A vehicle is, to me, a conveyance; protection from the elements while providing an expeditious means of transferring one's body from one place to another.
In my youth I drove a variety of vehicles including a 1968 GTO (at 140 mph drag-racing on Colorado Blvd in Denver at 11pm)
a 1966 Triumph TR4 (practiced "drifting" through turns)
and I put our 1964 VW bug through its paces on one of the windingest roads through the hills of Tennessee where we (unfortunately) went to live after leaving Germany.
I got the food and water restocked/resupplied...and couldn't do the munch. Below is what I posted to my blog on Fetlife.
Title: Missed the Munch
Well, I just couldn't do it.
After driving all the way around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National monument -- instead of going back the way I came which was up through the middle from Big Water to Escalante and was what I had intended to do, but didn't FULLY trust Phoebe's repair -- to attend the Flagstaff Kinkster's Munch yesterday evening, when I saw all those people, none of whom was wearing a mask, and although there was a nice-looking group settling into a sortof separate area (it might be them!), everyone was seated shoulder-to-shoulder and I had to face the fact that I live the way I do because I prefer one-on-one interactions (and elbow room) and actually have an aversion to places like Taverna. (How's THAT for a Proustian sentence?)
But, of course, never having SEEN the place I had no way of knowing. As it was, when I got back to camp, the moon was out and the temperature was just right for enjoying some beer while making dinner and then a bit more WITH dinner. And in spite of missing out on making some new acquaintances and possibly a friend or two, it was a beautiful evening. But if you're out there...please don't hesitate.
Pathetique, eh? Ah, well. "One is what one is. The essential doesn't change." (From Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett)
Last summer I couldn't handle the elevation and took 89 (the northern route) from Kanab, Utah to Page, Arizona.
This summer I'm doing better and decided to take 89A up onto the Kaibab Plateau and see how I do at 8,000 feet (2438.4m). I had to stay on top of my meds (fortunately, less than a 1/4 inch of additional elevation), but unlike last year when simply being brought on headaches and debilitating fatigue, this time I was able to make camp (unload & load) and even do a bit of ambling about.
An inviting fire ring...
Location Shot
Vermilion Cliffs
The smog is so bad you can't see even 10 miles. I quit going to Grand Canyon back in the late '70s when it -- the haze -- would clear in the winter. Then, if you went during the winter months, say, in January, you could still see across to the North Rim. No longer.
Now, regardless of the time of year, if you look at promotional pictures online, the blue haze occludes the view of even the nearest monoliths and the North Rim is nothing more than a concept.
The sign outside the museum at Grand Canyon says they've determined some of the particulates have come all the way from China. Yeah, right! No mention of the Four Corners coal-fired power plants...the incredible amounts of diesel fumes emitted by the gigantic trucks and diggers used in the open-pit copper mines that blanket the area around Globe for miles. And it leaves an acrid taste in your mouth.
I had my first experience with LSD when I was 15. I'd been brought up, starting at the age of 13, to use marijuana as a consciousness-expanding (the popular phrase of the times) tool and had been cautioned about experimenting with LSD.
In my early twenties I traveled to Mexico where the local children outside the town of Palenque
brought us the magic mushrooms and gave us the correct amount. Over the decades as my career and partners took precedent, I rarely had access -- let alone the time -- to utilize psychedelics. An "average" trip usually lasts from 6-12 hours. I put the word in quotes since, with psychedelics, there is no such thing as average.
From 1968 to 1972 a friend was incarcerated in a Tennessee penitentiary for possession of two joints. So while the article below is about psychedelics, I'm incredulated and disgusted by the hypocrisy. It makes me wonder what other lies they're telling us.
For those of you who STILL have yet to get your shot(s), I'm writing to caution you about the Moderna vaccine. Since getting mine on April 24, 2021, I've had 12 incidents of Bell's Palsey of which the most recent was 7 consecutive days -- up until today, the 18th of June -- in which the numbness and pain subsided during the night then began anew the next day.
Aside from the painful numbness in the left side of my face, upper left jaw, including pain in my teeth, it sometimes triggers INTENSE pain in my left eye, the one that was blinded in an accident in 2008.
I personally know 7 people who died from Covid, including my sister, age 60, so though I wasn't EAGER to get vaccinated I decided to go ahead. I mean, what the heck?
Not that I'm that concerned about dying since I AM already, of heart failure, but it's the WAY of dying. The prospect of lying around suffocating and maybe NOT dying was a tad intimidating. And hey! It was FREE!
Prior to getting the shot I'd never had anything like Bell's Palsey. But after the shot I had several incidents before I was scheduled for the 2nd one and, as a result, decided not to get it.
The online articles trivialize the condition and say it usually "resolves" without treatment in 6 months. (Just like HPV! Unless, of course, you get cancer of the cervix, throat or some other form.)
The numbness and related paralysis have lasted -- each time -- anywhere from an hour to 24 hours and though they have "resolved" (so far) without permanent impairment, they have been/are EXTREMELY uncomfortable. The eye pain is TERRIFIC (not like Tom!) and doesn't respond to NSAIDs or aspirin.
