USGround - Because USAir Doesn't Really Fly Anywhere

It began like any other day. Well, actually, no it didn't; except for the waking up part. That happens everyday. The rest doesn't.

The girl and I jumped into the car, met K, and rolled to el aeropuerto. The girl, however, was taking a different flight, scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas two hours prior to mine. She took off. I waited. I took off. Thus began a long and frustrating day, prior to a nice vacation and class...

When I arrived in Atlanta, I discovered that The girl, who was flying through Charlotte, had not yet gotten on her second flight. Apparently, a piece of the plane broke, and they had to try to fix it. I discovered that her flight was canceled. They had to find a different flight for all of the passengers on that flight. She ended up having to go from Charlotte to Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, my second flight was slated to leave, and so I had to get on the plane. Three hours and forty minutes later, I arrived in Las Vegas. My first act of business was to call The girl and find out what her status was. She (you guessed it!) still in Philadelphia, waiting for a way to get from there to Vegas.

While in Vegas at the airport, and on the way from the airport to the hotel, I learned many things. The USAir flight that was to take her to Las Vegas had to land prior to getting to Philadelphia to get more fuel due to thunderstorms in Philly. After the plane finally arrived, which was later than every estimate thus far.

I got to Caesar's Palace and checked in. I went to our room. She was still in Philadelphia. I arranged to get dinner with another guy there. She was still in Philadelphia. I went back to the room. She was still in Philadelphia.

Somewhere around 8:00 PM or so, they began boarding the plane, and she took off. I lapsed into a coma, being that I was tired from traveling, and awoke at 2:45 AM (Vegas time) to a knock on the door.

Thirteen hours late, we cursed USAir for not handling this fiasco very well, and went to bed.

To shorten the suspense, I spent each of the next four days at the class. The girl and I also wracked up a probably very large texting bill while I was in class. The only thing of note besides that was seeing the geeks line up at the windows to peer down on the Venus pool. Boobs represent the unattainable to many geeks, but not to all. I didn't see any female geeks looking down on the Venus pool. Are you surprised?

We did a lot of fun stuff after class, though. We went to dinner at Serendipity 3. If you're reading this, I recommend that you NEVER GO THERE! The service was so slow that we didn't have a whole lot of time to spend on the rest of the night. The food was OK, but not OK enough to spend an evening in Vegas at a restaurant. Afterward, we went to see the Bellagio fountain show, which is always spectacular, and then returned to the hotel for the evening.

Speaking of water, Las Vegas has these outdoor mist machines that are meant to cool down areas in which patrons eat. They do nothing. The water evaporates before it hits the ground, and so it generally just results in a colossal waste of water and energy, not that the rest of Vegas isn't an energy waste. I mean it's never dark, even at night!

On night two, the girl decided to plan our evening. This was awesome! The only problem is that Vegas was out to defeat us. We went to the Apple store, which is always fun, but always causes me heartache. I'll leave that for another time, though. Afterwards, we went into ghetto hotel land, AKA Imperial Palace, to see the Automobile Collections. First off, it's remarkable what the difference is in classes of people at the Imperial Palace and places like Caesar's, the Bellagio, the Flamingo, or even Treasure Island. Amazing... We learned, however, that the auto display closes at 6:00 PM, and we were late. So, no cars for me; at least not at the Imperial Palace. On the way there (from the Apple Store), I got to see the car of my dreams; the 1969 Shelby Cobra AC 427. I want one. If only we had a garage.

After the auto fiasco, we went to Margaritaville to drown our sorrows in dinner and tasty beverages. It was pretty good, and the atmosphere is fun. That's about it. Nothing exciting happened there other than dinner and people on stilts. Finally that second night, we went to the gardens at the Bellagio. That was fantastic! It's a small garden, but very pretty, and they do all sorts of interesting things with water spouts. On the way back to the hotel, we watched another Bellagio fountain show.

Night three was the big night, though. That night, we went to the Cirque Du Soleil show Mystère. That was a lot of fun, and we had the absolute best seats in the theater; fourth row, just above the stage performers' eye level. People flew. People danced. People performed unbelievable strength and acrobatic feats. There was a weird baby...

After the show, we ate dinner at Kahunaville, which was surprisingly good. I didn't expect much from it, but I had a fantastic Black and Bleu Burger and a tasty margarita. I'd recommend going to Treasure Island and eating there. They also have a bar component in which the bartenders do their own shows, which are pretty spectacular. That's just a good place in general. I recommend it.

After class the final day, we went to the Sin City Brewing Company, which is inside the Flamingo. The beer was OK. The bartenders were nice. The glasses they sell there are cool. Finally, we headed back to the airport to catch the red-eye back home, and that was that. Karina picked us up from the airport, just as she had dropped us off, and we went home and lapsed into comas.

