Cry Baby!

I can't believe at this time last week I was lamenting about being overly tired from too much vacation traveling. This is only my fourth day back at school and I am ready for another extended vacation, or how about a sabbatical year?

Don't get me wrong. I love my job. The problem is I love sleeping in late, taking afternoon naps, eating and drinking too much and staying up late even more.

It hasn't helped that each day on my commute from suburbia there has been a major traffic accident. It is tough enough to have to rise before the sun is up, but then to sit in traffic inhaling toxic vapors just because the whole city forgot how to drive this summer is not my idea of a good time.

A list of bad traffic behaviors that piss me off:
1. Tail-gating. If I can't see anything but your front windshield in my rear view mirror you are to close. Back-off. If you were following me that closely walking on a city sidewalk a jury would acquit me for acting in self-defense after I had blown you away with a 12 gauge shotgun.
2. Signaling after your turn is completed. That blinker is to be used to signal your intent to change lanes. I already know when you have so rudely cut me off; I don't need you to then turn on your signal just to remind me.
3. We are moving along well at 80 mph and one set of brake lights come on; who are the idiots that then have to dodge across four lanes of traffic so they won't be caught in a slow lane?

There was a comedian that once promoted the idea that every driver should have a powerful rubber dart gun with darts that said, "Stupid" on them. Whenever a fellow driver pulled an obnoxious boneheaded stunt you were allowed to shoot their car with a dart. At least that way when you saw a car coming, bristling with "Stupid" darts, you would know to get out of their way.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

I haven't had a true summer vacation since elementary school. I'm talking about that total excitement of being out of school, a summer spreading before you without end and not a worry in the world. Those long, hot, lazy afternoons, sultry nights catching lightening bugs, searching the night sky for shooting stars. You get the idea. One of those idealized kid's summer vacations. A summer vacation that began with anticipation, swimming every afternoon in the the river, continued with poison ivy and chiggers and ended with the complete boredom that renewed us for a new school year.

I had five whole weeks this summer: no clinic, no teaching, no students, no administration. The perfect time to experience an an old fashioned dream vacation. But noooo... what did I do? I tried to cram everything I had been planning to do for the last ten summers into one summer vacation. Now I am totally exhausted. I need a vacation to recover from my vacation and I have two days before the fall semester begins.

I did make a summer promise (sort of like a New Year's resolution, made to be broken) that I would work more on my blog. That is enough for now, so be prepared to hear about more of my summer adventures, the best and worst of a summer odyssey nearly shot to hell.

I will get some pictures up on flickr soon, I promise.

Over and Over Again, My Friend.

Fuck the Goal

I have to finally face reality with my web log. When I first started blogging I set a high goal for myself.

I wanted to be able to paint pictures with words just like the photographers I had traveled with in the Central American highlands. They were able to capture their subjects in photos. I wanted to expand on that and use a word palette to capture on paper the feelings, the words, the meaning of places. I have failed.

In the mean time they have succeeded in capturing on film (electrons) what I can’t seem to express in writing. I invite you to visit their websites. Some of you long time UMKC Kangaroos will know at least one of them.

In the mean time, I am resolving to continue my website. But don’t look for excellence or even mediocrity. It will just be me.