Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Unbelievable.

After a while at work this morning, we started talking about what we had done over the weekend. It took a little while to get the conversation going as everyone was groggy due to the blasted Daylight Saving Time, but now there’s more daylight, right?

Anyways, when asked what we did over the weekend, I simply responded that Earl and I had gone to Virginia for the weekend.

“Virginia?”, they asked in unison. By the look on their faces, you would have thought I had just say, “Earl and I went to the moon and back, and since we had some extra time we made a stop at Uranus.”

I think I’ve become so whacked out that I forget that “normal” people don’t drive from Upstate New York to Northern Virginia for a ride in the country. They drive maybe 30 or 40 miles, see some cows, eat at a restaurant or go to a beach or something. And that’s just dandy! Earl and I believe our life mission is to experience as much of life as we can, so that’s what we’re doing.

Anyways, I told my co-workers about Luray Caverns and having dinner and all that. Then I listened with interest as they chimed in with their adventures over the weekend, which sounded equally as exciting but in their own way. That’s a good thing; everyone can’t be doing the same thing, it would just be too boring.

But they continued to look at me like I’m some sort of nut. That makes me proud, as I wear the title well.

3 April 2006 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Luray Caverns Pictures.

Well Earl and I are back froom the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Northern Virginia. It took only eight hours or so to get home, including a lunch stop at Red Robin in Carlisle, Pa. Now we’re settling down and getting some stuff around the house so we can hit the work week full speed ahead.

I’ve posted some pictures from this weekend’s road trip. This was my first chance to use the new iWeb, which is part of iLife ’06. They’re on my .Mac site, which you can see here. Relying on the camera flash in the cavern made it very hard to capture the beauty of it all, so I didn’t post as many pictures as I actually have.

2 April 2006 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 1

Technology.

I am writing this blog entry as Earl and I are in transit on our way home from Northern Virginia. Sometimes I’m amazed at how much technology has really changed our lives and changed society in general. For example, I was able to talk to my sister today while riding between Carlisle and Harrisburg, Pa. along Interstate 81. She was in Toronto at the time. The first time I rode that stretch of road, in the summer of 1976, that conversational feat would have been unheard of. Today it’s commonplace.

Further up the road, I received a call from our friend and fellow blogger Terry. He lives in Michigan. He called to tell us that he is going to be featured Wired magazine next month, reaching the desired übergeek status. Congratulations to Terry!

As I’m typing this blog entry on the PowerBook, I am making changes to our planned trip next month out west and tweaking our route. While doing that, I am tracking our progress along Interstate 81 via GPS. At this moment we are 1503 feet above sea level, with 169.6 miles to go until we reach home. Our expected time of arrival is 18:03 (6:03 p.m.). We are traveling at 70 MPH.

Isn’t technology grand?

2 April 2006 by J.P. Geek 0

The Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.

Earl and I jumped in the Jeep bright and early this morning and headed south on Interstate 81. We headed to the Shenandoah Valley in northern Virginia, ending up at Luray Caverns appropriately located in Luray, Va. These are the largest caverns in the east and I believe the third largest in the United States. Luray Caverns span 47 acres and is a fascinating spectacle to behold with a full spectrum of color to be found in this natural wonder. The tour was about an hour long and took us over 100 feet below the surface. While we were at Luray Caverns, we also enjoyed lunch and tried our hand at the Garden Maze. I’ll be posting pictures when we get home tomorrow night.

After leaving Luray Caverns, we headed north on the famous Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. A breathtakingly scenic drive, we are planning to drive this route again in the fall when the leaves are changing.

We then headed to our room at the Hampton Inn and caught a quick nap, since we must have had too much fresh air or something and were both feeling a little tired.

After recharging our batteries a little bit, we went met up with Thom, a fellow blogger that I’ve chatted back and forth with for the past five years or so. I’ve always been a fan of his blog and it was quite exciting to put a face with the words. We had a great dinner at local tavern type place and enjoyed some great conversation. I hope that we have the opportunity to meet up again, it was a good time. Plus, he has a very wise choice of haircut.

Now Earl and I are getting ready to call it a night. We have a bit of a drive to get home at a reasonable hour tomorrow, but it has been a fully enjoyable day.

