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About 1:30 am last night I stumbled back into my Apartment, said hello to the dirty dishes, and slept the sleep of the just (or the just very tired). |
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I was home. |
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I left the north burbs about 9:30 am on Thursday the 9th. I couldn't get an earlier start because I had to deal with some wonks who were renting my new apartment. So my trip started with me driving into Chicago and signing a lease. For those of you who don't know already -- I'm moving to a new place. It's near the old place, same size, not quite as nice, no dishwash,
but it's $650 a month instead of $840. You should plan to be out of town from August 10th through the 16th as that is when I'm moving. Get your excuses ready cause Jik needs manual labor. Anyway, the dweebs at the rental office make me wait and (of course) there's some problem about prorating my rent for a partial month of rental. Thankfully, the situation was resolved without a young Jik having to open up a can of whup-ass. |
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So I get on the road at 10:30 and I took the Skyway. Everybody out there who's a Replacements fan will now start humming "you take the skyway..." and all the others will wonder how much the Skyway costs these days. $2.00, then another 50 cents, and then 30 more cents before the Indiana Turnpike begins. You might also be wondering (whom am I kidding, right now you're frantically scrolling down this page wondering how long I can drone on about some lousy trip) "What route did the mighty Saturn take to get way out East?" Well the there's a web site that will find the quickest possible route for you... And it sucks. It had me making no less than 24 changes of road and put me on two lane highways for much of the trip. |
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Screw that. |
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So here's what I did: I got on I90 (mere miles from my home) and 990 miles later I got off I90 near Boston. I had planned to take a nap somewhere in the middle of this trip, but I found that I just wasn't tired. As Emma Bovery ran up her credit and slept with men to compensate
for her dull life I made some quick calculations at 1 am on a table in McDonalds in New York -- If I drove 4 more hours I could be in Concord! So Emma and I got back on 90 and saw the sun rise over Boston. It was with no sadness at all that I left I90. A short (70 miles) hop, ship and a jump later I was nearing Concord NH. |
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It was 6 in the morning Eastern Standard Time so, in order to avoid rousing Jon and Molly with a deranged and rather smelly Jik, I slept in a Rest-stop near Concord. Did you know tha NH has no sales tax or state income tax? Where do they get the money required to run stuff? Well the rest stop I stayed at was also a Liquor store. Anything stronger than beer is sold by the government in NH. What a bunch of commies, if I want a shot of Goldschlauger at 2 in the morning I would damn well be able to get it in Chicago. But, in this socialist state, they regulate Alcohol like it's dangerous or something... |
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Jon was quite surprised to see me at his door Friday morning. I had told him that that, with sleep, I would arrive in the afternoon. So we shook hands and he showed me around his two story, 2 bedroom, dishwasher-equipted, townhouse. The Pool/clubhouse/workout center was about 100 feet from their back porch. Cost? $650 a month. Hmm. That number seems so familiar... |
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Friday Night we had dinner and saw "Lethal Weapon 4." Don't go see this movie. Ever. |
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Saturday we drove to some mountains 60 minutes north of Concord and had our choice of 6 different day-hikes. The backpacker in me almost wept with the nearness of mountains and scenic hiking. How far do I have to drive from Chicago to see such things? I annoyed my companions by figuring out the height of a cliff using only a rock, a stopwatch, and my huge
brain (Physics is power, man). They listened patiently and offered to time me while I fell the same height, but I declined the offer and shut up. |
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Sunday was jogging, Armageddon, basketball, and tennis. Seems like all the reviewers hated Armageddon, but I really liked it. Two things: First, in an action movie,
stopping is death. Unlike Lethal Weapon 4 and that other Big Asteroid Movie, this film gave the viewer little-to-no time to think -- Lots of Action. Second, Steve Bushceme, Billy-bob Thornton, and Ben Aflec did a good job with what characterization there was. Bruce Willis was not bad and the rest were colorful. |
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On Monday Jik rested (Jon and Jik don't play basketball regularly and so the fouls were fast and furious), and played some video games. When the gainfully employed came home, we barbecued, got
liquored-up, and watched "Strange Brew." Every time "Ted the computer guy" came on screen we did a shot of warm vodka. There was a good bit of drunken packing after the movie. All sorts of yelling and clunking and confusion. Jon's neighbors were really nice about the whole thing. |
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I left Concord at 5 am Tuesday. The trip home was much nicer than I could possibly have hoped for. 1984 is a darn fine book. There's all sorts of weird hype about this novel and sometimes the thing doesn't live up to expectations -- but this one did. The lead character knew what he was doing -- he had no illusions about what he faced. Also the politics were
quite interesting. Although I think Orwell underestimates the effect of mass media as a placating device. He seems to think a state of constant war fever is needed to distract the masses from their positions. With a sufficiently flashy mass-media distracting wars are only occasionally
necessary (see "Wag the Dog" excellent film -- both it and 1984 maintain
believability in the face of some outlandish actions). |
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About halfway through my trip I stopped at Niagara Falls ("Slowly I turn, step, by, step..." -- where is that from? (I remember the Three Stooges saying this, but does anyone know another meaning?)). The Falls were, well... If you've seen 'em you know what I mean. I even took the "Maid of the Mists" boat tour. And was still wet when I got home 10 hours later. |
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The rest of the trip was uneventful, except that I couldn't find any cash stations on the Ohio Turnpike so I had to pay my 5 dollars in mostly loose change. |
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So now the question is: Is he crazy enough to drive to Seattle? Twice the distance? |
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Stay Tuned, Jik |