August 30, 2010

August, 30th, 2010:

After staying up till 3AM, writing, reading, talking on the phone...etc. I woke around 10 AM, and felt a need for strong coffee and exercise. I phoned my old buddy "Larry", the 62 year old ex-Mormon apartment maintenance man, and Prince of a human being. I have previously described Larry, he is a semi-reformed Alcoholic, and one of the best people that I know. We used to hang out at the same pool hall, but I don't do the bar/pool hall scene anymore. We did manage to get together for breakfast at "Angies" this morning, and had the "double barrel", which consisted of two eggs, two sausage patties, and two bacon, and the gigantic two pancake, complete with three ramekins or syrup. I like to carve a big hole in the center of the pancakes, pull out the core, then: fill the hole with all the syrup and just let it sit for awhile, since I eat the sausage and eggs first. Once that's done, I pick around the borders of the "caldera", until new real-estate gets marinated. By and by the entire circle of the center of the pancake (Aka "the caldera"!), gets eaten away, the remains are deliberately left on the plate, so as not to appear as a hungry pauper! Actually, I eat very little, so I can't handle a giant breakfast such as this.

While going to the grocery store a few hours later after making a shopping list, which I generally do not do. The ingredients of "Falafel" equal, the object of my main destination.

So at the store I bought a hand mixer which doubles as a blender. I also bought "Falafel" spices, and raw ingredient mixtures. Stuff for the accompany Falalfel sauce was purchased as well. I do tend to spend a couple hours when shopping at a grocery store, and slowly check out all that the store has to offer. Most people are in and on=ut in fifteen minutes, but I read every price, every mark down, I compare each and every product I require, then decide whether the quality is worth the quantity. Grocery shopping is one of the few social activities I have and I find it quite enjoyable. Today I bought 4 large sacks of stuff and had a heck of a time fitting them all on my bicycle. Thank god for that bungee cord I brought along, it managed to hold two heavy paper bags of groceries onto a little book rack, while the other two got stuffed in the pannier bags. I did have to tie the blender and a loaf of bread to the handle bars, I could actually feel the spokes groan as I slowly headed home with a 400 pound load on my bike (including me). People were staring and grinning when I passed by, it was very comical.

I tried making "Falafel",. using the ready made mix (not recommended). Falafel, is used all over the middle East between Greece and Persia, and down to 'Egypt. Falafel is truly an Egyptian dish which consists of either fava or garbanzo beans, mixed with onion and spices then rolled up into little balls and fried. Consider the "Scarab" or "dung beetle". The sacred Scarab was revered in ancient Egypt because they turn piles of human and animal shit into spherical objects which resembled other planets, which were also round and spherical. The Egyptians considered the Scarab to be the creators of the earth! Falafel and the other bean recipes, enabled the Ancient Egyptians to get enough protein power to move all the large stones, obelisks, sculptures, and pyramids. Today, Egypt doesn't stand a chance at these endeavors. Think! 5 thousand years of a huge assed civilization, now unable to even remove trash from the streets. Egypt was built on beans. Fava, Garbonzo, Lentils, peas, kidney, navy, you name it, Beans were the king of Egypt, and at least 4000 year of our ancient history. I am a firm believer in the power of beans and attribute thousands of years of Egyptian dominance, a result of bean cultivation. Ancient Egypt began as a few farming communities which depended on the Nile river for everything, initially didn't built grand temples and obelisks, nor did they build the great pyramids, Once the agriculture became successful , the rulers could expect the citizens to live off little or nothing, Beans, way cheaper than meat, became the fuel of the ancients, Meat protein became an elite sort of thing, the rest of the people ate little meat, and continued to tend the reliable fields which coincided with the floods of the Nile River for thousands of years, With food costs down to pennies a day, the Pharaohs could focus on more important things such as tomb construction.

