your befuddlement. Remain silent."



I'm not dead yet. I'll have an eternity of silence later on.


Here's to the Sun God!
He's such a Fun God!
Ra!
Ra!
Ra!

end

It always give me a kick to book another flight with frequent flyer miles. The irony is delicious. The FBI reopened the investigation in January after 37 years. One headline was "FBI in Hot Pursuit". Now they've found the parchute....so much for "he must have died in the jump or we'd have him by now...

resume

Hey! Xantief is back....

Xantief....did you see the funny home movie Phred did of kayaking in the ice field? It's one of his recent Journals. He hasn't been around much...

Welcome back

I'll have to access that. Sounds like fun, except for the cold part.

May I borrow your night vision goggles? Please, please, please. It has been totally overcast here in the middle of KS for three days! I am going to hunt the Prozac fairy if this continues!!!

Welcome back, all. I've missed all you guys--and gals.

This is COSMIC!...!!

I gave a listen to American Beauty yestereve, Sister Cactus-Lizard-Coffee-Bean, the first time in years.

I was feeling sorta "Brokedown Palace", but it is truly amazing how a half-rotation of the planet and a chance glance at hootoo can change the way the world is illuminated.

Deadheads. Yeah.

Listening to "Estimated Prophet", I believe I finally understood what makes their music so magical. That song illustrates how they can maintain an exquisite balance-tension between a waltz and a soft-rock shuffle, rendered in 7:4 time...impossible not to respond viscerally to that mellow mystical energy.

6.20 am England

(tiptoes in with a tray of coffees and a tub of maple/pecan ice cream .... )



(this is a surprise breakfast for any assembled travellers ... except for the fact that they are all in USA time (cept for Phil) .. and are, at this moment, experiencing the deep peace of the middle of the night ... but hey she means well .... whaddya mean you don't like icecream for brekkie??? )

stops and stares ......

Brother-Cali-Xantief?!!!! Lady Kansas Kid C ?!!!!

what??? now I know I'm having a life experience .. past present and future ...heheheheh

(drops tray ... clattering sound .. ruining the deep peace of the middle of the night, USA time .. .. leaps over spilt coffee mixing in nice with maple/pecan ..... for to

kayaking sounds amazing, bro ... been wondering how you are .. think of you oftentimes .. just started listening to The Dead again ... 'cos we just got this magic DVD .. of the Classic Albums series ... story of the journey from Anthem of the Sun to American Beauty .. they's the two albums I have ...Estimated Prophet is from Terrapin Station? .. not an album I know ... but soon I will ... before the weekend is out .. ... and play it to the anti-muse ..



The Prozac fairy ?? heheheh .. hey Lady C .. again .. almost springtime now ..... in fact there's a springtime birdie outside the window even as I type ... its chirping <>> heheheheh

oh OK then ..

I just remembered who DB Cooper is ... .. hi DB ... erm ...want some maple/pecan?

OK back to sleep now ..

(oh ... Chris sends love to y'all)

good morning one and all

H

So much for middle of the night peace and quiet....

Grandson spent the night last night and we foolishly allowed him to have a sleep over with three of his friends. They were up until 6:00 am.--chattering, watching U Tube, watching cartoons and playing games on the Wi. And eating--everything they could find!!

Took me back to when my own were young and having sleep overs. It didn't seem to be so loud then--maybe I just slept better when I was 35.

Since you spilled the maple/pecan ice cream, I'll just have some Tin Roof Sundae this morning.

Don't feel alone, Lady C.

Every weekend since da boyz bought the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, I have to endure night-long virtual rock concerts from the living room.


Counting stars by candlelight
All are dim but one is bright:
The spiral light of Venus
Rising first and shining best.
From the northwest corner
Of a brand-new crescent moon
Crickets and cicadas sing
A very different tune,
Terrapin Station.
In the shadow of the moon,
Terrapin Station.
And I know we'll be there soon....

Thanks, X, I've had two cups of coffee now and feel almost human.

The boys are up and about and riding their bikes so it's relatively quiet in the house.

Where are the Fireclouds headed this time?

Gasoline is $3.25 a gallon in Wichita now and is expected to reach nearly four dollars by Memorial Day. Oh, for a motorcycle instead of a Mercury.............

Do androids dream of electric motorcycles?
http://www.gizmag.com/go/7588/

We're goin' to Kansas City....
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-walt-babyboomers-blurb,0,1036393.blurb

Be sure to check out the Steamship Arabia Museum in Old Town while you are there. Oh, and try out some of the best Bar B Que in the US of A while you are there. Winslow's is near the Museum. Lots of things to see and do in KC. If you want a scenic side trip, drive over to Weston, Missouri. Be sure you check out O'Malley's Irish Pub while you are there.

Crazy, dude. Aging boomers. That's great. It reminds me of Allan Sherman, more than Weird Al.

But that electric bike has some possibility, provided the fork is extended, the seat and headlight upgraded...and some decent ape-hangers.

Um, yeah, 88 miles per hour, Marty!

Those 'disk' brakes look pretty lightweight, though.

So one of today's headlines was that the Duke of Edinburg HAD NOT ordered a hit on Princess Diana. Grabbing Google, I determined that the Duke has been married to the Queen for sometime now and is known to occasionally belch odd comments, some of which are quoted below:

Speaking to a driving instructor in Scotland, he asked: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?"

When visiting China in 1986, he told a group of British students, "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed".[16]
After accepting a gift from a Kenyan citizen he replied, "You are a woman, aren't you?"

"If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it."

In 1966 he remarked that "British women can't cook."

To a British student in Papua New Guinea: "You managed not to get eaten then?"

Angering local residents in Lockerbie when on a visit to the town in 1993, the Prince said to a man who lived in a road where eleven people had been killed by wreckage from the Pan Am jumbo jet: "People usually say that after a fire it is water damage that is the worst. We are still trying to dry out Windsor Castle."

On a visit to the new National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff, he told a group of deaf children standing next to a Jamaican steel drum band, "Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf."

In 2002, he asked an Indigenous Australian businessman, "Do you still throw spears at each other?"

Said to a Briton in Budapest, Hungary, "You can't have been here that long – you haven't got a pot belly."

Seeing a shoddily installed fuse box in a high-tech Edinburgh factory, HRH remarked that it looked "like it was put in by an Indian".

"Aren't most of you descended from pirates?" (in 1994, to an islander in the Cayman Islands)

At the height of the recession in 1981 he said: "Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed."

Upon presenting a Duke of Edinburgh Award to a student, when informed that the young man was going to help out in Romania for six months, he asked if the student was going to help the Romanian orphans; upon being informed he was not, it was claimed the 85-year-old duke added: "Ah good, there's so many over there you feel they breed them just to put in orphanages."

At the University of Salford, he told a 13-year-old aspiring astronaut: "You could do with losing a bit of weight."

In 1997, the Duke of Edinburgh, participating in an already controversial British visit to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (Amritsar Massacre) Monument, provoked outrage in India and in the UK with an offhand comment. Having observed a plaque claiming 2,000 casualties, Prince Philip observed, "That's not right. The number is less."

During a Royal visit to a Tamil Hindu temple in London, he asked a Hindu priest if he was related to terrorist organization the Tamil Tigers.

In 1996, he drew sharp criticism when he said "a gun is no more dangerous than a cricket bat in the hands of a madman". The comment came in the wake of the massacre of 16 children and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland.

In 1987, he wrote in his foreword to If I Were an Animal that "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation."

In 2002, speaking to a blind, wheelchair bound woman who was accompanied by her guide dog, he remarked : "Do you know they're now producing eating dogs for the anorexics?"