Road Trip

I had to run down the road yesterday to my old home of Greenville, SC to take care of a few things. It also gave me a chance to take the lil' pickup on a road trip to see how it held up. It did great. I love to find an excuse to have to drive through the beautiful mountains.

Hotel Upgrade

My life has been a practiced art of simplicity for the past year and a half. I just realized that I am upgrading and I can barely stop myself. I don't want to get soft or lose my edge. I want to remain content with what I have yet strive to have more...more experiences. I still appreciate the little things like a nicer hotel room. So today I changed hotels. You might remember my former residence, the place where armed policemen were pointing their guns at my home. I doubt that will happen here. This place doesn't have balconies, all room entrances are on the inside. I didn't realize what a roach motel I had been living in until I came here. Here is the Comfort Suites. But to me, it is such a step up that it ranks better than Hiltons and Marriotts I have stayed at before. Mainly because my expectations are much simpler now. And to tell you the truth I don't know when Comfort suites became so nice, but I am impressed. First things first, they have a pool. And it is really hot here. They have a full breakfast buffet, not cold cereal and doughnut holes with tang, like my last place. And this place really is a small suite. I have a king bed with a fancy comforter, a desk, a sofa (with pull out bed) fridge and microwave, real tile in the bathroom. I don't have to toggle the lever to get the commode to stop running water. I can't hear my neighbors. I can leave my curtains open because I don't have to worry about someone walking right by my room outside. I get complimentary membership to a local gym while I stay here. Previously, I couldn't find a place that would give me monthly memberships in town and daily rates at the gym were $10/day, so this is a really nice amenity. I get a daily newspaper. I can have both my pets in the room for a small additional fee. I am literally across the street from work so if I forget something or need to change clothes it is very convenient. I am in heaven. I only wish I had taken more pictures of the interiors of places I stayed before so that my readers could fully understand my drastic change in environment.
I am in the process of getting bus fixed so I can live aboard it again, but for now I am going to enjoy my vacation quality home.

Here are some pics:
Notice here that there are two mints on the bed, shortly after this picture there was only one...and a dog with a guilty look on her face.

Rooftop

Eric and I went to the roof under the guise of doing work, instead we snapped some photos of the mountain sunrise. I haven't had a picture of myself updated on here in some time. And Eric, whose nickname in high school was 'The Green Mile'. He claims to have benched 750lbs. It's probably true. He has freakishly big shoulders. It's like someone stuffed volleyballs under his skin at the top of his arms.

This is where Eric is going to punch the darkness til it bleeds daylight.
And this picture will be used purely for blackmail purposes. Tuck your feminine side back in big boy.
Me, looking man-orexic in comparison.

July 4th

I am sitting here in my hotel room knowing that fireworks will be going off in about a half hour. I may muster up the energy to step out of my room to watch for a little bit. What I really want to do is rest. This is my first real weekend since Memorial day weekend that I have not had to work. I don't even notice until the lack of some real down time catches up to me. I slept probably 18 hrs yesterday. I will sleep a good 12 more tonight. Just so I wouldn't develop bed sores I left the room today and went to a local Water park, where I played beach volleyball, swam around and worked on getting rid of my farmer's tan.
I have been surfing craigslist again...now I am on the hunt for a boat. I thought about upgrading my current run around vehicle to a Jeep CJ like I use to have, but the idea of the boat is gnawing at me. I have owned a boat for about 10 years straight and have gone without the last couple of years. The fever to own one again has returned. My cash only policy on purchases and my certain standard of the kind of boat I want have kept me from buying one so far (I have thought long and hard about buying a V-hull john boat with a 35hp motor, but I don't think I would find satisfaction there). I don't know if I am going through a classic phase (my bus is a 1972, my jeep was 1974) but the boat I have my eyes set on is a 1968 Correct Craft Mustang ski boat. It's a little 16 ft beauty with a V8 motor. The sound it emits has a throaty, deep, muscle car quality to it. Here is a low quality pic of the boat.
If fortune smiles on me, I should have it by next weekend.

And as a side note about next weekend. The young lady who sold me the pickup truck was quite attractive and interesting. So I decided to ask her out. She was surprised, she thought that I was calling about the brakes on the truck (hmmm...note to self-check out the brakes on truck) She didn't expect me to ask her out, but luckily she was agreeable to the idea.
And let me use that little story to bring up another interesting anecdote. Many of the laborers I hire are younger (early 20's). One of the girlfriends of a new hire, I found out later, was asking all kinds of questions about me. When I was being retold this story, I felt a little bubble of pride swelling up, thinking to myself 'yeah, I still got it'. Then I was told of the backhanded compliment she gave me. "He's pretty hot for an older guy". Older guy?? Who is she calling older guy? She's 23. Excuse me while I find the aisle where Just for Men is sold.