While cooking up the packaged Falafel and the cucumber/yogurt dressing, I was listening to old Garrison Kieler on the radio, who said something I had to stop and think about. He said something to the effect of "I used to think that Faith, was doing what is expected, following the traditional guidelines in order to gain faith, that one has done well. The older I get I realize that that isn't "Faith" at all. Faith is having the courage that you will succeed no matter what others think or say about the path you have chosen. Faith is the confidence when you know that everything will be alright no matter how bad it looks to the outsider". This made me worry less about my children who all seem to have faith in their futures despite what I may think.

August 28th, 2010

August 28th, 2010:

Haven't written in a week, In fact, I am now a busy man whose creativity tends to get sucked out during the week. But don't worry, although I live during the week close to death by giving my all to some system, I am alive with my two or three paltry days off I get on the weekends. This Weekend is a 3 dayer, but most are not. Usually I recover from the energy spent during the week by sleeping about 18 hours on a Saturday, but this weekend I hope not to waste it like that. Even while sitting most of the day, the stress of talking to hundreds of people per day tends to beat me down. I do however love my job, it is not meaningless whatsoever. Boring at times, stressful, frustrating, and many other adjectives, but overall it is quite rewarding. I love my students, and many of my co-workers....

My new place is quite relaxing since I'm finally able to read at home, while enjoying an excellent view for once. My first year here, I lived in a basement with large women running around above me, and very poisonous "Hobo Spiders" (seriously, google it), crawling across my feet late at night, and some toxic assed mold, which grew freely in the cement wet closet, and caused much sickness during the winter. We loved the house and its inhabitants (upbeat college Mormons mostly), but we had to go after 18 months. During the winter of our second year, we upgraded to renting an old house near the school I work at. But the landlord decided to sell after we were there for another 18 months, and since Logan is a grown man on his own, I decided to downgrade, and live in a smallish, simple loft, above a sporting goods store, that used to be the biggest hotel in this town. I got one of the best suites, the owner calls it "The Penthouse Suite", and most of the other rooms are lacking in style and size. I do pay the most, at $450 per month but its not to costly for me, nor would it be for one with a full time job making the minimum. Most around here collect disability or social security. The neighbors are mostly quiet and nice folks, The few criminals and insane people do not bother me, in fact I get respect from them since I am a teacher afterall. Even criminals respect a few of their teachers from the past. So far my motorcycle, truck, and bicycle have dwelt in the back parking lot and no criminal has messed with any of them. Many of the other bikes around here have been stripped to the bone. Not mine!

I do love living here, Tonight, I took the screen off my middle window (since we have no bugs up here, too much pollution downtown), so I could take some good photos of the street view from my happy perch. The college kids were invading downtown, and wearing their "Aggie Shirts", which is the name of the USU football team, the college kids were having a ball, getting free ice cream and food samples from all the restaurants down here, The traffic was heavy and their socializing filled the downtown area with their glee. I was merely a witness, and stayed up here where it was safe, and failed to join them. I would rather drink my Gin and Tonics, then eat their ice cream I guess. I wish that wasn't true but it is. Ice cream is meaningless to me for the most part. Reminds me of a line by the author Mario Puzo, who wrote "The Godfather". He writes in his books about how the Hollywood stars, and movie people tend to become "desensetized" after many year of their debaucheries. I see these kids filled with extascy from gorging on ice cream but remembering that I was boozing it up when I was in those college years. No regrets, but habits are a damned shame, Judgemental and belief in the ridiculous are much worse habits from my standpoint. The few ice cream lovers that avoid that pitfall are truly golden people, and i am honored to know a few of them.

Took my 8 year old Raleigh bike in for a tune up for the first time since I bought it new. This bike has been nothing but reliable and tough for all these years, This bike has been used and abused, and has enjoyed a few minor crashes, but just keeps on providing me with cheap, realiable transportation. If I had to choose between my motorcyles and truck for only one form of transportation, the bike would win hands down. I decided to take it to the bike shop down below my place to have it "tuned up", since she has been feeling abit out of adjustment for the past few years, and boy it made a huge difference. The shifting and brakes are now spotless, I am now going to put on some metal studded tires, so I can drive her to school in the winter time. School is a mere three blocks away. so no need to start the truck, shovel the snow, and melt the windshield every day! I got a good bicycle, she starts every time and is decent transportation on all but the snowiest days.

