Since the beginning of time my family has loaded up one or more vehicles on Thanksgiving and headed to the Robinson Illinois area. Until my mother's older sister died we would go to dad's family for the noon meal then head to Aunt Jody's for the evening meal. Unfortunately Aunt Jody was the one who held her family together and since her funeral mom's side hasn't had a family dinner. After my dad's mom died Thanksgiving and Christmas continued at Grandpa's house until he moved to assisted living then dad's sister's took turns hosting. Now it has passed down to my cousin Mary to be Thanksgiving Hostess. Despite my brother not making the trip from Seattle and my sister and brother in law being sick and staying home there was a larger than normal turnout in Palestine this year. Although I only live an hour from most of the extended family I never seem to get across the river more than one or two times a year and I was shocked when I walked into the Mary's house today. Last year there was a bunch of little kids running around, this year I walked into a house full of young women and it took me several minutes to figure out who they were. I did my best to not gain 10 pounds back today but I probably lost ground. The cold rainy weather put a damper on outdoor activities and with more people once the eating was over things came to a quicker than normal end. By 3:30 mom and I were back on the road to her house.

If by chance the sky unexpectedly clears off between now and 6:17 P.M. there is a 5 minute I.S.S. viewing opportunity with a baby dot tagging along. Atlantis undocked this morning so it is close enough to the Station to be recognized. They will appear over the Horizon in the NW and exit ESE. The highest it will be in the sky is 41 degrees up.

Over vacation I returned to my natural sleep pattern. Monday morning when the alarm went off it took me several seconds to recognize what was going on. Then at work I my eyes drifted closed anytime I wasn't actively doing something. This morning it was even worse I didn't get moving until a second song started playing. Tonight I think I'm coming down with a cold so I'm getting in bed earlier to see if more rest will help.

I was awakened earlier than I planned by Cynthia and Dan getting ready to drive up to Veedersburg to pick up a colt they had bought at an auction yesterday. They left me with the dogs irregardless of the fact I had planned to go hiking at Shades this afternoon. I spent the morning watching recorded programming and about the time I was lacing up my boots they drove in. I'll get a picture of him tomorrow, this morning he was looking a little worse for the sale barn. I got headed north only a little later than I wanted to. The hiking was as intense as I remember it from the old days. I only covered about 4 miles but I am worn out and achy. I have been wearing this old red baseball hat each week and as a judge of the workout I look to see how far down the brim has been saturated with sweat. I reached the end today, the only other time was the 6 miles at a hard pace around the Deam Wilderness.

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All five of the trails I took today required scrambling up or down a rocky creek bed. Although I saw several people with dogs I doubt any of their dogs could climb the ladders like my sister's dog Flynn did.

Returning to my car my cell beeped to tell me I had a message. Milo wanted to meet for dinner at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Terre Haute. When I told him where I was he didn't want to wait that long. I suggested I could be in Brazil much earlier so we got together at a pizza place. When I got home I watched the DVD I had ordered of Dr. Horrible's sing along blog.

Spent a relaxing day at the Jones place yesterday doing nothing constructive. We met the Kicklighters for dinner at the Taj Mahal restaurant before role playing. Bob was busy taking his daughters to a show so he didn't join us from Denver.

We picked up the fight in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington DC. Sturm (Bob's character) had flipped the Demon's SUV onto it's roof then created a dense fog bank. The driver had been incapacitated by being sprayed in the face by Brina (Howard's wife's character) transformed into a skunk. The passenger a pink pus covered thing had emerged from the vehicle and been attacked first by Lucky (Mark's character) who attempted to break it's arm, then Father Bartley but his sword had not penetrated the shield spell. Horus (Howard) cast a holy light spell which dissipated the force field and did minor damage. Lucky hit it in the back of the knees and knocked it to the ground and Father Bartley took off it's head. Brina jumped onto the over turned SUV then transformed into an elephant and attempted to crush the roof down and trap the driver. As Father Bartley stepped up to the SUV he was slammed in the back by the demon he thought dead. By rocking back and forth on the SUV Brina was able to pop out the wind screen before she transformed into a tiger and pounced on Bartley's attacker. It went down under her weight and she started shredding it but only found pink goo. The driver recovered from the skunk spry blasted the door off and crawled out only to be hit with a slow spell by Horus and Lucky began playing gamelan music to control it. Brina transformed into a badger and started burrowing through the demon but it grabbed her and hurled her down the bridge. The earth softly caught her to her amazement. Recovered, Father Bartley used his power to toss the pink thing into the air where Sturm blasted it into bits with a lightning bolt. With the green frog skinned demon safely controlled, Father Bartley questioned it about the big plan. It allowed him to see mankind being neutralized by a catastrophic volcanic eruption before it died on him. They then started researching super volcanoes and found trace magical energies around all seven.

