--How y’all doing?Sorry
I’ve been absent for the past few days, but this new job is burning
my ass down.After Friday,
though, the poor man’s boot camp will be over, and my regular
schedule will begin.And
I’m confident all will return to “normal” soon.I appreciate your patience.
--I also appreciate the
excellent advice you folks provided for our upcoming trip to London.A few things were confirmed, I’m now thinking twice about a
couple of previous plans, and I learned new stuff.So thanks!
A little background on our crackpot scheme:
Longtime readers of the site know we’ve always wanted to travel to England.It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid, and
Toney feels the same way.But,
you know, it’s pretty damn expensive, and the whole thing seems
almost impossible to a man with my particular background.As Grandma Walton once
said, “Cross
the ocean?! Why I wouldn't fly from here to Rockfish in one of those
things.”
But over the past few years we’ve started making movements toward
throwing caution to the wind, and just doing it.Yes, we were making plans to be spontaneous.At least twice we set dates, made a grand proclamation, then
got cold feet and didn’t follow through.But, dammit, we’d turned a corner in our heads; we were
freakin’ going… sometime.
Then I lost my job, and a new one turned out to be harder to find than
we’d guessed.Our latest
tentative date was Spring 2008, but that was obviously out the window
too.I mean, I was worried
about my severance running out, and the four of us (plus Andy) being
forced to live in a lean-to constructed entirely of old Yuengling
boxes and Great
Britaintravel guides.
There would be no European vacations in our near future, that much was
certain.
But funny things started happening…Toney’s aunt died during the summer, and for reasons that
remain unclear, she left Toney and Nancyseveral thousand dollars each.It
was a complete surprise; the thought had never even crossed our minds.
And almost literally the day the check arrived, I received an email
from British Airways (I signed up for their mailing list during one of
our previous frenzies), offering incredible deals on off-season
travel.
I showed the message to Toney, we looked at each other, obviously
thinking the same thoughts but not wanting to say them out loud, and
just dropped it.
I’d pretty much forgotten about the whole thing, but a few days
later Toney brought it up again.She
said she’d been investigating the offer, and it was really good.We could basically get airfare, a week’s stay at a nice hotel
in Kensington, and something called a LondonPassthat would allow us entrance into many of the top attractions for free
– all for the price of the airfare alone, during peak times.
I couldn’t believe we were actually thinking about it, but we were.Here I was six months unemployed, with no real prospects, and
we were strongly considering a trip to London.Were we insane?!
Perhaps, but we did it anyway.And
we pushed the off-season designation to its fullest limit; we’ll be
traveling at the very tail end of the allowed period.The hotel gets almost unanimous praise at TripAdvisor, and the
London Passwill save us hundreds of dollars, as well as pounds.
So there you go.We told
nobody, until I got a job.And
even then, some folks thought we were out of our goddamn minds.Like my parents, for instance.
Hey, spontaneity doesn’t have an expiration date…
--Speaking of England,
one of Toney’s Californiabuddies will be over there at the same time we will.Supposedly.Her
husband is now working part-time in London,
part-time in Portland,
Oregon,
and they’re shuttling back and forth a lot.
And the woman is being completely obnoxious about it.She sends Toney emails talking about how she’s planning to
fly “across the pond” again, and will be staying at the
company-owned “flat.”They’ll
be departing “1 December,” and her (buzz-cut dumplin’) son
“fancies” a trip to Stonehenge,
or some shit.
Suddenly she’s as fake British as Madonna. Or possibly even Natalie
Merchant.And until five years ago I don’t think she’d ever set foot
outside Burbank, CA.Wotta douche.
--How’s the new job
going, you ask?Well,
there are good points and bad points, and it’s probably much too
early to have valid opinions on any of it.So, I’ll just wait and see.
One thing worth noting:beginning
next week I’ll be managing seven people, which is something I
haven’t done in a long time.At
my previous job I had “manager” in my title, but I wasn’t
managing, you know, humans.
So, that should be interesting.Is
cruel mockery still a valid management style?I’m not really current on the latest trends…
--Here’s two fresh and
very cool Smoking Fish sightings.
And speaking of the Fish…I’m
going to continue taking pre-orders on the caps until Saturday.Then I’ll total it all up, and get the ball rolling with the
T-Shirt Lady.I’m hoping
to have the finished product in your hands before Christmas, so get
yer orders in now.
--My brain is fried-up
like a skillet-full of Grandma’s scrapple pork mush.I’ll leave you now with a Question I’ve asked once before,
but am going to ask again.
Toney and I were watching an episode of Homicide
a few nights ago, and the detectives were going around asking people
what they’d been doing at a certain time on a certain day, two weeks
earlier.And everybody
seemed to have a ready answer.
That always blows my mind; I can barely remember where I am right
now.So, let’s try it here…Use the comments link to tell us what you were doing at exactly
7:30
pm
on Thursday, November 15.Can
you do it?Or will you be
going into The Box with Pembleton?
Thanks again for being patient during my “training” period.
