"Climb every mountain, ford every stream.."

I did it. On my third attempt I summited the tallest peak at the Great Sand Dunes. It’s a 750 foot high sand dune. It’s more intimidating if you think of it as a 75 story building.

I’d taken the first two peaks before. The second time I tried I made the mistake of not loading up on water and I got really sick when I got to the first peak. This time I had a three egg omelet with green chilies in Raton, NM and water before driving up. It’s so dry that when you first start to sweat it evaporates right away and leaves a weird tingling/stinging sensation all over your body.

Inappropriate moment

This weekend I was in a convenience store bathroom, in a small Texas town in the middle of nowhere while my car is filling up outside and I think…“If I splattered my brains all over the back wall they’d have no idea why.” Then I think about the process of identification they’d go through with the body, how their lives might change if only for that day. I wonder if they’d contemplate “Why did he do it?”

Punk ass bitch, I'm talking to you

I walked out the door around 11:30pm and just started walking. While I don’t live next to Carbini Green there are some dodgy areas. Makes a geeky, white boy like me breathe a little faster and sweat a little more. Late at night it’s just that much scarier. I was looking for a place to sit down and write.

I started walking down Gaston from Munger and I see a bunch of black guys sitting on the front stoop of an apartment and other ones just standing around. They see me and start trying to get my attention, calling me names, and decide I’m just some “punk ass bitch” that ain’t worth messing with.

Idea I'll Never Do #42767

I was off writing in my paper journal today when I wondered what would happen if I left it behind and someone else read it. They’d probably be bored if they made it past the first page.

What would be fun is to invent somebody and write out a journal as that person, and leave that laying around. I was thinking the only limit I’d put on it is that it has to end with hope.

"I think she had a heart attack or something"

At the end of July I closed my trusty PO box and filled out a mail forwarding form. I hadn’t received any mail from it at the new house. Last week I started calling the post office to find out what happened. When the post office did answer the phone the woman just said the box clerk wasn’t there and that I should try again later. She said try back in a week. That’s a bit ridiculous if you ask me. Anyways, I called back today and got the same woman. The box clerk was still out but she tried extra hard to find someone to help me out and then another woman came on the phone.

Apple Drone #2112

Dave and I went down to experience the Jaguar event at the Apple Store. The deal is you get there and at 10:20pm they open their doors, do a song and dance, then you buy the new OS and leave. We got there around 10:25pm and the line went from the Apple store snaked around to one end of the mall and then back towards the food court. It was almost out the food court into the parking lot when we arrived. What I had thought was going to be a private ceremony among a few intimate friends turned into the wait to ride Space Mountain.

Al-Qaeda eat your heart, no really...

A translation of the manuals that kamikaze pilots carried with them are now being made available in English. I don’t get it. How many girlfriends had to break your heart, or drunken parents beat you to get the point where entries like the following make sense:

At the very moment of impact: do your best. Every deity and the spirits of your dead comrades are watching you intently. Just before the collision it is essential that you do not shut your eyes for a moment so as not to miss the target. Many have crashed into the targets with wide-open eyes. They will tell you what fun they had.

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Crazy from the heat

It’s 93 outside, with highs projected for 99. It’s normal Summer Dallas weather but I’ve got to say it’s incredibly pleasant. Our house is surrounded by tall trees so we get very little direct sunlight, usually it’s just in the morning. Apparently this year we are enjoying an upper level ridge of high pressure which is heating up our neighbors.

I’ve got my window open and I’m enjoying the breeze.

DNTO Blogger Piece

Josh posted an mp3 of Kathryn’s Definitely Not the Opera piece for CBC about Blogging. She interviewed a lot of people when she was down at SXSW. I was surprised by how little of those interviews made it into the 10 minute piece.

Built to Spill fans unite

While BtS is “having a life” indie rock star hero Doug Martsch has put together a solo album. Apparently he started listening to an old blues guitarist, Fred McDowell, that musicologist Alan Lomax recorded in 1959. It was some blues music he actually liked. You can listen to all the songs at www.dougmartsch.com.

I really like the single Heart.