I had heard about the full size reproduction of the Parthenon in Nashville from more than one source and wanted to see it since Howard first told me about it. I got directions to Centennial Park and headed there to see for myself.





From there I headed North to the museum at Fort Campbell home of the 101st Airborne. Unfortunately it was a lot more complicated to get onto base than when the family went to the Patton Museum at Fort Knox when I was little. You have to got to Visitor Control at the main gate wait in line and provide ID, registration for you vehicle and proof of insurance. After almost an hour I was issued a pass and cleared to enter. Some of the most interesting artifacts they have on display were looted from Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" by members of the unit. As I was slowly moving through the displays reading Howard called and asked what time to expect me which caused me to start moving more rapidly and before I was done they called over the P.A. that the Museum would be closing in 10 minutes. I drove back to Evansville and met the Jones' for Sushi and slept on the couch.

I drove into Chattanooga this morning and had lunch at The Fox and Hound but Rhona wasn't working. I really enjoyed their French Dip and Au jus sandwich. Hopefully they don't open a restaurant in Terre Haute or the last year of weight loss will be out the door. The sky was overcast all morning and looked like it would start raining any moment, so instead of going to Lookout mountain I headed into the city and visited the Arts district and the Aquarium. When I emerged the sky was bright blue so I took the inclined railway up Lookout Mountain and visited Point Park. Then watched a little show about the Battle of Chattanooga. I have never studied Civil War History in depth, but I do have some knowledge yet I never realized Chickamauga was only 10 miles from Chattanooga.

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Tomorrow the Nashville Parthenon then the Ft. Campbell museum to see the Atomic Mortar.

Day 10, done.

I kept thinking about the leaves on the way down but never remembered while I was writing. Headed down through Southern Tennessee and Georgia at this time of the year was like slowly rolling time backwards a month. Midway through Tennessee all the leaves had fallen but the further I went the trees hadn't lost their brown leaves then colored and at the bottom of Georgia everything is green. Today was autumn in high speed.

I decided since the shuttle got up yesterday that I would take the day and visit Epcot and the Animal Kingdom. I paid $14.00 to park then walked to a ticket booth but when I saw the prices I turned and walked away. Sure I could afford $79 dollars for one park or $131 for a single day park hopper pass but I was by myself and didn't feel like shelling out that much to spend the day alone. I drove past Universal but couldn't see anything of Hogwarts. I hit Atlanta while it was raining at rush hour. The only thing good about that was I found a radio station that was playing all good uptempo dance music. Even through all the holdup I was tapping my foot. They were playing everything from Super freak to I've got a feeling and in the hour and twenty minutes I was listening to them they only played one song that I didn't personally like. I don't often talk about dance m usic because I've been playing it for so long but a good uptempo dance song takes my mind off problems and makes things better. Tomorrow I plan on seeing Chattanooga. bg_editor and family have told me there is fun to be had. Besides that when eeknight ran use through a Vampire Earth play test, Chattanooga was the setting and I want to see where I was forced to annihilate the Tennessee Youth Regiment to get a Kurian.

Day 9, done.

(written Nov. 16 unable to post due to Motel Internet going down.)

For once luck was on my side, the first shuttle to launch without a single delay in several years and I was there. I got up before the sun and headed to Kennedy and left as the sun was setting behind the rocket display. I can’t remember who told me I had to get some Astronaut ice cream but I’ve got a packet. After an abbreviated tour and an overpriced cheeseburger I went out to the viewing area and took a seat. The thin overcast broke up and right on time Atlantis climbed above the trees and ascended into the black on an intensely bright plume which TV or my photos can’t accurately reproduce. Several seconds after we saw it the rumble washed over us. It was loud but due to distance and trees it wasn’t the intensity I wanted. I will still place it in the column of good days in my life.

