Art's world of the weird and wonderful

Thank you all for the encouragement and praise. I wasn't sure about continuing after the first post. (It was kinda dead in here...)

I've only read excerpts of Hunter Thompson in Rolling Stone years ago. He was definitely "unique". I dunno. In a couple spots there, I could hear the narrator from "Fight Club" in my posts. My HS english teacher used to compare me to Oscar Wilde.

I don't write professionally, though everyone tells me I should. I just never wanted to move to LA or New York, though in the last 5 years that problem has mostly gone away. I write music as well, and one of the first things I'd like to do once I'm paid is get a good music software package and get the stuff down and listenable for once.

My group had Dee and Gary as trainers in Millington. A little unsettling for me - Dee is a dead ringer for a middle school asst. principal whom I absolutely despised. Sounds just about like her, too. Thankfully, the similarity ends there.
Gary is also a dead ringer for my Uncle. Just as big, just as loud, just as gruff. I felt right at home.

Just got a call from my mentor, and looks like I'll be going out today. So, if this doesn't get updated for a while, I'm out there somewhere.

 

There's an illusion called "Pepper's Ghost" which is put to use at many haunted houses and theme parks. A large pane of glass is used to reflect a low-lit object in another room, creating the effect of a "ghost" in the main room to spook the patrons. Travelling by Greyhound, the wall of windows creates a similar effect. Going through Chicago, it appears that the oncoming traffic lanes on the left are really passing by on the right. Yard lights appear as UFO's in the opposite sky. It's really kind of trippy.

I arrive in Minneapolis in between snow storms. My room at the Days Inn is very nice, but I miss the kitchenette from Millington, and the closest grocery store is a mile hike away. The TV offers Nintendo 64 games for 7.99 an hour, or movies for $13. Pass. The bubbly blonde desk manager is more fun, and free.

My road trainer is a chain smoking, short tempered fellow, frazzled from weeks of students with hearing problems. I avoid tripping his alarms for the most part, but, on the day of testing I run the trailer tandems over a snow-covered curb on the way out of the parking lot. He spends the next hour chain smoking in the parking lot, wondering if I failed the test before I ever got on the road.

Minneapolis has a wonderful public transportation system, which comes in handy when fourteen inches of white stuff buries the city while you sit at the greyhound terminal. For a buck-seventy-five, I ride the city bus over to the Mall of America, lugging suitcase and duffel bag with me through the slush, and take the last shuttle bus out to Eagan, less than a mile from Days Inn. Sadly, the Days Inn shuttle is mired in the snow, and I spend three hours at a gas station making small talk with the Iranian clerk.

 

I'd bring it just to be safe, you should have a medical card from your DOT physical.
I think the only time I needed mine was in WI to get the CDL permit, and then the actual license. Never needed my birth certificate.
Still, better to have it along and not need it, than to need it and not have it.