1 April 2006 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 2

Carlisle, Pa.

Earl and I have hit the road for the weekend and have decided to call it a night in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This is a crossroads of sorts in the central part of the state, as we are at a Holiday Inn where Interstate 81 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike cross.

We are going to continue south for three or four hours tomorrow morning and check out the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Our primary destination is Luray Caverns, on the recommendation of the manager of my group at work.

Earl and I briefly tossed around the idea of checking out the motel bar, but decided to just call it a night and hit the hay.

I love being on the road.

31 March 2006 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 1

Change of Time.

You’d think that after 37 years on this planet I’d be used to this by now. But I’m not. My life is about to be thrown into a turmoil in which it’ll take me a month to recover from.

Daylight Saving Time begins this weekend.

For as many years as I’ve had this blog (I think it’s almost 5), I’ve complained about Daylight Saving Time. My body doesn’t like it. My mind doesn’t like it. It throws me out of synch with the planet’s natural rhythm. I’d rather fly to Hong Kong and back and endure the jet lag than deal with this time saving nonsense.

I’m always amused when people say we have Daylight Saving Time to make the day longer. “The sun is out longer”, people sometimes say. “Ring ring”. Here that, it’s the clue phone? People. The day is still 24 hours, the sun has not slowed down it’s path across the heavens. We just monkey around with the clock so that it seems like it’s light later.

“The farmers love it because their crops get more light.” To that I say, “shut the fsck up you idiot.” First of all, farmers hate DST as much as I do because Bessie and Henna Hen can’t tell what time it is and they get impatient. Milk and egg production actually goes down for a bit. Secondly, the corn field has no idea what time it is and as I mentioned before, it’s the same amount of light in the overall scheme of things.

So now I’ll have to drive to the Central Time Zone as much as possible to feel back to normal for the next several months. And don’t get me started on that whole Indiana time zone mess that’s going on.

I apologize if I sound cranky. My alarm clock is going off right now because it thinks it’s Monday.

31 March 2006 by J.P. Why. 0

No Deposit. No Return.

This is what I get for marrying a man from out of state. New York has a container deposit law on selected beverage containers. If it’s a beer or soda can or bottle, we pay five cents a piece on top of the selling price and then we are suppose to take them back to the store to get a refund. There’s a rule that applies; a store does not have to accept a can or bottle if it doesn’t sell that specific type of beverage. So even if Hannaford sells Pepsi products, they don’t have to accept 24 ounce cans if they only sell 16 ounce cans.

The other rule that Earl doesn’t quite get is that this only applies to beer and soda. It doesn’t apply to any other beverage. Water bottles, wine bottles and bottles of the nasty Sunny Delight are not returnable, they are to go into the recycling bin.

I don’t agree with the container law. It was a good idea back in 1984 before all the recycling programs of today, but with all the sorting, spindling and mutilating you have to do of garbage before it goes out to the curb, it seems silly to return these select bottles and cans when they could just be recycled.

I tend to get OCD about things like this. I have a separate bin for returnables. I’m considering putting up signs that say “beer and soda cans and bottles only”. I think Earl takes great delight in putting non returnable stuff in the returnable bin.

“Sweetheart, water bottles are recyclable, not returnable.”

“We don’t have returnable bottles in Pennsylvania.”

“I understand that, but you’ve lived in New York since 1995 and you’re a very intelligent man, I would think that you’ve grasped this concept by now.”

(big sigh), “New York”, he responds with a tsk tsk tsk motion of his head.

He then throws a milk bottle into the returnables to make his point.

30 March 2006 by J.P. Love. 0

Driving Enthusiam.

I was recently polled in a road geek forum on how we would describe our passion for roads. Just what was it about roads that piqued our curiosity and interest so much. I answered the poll with a short statement. “I’m a driving ethusiast.”

I love to drive. I love exploring the highways and byways from the seat of my merry Oldsmobile. I find little more relaxing or intriguing than the rush I get behind the wheel of a car. Some people see artistry in the Louvre, I see artistry in overhead expressway signage.