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Day 8, done.

T minus 18:20:etc hours and so far so good.

I didn't fill up at the gas station across the street from the Motel this morning. I should have, $2.29 per gallon was the lowest I've seen the whole trip. I waited until the tank got low and paid $2.69 a gallon. Just past Orlando I missed an exit off 408 which is a troll road but I was past the last booth and it turned into a normal city street. I got turned around and started back but on the west bound lane there was no off ramp so I had to go back into troll territory. The first off ramp I took I had to have exact change but I didn't, I'd already used all my quarters, there was no attendant and I only had $.43 in coins. I had the choice of setting there looking stupid, back up the off ramp or option #3. I ran the $.50 booth and when I got onto the on ramp had to do the same thing again. Now I'm a wanted felon on the run from the man.

Before I checked in at the Motel I went to the Kennedy Visitor's Center to familiarize myself with the route I'll be taking in the wee small hours of the morning. Early for me anyway, 2 years ago I would have argued that 6:30 only happened once a day. After checking in I asked about a good but not to fancy a seafood place, since it was just me. I was directed to Florida's Seafood way over on Cocoa Beach near the Ron Jon Surf Shop. On the trip over I crossed three different causeways. Crossing the middle one which has an elevated draw bridge in the middle I looked off about 12 miles to the North and in the fading light could plainly tell the Vehicle Assembly building and Atlantis bathed in white light waiting for tomorrow. I wish I hadn't left the camera in the room. The restaurant was very good and very busy, but service was fast so they were turning over tables in a hurry. Because of her allergy I won't be able to get near Milo's daughter for a month after the variety of shell fish I ate.

Now I wait for sleep.

Hopefully I will post pictures tomorrow.

Day 7, done.

At 2:54 when I woke myself up coughing and wheezing, I realized I had forgotten to take a Zyrtec yesterday morning. I resorted to using my inhaler to get my lungs calmed down so I could get back to sleep. Once the day had begun officially bg_editor, his kids and myself play tested the Milton Bradley HeroScape game Master set. They have two variations on the rules Basic and Master; we played Basic because I wanted to get on the road as early as possible. The game comes with terrain building pieces which are fun unto themselves; after we were done with a game the kids started building their own maps before I could get out the door. In the basic rules you were limited to only moving one unit of your force per turn which was easier but I saw much greater possibilities. Howard’s team defeated my team when the game was called for the Basic rules 12 round limit. It would have been a miracle for my side not to have lost anyway, the opposition had started by placing units with ranged attacks on the high ground in the opening round. They were then able to snipe at my side’s mele fighters. One of these days I won’t blindly grab the Samurai figures and not read stats.

After the game and lunch I got on the road at about 1:00 my time. I stopped for fuel in Henderson and again North of Chattanooga and am currently at a motel in Macon, GA.

Day 6, done.

I woke up this morning with great intentions of getting packed and being on the road to Evansville early. I wasn't planning on going to my mom's house and putting in the new mail box but what could I say when she called and asked if my sister had a post hole digger. While we were out to get quikrete and lunch I thought of the fact that it frequently rains in Florida and bought a real rain coat. If I'm going to be waiting Monday from before 9 until 2:28 I want to be dry. I got packed and headed South by 4:30 and had dinner with the Kicklighters.
Role playing tonight the team rescued Father Benito from his imprisonment and heard the first mention of "the spork." After returning to Maine they found out from their contact in Chicago, Carl Kolchak Jr., that the forces of darkness were heading out of town. They put that info with what they had learned in the Vatican and decided they needed to capture and interrogate one of the Demonic puppet masters behind President Cheney. As the fight got started Bob's skype connection dropped and since it was late everyone decided to call it for the night.

I'll be on the road tomorrow but not as early as I thought since Howard has asked my help play testing a game for a Black Gate review. Since I don't have to be in Florida until Sunday night how can I say no.

Day 5, down.

