OT: Ping e

I don't think there's much coke up here - mainly meth. And a few heavy-duty pot growers out in the County and around.

The last boda-fide alkie I ran across was a girl, years ago...I should have known something was up when her fahter introduced my to her and then skipped town.

I also recall finding out some years after the fact that she was probably a lot younger than she told me she was while she was stalking me...I ended up leaving her because of her drinking. I hear she's since completed law school...

...that'd be a bit hard to explain. I got a bit of peace right now and I think I'll just keep it that way.

And stay ahead of the school-girls trying to turn me into Mrs Robinson...I'll hafta keep the Harleys on the roll.

You should go over to the other newsgroup I post to - sci.space.history. We're all between the ages of 45 to 60, and can quote flawlessly any line out of any Monty Python episode or movie ever done by memory. We're also that rare crew that knows what "AOK" means, and owned small plastic Mercury Capsule pencil sharpeners in red, blue, gold, and silver as kids. Ah, I still remember my first crewcut, just like John Glenn had. I'm still young; unfortunately, the world got old. ;-)

Pat

...funny that penguin being there...

Back in the day, they sent a Gemini capsule that had actually recently been in space out on a museum tour and it came to the S&I in Chicago - and you could sit in it, if you could stand to stand in line long enough.

My grandfather took me and made sure I got my chance...

Okay...this one I've _got_ to hear about in detail. You just put my "blowing myself up with the one pound of gunpowder" and "big toe amputation after gangrene" stories _way_ into the background. This should be like something out of Homer's "The Iliad" by comparison. "Then did that model-builder, skilled as Hephaestus in his labors, cutter of sprues, binder of parts, man of clever and cunning ways and uses of the sacred Green Putty, see his red life-blood spill before his eyes, and doubted his very life's future. But nay! For bold Athena did send Hermes, maker of Apollo's lyre, unto Earth speedy as a swallow - friend of Aesculapius, healer of wounds, owner of a complete collection of all the the viable body parts models ever made, held in their flawless firm-sided boxes. It was he whose cunning painting of the rattlesnake in the Renwal Reptile Science kit did sooth Hera's wrath against Zeus' ill-born son Heracles. Then did his wounds bind, his vigor restore, and his destiny was once again made real - like abandoned and starving Jason when his plaintive and weak infant hand did first fall upon the firm hoof of the centaur Chiron, mountain strider, forest runner, teacher of the lost and yet destined." Or something like that. ;-)

Pat

Yeah, and get her and the Russian mafia who sold her to you pissed off. Soviet female troops in WWII started off by castrating the Germans who fell into their hands. Then they did horrible things to them afterwards. Divorce her? Why don't you just cover yourself with honey and lay down on a Fire Ant nest? It will be quicker and less painful. I've been over there, I've met these women. Don't piss them off; they have very _big_ personalities, and if you screw them over, they are going to do everything in their power to destroy you, as a point of personal pride and vengeance. If not them, then their family. Why don't you just go over to Sicily, seduce and abandon a girl, and watch what happens next? Christ...there won't be even a wet spot left. :-)

Pat

You know, now that I think about it, I might have had a a oat-brewed beer sometime in the past. I had a oatmeal-brewed one a friend did as a homemade a few years back. As far as "anything like a grain being the same", that's not the case. The fermentation process generates such complex molecules between the wort (the substance being fermented) and the yeast used for the fermentation that it would fill an an entire encyclopedia if you wrote it out molecule-by-molecule. In a pasteurized beer this doesn't make much difference, since the heating breaks a lot of the molecules down, and kills all the yeast, but in a homemade beer that actually may have living organisms in it when you are drinking it this can be one mighty weird concoction that puts yogurt or cheese to shame for its chemical complexity. This is kind of fun - wine makers are working on mapping out the entire genetic code of the Merlot grape vine. You'd think that would be easy, wouldn't you? I mean, it's just a plant, not a animal. Guess again. Its genetic sequence is approximately as complex as that of a human being.

Pat

Dig it, man. I suggest ditching the whole chick/music scene and hopping on your hog to get your head together on a major journey into the heavy karma going down in our nation now. May I suggest New Orleans as a destination on this major head/soul trip, after meeting up with The Movement's communes out in wide-open expanses of the western deserts, where The Man's hand still does not fully rule? No heavy trips, just the wind in your face and the sound of the wheels spinning under you on your liberty horse...singing a song of promise and liberation. Kick-start. Tune in. Turn on. Move out. Glide and soar in the sky of your own soul, man. It's majestic...and will take you to The Promised Land - more like a butterfly than a eagle. Sipping at the dew of each new dawn that you find on the flowers there. Then spreading your bright wings before you get too attached to that scene, and moving on, light as a sunbeam, sweet as a spring breeze. Dig it, man. The groove's perfect, and the road's waiting. Why are you?

Pat

Looks fairly butch.

Pat

An officemate's son married a Russian gal down in Florida, and it all looked fine at first, but it turned out that she had been slaved here by the Russian mafia, who were holding her passport and visa. I think they're still trying to sort that all out.

...cause it's winter, and I need the money...

What I'd really like to do is to do that through Europe. I've thought about flying into Germany, buying a BMW, and touring the summer away. Then cruising back across the Atlantic with my bike in the ship's hold. Then I could cross the nation from New York to LA.

I may make that my first priority once I retire. Just seven more years on my sentence.

...they breed in the sewers...

I remember those days. Had a nineteen year old live-in after first wife and before permanent wife. Great sack time, but was she ever a nut case supreme!

Anything which interferes with modeling time must be carefully examined for content and importance.

Tom