Because I’m a driving enthusiast, I need to feel proud of the vehicle I’m driving. A decade and a half ago, I drove a candy-apple red 1994 Hyundai Excel. Was it the fastest car on the road? Hardly. Was it reliable? When the winds were favorable. Was I proud of it? Yes. It was the first car I had bought new, it was eye-catching and it served it’s purpose well. At least until the transmission died on it.

Fast forward to 2006. I now drive a black 2005 Acura RSX Type-S. Is it the fastest car on the road? Occasionally. Is it reliable? Yes. Am I proud of it? Of course I am! I love my RSX for several reasons. I’ve always wanted a black sports car, I’ve always wanted my vehicle to make a statement and I’ve always wanted to be able to zip in and out of lanes with ease (safely, of course). Because of my pride, I often wash the car two or three times a week. And forget about driving it in the winter. And it’s only been within the past week that I’ve eaten in the car (or allowed someone else the honor) and I’m thinking of abandoning that practice because it’s entirely too risky. The car does not look good with special sauce on the seat.

As a driver I can be rather aggressive. As a passenger, I can be a pain in the ass. Sometimes I pity Earl because I can be a tad bit critical as a passenger. For example, he and I have different approaches on how to drive a stick. I always say that my way is the “right way” because my first Hyundai (an ’86 Excel) had a stick and I owned it for over 254,000 miles and it had the original clutch in it the day it was towed off the charity I donated it to. He says his way is the right way because he taught himself in a Camaro back in 1979 and his method has worked longer than mine. I then counter that I learned to drive stick in a tractor, followed by a dump truck and then finally a Ford F-150 pickup truck (for skill polish) and all he’s driven are cars. By the time we’re done discussing shifting methods, we’ve passed our destination.

And don’t get me started on turn signaling. (I use them, he only does when someone is looking.)

So as I sit at my cubicle today, looking out at the sunny skies and daydreaming about the upcoming weekend, I really shouldn’t be surprised that I’m planning a road trip for this weekend.

Where shall we escape to this weekend?

30 March 2006 by J.P. Drive. 1

Graphics.

You may have noticed that I’m sprucing up the graphics on the site. I just took a gander at the site here at work and see that Windows is rendering the new graphics way too dark. I guess it’s a Windows vs. Mac sort of thing. I’ll be working on it more tonight, please be patient.

30 March 2006 by J.P. Geek 0

Slick.

Yesterday I stopped into a brand new Rite Aid in our area to pick up a few things. I’ve had this little dry skin thing going on under my right eye and on the bridge of my nose for the past couple of months and I wanted to zap it with a little cortizone cream and get rid of it once and for all. I also had to pick up some shaving cream for my head.

I always find it such fun to browse through the Men’s toiletries area of a store. Over the past couple of months Earl and I have been using Axe shower gel to get ourselves presentable. We both enjoy the scent, it’s clean but not overpowering. Well I was delighted to find that this Rite Aid had a new scent of Axe shower gel called Snake Skin. This stuff is da bomb! It has a little bit of grit to it to help shed dead skin cells (hence the name) and it smells fantastic. I love the stuff.

While I was browsing about I also noticed that Rite Aid carries the Headblade line of shaving supplies for men that are BBC (bald by choice) like me. I tried the Headblade a number of years ago and never really got the knack of using it, opting to stick to my Mach III instead. I had never seen any of their other products; they have a shaving cream and a moisturizing cream to use after you shave your head clean. The name of the moisturizing cream?

Headlube.

I love it. It comes in matte or glossy finish. I opted for the glossy since my uncle commented on the glare of my head at supper the other night, I thought I might as well go for the gold. The Headblade shaving cream is pretty good too and has earned a place in the shower, replacing a long legacy of Kiss My Face hypoallergenic stuff that I’ve used for the last couple of years, except when I was out I’d grab a can of trusty ol’ Barbasol that has lived in our bathroom since we moved here.

No one has commented on my shinier head today, but I have noticed a little bit of glare from my reflection in the window near my cubicle. It’s pretty cool.

29 March 2006 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 1

Unbelievable.

Luray Caverns Pictures.

Technology.

The Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.

Carlisle, Pa.

Change of Time.

No Deposit. No Return.

Driving Enthusiam.

Graphics.

Slick.

About J.P.

Meta

All The Places

Pages

Recent Posts

Blog Resurgence

Geek Stuff

Legacy Blogroll