THE END
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Some Random Links

First off, I really want one of these. It's a shame that I'll (1) never be certified to fly an airplane, and (2) never be able to afford such a thing. It's an all-electric two-seater aircraft. I've always liked flight. I'm not altogether certain why, but I have. I wouldn't mind one of the smaller, hang glider-based ones either. That kind of sounds more likely, but still not likely all the same.

The next site is just a simply brilliant idea. It's an online place to store manuals for products you have around the home. I always lose mine! I'll start using it immediately, probably. Under full disclosure, I haven't tried it yet, so it might blow bigtime! On the other hand, it might not.

Finally, something we should all be aware of. This site will show you what the long-term cost of various financial products (loans, mortgates, etc.) comes out to throughout their lives.

That's all for now. Use wisely!

The Fortune Bat

In what media outlets would probably call news, given the chance, a rare event happened just outside my car on the way home from work. As I was driving along, pondering whatever it is I ponder on drives home, a small motion caught my eye high above me. I glanced up to see a small, winged figure, flying quickly to some unknown destination. All in the world was as it should have been.

Suddenly, and without warning, the winged creature took a suddent 90˚ turn in the downward direction. Wings folded against its body, it dived at something I'm sure was visible only to it. After plunging thirty feet, making its impact with the ground seem imminent, it again corrected its path, but in the direction of my car!

In the brief moment that I had to ponder what a 2745 lb. car would do to a small, flighted creature, I was surprised. Instead of meeting its doom, the creature streaked no more than a foot away from my driver-side window. The creature, which we will now call "the fortune bat," chose a dangerously narrow path, but escaped unscathed with what I like to imagine is a tasty morsel for which it risked its life.

This Half In Review

It has come to my attention, of late, that this year has been pretty severe. It even began prior to January. Since then, a lot has yet still happened. I have days where I think things will be fine, and I have days where it feels like the world is going to come crashing down around me. It's pretty amazing just how relentless it can be.

I still hold out hope that things will be OK. It's just hard. It's hard when life has fundamentally changed everything, and you know that, no matter what happens from now on, there will always be something that has fundamentally cut you in a way from which you can't ever fully recover. I really just hope I can learn to live with the scar someday.

I'm going to will the second half of the year to be better. I haven't had a major breakdown in about a month and a half, which is a plus, but I fear I may have another. I never know when one will occur, but at least now I know a few tricks I can use to deal with them.

Here's to hoping the year improves for everybody!

The Western Genre

I'm not really sure what people have against westerns. They're really good movies. I don't see why they, as a collective, would be considered any better or worse than other movies. Most people have preferences for one genre or another, and may not like a particular variety, but I feel like I've met very few people who actually like the genre at all. I don't know why.

I wonder if people jump right to thinking of the crappy ones. Though a great actor, John Wayne did not make 100% winners. There are also a lot of B movie westerns, and cheesy ones. But that can be said for all movies.

Some, though, have stories that trump most other movies. Which? Well, here's a list of awesome westerns you should at least give a chance.

Clint Eastwood

• A Fistful of Dollars
  
• For a Few Dollars More
  
• The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
  
• Unforgiven
  
• High Plains Drifter
  
• Two Mules for Sister Sarah
  



Lee Van Cleef

• Death Rides a Horse
  
• The Grand Duel
  
• Barquero
  



John Wayne

• The Searchers
  
• Chisum
  
• Rio Bravo
  



Some Others

• My Name is Nobody
  
• Once Upon a Time in the West
  
• The Magnificent Seven
  
• The Wild Bunch
  
• Any Gun Can Play (aka. Go Kill and Come Back)
  
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  
• Rio Conchos
  
• The Man From Nowhere
  
• Django
  

So, if you want to give the genre a chance, watch some of these. Which to watch first depends on what you want. I like A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, My Name is Nobody, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Searchers, and Death Rides a Horse in particular among these. Oh yeah! Unforgiven is a modern western, too, which is fantastic!

Props to EMS

Prior to Sandie's XXth birthday, the girl and I decided to take a leisurely drive down to Annapolis and visit the newly re-situated Eastern Mountain Sports to use the 20%/15% coupon going on these days. My specific purpose was to get a new pair of climbing shoes, since I've been going through mine relatively quickly of late.

So, we arrived, I checked out the shoes, and saw (to my shock and amazement) that the La Sportiva Miura's were on sale for 15% off! I asked the guy whether that was on top of the 20% for the coupon, and, rather than saying "Oh, that's a mistake. Sorry!" he said, "Yes, it is." Woo hoo! 35% off of new Miura's, which is nothing to shake a stick at! (Where the hell does that saying come from, anyway?) So, I found the shoes, took them to the register, and was not surprised to discover that the 15% didn't register, though the 20% did. I asked about it, and the manager confirmed that it was a mistake, but honored the 15% anyway.

EMS, you're awesome! Thanks! I got a $155 for $105! I'm happy, too, because (as I stated before) these are the best shoes ever! Once I kill the resole I have on my eVolv Defy shoes (also a good pair), I'll jump right into these!