August 21st, 2010

August 21, 2010: Saturday.

Been quite a week as the first week of school usually is no surprises here. Monday, I had to find room to store the three motorcycles which spent the summer in my classroom. Apparently the fire Marshall didn't approve of them since they do contain enough gas to cause quite a fire. So I decided to dig the old 75 Dodge powerwagon "Hellbitch 1" out of my storage shed. Since all the stuff from my old house was stacked up inside the truck, in the truck, on the truck, and on top of the truck, we first had to haul a bunch of junk of of the shed, in order to get enough room to back the truck out. The truck had a dead battery so I had to use a tow strap to pull her out while my trusty assistant "Luiz", did the steering; the near flat back tire made this harder than it should have.

Once we got the "Hell Bitch" illegally parked next to the shed, we managed to stack up all the boxes to the point where 4 motorcycles were able to fit inside the space. I called the local scrap yards and was quoted "$150 if you can get the truck here, $50 if we have to tow it". But since no one wanted to tow it today, I called a scrap yard about 30 miles away, in the middle of the desert, in "Garland Utah".. Haha, now I can only imagine what type of "Garland", one could make out of sagebrush and rattlesnakes, but that is the name of the remote out post. The owner wasn't the brightest candle on the cake either. Not only did he drop all his "t's" (Mou-An, rather than "Mountain", he couldn't seem to get his math right. Since he had no idea what a basic 70's truck weighed, I told him that the places in Logan offered $100 if they towed the truck $150 if I brought it in. So he shrewdly proclaims "Aiiiggght, I will only give you $140 for the truck. (an amount $40 more than the locals were offering) He promises to pick the truck up around 5:30, so Luiz and I settled down for a game of chess for an hour. Luiz learned how to play chess last spring, now he beats me much of the time. Its fun since we talk trash and talk like pissed off ghetto pimps while we play, you really have to be there to understand the humor I'm speaking of, but if you were outside of the door, you would swear that two ghetto pimps were rhyming on each other with guns drawn. We also insult each others "Mamas", in the grand Southern tradition. Good times.... Luiz finished school last year, and remains a trusted friend of mine. Although he helped me for 4 hours he refused to take my money. He remembered how I used to front him free silver, since he had no way to pay for it. These Mexican folks make good friends to have, we are fortunate to have some way up here in the great white north!

yet I digress..

So the Garlander fails to show or call at the allotted time. I call him up and he says he can't seem to find enough cash for the truck. I asked him "How much cash ya got"? trying to sound as ignorant as possible. He says "I got a hunderd". I told him to bring the "hunderd" and a check for the rest. He replies shrewd as hell: "Ok, I will bring the "hunderd", and a check for the other "hunderd and fiffy"! No joke! So he finally pulls in around 7 o'clock, and damned if he didn't pay me the hundred in cash and a check for $150. Since his bank had an office in town, I was there when the bank opened and cashed it the next day.

The rest of the week was hectic but fine. My students are cool as usual, classes are larger, nice to see old friends and students.

My friend Rob shows up Thursday night, we hung out a few hours but I was home by ten. I still managed to stay up until 2 AM, since that is my natural bedtime. I still lectured successfully to all my classes the next day, but then came home and slept for 18 of the next 24 hours. I was behind in sleep.

Mom calls me at 9:30 this morning and we talked for about thirty minutes, I was planning to cook my own breakfast, but since I was awake so early, I went to the ibis, and met up with my friend "Ricky", who was the one who journeyed to South America on his dirt bike this year. Spent a couple hours discussing many subjects, from computers, to his days as Bassist for the band "The Nixons", he even had videos with the band playing "Friday Night Videos", back in the late 80's. "The Nixons" were known nationwide. Rickey still gets royalties from those days, but he says they get smaller every year. Now his main interest is on Fly fishing. He plans to re-teach me how to fly fish one of these days. Ricky is a cool dude, nice to meet a new friend at my age, with an ability to have an interesting conversation with. Saw Logan and his friends up at the Ibis as well. I used to hang out at nights in bars. Hanging out for a few hours in the morning at a coffee shop is much more pleasant. I saw the owner today, an old hippie who was as old as my dad. This old gentleman, has created the coolest place in town, with diverse people of all ages spending a few hours a week there. They do make some brilliant coffee. I purchased a pound of "Highland Grogg", which is my favorite, since Logan and his friends turned me on to it a couple months ago.

