Entries this day: Adios_Sarah Barboursville Elizabeth_walk Ohio

Adios Sarah

7:51am EDT Monday 7 October 2002

I heard Sarah and Barbie awake, getting Sarah ready for school. I realized I needed to tell Sarah bye, since I'll be gone before she gets back from school. I gave her a hug as she was headed out toward the bus. "I'll be leaving today while you're at school."

"Shoot. Now I won't be able to play wif you when I get home."

"Yeah." Holy shit I cannot believe she took it that well. "Okay, have a good day at school, buddy." I've been calling her buddy a lot and can't really explain why.

I thought she would throw in my face that we hadn't taken another walk that I promised. I thought there would be much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Nope. Only "shoot" and I'm thankful.

I think she'll be pretty much at least in high school when I see her again.

Barboursville

8:41am EDT Monday 7 October 2002

Barbie is leading me to the Jiffy Lube in Barboursville, but first a stop at the bank (no story), and now stopped at a full service gas station. No story here except that it's the first full service station sign said "ALL CIGARETTE CARTONS STATE MINIMUM PRICE OR LESS"

That's funny.

I'm with Barbie now after dropping off Scott at Jiffy Lube. Anthony, the cat who remembered my car description after I had called him and asked about a T-tech service (change the transmission fluid without dropping the pan), came out and talked me through the details. $26 for oil, $79 for T-tech. Then the cat in the garage was all "it's a standard."

"Oh, we can't do a T-tech on a standard." The service we can do there is blah blah blah and it costs $29."

Okay. I expressed my concern that Buffy at Oak Forest had told me that I ought not disturb the filings in the bottom of the transmission cause if they're stirred up, that will start fucking up the gears and such. He said, "well there's a magnetic drain plug that will attract all the filings to it so that shouldn't be a problem." The cat in the back office who was listening without interrupting nodded is head in a way that said, yes, that is the correct answer for that concern.

"Excellent. I'll trust you guys know what you're talking about cause I obviously don't."

With the lowered price, I went ahead and added flush of radiator since I'm almost due for that. Yay Scott!

9:09am

Oh shit. Hilarious. Guess where we are eating breakfast.

I'll give you a hint, it's not super healthy.

Tudor's Biscuit World

Nice.

Elizabeth walk

4:34pm EDT Monday 7 October 2002

Walked about 2 miles each way on the railroad tracks with Elizabeth, discussing love/hate vs indifference, childhood scar stories (she fell out of barn, I busted my head on skates), nature of god and life on earth and karma and such. Excellently worth the time after 12:00 noon that I hoped to leave. "More like noon than 5pm, but the only thing that would keep me here is a long walk with anyone who wants to go." Woke up Elizabeth and we went. She's awesomely fun.

Walked with Cordie and Sarah to the pond where Sarah fished with a bit of a lure stuck on a stick. Didn't catch anything.

Hugs from peeps except Elizabeth when I left. Barbie would not watch me leave. I heard Sarah crying in the background as I was driving off and Elizabeth was all, "wait wait wait wait! You have a sock monkey! I just bought materials to make a sock monkey."

Nice.

Thank you, West Virginia family. I look forward to seeing you again, but I don't know when that will be.

Ohio

6:02pm EDT Monday 7 October 2002

Driving to Ohio now. I've been driving for a bit. Like 60 miles or so. Just stopped at BP Amoco for $1.489/gallon gas.

1915 miles since dallas. Next on the list of funny place names: Uranium Enrichment Plant

8:22pm

Now I have arrived in Ohio. So thankful for the most excellentness of everyone to put me up on such short notice. I'm really thankful for that.

9:04pm

We just watched the last bit of Fear Factor. What a silly show. Now Katy is watching Everybody Loves Raymond.

Just saw a commercial for Survivor, which reminds me of a prediction made by Joe McMoneagle, that suggested the survivor shows will eventually become long adventures that include business negotiations, cultural immersions, geographical challenges, etc.

10:38pm

Wowzers. Very interesting the emotions that come up in this scenario. I've just dropped in on my aunt and step uncle with one day's notice and they really wanted to be super accomodating. I certainly don't want to have *not* seen them, but I also just wanted to see them and not get super royal treatment. I finally had to just say "go to bed" to Madeleine as she was showing me the food in the refrigerator. "If none of it is off limits, then I can just wing it in the morning."

Katy and David had to go to bed and be up early, so I hugged them bye; I won't see them tomorrow. Actually I just hugged Katy. The twins had already gone to bed.

- - - -

These guys are so awesome for giving me a warm bed on such short notice.

The plan for tomorrow is to see my cousin Pete for lunch, and then for me to head on to my next stop, Oberlin.

It's been a week now since I've been internet connected with this computer.

10:44pm

The floors in this house are very squeaky.

Good night.