For the record, here’s what I look like when I’m geeking out with the iphone.
Category: Uncategorized
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iPhone post
This is my first attempt at an iPhone post. I’m still getting the hang of the interface. For extensive typing, the landscape keyboard is far superior. Still frustratingly slow though.
Actually looking forward to being home and resuming normal life.
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Vacation!
Back on the “not irritating my friends with my political views” theme, the vacation is going awesome.
We explored two of the natural wonders of the world on two consecutive days – Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands. Each of them left me with a deep and heartfelt appreciation for the National Park Service, as well as the foresight of the government in protecting those spots. Looked at as a pure capitalist, white sands is nothing more than about 5,000,000 dump trucks full of pre-purified gypsum. It’s like an unemployed pile of raw materials … just laying there doing nothing! I’m very glad that, once upon a time, we had a government that was able to see beyond the immediate commercial value of the raw materials.
In other news, the irritating cough is still with me. I think this marks week 3 or 4 of the irritating, “top of the lungs, with occasional mucus,” cough. redmed has suggested a TB test, in the spirit of justkidding_nr
Yesterday saw us wandering around El Paso and Juarez. I had never walked across an international border before.
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Travels
Last night, while on our way to dinner in the lovely town of Tucumcari, we happened upon a practice of the rodeo team at the local college. They were roping calves … and I gained a new appreciation for rodeo. Seriously. Right where the rubber meets the road, those sporting events are based on real farm and ranching skills. Those kids could ride! Plus, the coach (once we got him talking) was seriously cool! The guy has been flown all over the world as part of the USA rodeo team.
Today, we visited Roswell, NM. Site of strange goings-on about 60 years ago. Some kinda flying thing crashed into a field, a rancher brought a chunk of it to the sheriff, and there ensued some frantic military ass-covering. Somehow this led to a whole town devoted to the sale of alien themed kitsch. Go figure.
I want to believe in aliens. Seriously, I do: The world would be so much cooler and more surreal if we were being observed and occasionally prodded by little green men. Sadly, the Roswell Alien Museum didn’t strengthen that belief at all. It’s a relatively level headed presentation of a bunch of facts and observations that lead me to think that (a) yes, certainly, the government covered something up. Duh. (b) There’s no real reason to assume it had to be extraterrestrial. Ditto with most of the other observations.
I plan to spend tomorrow (Ash Wednesday) in the underworld, at Carlsbad Caverns.
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Tucumcari
Greetings from Tucumcari, NM. We have friends from residency out here. They have 18 acres, 8 horses, three buildings (a house, a barn, and a scary shed). I am beginning to feel confident that they cannot find me here. In any event, we’ll be able to see them coming from a long way off.
To answer judovich, it’s an iPhone, provided by The Company. My job rules.
We visited the Acoma Pueblo yesterday. It’s a spiritual spot rivaled only by Maccu Piccu in my experience. The thought that came through loud and clear was “religions come and go, but this place has been sacred to all of them.” The difference between the two is that the Spanish finished their work of cultural annihilation in Peru … while the Acoma still maintain a shred of their culture.
I need to record more of those thoughts, but we’re going to go ride the ponies now. OMG! Ponies!
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Me
This is what I look like at 11:15pm, busily hacking on a cluster.
In case you care.
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House sale
Looks like we might actually sell our house. We’ve got an accepted offer, and I’m signing the formal purchase agreement this morning. It’s been on the market since October.
I’ve made a request in the closing process: I want copies of all the papers that I’m expected to sign, two business days prior to the closing. My agent looked at me like I had sprouted a second head when I asked for this.
The reason I’m making this request is simple: I’ve closed into two houses and out of one. All three times were absolute flurries of activity … frantic copying … adjusting of numbers. This led to outright fear on the part of the buyers and sellers that “the deal” wasn’t going to happen. It maximized the power of the closing team, and minimized the power of the buyers and sellers.
This time it ought to be simple: If any new papers show up on the day of the closing, I’ll smile and say “okay, you’re not ready yet, I’ll be back in two days.” The deal will still be on, I just absolutely need to have the sale be stable and controlled, not chaotic and frantic.
