Texas Roadside

Texas is such a cool country. Someone in the government thought that it would be a good idea to put in free wireless internet at the rest areas. I can take a break from driving and check my e-mail because I might miss something important. Or I can blog about those crazy drivers who drive too slow or cut me off. Better yet, I can take a picture of them with my cell phone (while talking on it of course) and then post a picture of them along with some intimate thoughts.

I saw this sign aside the road earlier. It read, "Drive clean across Texas." Most people can read that and know what they were trying to say, "Do not litter." But if you grew up in Texas it means something different, "Drive all the way across Texas." They also could have said, "Drive clear across Texas" or "Drive plumb across Texas," and meant the same thing. I drove darn (pronounced dern) near across Texas once. I stopped at home about 40 miles fom Louisianna.

In addition, I am not sure why I am heading home anyway. There is a lot of cool stuff happening in the Dallas area this weekend. There is the state fair; where I hear folks get shot and whatnot. Also, there is a free air show in Fort Worth with a $10 parking fee. Of course if I was there I could sit in the backyard sipping something cool and see the air show. I have been watching the Navy jets practicing the past couple days. There is also all of that T.O. stuff as well. How cool???

This sign is not from a Texas roadside but it is pretty cool.

niaga

 When hope and dreams are missing
 When hope and faith are wishing
 You have nowhere to go fishing
 You have nowhere to go running

 Ideals are all muck
 Principles are all muck
 Down below you are stuck
 Up above you were stuck

 I haven't won the lottery
 I haven't saved the day
 This is the only way
 This is all I have to say

Anything

Well.. not much has been transpiring. The job search is seemingly grueling. Seemingly, cause other than searching I am spending a lot of time doing not much of nothing. I am being a good American and watching lots of television. Also I am requisitely playing cheeky video games online and trendy games on a platform.

Enough of that. I enjoy going to the farmers market at home. It is nice to get fresh vegetables and fruits grown in East Texas. However, here in the big city of Dallas, it is hard to find such delicacies. I went to the local farmers market and was surprised at what I found. For one thing, there were not any local farmers there. Actually, there were not any farmers nor many people who were local. There were a lot of folks trying to sell you their goods. These vegetables and fruits were the same that you can get at your local grocery store. The price was considerably more than said mass consumer market.

On to something a little more refreshing. Today it is hot, no surprise. Yesterday, it was not hot. That was the first day for it not being hot since around March.

How Cool

Quite Windy in Fort Worth

Of course, it is windy in Fort Worth. But a bit more than usual. It is cool to see the debree, heavy as it is, in the yard being blown about.

Darn the luck, the Google homepage has the ability to add lots of cool stuff. What once was a portal to jump to a web destination has now become a black hole. I spend much time just playing sudoku, pacman, or some other game. Or perhaps I consult not one but two magic 8-balls; and they are magic. (and I almost spelt magic with a 'j' And maybe only I get that joke) And do not forget those wonderful little eye-like balls in a dual colored frame that follow the pointer around.

To speak of the web evil. One can not only have just this one blog on Blogger. One has to have Facebook, Xanga, MySpace, a webpage, and a link to the afterlife or something. You have to have them all and you have to keep them updated. Of course most people just copy and paste; or perhaps something more diabolical that I do not yet know about. Either way, it is something that makes life just a little harder to live. It makes me wish that I could just go back to Rotterdam and sit at my favorite place. My friend, who lives in my hometown, told me I needed to get a Facebook so he could keep in touch with me. I see him all of the time when I am home and we are in the same not so big town. My oh my, the way this society has gone. There are, of course, those who do not at all subscribe to all of this hyper-technology stuff. Unfortunately, I do not have contact with such wonderful folks anymore.

Movie Madness

I was having nothing to do since being back home so I decided to go to a movie. I scoured the internet to find the movie listings for the dollar show (actually it costs $1.50) in town. Much to my chagrin I could not find such listings. So then I checked the listings at the other dollar show (this costs $.50 before 6pm, can't beat that) in town. I did not see anything appetizing there. While catching up with a friend she stated that the dollar show had been shut down by the health department. She then recommended to me the new Shyamalan flick. So I went to the actually a dollar show and watched that film. My friend warned me that this movie was different, even for Shyamalan.

Different than his other films this one certainly was. I think that Night gave himself more screentime and even a vital role than in his other films. Also, I was surprised that this film took place in Philadelphia. I thought for sure Night had gotten over his agoraphobia and was going out to sunny California for a nice pat you on the back kind of a movie.

Maybe this is just me here, but this movie looks exactly like a farce. Yes and in the style of a Shyamalan movie. He is serious (at least seems that way) about everything that he does. So of course it will look like a stright up movie while really being a farce. All of the elements are there. Night also shows disdain for film critics, which coincidentally treated this movie badly. Shyamalan again shows his talent and skill for making a movie while making fun of us.

