+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Transitional ponderings
In "Travel 7/10: Mountain spring, fall into winter" on May 19, I wrote about Oregon, "It's a nice place to visit. And, you know, I just might like to live here." To the astute reader, this may have provided a hint as to something I've been thinking about for a while. . . (more)+ 3 - 1 | § ¶Leaving AT&T
I just discovered that AT&T has billed me for the past two months, even though I have made precisely zero long distance calls. It used to be that months I made no long distance calls, AT&T didn't even show up on my phone bill. Also, they are charging me $2.95 to send me a bill on paper, even though I haven't received a bill on paper in months; I pay on-line. The past two months, they have charged me $16.51 and provided no services to me whatsoever.Therefore, I am leaving AT&T, and I encourage anybody who uses AT&T to check their phone bill very closely to see if you, too, are being charged for services which were never rendered.
davidh
+ 4 - 1 | § ¶Travel 10/10: Minneapolis to Indianapolis to Peoria
Recounting my adventures at MSP, on the flight to Indianapolis (IND), and on the way home. . . (more)+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Travel 9/10: Spokane to Minneapolis
Recounting my adventures at GEG, and on the flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP). . . (more)+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Travel 8/10: Portland to Spokane
Recounting my adventures at the Portland airport (PDX), and on the flight to Spokane, Washington (GEG). . . (more)+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Travel 7/10: Mountain spring, fall in winter
Got to see more of the wonderful nature of Oregon today (Friday). Vistas, waterfalls, mountains, and a fast-food cashier with a hearing problem were among today's items of interest. . . (more)+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Travel 6/10: "Once more, unto the beach"
I got to see the Pacific Ocean today (Thursday). Sehr kühl!Walked along the beach for a few minutes, then took off my shoes and socks and wandered in just for a bit. Cold! Cold! But it was worth it to say I've been in the Pacific. :-)
The part of the beach we were on was near the "D" River, the world's shortest. (At least, I think that was the name. If I'm misremembering (quite possible, since it's 1:03am PT, or 3:03am CT), I'm sure Peter will correct me.
Took several more pictures. Not sure how well they'll turn out, but I'll hope for the best.
The path from Peter's place to the beach was very windy, going up and down hills. Lots of sharp turns and steep slopes. Would certainly take some getting used to, I think, but somehow the locals have managed to figure it out. Saw a mountain from a distance; tomorrow, Peter and I'll be going to see Mt. Hood, which will be my first mountain! Even the hills around here are much larger than anything I've seen in Central Illinois, so I can't wait to see this!
Some other things I noticed (or was told about) along the way: There are a lot of used bookstores along the coast (there don't seem to be very many around Peoria, and I only know of two in Bloomington-Normal, one each in their respective downtown areas). Lots of Christmas tree farms around here. Payless Shoes was, for a few years, known as Value Shoes in Oregon... there was an existing business called "Payless" which prevented the shoe store from using the name, but apparently that company went out of business, unencumbering the other company from using the name.
Ate lunch at a fish place called Mo's. I had the halibut, which was a new fish for me (I knew that I liked many types of fish, such as perch, cod, and catfish) and didn't like others (such as salmon), so it was a little bit of a risk, but I was able to add halibut to the "like" category. :-) Though I have no point of comparison with this species, I can say that this place did a very good job with this fish. The bread served with the meal was nice and big, though somewhat ordinary. Fries were pretty good. I also tried clam chowder, for the first time to my recollection. The taste was okay, but it was difficult to chew and swallow, and I didn't finish it. So I guess clam chowder would be added to the "maybe give it another try, but there's no rush" category.
We also went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. Got to touch a sea anemone and a starfish, which was pretty neat (notes: sea anemone's tentacle is kinda sticky; starfish's skin was fairly hard but with a few softer areas). Saw lots of seals, sea lions, rays, sharks, assorted sea birds, and various other creatures. I've seen most of these before, but not as many of them (there had to be at least twenty or thirty sharks in that tank), nor as close-up. I got a souvenir for my mom, and a shirt that I'm fairly certain will produce squeals of joy from at least two Psi Phi members when I wear it to the next meeting. I'm not describing it here, though, to avoid ruining the surprise.
I may have more to add about Thursday later, but I've really got to get to bed if I'm going to be well-rested for my trip to Mt. Hood in the morning.
davidh
+ 4 - 1 | § ¶Travel 5/10: Tuesday and Wednesday in Oregon
Didn't do very much at all on Tuesday, at least compared to Monday. Watched some movies while Peter was at work; went food shopping (my tastes are unfortunately very narrow compared to just about everybody else I know), had spaghetti that Peter fixed, and watched "Navy NCIS" and the pilot episode of "Century City" in the evening.Wednesday was more eventful. Watched "Fantasia 2000" in the morning, then Peter came home from work early and we got to play several games, the most interesting (and longest-lasting) of which was "The Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit". The endgame, after we'd both finished our pies and headed toward the center, seemed to take forever. Roll after roll after roll, we'd keep missing the center. I tried to aim for the brown sections (Filmmaking, questions about behind-the-scenes-type stuff) when I could. Peter ended up winning, but I was this || close to winning when he did. :-)
I also visited his church, which was a good experience. The songs were all ones I hadn't heard before, and since only the words were projected onto a screen, not the music, I had to just kind of listen at first to figure out the rhythm and melody.