Went to the post office, and my three radios were there. I ordered 3 decent sized modern radios from the Internet, and they were here in two days. These are plain AM/FM radios, but are modern and sound exceedingly well. Although a little larger than my expensive camping radio, they appear to be tougher and definitely sound a lot better. My Sangean, had lots of cool features, like 40 station programming, and short wave however; this simpler analog radio, sounds much better, and tunes to stations that the expensive radio can't seem to reach. I bought three of them, so I can give one to my father and another to my son. My son likes listening to the radio, more than those I-pods and crap. The radio is far more exciting than listing to the same old songs in my MP3 or computer libraries. The only time I listen to MP3's are when swimming or bike riding. Otherwise, I prefer the radio. So does my dad and son.

I went home at two, cleaned up a bit, then slept for the next 5 hours... Damn, I was fatigued by this schedule I now have to keep. At 8 PM, I felt like a new man. Got on the bike and went to the local book store in order to find something interesting. I finally scored a copy of "The Godfather", which is impossible to find it seemed. I did pay 9 bucks for it, but I know this is a wise purchase. I've long been wanted to compare the book to the movie, which I've watched a hundred times.

Went to the grocery store around 9 and it was dark by then. I bought the ingredients for another squash casserole which I made the previous night, and ate it in three meals.

Al's toaster oven Squash Casserole:

Take two smaller zucchinis and slice them about 1/6 inch thick. Put a little salt and pepper on the slices, the salt soaks up the bitter tastes like in eggplant. I used just a tiny amount of salt doing this since I am on a low salt diet.

arrange the slices on the bottom of a buttered meat loaf pan.

Take two eggs, a bit of cream (or sour cream), and a cup of diced cheese. (Mozzerella is good, but so is any other cheese). 1/4 cup of olive oil, some Italian seasoning, one cup of bread crumbs, 1/2 cup chopped onions and anything else you personally like for your tastes. I recommend a bit of garlic too.

Mix it all up and dump it on top of the zucchini, then arrange the rest of the zucchini slices on the tip. Then you should put 1/8th cup of the cheese that I forgot to tell you to reserve, and drizzle a bit of olive oil, and more spices on the top. Put this in the toaster over at 350 for about an hour.

Good stuff! Tastes like quiche, with a similar consistency. Tomorrow I might add a small amount of Italian sausage to the mix, but I prefer vegetarian for the most part since this should be all about the squash. Thinking about using Indian spices instead of Italian, all depends on my mood.

I also made a glass of "Doogh" today, which is a refreshing yogurt drink of Persian origin. I had a glass of the stuff at a Persian restaurant in Plano, Tx. this summer and I found it to be quite palatable, and refreshing. Simply add a cup of plain yogurt with a cup of water, add 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper and some mint of you have it. I didn't have the mint but the salt and pepper were just fine. They also recommend adding cucumber pulp to the mix to make it more refreshing. I love this stuff, and its good for you if you use the low-fat plain yogurt. Very good on a hot summers day! Try it!

I finished the Puzo book "The last Don", and I finished "The Maltese Falcon" in the past week. Read little of the others, but I am progressing on "Comanche Moon" and even read a bit of the "Upanshads". Reading, while listening to the radio is a fun thing to do, sure beats watching sit-coms for hours each night, or playing Internet games. My phone now has the Internet, which keeps me in touch, but is to much of a pain to waste my time playing games. I can still check my facebook and e-mail, or even surf Wiki or bid on EBAY items.

I hope to write more this next week, but during the week I am either too beat, or lack any new stories that are interesting. I'm just grinding away toward my death in order to get money but that is the way of the world. "The daily Grind". But who knows what will happen this year. Overall, this should be an interesting time, since so much change has occurred since last year. I am fully looking forward, and saving for a long trip to India next summer, and maybe that will help keep me going during the upcoming winter months.

