Archive for category Road Trip

WINTER WONDERLAND AT LAST….a short list of things to be thankful for

Good Morning Nanook,

Well we mountain folk have just experienced our second significant snow storm since October 1st.  This time we had nearly a foot of it!  Traffic of course was snarled and ugly with at least 50 vehicles crashed and burned before I got to work.  Every year these “unnecessary” collisions are caused mostly by nitwits who think their SUV is invincible or morons from California driving 5 mph forcing everyone to make radical moves to avoid plowing them from behind!  But it was good to feel the biting cold numbing my face and hands while scraping snow and ice from my car.  Ah winter has at last arrived!

There’s nothing more exciting than a defrost system capable of only clearing a third of your windshield.  God I love the sound of metal on glass from defective wipers streaking the portion that’s clear.  Changing lanes is more or less a crap shoot as my side mirrors are completely frozen covered in ice.  I use the ‘fair-warning’ technique leaving my blinker on 30 to 40 seconds prior to a very slow and gradual shift in position.  While preferred, this technique seldom works when having to dodge the morons from California….; that becomes pure luck.

There’s no comparison to the excitement of crossing the parking lot and climb the icy steps leading to the front entry.  Typically I arrive well before the crew hired to plow and de-ice things so sliding the last 10 steps grabbing the Spruce in hopes of stabilizing my probable fall, is rewarded by 14 lbs of fresh snow dropped on my head and down my shirt!  That’s when you know you’re alive!

As you might have guessed, winter is my favorite time of year!  Dead batteries, defective ice scrapers, wet shoes, bald tires, high centered, snow shoveling, steaming piles of dog shit, hardened nipples, runny nose, and falling icicles are just a few of winter’s magical distinctions. 

Sadly winter is also a reminder that the Christmas season is at hand.  This forum has documented my fear of these holidays particularly since my divorce, but that’s a topic to be discussed later.

Meanwhile, I must end it here to give myself enough time to chain up and make it to the bar.

Zuki

THRILLER KILLER RIDES!….profitting from suicide and having fun

Good Morning Philomaths,

An option for suicide “with elegance and euphoria” is how Lithuanian-born Ph.D. candidate Julijonas Urbonas (London’s Royal College of Art) described his “Euthanasia (Roller) Coaster,” currently on the drawing board. Urbonas’ model of “gravitational aesthetics” would be a third-mile-long, 1,600-foot-high thrill ride engineered to supply 10 Gs of centrifugal force (a spin at about 220 mph) to induce cerebral hypoxia, forcing blood away from the head and denying oxygen to the brain. Euphoria (and disorientation and anxiety, but not pain) are likely states to precede the brain’s shutdown. Urbonas insisted that users would have the option through the first two minutes of the three-minute ride to rethink their decision and bail out (or else to push the final “FALL” button). (Suicide is legal in four European countries and Oregon and Washington.) [Discovery News, 9-19-2011]

I really like this idea.  After all shouldn’t suicide be an adventure?  There are some of you, and you know who you are, whose brains should be shut down largely due to inactivity.  Honestly I know what you’re thinking and stop it.  My version of the above “Thriller Killer” ride will NOT have the ‘opt out’ button.  I think the two or three of you reading this doppelganger know how I feel about suicide; JUST DO IT!  There’ll be no backsliding so once strapped in you couldn’t even jump out as I plan on charging admission and jumping would create a liability issue given flying bodies.

While not yet legal in Colorado it can’t be far away so I’m creating a standby list for those of you contemplating suicide.  It’ll be first come first serve and anticipate the list will grow quite long.  Be assured that before I actually strap a human being in I’m going to use Dv’ant’s vicious dog first to work out any kinks in the mechanics.

Hurry sign up today!

zuki

TIM TEBOW AND CUSH…..both kicked some ass

Good Morning Bandersnatchers,

I’m guessing the two or three of you that have followed this titubant for awhile are familiar with the antics and forward thinking of our good friend Cush.  Many of you may not know that he’s the official “Guide to Outdoor Adventure” here at the ‘Diatribe.’  While most mountain folk marveled at the play of Tim Tebow; given the keys to the Denver Broncos, Cush was busy kicking the shit out his brothers!

It seems there was a falling out.  Mass quantities of Whiskey and accoutrements were involved at this camping summit billed as a fun family get together, “just me and my bros.”  They headed to timberline.   Although I make fun of my friend and tease him about a myriad of things, he’s a prince of a fellow and would give the proverbial shirt to anyone he thought deserving.  This generosity at times gets him into trouble, and I suspect that’s what happened here. His out of work (at least 5 years) mooch brother and the ex-con moronic brother took advantage of their employed good natured half-brother.  Everyone but Cush could see this but it took last week’s “Battle Royale” to open his eyes! 

After two bottles of Whiskey (paid for by Cush) were consumed and a pound of weed smoked there was a pow-wow around the campfire.  Given the level of besotted-ness it’s hard to tell exactly what triggered the event but to Cush’s recollection it started when ex-con knocked the mooch unconscious and was beating the defenseless idiot with a ‘pointy stick.’  According to Cush he thought mooch was dead so he bull rushed ex-con dropping him to the ground.  Cush continually kicked the bigger ex-con until he also became unconscious.

