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

Terlingua, Texas – 4 April, 2006

It’s 5 AM and the Milky Way is a big and bright band extending though the Navigator’s triangle (Deneb, Vega and Altair) and into Sagittarius the Teapot in the South. Venus is beginning to rise in the east.

Yesterday we drove 100 miles further South to explore the western side of the Big Bend National Park.

We stopped at a rest area for lunch…. it was a nice clean rest area and a I saw a fairly clean 55 gallon trash can with a nice new liner and so I peeked inside to see what people had left and saw this little Big Bend Gazette under several beer cans and it was open to a cartoon of George Bush and he was saying I only am accepting questions from reporters who believe in the Easter Bunny and so I fished it out. Wouldn't you?

The Gazette had an article about bird flu. Seems that avian flu was originally non-fatal to the wild bird population in which it originated. Then it was transmitted to domestic fowl, mutated into something lethal and was passed back to the wild birds.

People who are involved in cock-fighting and those who clean chicken coops are at the highest risk. Also, people who belong to the sub-group that drinks duck blood are at high risk. Two of these have died.

As long as you cook your chicken with no pink parts and don't eat runny eggs you should be safe from the poultry vector, A nasopharyngeal swab (though the nose to the back of the throat) will be used to test humans for bird flu.

Life is like a 55 gallon trash barrel: you never know what you're going to get.

We took motorcycle in the late afternoon on the scenic drive in the park. It was 42 miles down to the Rio Grande and a huge cliff at the Mexican border and 42 back. Here are a few more Big Bend pictures.

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=549223758&key=NOUzIL

Awesome pictures.

I gotta wait til I get home to see the photos...the corporate firewall is in place.

I must be a marvel of efficiency to get anything done at work.
Well, anticipation is half the joy.

*wail*
It's SNOWING!

Check this out: http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourbirthdatemeanquiz/
Scroll down and see if it works.

11 Aug:

"Spiritual and thoughtful, you tend to take a step back from the world. You're very sensitive to what's going on around you, yet you remain calm. Although you are brilliant, it may take you a while to find your niche. Your creativity is supreme, but it sometimes makes it hard for you to get things done."

Your strength: Your inner peace

Your weakness: You get stuck in the clouds

Your power color: Emerald

Your power symbol: Leaf

Your power month: November

Holy !!!

That's MY birthday!

August 11 is my sister's birthday. And my stepson's.

***Your Birthdate: May 6***


You tend to be a the rock in relationships - people depend on you.
Thoughtful and caring, you often put others needs first.
You aren't content to help those you know... you want to give to the world.
An idealist, you strive for positive change and dream about how much better things could be.

Your strength: Your intuition

Your weakness: You put yourself last

Your power color: Rose

Your power symbol: Cloud

Your power month: June

Ahem, I think we hijacked another one of Phred's threads. I am conscious of this since I always put other people first. It's a weakness of mine.

My fault.

Forgive me, Phred?

Is that sister Lady C?

Well, it's good to know that Xantief and I are both brilliant.

Yes, Lady C. I only have one sister.

Then I really must meet her. We both have cuter little sisters, yet we're calm. And brilliant.

Does that mean no morons have ever been born on August 11th?

Brilliant question, Leo. Gives one pause, doesn't it?

Lady C will be at the Presidential Meet. Be there or be square.

Well, I've never asked a librarian to lend me a baking pan. Has Lady C? Has your stepson? There, see? Above average intellect, all us August 11th people.

The woman who was the director here before me was another August 11 person.

I imagine very few people have tried to check out cake pans. That isn't much of a test.

"Ahem, I think we hijacked another one of Phred's threads. "

Well, if Phred objects, we can draw straws to host the thread.

August 11, 480 BC...battle of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and his gang of Spartans* hold off a quarter-million Persians.

August 11, 2012...The end of time, according to the old Mayan calendar.


*These were all older Spartans, whose sons were up and coming warriors. Their bloodlines were assured, so those 300 didn't have a care in the world.

And to think that before this I'd only met one other august 11th person.

The west must be positively crawling with them.

Would you call the previous director an intelligent person? We've got several points already. I'd call it a line.

The former director wasn't a Mensa candidate, if that's what you mean. She certainly wasn't stupid, but you couldn't call her brilliant, either. But then, few of us are.

She is dead, so you'll have to take my word for it.