August 17Th, 2010

August 15Th 2010: Sunday morning. Made myself wake up at 9 AM after 5 hours of sleep. Went to the living room, sat in chair, then slept till 2 PM. I will be screwed tomorrow morning. It is totally un-natural for me to go to bed at 10 PM. I have done it for years, usually fall asleep at 1 PM, and am a total zombie the next day, often napping right after school.

I went to "The Beehive Grill", to pay a dollar for their "Triple nickel" special. Or 5 wings for 15 cents each. I washed then down with an "Arnold Palmer", which is iced tea mixed with lemonade. The bartender, a long time friend of mine just returned from India, after volunteering at a leper colony for the past month. She told me about her travels, and convinced me that India, is where I want to spend a few years. My friend Chuck went there a few years back and had the same opinions of the country. I was thinking about Southern China, for the past year, but since I don't like Chinese food, and would feel totally alone in a total foreign place like China (I have been to Korea, and while interesting, was lonely as hell), India makes a bit more since. I love the food, many Indians speak my language, and my personal beliefs lean for more toward the Indian than the Chinese. Both places are cheap to live and China does have more employment opportunities, but India appeals to me more. I actually took a senior level college course on the History of India from 1400 to 1850, and I've read many books, articles, and documentaries about the subcontinent. India should provide me with plenty of writing opportunities, and chances to explore 6000 years of historic ruins, and fascinating cultures. There are many races of people with their own religions, cooking, histories, etc. For example, "The Jain" people are an off shoot of "Hinduism", and are obsessed with avoiding any karma whatsoever. They wear veils over their faces in order to keep bugs from getting killed by being inhaled accidentally. They also look down when they walk in order to avoid stepping on any creature since killing causes bad karma. Of course all Jains are strict vegetarians. There are millions of "Jains" in india. The "Parsi" are another large ancient minority originally from Persia (Iran), who are practitioners of "Zoroastrianism", which is much like the ancient Greek religion with its pantheon of Gods. You have descendants of the "Marathas", and ancient race of people who used to rule the south while Britain was swallowing up the rest of India. The descendants of the "Moguls", invaded India 900 years ago and eventually built the "Taj Mahal", there are many other kinds of people and culture to be experienced in India. I can't wait to live there some day.

Currently, I must serve my year at Logan High. I love this school, the students are great, but they are just cramming to many of them into each class. My classes involve sharp and expensive tools, and we have three different rooms, where the students do different aspects of sculpture and jewelry making. Its getting too hard to keep every one safe. Utah, needs to up their sales and property taxes a little, so they can adequately fund their schools. Saying all that, I also enjoy living in the northern Rockies, and living in a safe, pretty Mormon town. Logan is the nicest town I've ever lived in. But after three years, I have little more to learn here, once this happens I get lazy and bored, and start dreaming of finding a new place to learn about. But a 50k per year job is a tough thing to walk away from. I know that there is no better place to teach than in Logan, Utah, yet I find myself wanting to move on and explore new places before I get to old to do it. I also need a break from the stress. Stress, is killing me. The act of corralling, counseling, and teaching 170 kids per day is severely affecting my health. I need to just move to India, Live and write on $400 per month for a year, maybe even teach on the tnternet for $15 per hour, so I can make ends meet. Work 40 hours per month on the computer, rather than 200 hours per month in the classroom. But I'm not done with Logan yet. I will make the best out of this year, and will try to improve my health, while selling off as many of my possessions and saving money. I have the responsibility of providing my students with a fun and enriching learning experience as well. No matter what should happen this year, I will spend next summer in India, no matter what happens. (yes I heard the "grass is greener" crap before I made the move to Utah, so spare me)!