As it turned out mooch and ex-con came to but obviously beaten badly.  Since Cush was the only one with a driver’s license and it was his truck, he drove back to Denver in complete silence.  When he dropped them at Aunt Myrna’s he explained to them that he never wants to see either of them again.  For Cush to say that it must have been something special to witness and I regret not going, but I think its reason enough to avoid camping with Cush.    

zuki

FOOTBALL SEASON ARRIVES….zuki squeezes into life’s rich pageant

Good Morning Rabid Ones,

Its football season…AGAIN. The constant TV screaming, the profanity, semi-gluttonous stuffing of pie holes with pizza and beer, and the insufferable self appointed experts breaking down the game by repeating what they just heard on Sport’s Center; I’ve really missed it.  But yesterday I had the occasion to attend the Denver Broncos vs Cincinnati Bungles game at the newly named (Sports Authority) stadium at Mile High.  It was a perfect fall afternoon and hardly a cloud in the sky!  AA was driving and as we approached the stadium to locate parking I was reminded why I don’t like going to any event involving 70,000 plus people.  Because of Dv’ant’s handicap (not the brain damage) we needed to find a place reasonably close.  We passed a lot with seemingly 50 or 60 open ‘Handicap’ spaces but it was blocked off to us!  What fucking assholes!  So we drove endlessly looking for parking while avoiding the sea of fanatics dressed in orange holding their #1 foam fingers.  Adding insult to injury, Cush arrived bleeding profusely out of his eyes as he’d just finished his graveyard shift and sacrificed a bowl to his idle ‘Jimmy Hoffa Jr.’

Dv’ant’s company seats were certainly the best I’ve ever had to watch a professional football game!  30 rows up and split the 50 yard line.  We snagged our favorite adult beverages and settled into our seats excited about the great view.  I’m not sure how a stadium seat (slightly more room than airline coach seats) is designed, but I’m guessing it’s based on an average of 180 lb person.  That ship sailed for all of us some 40 years ago!  It was like sitting in the middle seat on an airline between Andre the Giant and Oprah!  But the game was so close it made it all bearable.

All in all it was a very fine experience and I’m grateful for Dv’ant’s kind invitation.  I realize the two or three of you reading this pleonasm will think I’m an unappreciative nebulizer and I’m honestly not complaining, but I don’t think I’m cut out for making such a trek again.  Way too much humanity! I think I’ll try TV screaming next week.

zuki

APPARENT DOUBLE SUICIDE SHOCKS LITTLEWOOD

APPARENT DOUBLE SUICIDE SHOCKS LITTLEWOOD
Dateline: Littlewood, Colorado July 8, 2011
The gristly discovery early this morning of two dead bodies at Littlewood’s premier tourist attraction has this normally tranquil town in upheaval.
Doors were being bolted for the first time in decades, and the local chapter of the Deviant Curmudgeon Society has called an emergency meeting to explore the formation of Vigilante “Visitors.”
Meanwhile, Sheriff Joseph R. A. Piehole tried to calm the fears of nervous L-Woods by announcing that all initial indications point to a double suicide… perhaps even the result of a self-infliction pact… and not due to any foul play.
The recently-hired night watchperson at Littlewood’s infamous Hall of Shame (who asked to remain “Anonymous”) stated that, while in the course of his normal rounds, he discovered the bodies in the Hall’s recently-remodeled “Gallery of Goof & Gall” around 3 am.
“I didn’t touch a f***ing thing,” he swore, “and immediately called 911… even used my very own personal cell… it’s a top-of-the-line iPhone 4… a real thing of beauty… ‘cause if I hadn’t, I would’ve had to walk all the way back to the reception lobby to use our land line… would’a taken an extra 3 minutes… I have always tried to do MOI best when it comes to dealing with law enforcement… what MOI being a former TSA Agent an’ all… so I knew time was of the essence!”
Sheriff Piehole identified the victims as Only OHLAFF (aka O.O.), sought since last month as an “object of interest” by investigators for the Just-Less League; and a female, Only OLGAH, who was apparently cloned by/from Only OHLAFF in a desperate attempt to comply with The Bagged ONE’s (O.O.’s former spiritual sponsor) expiatory exhortation to “go f*** yourself!”
Some details have emerged: Only OHLAFF is accused of “aiding and/or abetting” Just JACKWAGON (aka J.J.), frequent fugitive, notorious bon vivant, raucous raconteur, and all-around “Good Joe.” He is described as a “disarming and dangerous” escapee from a Witless Protection Programmer “treatment facility” just south of High Anus Port, SC.
No motive for the deaths was readily available, but Sheriff’s Deputies’ evidence logs listed: several box scores from recent Colorado Rockies games; an A-P-B Warrant for O.O. to report for questioning about the current whereabouts of J.J.; a crumbled-up “NO MAS Agreement;” pregnancy-test results (“POS”) from Unplanned Parenthood; approximately 3 fluid ounces Maker’s Mark whiskey remaining in a half-gallon bottle; an empty Coors Light “suitcase;” and numerous crushed aluminum cans.
Final details will be released in the Medical Examiner’s report, but death by asphyxiation remains the likely cause, given the neatly-knotted Winn-Dixie plastic bags affixed around the victims’ heads. This reporter speculates that a suicide pact was, indeed, enacted… and that they mutually and simultaneously tied each other’s instruments of infliction… perhaps after sharing one last kiss.
Friends contacted by this reporter stated that recently Only OHLAFF had been acting despondent and moody to those he normally would have totally ignored or would have shown nothing but disdain and contempt for.
“He had just returned from a month-long road trip that O.O. called a ‘vacation,’” offered ZUKI, a self-described “concerned friend” and volunteer pall bearer, adding “but, answer me this, who in the hell drives 8,000 miles all ’round the South-East in the middle of Summer?!… let alone on vacation?!?!?!”