The day started with talking the chief engineer through cleaning the news editing system at the station. The conversation was irritating because he kept losing signal. I took the Vibe into town to have it's broken windshield washer fluid tank replaced, apparently no one noticed after I hit the dog back in June. When they were done I drove home and started the first load of laundry. While it was washing, I ate lunch then walked 2.5 miles with all four of my sister's dogs. Back at the house I moved the first load to the drier and started a second load. I drove into town a second time to make a deposit and pay my Discover card bill then drove back home. Just as I was turning off the highway the chief engineer called me and asked if I could go to the station and check out a problem with the spot server. Nothing seemed to be wrong when I checked it, so I headed home. I moved the second load of laundry to the drier and started a third. I went to mom's house then drove into town with her for supper and to buy her a new mail box. In the last 4 years she has had 5 mail boxes destroyed. I want to rig a claymore to it with a g-shock fuse and see who is laughing after that. When we got back to her house we watched Jeopardy then I drove home and finished laundry. I checked the internet, commented, chatted and now I'm posting.

Day 4, done.

Yesterday evening my mom asked what I was doing today. I said, "laundry or whatever. Why?" She wanted to go to a state park I'd never heard of named Clifty Falls, and located down by Madison. So we went today. If you like water falls they have at least 5 of them in the park. The flow was a little anemic today and on top of that I made one of my classic blunders. I pulled the memory card out of my camera on Sunday and neglected to notice when I grabbed my camera bag this morning. So after snapping away from several different vantages and moving to the second falls, then going back to the car to switch lenses and hurrying back to the smaller falls I had a palm to head moment. After we had walked a couple of the shorter trails and made our way back to the car I grabbed a second card out of the camera bag and ran back to the big falls for a few quick pictures.



Everyone at the station except myself seems to be playing Mafia Wars and or Farmville on Facebook. If you search the apps though you can find Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures. It is very simplified and only remotely resembles role playing, you select a character type, name the character then send it on adventures. You come back later and see how it went. The adventures are broken down into encounters and it tells you what the outcome was. I sent my character forth this morning before I went forth myself and when I logged on tonight I found the following encounter.

Secundus approached an old man guarding a rickety bridge spanning a deep ravine. The old man refused to let Secundus pass until he answered a riddle.
  Secundus made an Intelligence check with a difficulty of 15 . . . and rolled 7 
Secundus failed to answer the riddle correctly and was magically flung into the gorge. Luckily, he had grabbed hold of a vine and was able to climb out on the other side with only minor scrapes and bruises.
 
Secundus took 5 damage.
 
Secundus received 21 XP.

All I have to say to that is, "Blue no red.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Fade to black with the cackle of the old man from scene 24.

I got the oil changed so the Vibe is ready for the drive Saturday. After that my sister has Tuesdays off so we loaded her four dogs in her Jeep and took off. We went to the Fowler Park nature center about 2 miles from home for a bit of hiking.  Unfortunately the trails are in need of a visit from a chainsaw so there were a lot of slow downs as we climbed over or made our way around fallen trees. It was a good hour and a half workout. After that her freind and her and my doctor Alana came to ride. Her two daughters were with her because the younger one was feeling sick. While their mother and my sister went riding I played host to the girls and we ended up watching The Incredibles. For dinner my mom and I went to the Outback so she could have some of their French Onion Soup. I was once again reminded of how bad her memory is getting when she asked how work was, not once but twice during the evening.
On the way home from her place one of my former clients called with an emergency. He works at a Construction company and they always try to save money so Larry uses their server as his workstation and he got infected. It's one of the growing trend of malware that gets onto your system, then masquerades as a security program that finds your computer is infected and keeps flashing pop ups telling you to buy their software to fix the problem. bg_editor can tell you how much fun they are. I gave him some steps to follow and he didn't call me back so hopefully he got it cleaned out. I don't want to drive up to Clinton on my vacation to fix a computer two years after they should have found somebody to replace me.
The rest of the evening I watched Monday's Big Bang Theory and read.

Day 2 down.

I didn't get out of bed until after 9. My ankle was sore from twisting it yesterday so I decided to let it recuperate today. I ate some breakfast, scheduled an oil change for my car then sat on the couch to watch episodes of History Channel's Ancient Discoveries and Engineering an Empire from the DVR. That finished all the unwatched material so I channel surfed for a bit before I started the laptop. The internal debate over the lens still rages. If I buy the 400mm will I ever get that much use out of it to warrant the cost. If I do see Atlantis launch the lens would produce much bigger better images. I have to decide in the morning or it'll be to late.
The central vacuum made funny noises and had no suction when my sister tried to sweep Saturday so I took a look at that this afternoon. It seems the motor has died so I took it with me and went into town on a quest for a replacement. The motor is still available but costly enough I'll let her decide it's fate. While I was out I ate lunch at my favorite little taco place. True they're not very authentic but they make their own hot sauce and over the years I have developed quite a taste for it. When my younger brother got married 10 years ago I almost got a jar of it to take out to Seattle for him. I got as far as asking about it when they told me they make it fresh daily and don't put any preservatives in it.
By this evening the ankle is much better so the alarm is set for normal time in the morning.