$400 per month living in India? Yes, I've done the research. And you could make it on $200 per month if you didn't drink, or travel much. Rent in a place as nice as mine is about 90 bucks per month. If you pay 20 bucks more, you get free breakfast and dinner. Another 20 per month and you get the internet, cable, and a morning English newspaper. I just want a safe place with a balcony. Not sure which city, but Bangalore has a lot of call center instruction jobs for $1000 per month for someone with teaching qualifications. "Varanasi", is a very ancient smaller city, on the banks of the Ganges river, where the Buddha, lived during the monsoon season. "Chennai", has excellent beaches north and south of the city. So maybe I will move every three months until I find the place for me. I hope to spend at least 5 to 10 years there, coming back to the states every 2 years to visit the family. The internet does keep people closer than the old days. Back in the early 80's, the only way to keep in touch was to write letters, or spend a shitload of money for a short phone call. If I went out there, I would have SKYPE, set up with a phone cam, in order to call and see my friends and homies. I will probably choose to teach online for $15 per hour and work a few hours per day, which will more than pay for the cost of living, My current plan is to stick it out this year, then to scout India (maybe other nearby countries as well), this summer.

Its now Tuesday, August 17Th, after two days in school, I'm feeling better about this year. My classes don't seem too unmanageable, but these were both in service days so we shall see how many more get dumped into my class. Nice to see some of my fellow teachers, and even a few students have stopped by. Getting up at 6:30 SUCKS! Its unnatural, unless your a farmer or a hunter. My main complaint about my school, is that we start class at 7:35 AM. I'd much rather start at 9:00, when the sun is up, and its 20 degrees warmer, but the godly believe in getting up early as hell, so they get home by 3PM, and have 4 more hours daylight, to work a second job, or go to church functions. So I have to be at school by 7:15, which is awful in the winter, usually having to get out there and scrape ice from the windshield, often shoveling a shit load of snow, while its pitch black outside and 5 below zero, while trying not to fall on the ice. I would walk the 1/2 mile to school, but January and February that would mean falling on the icy concrete and breaking my back. So I'll probably bicycle it, until late December, then take the truck until March. But I have three nice months to look forward to, and fully plan to make the most of it.

August 14th, 2010

August 14th, 2010:

Last Saturday before work. I did manage to wake at 10:00 AM rather than the usual 2:00 PM. Tomorrow I will wake at 8:00 AM, no matter how tired.

Went to brekkies at Cafe Ibis, and noticed an old man checking out my bike, which I previously put a "for sale" sign on. Since I had 10 minutes to even get breakfast, I asked him to join me at Ibis, where I handed him my key and let him take a test drive while I rushed in to qualify for the breakfast cut off time of 11 AM. He was in his 70's and showed up on a very fast older bike, so I figured he wouldn't wreck my ride. He came back like 10 minutes later, but I wasn't interested in trading for an 80's model truck. I noticed the old looking beat up Suzuki DR 650, with full long term touring cases, and battle scars. I have seen this bike over and over, and I was fortunate enough to find its owner this morning. I knew from the looks of the bike that he had beaten down a few thousand miles of trails, but I had no idea...

"Ricky", the motorcyclists name, had gone from Canada, and took the 95 percent dirt "Great Divide" trail which travels along the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, all the way down to Mexico. But Ricky kept going... He then took the "Pan American" highway, from Mexico down to Panama. The only gap in the "Pan American", is known as the "Darian Gap", which is a marsh, tidal swamp, and impenetrable jungle that separates Panama and Columbia. Ricky had to pay a sailboat, 500$ to bring him across that gap, which is also known for its extreme lawlessness. He then went from Columbia, thru Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and wound up at the southernmost city in the world known as "Ushuia" Argentina, which is about 600 miles from Antarctica. Logan and I were in Ushuia, about 5 years ago, so we had a lot of South American notes to compare. Of course, this dude, took 14 months of hard driving, and survival situations in order to do it. While, I just took a plane and a cruise ship.

Turns out that Ricky was from Oklahoma, and used to play in a punk rock band known as the "Nixon's", during the time I used to play in "Deep Ellum", Dallas, back in the late 80's early 90's, and used to play in the same venues. The Nixon's, were far more famous than the groups I used to jam with. He actually made money playing professionally. So we gammed on an outside table of Ibis for like 3 or 4 hours, which is a record for me to talk to anyone without a drink in my hand. Ricky has accomplished one of the most harrowing motorcycle journeys I've ever heard of, but he is more impressed with the people who traveled down the same roads by bicycle. Those crazy bicycle peeps, amaze the shit out of me as well.

