This weekend was big times. We went to the Subaru dealership, signed some papers and they gave us a new car (there was something about monthly payments in there too , but I wasn’t really listening). Anyway, the sad part: the jeep has been traded in. An important era in my life has come to close. This car was my 23rd birthday/college graduation present. I’ve moved between cities 5 different times with that car. I’ve taken countless early morning drives to Austin (back when we’re were in College Station) to Paddle or climb. Here are some of the high and low points of my times with this fine vehicle.

The Windshield Incident

About a month after I got he car, I still didn’t have a roof rack to carry my boat, so I’d lay the seats flat and carefully set it in so that the nose of the kayak was setting on the passenger side dashboard. On our way to Houston I got cut off and had had to slam on the brakes, sending the boat into the windshield. It’s didn’t punch through the glass, but it was damn close. It’s one of the more impressive cracks I’ve seen. A spectacular strings of expletives ensued. The best part was, after I pulled over to get everything re-situated I left my carbon-fiber bladed paddle on the side of the road in the tall grass. Took me another 40 minutes to find it. Awesome.

 

The Colorado Trip

Ten days. Austin to Breckenridge (via Hueco Tanks) living out of the back of the car. Awesome.

 

Night Run on the Guad

We were making one of our typical late afternoon runs to the river and forgot to take into account the time change. By the time we put it in was pitch black, no moon, nothing. Not really a car story but I’ve never been so happy to get back to my vehicle alive.

The Colorado Bend Trip

The fuel pump started to give up on the way out of town for this trip, so the car would just randomly die while you were going 80 on the highway. It rained the entire time, we got a flat and I managed to lock my keys in the car, after a big hike but before our lunch. (poor timing). Epic trip.

The Feats of Strength

Brian and I made a run to do some paddling in the middle of winter. He was being particularly spastic, and kept messing with the heater. Somehow it turned into a bet that the first person to turn off the heater bought lunch. And we still had a bout an hour left to drive. Brian lost, even though he’d stripped down to his skivvies by the time the ride was over. It will forever be known as the feats of strength, even though all we did was sit in the car and sweat (yes we’re dumb).

Good times with the old car. She’ll be missed.

I love a good piece of satirical humor.

The following is a letter to the editor of a newspaper in Alexandria, Louisiana from Rev Richard Taylor:

“My wife and I have just seen ‘Brokeback Mountain’ now playing in Alexandria. I was disgusted, shocked to the core, stunned to be reminded how casually and promiscuously Americans smoked cigarettes in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This movie should be banned.

“It, like last year’s ‘Good Night and Good Luck,’ is another satanically subtle attempt to promote public acceptance of the perversion that tobacco smoking is. Wake up, America.”

Awesome.

When I was younger, (and to be honest even still now) when this time of year rolled around, I was only the interested in one thing under the tree. When you shook the box it sounded a couple of octaves lower than a box of broken glass.

Legos.

I had giant tubs full of the things. Fleets of ships ready to battle at moments notice. Even as a kid I had would build the sets, and most of the time unless it was a really quality piece, I would rip it down and start over with something new. Iterative design at it’s earliest stages.

As I got older, I still really enjoyed messing with the Legos, although it became more for the act of design than anything else. It was hard too…high school aged friends look at you a little funny when you’re still messing with kid’s toys. My sister and I would still dump out the giant box on Christmas Eve, and spend the evening messing with them (this was as late as college).

I was about five years behind (or ahead) of the times. Recently the Lego Mindstorms stuff has become a really neat way for kids (and some adults) to learn about robotics and programming. There are websites all over the place now for people to post their creations (back in the day we survived with the idea books).

Another cool thing is to see design firms using them for brainstorming sessions, and design tools. It was one of my dreams as a kid to work as a professional Lego builder. Apparently some people actually make it a career. (you go guys).

Most of the sets that come out these days are a little too contrived for me. A lot of them are based on movies, or overdone themes (Although, who doesn’t want a Lego version of the millennium falcon). However the basic premise is still there. Break down the sets and you’ve got an unlimited canvas of potential. Lots of little designers in the making.

So, happy holidays, peace, joy, and Legos for all the kids who asked for them.

Yesterday Rigoberto Alpizar’s was shot by a Federal Air Marshall while boarding an American Airlines flight in Miami, because he claimed he was carrying a bomb. All the while his wife was trying to tell the air marshall that the man was mentally ill and off his medication.

From cnn.com

“She was chasing after him,” said fellow passenger Alan Tirpak. “She was just saying her husband was sick, her husband was sick.” When the woman returned, “she just kept saying the same thing over and over, and that’s when we heard the shots.”

Of course no bomb was found when they blew up his luggage. Part of me really wants to understand both parts of the story (although having guns in a pressurized cabin has always seemed like a bad plan). I understand the idea of protecting the innocent on the plane and on the ground. I remember what happened that morning in September when airliners fell into the wrong hands.

Then I remember friends and associates i know who have what we socially acceptably call ‘some problems.’ It seems shockingly cold to put four bullets in a man who’s wife is screaming behind him that he’s sick. Even if it is for the greater good.

This covers a lot of things for me. The ignorance regarding Mental Illness in this country. The brutality that law enforcement seems inclined to use in this country. The security measures that seem shockingly draconian (They couldn’t restrain the guy ? Didn’t they already scan his bag ?)

Seems like we could do better. Seems like we should expect more. Seems that when we look back on the ’00’s we’ll remember it as a decade of self preservation regardless of our supposed humanity.