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

geez...sound like such a lush...

*points* look, a pretty cloud!

geez...

...jerkface

Aww, c'mon! Just playin'.

me to...jerkface!

"too" not "to"...sorry, too busy calling you a jerkface...

Takes one to know one!

ENOUGH!

Besides, the unofficial state motto of Louisiana is "Laissez le bon temps rouler" -- Let the good times roll!

Just doing my civic duty...

...What's the official state motto?

*shrug* "Union, Justice, Confidence". Not near as exciting. Or as accurate. *shrug*


Anyway, kind of feel low today...Father's day and all. Plus I think I'm catching a cold, or sinus infection or something. Eh. It'll pass.

Plus my computer is giving me all kinds of wonderful little error messages...think I'll throw the damn thing out in the street. That'll show it!

That made me feel better!

I used to have a shirt that had a pisture of a guy typing at a computer. There was a thought bubble that had the guy thinking "Stupid Computer".

There was another thought bubble that said "Stupid Human" coming from the computer.

...I wonder where that shirt went...

Yeah, well I used to have a T-Shirt that said:
"All I need is one more smarta$$"


...no wait...no I didn't...

Hey, just heard on the news something about a guy in Seattle walking into the Fed. Courthouse with a hand grenade, and the police shooting and killing him.

Hope you weren't anywhere close by...

Be safe.

I was one block away, at a laundromat. Saw the police barricade the whole place. Saw the ambulance show up. Then leave. Saw the medical examiner van show up.

It stayed longer...

"Till death do us part..."
Guy was upset about his divorce, or some s**t like that.

Hope it was worth it.

Frickin' local news...

They reported it in such a “Aren’t-you-glad-we-don’t-live-in-Seattle-and-since-we-don’t-live-in-Seattle-or-anywhere-near-it-I’m-not-going-to-give-you-all-of-the-details-even-if-you-know-someone-who-lives-in-Seattle-that’s-just-too-bad- AND -we’re-not-going-to-mention-it-again-so-don’t-even-bother-to-tune-in-to-the-10:00-news-broadcast-for-updates” kind of way, that I didn't know if it was a big deal or not.

Anyway, glad you weren't too close.

What! I worried about you!

Aww. Worried about me. Shoot, if ever a time to worry, it'd be now. That gay pride parade creeped me out.

Nothing like a seven foot tall 300 pound drag queen blowing you a kiss to really shake up your day.

You ever been to Mardi Gras?

...I imagine this was a bit like that. Lots of colors, and general splendidness.

How does it feel?!

Have I been to Mardi Gras?

Psh. Please.

I assume you’re talking about New Orleans. Everyone ought to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras at least once in their lifetime. The parades start rolling, 5 or 6 or so smaller ones a day, about 2 weeks before Mardi Gras, gradually building up to the bigger more elaborate parades as it gets closer to Mardi Gras day. Traditionally, the float riders throw cheap plastic beads to the crowds. And yes, if you see a girl with some really large beads…umm…she probably had to show her…umm…large beads…to get them. Although you can buy them in any French Quarter tourist trap shop along Bourbon St. But no self-respecting large beaded girl would be caught dead actually buying her own beads. Code of honor thing.

And of course, there’s plenty of drinking. Which accounts for the smells. Hmmm. Bathrooms are limited…the restaurants make you sit down and order something at jacked up rates for the right to use their bathrooms. There are port-o-pottys set up all around, but…not the place I want to be…all of which leads to very drunk people (mostly out of town tourists) doing things on the street corners they normally wouldn’t do in their own hometown. But whadya gonna do…

As for the things you will see…wonderful spectacles in every direction. Gays, straights, clowns, crazies, transvestites, drag queens, freaks, punks, junkies, pick pockets, street performers, jazz bands, blues bands, strippers, scammers, stunned tourists, quick-feel artists, actors, politicians, millionaires, and weirdos, all having a completely uninhibited good time. Until midnight. By city ordinance. At 12:01 it becomes Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and the NOPD ride horseback shoulder to shoulder down the streets to clear the crowds, and the bars shut down. End of Mardi Gras. The most amusing part of it all, I think, is that you will see the very same drunken idiots from the night before, all acting very pious in the church pews the next day for Ash Wednesday Mass. Way it goes…

But New Orleans is not the only place to celebrate Mardi Gras. Here in Baton Rouge we have several good parades and parties, and some other outlying cities like Lafayette, New Roads, Opelousas, and Kenner have good ones as well. In the small town of Eunice, they have a more traditional Acadian Mardi Gras, called the Courir du Mardi Gras. The fun thing about this is that usually the Krewe members have been drinking all of the night before, then on Mardi Gras day, they mount horses and ride around the Parish (Eunice is in a pretty rural area), begging for chickens and other ingredients for a Mardi Gras gumbo. If the farm owner offers a chicken, the men have to chase it around an enclosed pen, and if they catch it, then the poor chicken’s fate is sealed. Ummm…did I mention that the participants are all pretty sloshed? Well, lets just say most of the chickens make it out OK. After the round up, the men take the ingredients back to the town square and cook huge pots of gumbo for the whole town to share. There is usually a good Cajun band playing, and the whole community, as well as a few thousand tourists shows up. The whole thing is very rustic, and really quite different from the celebrations in the other parts of the state.

So yeah, I’ve been to Mardi Gras. I guess some people love it, and some people hate it. Either way, it’s definitely unique to south Louisiana. One thing is for sure, we know how to throw a party…

Heya Dan,

Because you were nice enough to tell me when you'd be gone for a while, I'm letting you know too.

Kinda rough patch right now.

So I'll see ya.

Rough patch! Oh no.

Pulling for ya!

OK, so...

Drove to Houston to see my uncle with cancer. That’s about six hours drive time with just me, some Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jimi Hendrix CD’s. Left a lot of time to think.

Did some mental house cleaning. Some things went in my mental attic, some things in my mental basement (let’s see, attics are for storing things, basements are for working on things), and some things I left out, just vowed to walk more carefully around them. Some things were destined for the trash heap, but maybe not just yet.

Anyway, I’m back. And doing ok. For what it’s worth.

That's the makings of a great soundtrack. I'd recommend Bob Seger's greatest hits. Nothing like tearing across the desert listening to 'Hollywood Nights' or 'Against the Wind' as loud as you can take it.

Or Social Distortion, but that's just me. Once a gutterpunk, always a gutterpunk.

...I miss the open road.

Well, glad you got organized. Really glad you're back.

And as always, If you need to tell me about it, or want to; it, or anything, I'm here. Or on e-mail.
No judging, or talking bad, or anything.

As for me...
Things got really weird.
Good kind of weird, but still. Like, never be the same, kind.

Had a good time serving beer at Beerfest. Had a great time at the 4th of July.
And then all heck sorta broke loose.

It's 3:54 AM in the morning, and I'm banging out long e-mails.

That bad.

And now that your interest is piqued...

Take it easy, Jay. Talk to you later.