The Way Home
(2-11 January 2004)

11 January 2004
-After arriving late yesterday, it was very difficult getting used to the idea of how much I was about to be working.  Little did I know just how odd the following day (today) of work would be.  For 12.75 hours, it was the perfect shift, without incident & with the kids behaving better across the board than I may have ever seen them.  At 8:46 pm, all hell broke loose.  Precise details ought not appear here, but suffice it to say that I've never seen a more lightning-fast turn-around of a day.  Tomorrow has to be better.  Or maybe it will start out poorly & then pull the same turn-around.

10 January 2004
[from Albuquerque]
-Like always, I'm really going to miss this place.  I just would like to be back before December of this year, & I really don't see how that would happen.  Once a year is not very often to be back in town.  At least I'm going to see my parents again quite soon.

9 January 2004
[from Albuquerque]
-Thanks to some work by me, but mostly work by him, my Dad's website has been newly updated.  Go there for a good read!
-So soon I will be leaving my beloved Nuevo.  I estimated that I'd made seven trips to the Frontier when Fish asked me, but it may be more than that.  Insufficient, to be sure.
-I keep meaning to post something about the existence of God after JSegal had posted about it, & referenced an inane article by Julian Sanchez likening belief in God to belief in Santa Claus.  At this point, though, thinking about it still makes me angry, & anger is not the parent of reasoned argument (at least not written).  Unikowsky also discussed it, & seemed to portray a gulf between science & God that has always mystified me, for I believe fundamentally that at the crux of a belief in an ordered universe comes the understanding that such order is not sourceless.  Why would there be rules in a chaotic universe?  But I'm not prepared to really make the post I'd like to during this vacation.  I've considered for a while submitting something to Grinberg's old archive of religious discussion, so maybe that will be my answer.  So much I should really be writing if I get around to it.

8 January 2004
[from Albuquerque]
-Exit Fish.  But I'll probably see him sooner rather than later.
-Just in case anyone out there still believes that there's the slightest possibility that weapons of mass destruction will ever be found in Iraq, I'd like to relieve you of that opinion now.  For to believe that, since the capture of Saddam Hussein, you must earnestly believe that Saddam Hussein, insane meglomaniac, self-centered tyrant, cared more about protecting each & every WMD than he did about protecting himself.  To honestly believe that is utter insanity.  Were the American public thoughtful, Bush's popularity would have halved the day Hussein was captured, for it proved once & for all that the reasons for war were 100% lies.
-I really wish people would read disclaimers. Specifically, I'm getting annoyed by people who don't read the disclaimer on the front of the Country Quiz.  On a nicer note, said Quiz has maintained the 12th ranking on Google when one searches for the word "quiz".  There are 17.3 million pages that Google lists for this search.
-Archived 140 days worth of Introspection off this page.  May my worst friend never fall so far behind again!

7 January 2004
[from Albuquerque]
Happy Birthday to Natalie Garin
-Saw the latest "Lord of the Rings" film last night.  Like almost all movie trilogies, the second movie was the best (though I haven't seen #2 or #3 of the other recent trilogy, "The Matrix").  More than anything else, I was impressed in the third movie with how the "good guys" & "bad guys" could hardly be told apart in their thoughts or deeds.  Only their nicer clothes & more refined physical features helped me keep track of who I was supposed to be rooting for.
-I've been hanging out at Fish's house for nearly a decade.  Sometimes, the thoughts & feelings I've had there all run & string together, as though all time were the same moment & I could sense it all simultaneously.  It's like stepping into the river of memory, & being swept up in a tide of abundant yet equal past.

6 January 2004
[from Albuquerque]
-J. Drew Gashler (1966-2004).  I knew about this yesterday & knew he was missing the day before, but was refraining from discussing it here since his name hadn't been released.  While I only met him once (at my wedding), he had made my cousin happier than anyone had ever seen her, & they were to be married in October.  He was killed in an avalanche on New Year's as is discussed here, among many other places.  It's just all so very sad.

5 January 2004
[from Albuquerque]
-I could eat at the Frontier every meal.  As it is, I've already eaten there twice today.  & true to form, seen people that I know.
-Working on a new graphic for the top of the page.  I'm increasingly frustrated with the impact of GIFs & JPGs on the quality & texture of a graphic.  I would like to add a BMP to the top, but that may make it a real pain to load this page.  Hm.
-I love word games.

4 January 2004
[from Albuquerque]
-Many goodbyes already.
-I really need to change the top logo on this page from one advertising summer 2003.  To say nothing of archiving the last quarter-year.  Goodness.  Maybe later this week.
-Saw "Cold Mountain" & was duly impressed with its documentation of the devastation of war, especially with how war destroys those who aren't on the battlefield, sometimes those who never see the battlefield.  & while I tend to find an anti-war message in everything, I think it's really there in this one.

3 January 2004
[from Albuquerque]
-Already have been to the Frontier & hung out with many folks since arriving.  Many people change in only small doses, but Elias hasn't changed a day since early in high school.  Got to play cards with Jake for about 2 hours before he left for Georgia.  But all is good, even if fleeting.
-Went to Gris's mother's wedding as the prime event today.  Change is the watchword early this year.  But it was a lot of fun to see her newly happy & meet the newly extended family.

2 January 2004
-Packed, hung out, ate, & went to BART.  I wish we'd taken BART to the airport for the last few trips, but so it goes.  Nuevo, it's been too long, & I'm almost there!

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