On the road again, what a Caddy is really for, the Bridges of Madison County, Turning a blog into a

Well, I made it to Kenosha, WI alive – again.  Since the flour mill in Kenosha was built (11 years ago) I’ve spent an amazing amount of time here.  The mill is huge capacity wise, and there’s been like 6 startups here along with all the changes and expansions over the years.  Basically, I’ve been here often enough and long enough I could easily call this a second home.  (And, I do sometimes come back with the Wisconson accent after being here too long, don’t cha know? 

I’m a firm believer that objects have personality and soul.  It’s created by the energy that went into thier creation, and the function those objects serve.  Cars tend to have more soul than just about any other object you can find, IMO.   Problem is, too many people buy a car for something other than it was created.  Right now, I’m driving a 1992 Cadilac Sedan DeVille.  Most people would hate this car for day to day driving.  Some people say it’s too big, and uses too much gas (name that tune   What people normally don’t experience is a Caddy when it’s doing what it’s designed to do:  A long road at 70 mile an hour.  You point the Caddy in the general direction of where you want to go, and put the hammer down.  It will handle the rest of the job for you.  It’s at home on Interstate 35, not on Douglass. 

The Caddy I’m driving is no exception.  It sat unused for 4 months, and my father in law (Doc) and I worked on it, changed out the plugs, fixed some damaged caused by a rat that got in the engine compartment (a farm without mice or rats is pretty abnormal – too much loose feed laying around to resist), hacked on this and that, etc.  Considering what it is, and how old it is (it as 257,000+ miles on it) it runs amazing flat out, and is pulling in 21 miles per gallon.  Not bad.

While there are other vehicles in that particlar class of cars, only the Caddy does what it does.  A Lincoln, for instance, is horrible as a trip car when compaired to a Caddy.  I’ve owned one.  Ug.  The Amanti I used to drive tried to be a hybrid at both, but, managed to be a great in town car, but only a decent trip car.  The closest to a Caddy when it comes to trips is an LSH.  I can’t quite understand why so many cars have been produced that are Caddy knockoffs and yet no one has managed to really capture the soul of a Caddy after all of these years.  (one of the advantages to traveling – I used to rent A LOT of cars, so I got to check out what all of ’em got right and got wrong 

One of the things I’ve got a bad habit of doing is never stopping to smell the roses when I’m out on a job site.  This time, I decided to stop along the way.  I’ve driven past the Bridges of Madison County for years now, and always think “Hey, I need to check that out some day”.  Screw it, I stopped and looked at one of ’em this time.

Well, ok, it’s not THAT impressive – buy they are kinda cool looking.  But at least I stopped and saw something this time 

I am, of course, a freak for energy drinks.  But I’m pretty old skool about it – Jolt is still my first and favorite energy drink.  Unluckly, it’s also damned hard to get ahold of these days.  While out on the road, I disovered a Jolt Dealer with a new product:

Oh baby yeah – that’s the stuff.  Instead of those small weenie normal cans o’ pop, these things come packaged the way they should now – in huge sizes!  And it’s even packaged cool now – they modeled the can after a battery (can’t see it real well here.)  Ok, I’m contacting Wet Planet to see what it would take to get Jolt Cola, Jolt Blue, and Jolt Cherry Bomb in the store.  I want my Jolt! (This also means you will frequently see me moving around the store at a blurring pace   And yes, I actually am driving 70 MPH when I took that picture.

The disappointing part of this trip so far:  I had planned on writing a book along the way using iListen on my Mac to dictate it along the way.  Something freaky is happening there – if I use it in the hotel room, iListen works fine.  If I use it in the car, it completely freaks out.  Even if I turn off the air, stop the car, and only have the car idling.  WTF?  I need to get that one figured out – I’d really like to get that done while I’m on my trip.  13 hours of dictation would go a long way towards completing that particular fantasy of mine!  (Hey, having a published book would be just plain cool 

Instead I ended up listening to music, singing with the radio, etc.  Eh – still not a bad thing.  A little relaxation time on the road goes a long way towards me keeping my sanity 

