Day 1 - Northern CA

After the disappointment of not having J coming on the trip (it was just 2 friends going on a trip together, but who knows where it might have lead), I drove up to the hotel, which was just a wee bit further than I thought it was. OK, it was a lot futher. It was close to 300 miles from SFO. It was a beautiful ride up Hwy 101, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and the road went on forever.


Finally around 10:15pm PT, nearly 22 hours after I left my apartment, I arrive at the hotel. This hotel was more like a trailer park. They had cabins, and I got a deliverance vibe as I pulled up. I found the place on the internet, and needless to say it didn't look nearly the same in person as it did on the website. Exhausted, I crawl into my cabin/trailer and go to sleep.

When I awoke, I went of exploring the town, and find that it's a small fishing community nestled in with the Redwoods.

I walked down to the water and found a beautiful little beach.
After an hour or so of walking around, I headed back to the trail, and off to the redwoods.

J Pulls a "Kevin" plus a bad start to Vacation

I guess that it was a long time coming. I finally got burned by someone doing what I do so many times. C always used to say when something didn't happen because of a lack of planning or an assumption of time off that it was a "Kevin". J and I had planned a getaway. It was planned for the time between the end of the MLB Regular Season and the start of the Championship series. Because of the one game playoff, she ended up having to work. She planned to the come out a day later. Not so bad. The planned trip was to fly to SFO, drive up to Redwood National Forest, stay at a lodge on the water for a few days, tour around the redwoods, drive down to Napa, hang out in wine country for a few days, then head to SFO and fly home.

Now to the bad. I fly predominantly on one airline for work. I take advantage of this when I go on vacation and use the miles that I earn to fly for free. That airline changed the type of aircraft 2 days before the flight, and I ended up bumped off that flight and accommodated on a partner airline of theirs, albeit with a connection. Not too bad, I'm still flying in First Class for free. I knew it couldn't be that easy.

I went to check in online and couldn't. This has happened before, so I'm not worried. I go to the ticket counter the morning of the flight and find that I'm not in First Class, but in 23C to Atlanta and 44B to SFO. I'm able to get to change my seat to 44C, so not nearly as bad. The next shock comes that I have to pay to check bags. When I fly my carrier of choice, I don't have to pay for the first 2 bags, up to 70lbs each. Now I'm paying $50 to check bags on what was supposed to be a free first class ticket. I question the Delta agent, but it's not her fault and there's nothing that she can do. She's just following the rules. I'll save that for when I get back.

I fly out to ATL and sleep through most of the flight. On our decent, I wake up and realize that I have Dish Network for free on this flight and think things are looking up. I deplane and head for my connection (40 minutes to change terminals at ATL) and didn't have time to pick up something to eat.

I get on the plane, and see once again, Dish Network in front of me. This Delta thing isn't so bad. Then come the announcements. There will be a meal, available for purchase. Then, since I'm in the last row of the aircraft, by the time they get to me, they don't have what I want. They ran out. I purchase my $3 mini pringles can and consider myself lucky for getting anything (and a free drink). The Flight Attendants come through again, and start at the front of the Cabin again, and once again, the person in row 43 bought the last of what I would have wanted. To myself I think maybe they should have started in the back of the cabin this time so we got first pick instead of running out AGAIN before getting to the last row.

I deplane in SFO, and hear that J thought that she was off from work, but didn't take vacation and now had to work during the week. She was very apologetic, and truth be told, I understood. I also now truly understood how so many others felt when I put them in the same situation. It just wasn't after they spent 10 hours flying.

A little to the left, a little to the right...

Let me preface this by saying I am truly an Independent. I typically identify as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I know what you're saying- Basically I want everything but don't want to pay for it.

Last Friday, I was driving out of town and searching the radio for a local traffic report. I ended up stuck on the Jay Severin radio show and was appalled at what I was hearing. I couldn't believe the hate this supposed patriot was spewing. He was taking facts and bits and pieces of news stories to make them support his points. He didn't bother to mention the rest of the story. He was blaming Democrats because some schoolteacher somewhere had their students sing a song about Obama. This is the only place that I heard about this, but I'm sure it's true. What he didn't say was that it was possible that it was ONE schoolteacher that did this. It's entirely possible that the teacher was actually a Republican who was trying to elicit this response from the right side.