I admire those folks, but ultimately prefer the plane and cruise ship route. Yes, I will travel a few hundred miles on a motorcycle trip, but when going to Chile, I'd just assume fly down there, then look around. But certain situations, and mind sets seem to gravitate toward the extreme. Ricky, speaking of many of the other motorcycle travelers, down in South American, said that more than a few of them were suicidally depressed, and took the risks as a last resort, since "they didn't want to die with money still in their pockets". Rickey, merely did it out of boredom, but I understand the mentality of those he described. Many of the "Suicidal ones", were from Europe.

Ricky and I both agreed that Logan, Utah is the best place in America to live. With the extreme natural beauty of the nearby wilderness, and of the upbeat, non pretentious town of Logan itself. Logan, is the nations safest metro area (population of 100,000 or more), and is recognized for being the safest city in the US, each year. You can leave your doors unlocked in most places in this city. Unless you live in downtown apartments, where the poor, destitute and the insane live. No violent criminals do I see around here, but there are more than a few scavengers who live downtown, due to no other options. I still agree with Ricky: Logan, Utah is the nicest place to live in the US. Period. The factors taken into consideration while formulating this opinion were, natural beauty, cost of living, low crime, vitality of the town itself. Logan rocks in my book. But I am already itching to go elsewhere. I better watch what I wish for.

After tiring of Ibis, I went to "Borders Books", and did some net surfing, since the Ibis, seats start to hurt the ass after a few hours of talking. Ibis seat tend to be more waif friendly, the seats are only a foot wide. . Borders is cool, because it is less crowded, and you can grab a book off the shelf, then read it while swigging coffee or tea, then putting it back. I totally love this concept! How do these places make any money? I am more than content to put my grubby hands on their books, pay two bucks for a glass of tea, use their internet, possibly their bathroom, yet never pay 20 bucks for one of their paperback books, since I can buy the hardbacks for two or three bucks at the thrift stores. Most of the books on my reading list are hardback. But I guess "Borders" does do a good business, since they also rent videos, and games. I would gladly pay a cover charge, since they allow me to camp in there for a couple hours, and ask very little. Some customers, just go in, surf the net, and leave without buying a single thing. I always pay for a coffee for dignity purposes, and have been known to buy a book or rent a video from them.

By then it was nearly 6 PM. Damn! Longest I've ever spent at two coffee places, I did spend awhile loading up my blog, and finding a decent picture for it.

I stopped to check on the Mercedes that I love with all my heart and soul, but she is still in the shop. They told me that she will see me again once she is perfect. I hate to say it, but once I see that car again, and test it out some more, that I fully plan to buy it. A man needs a woman! And I consider this car to be my object of affection that deserves my attention and total reverence. No real woman can give me as much pleasure in return for my love, as this gorgeous, large, sleek, black, Sedan will. She will always be true, never yell at me, never betray me, never love than HATE me. Hell hath no fury baby!!! Give me the machine. The machine is my one desire!.

I cooked some "Dahl/Aloo Marsala" this evening, which is Indian food consisting of Lentils and chopped potato, in Marsala sauce. I made this from scratch, so no MRE pouches. Cooking this took a few hours. And no, the MRE's taste better, but they cost three bucks each. My dinner costs about 50 cents and is almost as good, but I plan to work on it. The mess of cooking for one, is nearly the mess of cooking for 4. And since I have to do both the cooking and cleaning, I believe I will buy the "Meals Ready to Eat" type of Indian food, since you only have to boil the pouch in water. But cooking from scratch is still fun. My Italian Scratch food is excellent, but my Indian does need a bit of work in order to gain authenticity.

Did another 4 hours of reading, damn I miss the TV up here, but I am firm about keeping the cable and internet out of my apartment. I do need to hook up a TV and DVD player, in order to have some visual entertainment of occasion.