So, one of the things I do in real life to amuse myself if make musical and literary references.  Really.  In the middle of a conversation, I’ll use a line out of a song just to see who’s paying attention.  90% of communication is how you say it, not what you say.  So, more often than not, my references get tottally missed, or are too obscure for anyone to notice.  Great example of this is Alice’s Restaraunt.  I make one particular reference to it often “implements of destrutction”.  One day I was talking to my partner Greg, and mentioned “What did they give me?  Hell, I had to pay 50 bucks and pick up the trash!”  He looked at me oddly, after having laughed at a number of my quirky little references (to Greg’s credit, he listens to what people say closely sometimes – few people do) to Alice’s Restaraunt over the past year working together on GamerZone.  I finally had to explain to him the reference.  Why the hell did he laugh at ’em before if he never knew what the references where?  Anyway – I do it all the time, and some people do pick up on it at least subconsciously – you can see thier eyes change as they try to place what they just heard me say.  One o’ those “that sounds familiar” type things.  I have had people flat out say “Isn’t that a line from…” before, but I’ll bet there was only 3 people in the last 2 years of GZ life that have done it 

Here’s the deal – I’ll give 15 minutes on the account of the first person who can name the title and artist (remakes count, so no need to worry about if that was the original or not) of any one of the musical references I make in my blog.  But – I’m not going to point out the references (well, I did this time – but that’s the only time I’ll do it  – Google would make the job of finding the references way too easy.  You’ll just have to pick up on ’em as you’re reading   And if you don’t have a GZ account yet – no worries, I’ll keep track of ’em and when you do get your account I’ll put the free time on there.  I wonder how many people will actually notice?  Hm – this should be fun 

Ok, I’ll close this with one last thing – a song (no, this doesn’t count towards teh GZ Blog Game .  Getting out on the road for a couple hours almost always requires that I play this song  – it so describes the relaxation and soul rechage I get from being out there by myself:

If there’s one thing in my life that’s missing

It’s the time that I spend alone

Sailing on the cool and bright clear water

Lots of those friendly people

And they’re showing me ways to go

And I never want to lose their inspiration

Time for a cool change

I know that it’s time for a cool change

And now that my life is so prearranged

I know that it’s time for a cool change

Well, I was born in the sign of water

And it’s there that I feel my best

The albatross and the whales they are my brothers

It’s kind of a special feeling

When you’re out on the sea alone

Staring at the full moon, like a lover

Time for a cool change

I know that it’s time for a cool change

Now that my life is so prearranged

I know that it’s time for a cool change

I’ve never been romantic

And sometimes I don’t care

I know it may sound selfish

But let me breathe the air, yeah

Let me breathe the air

If there’s one thing in my life that’s missing

It’s the time that I spend alone

Sailing on the cool and bright clear water

It’s kind of a special feeling

When you’re out on the sea alone

Staring at the full moon, like a lover

Time for a cool change

I know that it’s time for a cool change

Now that my life is so prearranged

I know that it’s hard for a cool

Cool, cool change

It’s time, it’s time, it’s time

It’s time, it’s time, it’s time

For a cool, cool change

Oooooh, I know it’s time for a cool

Cool, cool change

Now that my life is so prearranged

Well, I know, I know, I know, I know

That it’s time for a cool change

Yes it is, yes it is, yes it is, yes it is

It’s Time for a cool change

— “Cool Change”, Little River Band

Yeah, I’m a freak that likes “oldies” just like everything else (which reminds me that I have to say thanks to Massaker for introducing me to a couple new musical pieces – now I if I could only remember the name.  Crap).  I really want to find a blues band or something someday to set in and sing with, just for the sake of having some release for the musical portion of my mind and soul (hehe – now, the question of “talent”… that’s a different story.  I may have music in my soul, but I’m not so sure the talent really goes with it.  Plus, my singing range is pretty deep – ZZ Top’s Jesus Left Chicago or La Grange are good picks for me, but very little else is 

Hrm – I guess I’ll add one more thing (since, you know, my blog entries can never be long enough   I have a pit bull up for adoption:

His name is Mac, and he needs a good home.  He loves people, hates cats (well, except he loves cats in his mouth.  Not a good sitation for the cat!)  He’s house trained (actually more training than most – you can also set him up a litter tray and once he knows it’s his, he’ll use it), follow simple commands well (sit, lay down, etc.) and generally loves playing with people. Since my next thing is to sell my house, I need to get him a home.  If you know anyone who wants a great dog, holler – he’s free.

Davis, Gamer Zone