November 15, 2004 - Monday | 3:36 PM, CST As I write this, I'm listening (or was listening) to a hail of gunfire from the woods surrounding my house. For a while, I stuck my head out my bathroom window and listened to the rhythmic sound of human footsteps trudging through the fallen leaves on the forest floor. Although its not my property, and its none of my business, I still don't like people *I don't know* firing off high power weapons so close to my house. If someone is shooting by me, I much prefer to know them and know what kind of firearm sense they have. Plus, I really don't approve of the sport killing of animals. As many of you know, I rather enjoy what I call "critter hunting." This is not as aptly named as it sounds, and should probably be considered critter harassing. The thought of going out and shooting an animal, however much of a "nuisance" it may be, and leaving it to rot on the ground fills me with such a sense of abject waste that it nearly sickens me. For this reason I am highly selective of the people with whom I critter hunt. Yesterday brought two quests, of sorts. The first was with the family Nathan. To go on a quest with the family Nathan, you must first know the Middle-Name Game. Instead of calling you by your first name, its your first and middle initial. Thus, Matthew becomes MC, Nathan becomes NJ, and so on. But because I do not remember the middle names of all of the members involved, I will use my own version of the middle name game, which is a blending of the Nathan middle name game, and the Zach Meadows title game. Allow me, if I may, to explain. A few years back, members of Zach's family came to be known not by their names, but by their relation to Zach. Thus, we have Momma Zach, Papa Zach, and Baby Zach (also known as Zach Jr., or Little Zach). But you get my point. Slowly, this started to encompass other friends as well, and I can remember the following conversation with Nathan in his dorm room in Olivet some years back. The previous day, he had called or ICQ'd with a request to visit the shop and find a few papers he had set on his father's desk. I was told where they were, what time I'd be expected, and so on. I came at the appointed time, but there were problems, which I will relate in the form of the nearly forgotten Olivet conversation below:
Me: Here is your papers. So there you have the the explanation of my version of the middle name game. For the purposes of the story, I have written a character list which will indicate to the reader the name of the character, and his/her corresponding nickname and thus initials.
Momma Nathan: MN As I said before, Sunday will be divided into two quests. The first quest was to facilitate an introduction of CN into the world of Ford truck Helling. Now, because CN repeats what he hears verbatim, PN and RN were concerned that we should temporarily change the name to Hilling, to more appropriately describe what we intended to do: bring out massive and mighty Ford supercharged blamshit motors out and test them against the elements, particularly on muddy hills. Our first stop would be the Earl Park park. Yes, I know thats redundant, but what the hell else can I call it? There we intended on having a picnic, or however way you want to look at it, a parknic. RN and I believe MN made some sandwhiches, and added bags and cans of factory produced food. This rode in RN's newest blue truck, along with MN and CN. PN rode with Me, and we communicated back and forth via CB radio, thus indoctrinating CN also in the forms of FCC approved radio traffic. After the parknic, we made our way to the Scheff railroad station, but stopped first at a concrete railroad bridge to take pictures. Noticing a trail that led from the road to the bridge, I shifted my truck into four wheel drive and climbed the hill, followed by RN's crew. This made for a very interesting picture of the trucks forming a double-header over the stream below. The steep hill and loose railroad gravel proved to be too much for my long truck, and my rear bumper became caught in the ground on the way up the opposite slope. I had to be tugged back onto the road by RN. At Scheff (thankfully there were no hallucinathans this time), we had quite a bit of fun running the trails, and forging new ones of my own. PN and I found a small tree which had been cut down, and used my chain to tow it through the hills and trails. As we were doing this, CN radioed to us their situation: stuck in a mud pit! We unhooked our passenger and went over to find RN and crew with the front of the truck mired almost a foot and a half deep in thick, sticky mud. I have included two pictures (Picture 1, and Picture 2) for your viewing enjoyment. We then explored our surroundings better, and headed for home where I could start my second quest. Originally I had intended on bringing Art to assit me in my search for Tina. Tina and I used to e-mail each other frequently, but a few months ago she quit renewing her internet service. I called her a few weeks back and invited her to one of my last campfires, but she was already in bed and couldn't come. She invited me the next weekend for a visit, but I had plans and resolved to call her at the next earliest opportunity. The next earliest opportunity found me receiving a "This number is no longer in service" for both her cell phone, and her parents' house. Puzzled, I called Mandy for news. She had none. Art, like a pussy, chickened out because of extensive homework. A quick phone call brought the vile Nickler into the fray, and we were soon headed for Demotte, IN. I hadn't been to Tina's house in nearly two years, and all times before that I had trouble finding the place. Usually we'd meet at a gas station on the highway for a visit, and she'd lead me back to her house. With traffic heavy, and the light fading, we searched (successfully to my surprise) for her parents' house. The car in the driveway looked familiar, so we got out and went to the door. I could see an older couple, as well as a young man sitting in the living room. None of which I recognized. I knocked. Come in! This always is slightly uncomfortable to me. Being invited to enter a house where I do not know the residents. They seemed startled when I entered, and I asked "Does Tina live here?" Yes, but she's not here right now. No, they don't know when she'll be back. Oh, you used to work with her? Yes, we'd be glad to give her a message. I wrote "Where have you been?!?!" on a piece of proffered parchment with the provided pen, thanked them and apologized for the disturbance, and made my merry way back to my Mattmobile to meet a marvelous meal at Monicals. It was a fun day. Oh, and Suzanne posed the following puzzling question:
Today in my A & P class we discussed the parts of the nervous system and started talking about the limbic system. One of its parts is what controls smell and memory to name only two. This got me to thinking about how important smell is to people. How many of you have a smell that reminds you of someone, something, or someplace? A song can take you back to a moment smell can too. Was just wondering if any of you would like to tell about yours... |
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