Il Pleut

The rain is some pretty cool stuff. This past year or so we have not received a whole lot of it at home. In fact, things are rather dry. A lot of the crops are not doing so well this summer. This forces us to buy fruits and veggies elsewhere. They taste a lot better when you get them from someone in East Texas who you know. There has been some rain in the East Texas area but at times it just skirts the area that I live in. It dropped a little more than 3 inches one evening just 20 minutes north of where I live and from there we had no idea that it was raining anywhere. Someone driving through it said they could barely see to drive; almost they turned around and went home.

Speaking of that, it rained in Dallas yesterday. I am over in Fort Worth, not far away at all. It was raining buckets and buckets. Now for those of you who are not familiar with the rain in the South, that is not an exageration. There was inches of water flowing across the ground; that is how it rains here. Over here in the eastern part of Fort Worth it was as sunny as could be; with only a few clouds in the sky.

As I stated the rain is some interesting stuff. I used to live in the Pacific Northwest where it rained about 9 months out of the year; again, no exageration. The rain just kind of floated down from above; quite differently from the rain at home.

Rain is even cooler in November, at least that is what Guns N Roses sings; November Rain is my favorite song from them. The rain is good to go for a walk in or just to hang out in. Well, there is much that can be said about rain but I will leave it there.

I will leave you with a link to a great poem from my favorite poet, Archie Randolph Ammons, entitled
Still.

Weekend at Home

Well my first weekend at home in a while; my third since May. I was not exactly at home, I was in Fort Worth; I have only been home for almost 2 weeks since May. It has been pretty good even though I have been tired. On Saturday, after flying in, we went to the Grapefest in Grapevine. This is supposed to be a celebration of the grape or something. Really it is more of a commumity get-together. If you want to taste some grapes, then you have to pluck up $15 to do so with a 1.5 hour time limit. At the beer tent, they had cheap beer and cheap wine. That is fine, Albertson's has some good wine. Actually, everything at the Grapefest was overpriced. There was a lot of nice things but expensive; like $8 for a necklace made from a bottle cap. The food was good but also expensive. Now for the free stuff, there was a food tent with chefs from TV giving demonstrations. That was great and worth the price of admission.

Also this weekend I went to the Home and Garden show in Dallas. It too had a high tariff to get inside. Unfortunately, we were too late to catch the food tent demonstration. The home improvement tent was okay though. The food was also expensive there. So were the items for sale even though it was the same stuff that can be purchased at Wal Mart. Overall, the Home and Garden show was good. There was a lot of nice stuff to peruse that one would never be able to have in their home; if one could even get a home. There was a variety of things there; like a brand bew convertible Ford Mustang. And what Home and Garden show would be complete without the free packets of Texas wildflower seeds? Also only in Texas are the exhibitors drinking beer. There was a wet bar at this Home and Garden show; overpriced of course. But there were some perks, test drives of the Hyundai SUV. It was a pretty nice vehicle and they gave you a cheap gift as well. It was a desk clock with an electric letter opener built in; how cool is that?

Back Home Again

Again I left Amsterdam and flew home. Flying through London was a little more difficult this time. First, the carry-on is limited. Also, you have to have a physical before getting on the plane. Then, due to increased security mesures, as the pilot stated it, we had to sit on the plane for an hour before departing. Also confusing was 2 flights leaving to Dallas within 10 minutes of each other. I went to the wrong end of the terminal and then had to put on my skates, as the man said, to make it to the proper gate.

I did not want to leave at all this time. But I had to so I will make the best of it. I did not sleep prior to leaving. I instead packed and talked with some friends. The next thing that I knew it was past time to depart so I hurried off to the train station. This time someone accompanied me to the train station. That was pretty cool. Of all the times that I have left Amsterdam, this was the first for someone to see me off. I really appreciated it.

Being back home is not so inherently bad. I do not feel miserable, just like I would rather be somewhere else. The longer I am here, the more complacent that I feel.

Again, Again

Again I have to prepare to leave Amsterdam. This time I am not wanting to go. Packing is no fun but even less when you are not looking forward to the journey. Of course I have not started packing yet; just thinking about it.

I had a good day today. Work was as usual; it was my last shift.. But then I got to go out on a boat with some folks from work. It was fun to cruise the canals of Amsterdam. Also it was cool to hang out and grill some meat.

Hoofdstuk Uit

Well, it seems that it is September again; happens every year. It is a nice time of year. This month the temperature will drop below 100 degrees. Of course where I am at I do not have to worry about such things. Lately I have been working much. I have spent much time at the Shelter. I slept a bunch last week and this week not so much. Not much fun being so tired all day long. I have not had any adventures lately. I guess that last one to Zaandam wore me out or something... Soon I am to go home. I am not really wanting to leave. It is nice here and I have nothing to do at home except look for a job, and look and look. Maybe I will go home and be a bum. And maybe I will go and turn into a 9 to 5 working stiff and forget about all of the important stuff in life and struggle in the rat race like everybody else.