White Lightning Axiom: Redux

To start with, PT just busted me up something fierce This past Friday. I was in no mood to do anything after that so I was fortunate in that we had company down and the Tyrants were willing to pass up swimming and Dodge Ball Friday to go and harass our guests. While I did house chores, the rest of the horde went off to do a bit of bowling at the local Brunswick Zone. Better them than me, of course. I've been laying low from TSD for the last few days hoping the issue with my chest would resolve to a tolerable level of pain if I just let it be for a bit. Seems to have worked. I'm within operating tolerances now so as to be capable of working off that 1000lb of red meat I've yorked down since last Friday. And there is this, a short piece from the Mrs this past Friday:

Jake was too comfortable this morning and wasn't too happy with me waking him up this morning. He was complaining that his dream wasn't over yet. I asked him what he was dreaming about and he said with a smile on his face "Looney Tunes" so I asked which character and he replied "The one that shoots". I told him that when he goes to sleep tonight that he can finish his dream.

That's my boy! I'm hoping he would not pick Yosemite Sam or Elmer J Fudd though.

The actual weekend was fairly busy. It started out with a birthday party at Elmwood Zoo in the morning. You may have noted that I have had low expectations of the zoo, ever since I noted this in my previous literary attempts last year. The zoo is pretty much a set of pens that were put up and anything that happened to be in the area was made to be the population. Porcupines, fox, and such. Lots of listless goats, ponies are available for e-coli incubation. The rest of the day was of a much higher caliber. We took a little hike out to the hinterlands of Pennsyltucky ... somewhere near Centralia ... to a wondrous (but extraordinarily difficult to find) place called Knobles. It is essentially the hive for carnies. A bazillion little rides that you barter for entertainment by providing little slips of paper with notations of '20 cents' or '2 dollars'. So, you get into the park for free and only pay to go on the rides. Perfect for adults who, like the Mrs, retch at the thought of turning around too fast to look behind oneself. Provided you have some vertigo lovers in the group for the shorter children, it can be a rather entertaining outing for all. I was particularly interested in the 'Hot Dog' ride. Yes, the eateries scattered about the park who would lure in patrons with a zen for high fat and super-saturated sugar beverages were never more than three steps away. I do believe I managed to hit all of them except the 'Rib Station'. Yeah, not enough time or stomach capacity. Did I mention I gained a few pounds over the weekend? Oh, and it is perfectly fine if you bring your pets. I noted quite a few dogs of every shape and size, but not too many cats. Lots of NASCAR fans, and a significantly high ratio of skin to tattoo prevalence. After wandering about whilst I ruminated upon a bottomless bag of kettle-corn, we finally exhausted our booklet of 'ride-money' and implored our Tyrants to allow us to depart. It's a 2.5 hour trip out there and for some bizarre reason, it took nearly the same amount of time to get back! Arriving at the gateway to the Domain in which the Haupertonian Empire is geographically located, we, the party of hungry little ones and adults of exhausted extremes, decided to lunch upon the fare available at the local all night diner. Heart-burn city. I had some steak and eggs with a side of bacon and some pizza fries. A few more calories than I really needed at that time of the evening, but hey, it's a vacation and I'll pay my dues later ... right? Now, of course, I'm paying for my decision to kick the can down the road and it is a heavy price to pay. But I am vehement in my dedication to shed this obstinately persistent lardage. Really! Sunday, you know, the day of rest, I conducted myself to do absolutely nothing about this 'dedication' and attended a KOC event in KOP regarding my 4th Degree in the Knighthood. So, now I am a 'Sir Knight'. I can say no more other than there was A LOT of free beer and snacks. It was nearly for naught since I managed to pick up the sheet from last year's ceremony and drove to the wrong place. The Valley Forge Convention center was about 3 miles away from the event location this year and my 'double guess jeopardy swag' allocated an extra 15 minutes for such a mishap. I called the mrs and she gave me a general direction, the whole commute was finished before we disconnected. BIG THANX TO THE MRS on that save. The whole day was pretty much shot.

Monday, I got things done on what is supposed to be an Armed Forces day of memorial. (Side note: Thanx to all the guys and gals out there from the Revolutionary war [in our back yard no less!] up through our deployments today) Changed the oil, filters and topped off the fluids in the POS Supersaturn SL1 ... Attila watched me and was AMAZED that Daddy could do mechanic work. Especially when I drove the car up on the ramp: "Daddy is so COOL!". I should have had the Mrs record that particular display of parental celebration, I may not hear anything like that when she gets to those nasty teen years. I did get the lawn mowed, some weeds pulled, the remaining mulch spread, grass seed planted and a bit of bamboo transplanted from the easement (where our municipal groundskeepers mowed it down) to more appropriate locations along the back-50 boundaries. Oh, and the Mrs returned the Wii that she had bought ... going to make an equitable exchange with Big Little Bro for his unused unit. I wonder if he would like a couple of Mammoth sized cyber-hounds in exchange.

Oh, and that recent dip in oil prices. Interesting, no? The price of oil goes down and what happens to gasoline prices? They go up. You think it may be that we still have a problem with speculators? W are burning less gasoline now (demand down) and oil supplies are going up so that whole semester in Macro Economics tells me that something is not quite right here.

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