Day 1 down.

I guess everyone felt that this might be their last chance to get out to the Park for the year. There were more people at Turkey Run today than I have seen in all the other Parks combined. I opted to cross Sugar Creek on the suspension bridge and start with Trail 3. Unfortunately it seemed that everyone else was doing the same and that means because I don't want pictures full of other people and their kids I didn't get many good photos. Trail 3 is labeled Very Rough on the map and leads up the sandstone canyon of a flowing stream. In places it is only wide enough for one person to walk by straddling the flowing water and with the mass of people all trying to keep their shoes dry I had to abandon trail 3 as soon as I came to the start of trail 4. 4 is moderate and for some reason not many other people were taking it. I got to pick up my pace and followed 4 then 8 and back to 4 and out to the suspension bridge where I started. After the hoping around from rock to rock and negotiating flowing water on 3, I ended up stumbling over a root hidden under leaves as I was cruising along 4. All together I did at least 4 miles but it's hard to say for sure with the amount of trail jumping I did. I would have liked to go further but I didn't take into account the time change when I didn't leave home until 1:00. Next time I want to visit Shades if the weather is good when I get back from Florida.

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I actually fell asleep quickly once I turned out the lights last night.

My shower drain has been slow for the last couple of mornings so I took care of that and then gave the bathroom a thorough scrubbing before taking off this morning. I ended up having lunch by myself at the Trojan Horse in Bloomington but passed on the Saganaki, because what's the fun of yelling, "Opa!" by yourself.

I returned home and got ready to watch episodes of Doctor Who recorded by my DVR from a BBC marathon a month or so back. Unfortunately instead of everyone's favorite son of Gallifrey I found six hours of Antiques Roadshow and although interesting that was not what I wanted at all.

I was on facebook this evening and found one of the guys I used to call friend going all the way back to kindergarten. After I clicked the add friend button and he accepted I had a notice I was tagged in three pictures. When I went to check that out I found our K, 1st and 4th grade class photos. That was a hoot. I should still have all those tucked away at mom's house somewhere if she hasn't thrown them all away. I guess I need to find them and start a digitizing campaign.

I was looking for a new longer lens for my camera before heading to Florida next weekend. Last year before I went I got a 55-250mm zoom and at 6 miles the shuttle on the launch pad was recognizable but didn't fill up much of the shot. The question for myself, "How much do I want a bigger image?" A 70-300mm costs $536 that I can easily handle but do I go bigger. The 100-400mm low end Professional lens for $1,595.95 would be nice but hurt a bit more. The real Professional stuff between $5,000 and $12,000 is completely out of the question. Apparently Sports Illustrated has a couple of 1200mm lenses worth $120,000 each. I wonder if they'll let me borrow one?

I closed the shop door behind myself this afternoon and hopefully won't see it again for two weeks. Because I'll be in town next week there is a chance they'll call me because Adobe sent the station a letter saying they want to audit our software and licenses.

I headed down to Evansville for dinner and gaming. The part time member of the group, Mark, is back on the roster so we had to create a character for him then get that character into the team. If he'd only been in for one session I would have given him the role of crazy Father Benito with the spork of power.

Now I've driven home and it's after 3:00 and I'm sitting here wide awake.

The mother of one of my former colleagues from WTWO died Friday. Because Sarah is one of a very small number of on air people who are worth the time I drove to Booneville for her mom's visitation last night. and it turns out if you've heard the news about the nurse in Evansville who died of H1N1, that was Sarah's mother. She went into the hospital with flu symptoms and deteriorated so quickly that they requested an autopsy to get a better understanding of how the virus affected her.
Since I was in the Evansville area I called bg_editorto see if he and the family were home from Hawaii and ready to see visitors. They offered food and then his wife showed me around Overlord II and I didn't get home until 12:30.