Coming up tomorrow: The Pacific Ocean. Ooh, aah. :-)
davidh
+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Travel 4/10: From Intermediate Destination One to Portland
I started out in the time-event format from before, but this was a long flight, and between takeoff and landing there was a long gap of time where there wasn't much to do, so I went back to the free writing format. . . (more)+ 4 - 1 | § ¶Travel 3/10: Interlude
While I was waiting at Intermediate Destination One, I decided to actually do some full-sentence writing about my experience so far... adding a bit of personality to it, not just the facts and figures (though there are a few of those included as well). Here is that writing, with paragraph breaks added. . . (more)+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Travel 2/10: From Indianapolis to Intermediate Destination One
This recounts the events while I was actually in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is where the really blogworthy stuff begins. :-) Read on. . . (more)+ 0 - 5 | § ¶Travel 1/10: From Peoria to Indianapolis
I did a whole lot of writing today. The on-paper kind. So I'm going to transcribe it all, sticking as close to the original formatting as possible, though I may fix writos and re-format paragraphs (since I didn't paragraphize a lot of the full-sentence stuff in order to save paper). I may also add notes in italics. First up, my notes from Monday morning, between Peoria, IL and Indianapolis, IN, which are essentially just times, mile markers, and events. If you aren't planning on the entire David Henderson Experience, you should probably skip this one and just read the others. . . (more)+ 4 - 1 | § ¶Turning a bad situation around
One door was closed on me Friday night, rather suddenly and unexpectedly, and Saturday afternoon, another one was opened for me. I'm not driving with Aaron to Alabama; instead, I'm flying to Oregon to see Peter.This is a pretty big event for me... it'll be my first time flying, and I'll be doing it by myself. I'm a little nervous about that... not in a scared-of-flying sense, but in a new-experience sense.
I'm going to leave from Indianapolis, Indiana, and I'll transfer flights in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota before going on to Portland, Oregon. On the way back, there will be an additional stop in Spokane, Washington between Portland and MSP. That'll be three new states (I've been to Indiana before, most recently over Thanksgiving weekend 2003 for the sci-fi convention), and though it's less than the five I'd previously had planned, it's still a pretty good amount for just one week. Also, I'll get to see the Pacific Ocean, and an Ocean beats a Gulf any day. :-)
Since I'll be flying instead of driving-slash-being-driven, I'll get to listen to probably nearly all of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" on unabridged audiobook. I've been listening to that for the first time over the past couple weeks, on my way to and from work, after having re-listened to "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" over the previous couple months. One of the interesting side effects of listening to these books instead of reading them is that I don't know how to spell many of the names, or at least those that didn't appear in the movies. For example, I tend to think of the Eorlingas as the "Eolingas", since the narrator doesn't really emphasize the "r". Though I had the opposite problem with the Harry Potter books... for quite some time, I thought Professor Trelawney's name was "Trelorney" because the narrator of those books adds an "r" sound to the middle of the name.
Hmm, I seem to have tangented quite a bit from the start of this entry. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this trip, and I'm sure it will turn out much better than the other one.
davidh
+ 1 - 3 | § ¶:-(
Aaron has left for Alabama.+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Packing up and heading off...
Tomorrow morning, Aaron and I are going to start on our journey to Mobile, Alabama. We'll be driving down, and we'll go through Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi before arriving in Alabama. Other than Missouri, this will be my first time visiting those states, even if I will just be passing through.I'm really looking forward to seeing Dave again. As I've mentioned in previous entries, Dave is the guy I bought my house from. He also used to be my Sunday School teacher. He's very much a sci-fi geek, and he's a good friend, though I haven't talked to him very frequently since he moved down to Alabama in 2001.
Also, I'll get a chance to see Melissa in her "natural habitat", so to speak. That should be interesting.
One of the things we (Melissa, Aaron, and I) are planning to do is visit New Orleans for a day, so that'll be another new state for me. I'm a bit nervous about having a meal in the French Quarter, since I prefer simplicity in most food (for example, I order my hamburgers plain, just beef and bun, no ketchup, onions, lettuce, etc.), and French cooking tends to be, at least from what I've seen on television, very complex and full of many ingredients, a lot of which I don't like. Now dessert, on the other hand, should be exciting, since I like lots of ingredients in desserts, and I've heard that French pastries and such are very good. There should be a lot of things to see there, though.
It looks like there will be some rain down there; according to weather.com, rain is currently expected Sunday through Monday and Thursday. At least it should be warm.
I might be able to post updates while I'm down there, but I might just save everything until after I come back. We'll see.
davidh
+ 4 - 1 | § ¶Rude awakenings?
I was awakened this morning by the sound of the phone ringing. Well, that's not quite true... I was in the "oh I don't want to get out of bed it's warm here it's cold outside" semi-awake state before that. But around 7:40am my phone rang, and that immediately woke me up fully, because nobody calls me that early in the morning unless there's some sort of emergency.So I hopped out of bed and ran to the dining room to pick up the phone, only to find out that it was a wrong number. Alas!
Rather than get grumpy about it--after all, I had to get up sooner or later; this was just sooner--I decided to make the best of it and get ready for work anyway. I got to catch up on E-mail before I went in to work, so I still got in around the same time as usual, just with a little additional productivity in the morning.
This, by the way, can be an argument against using a cell phone as a primary means of telecommunication (though it doesn't speak one way or the other to using both a cell phone and a real phone). Had I a cell phone instead of a regular phone, it's very doubtful that the early morning ringing would have had the same psychological effect of making me think "Oh no, something's wrong!" and gotten me up. There's just something about a bell being struck by a clapper (yes, my home phone has a real bell inside) that sounds more important than a recorded sound effect generated by a speaker.
davidh
+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Random rant
If you have a cell phone, when you're eating lunch out with someone and the phone rings, it's really not polite to have a fifteen-minute conversation with the caller right there in the restaurant. The proper thing to do, in my opinion, is to tell the caller that you're having lunch now, and ask if you can call them back later. (Obviously there are exceptions if it's an emergency or something extremely urgent, but that was not the case in the rant-inducing incident.)One of the reasons I desire to never ever get a cell phone: It corrupts your sense of what is polite and what is rude.
davidh