I'm not giving the left wing extremists a break either. I think that they can be just as bad. They also spin facts into what ever suits their side.

My brother-in-law (a staunch right-winger) sent an email forward of Lou Dobbs criticizing an illegal immigrant amnesty bill last week. I was watching this video and realized something wasn't quite right with it. First, I hadn't heard anything about a new amnesty bill. Second, there was no mention of healthcare or Obama. Third, the graphics on the screen wasn't the current look CNN was using. The clincher for me was reading the ticker at the bottom of the screen and seeing that the national average for gas hit a new all time high for the 11th day in a row at $3.21. The video was actually from August of 2007, about the previous administrations proposed bill. My Brother in Law, like so many other Americans took what he was sent, and immediately sent it out as gospel, vilifying Obama and the Democrats saying can you believe they put all of this in their bill...

Please people, do your own research. Don't just accept what you hear or read is fact. Once again, we're all contributing to the dumbing down of America.

Breaking my coke habit.

Starting tonight, I'm facing my toughest challenge head on. I'm quiting coke cold turkey. I've done this for a month or so before, but this time it's for real.

It is with great sadness that I must announce that I will be severely limiting my intake of Coca-Cola. It has served me well over the years, keeping me awake. I do enjoy the taste, but it is no longer playing nice with my body. I am afraid that if I continue to consume massive amounts of this great beverage, I will bedome a diabetic. I've known this for a long time, but it is finally time for me to do something about it. If you have any stock holdings in the Coca-Cola corporation, you might want to sell first thing in the morning. I'm sure I'll be impacting their bottom line. My coke habit at times reached (2) 2Liter bottles a day.

The one saving grace for Coca-Cola is that I've never participated in the mycokerewards.com promotion. Can you imagine all of those points I'm missing out on?

Yes, I'm OK -- Why do people keep asking?

The inevitable happened. C got engaged recently. I knew that t would happen, and I am really truly happy for her. I wish her and her fiance nothing but the best. What I can't stand is the question that I get when I mention it to people.

Without fail, EVERYONE has asked "Are you OK with it?" The answer has been yes every time. Frankly it's rather annoying to have to answer that question. After the 10th or 15th time, I've wondered what people would say if I responded "No, I'm not OK with it. "

I think that C was pleased at my reaction to the news. She knows that when my friend K got engaged for the first time my response was "Congratulations, but it's not like you're going to marry him." It was one of those things I just felt in my gut that there was something wrong there. A year later, the engagement was off. I never once said "I told you so. "

Honestly, over the years have I wondered what if? Yes. I think that everyone has about a relationship in their life. After wondering though, I realize that everything is good the way it is.

I hope that everything happens the way she wants it to. Unfortunately, a wedding day can be one of the most stressful days of ones life. Everyone has their ideas with what they want your wedding to be like, and often they don't mesh. She's looking for simple. Her mom will want grandiose. After all, it is her only daughter getting married. Knowing what is more than likely coming, I'm advocating an elopement with a celebration back home afterwards. C always joked that she just wanted a pig roast in the backyard.

The last wedding I went to may have been the best out of the 24 I have been to. It was a simple beautiful service on the James River. There were 90-100 people there, and the reception was in the same spot. The bride looked beautiful, and everyone was having a good time.

C will be a beautiful bride. Her fiance is a lucky man. I wish them nothing but the best in the year leading up to the wedding, and the many many years to come.

Old Pictures

I'm going through old pictures now and made some realizations. First, I used to be thin. I look much better when I'm in between thin and where I am now. Second, everyone looks so young in all the pictures of the weddings I went to. I've never been to that point in my life where I know i've found the person I want to marry, but I wonder how all of these "children" could possibly know what they're getting into for the rest of their life.... It's interesting....

CNN and the Inauguration

Two quick items that are on my mind now-

First, CNN was rated third amongst networks for their Inauguration coverage. This means that more people watched CNN than CBS for Obama's swearing in ceremony. How sad for the Tiffany Network.

Second, I'm sitting in the airport watching CNN Headline News and they just had a commercial for a CNN branded Obama inauguration T-Shit. How can a news organization pretend to be objective, yet look to cash in on the celebrity of Obama? More on that later.