I have had a day to recover from a long weekend and I am still very tired. I had a blast on our float trip this weekend. Now, you may be asking yourself 'Mike, what is a float trip?' And I'll tell you. It is sitting in a canoe with a bunch of people you know, drinking and paddling on occasion. It was great, however, it was tiring. We left Wichita about 5:30 Thursday afternoon, drove until 1:00 in the morning when we got to our campsite. We woke up six and a half hours later, broke camp and headed to the outfitter where we picked up our canoes and we headed to the river. There, we packed for two days on the river full of drinking, sun, drinking, camping along the river, drinking, paddling, drinking...I think you get the point. I got a little sunburnt on the tops of my legs and on my shoulders, but it was worth it. The first picture on this post was taken on the second day on the river...Andrea took it. She also took the picture of Marc and Kim...they were doing a dance/dry hump along the river when we stopped. And she also took this picture of me right before we left on the first morning, it was 8:00 in the morning...and yes, that is a flask, and yes it is full of alcohol, Makers Mark to be exact.
The next two weekends are well deserved for me. First, I am heading up to Nebraska this weekend to play some 1860s base ball. I can't wait. We're playing three games, it is suppose to be nice and sunny out, and I got Andrea and Marc and Kim to tag along. And on the way back, we are stopping to see a huge ball of twine. I don't know why, Kim just wanted to.
Then next weekend we are going with a group of people on a float trip. Just to simply explain what it is...camping, drinking, and floating down a river. Can it get any better than that? PLUS (that's right, there is a plus) it is only 54 days until we are going home. Excellent.
Work has produced two networking outlets for me, both of which are just plain fun. The first I stumbled across last weekend and it involves music. I learned that a coffee shop here in Wichita, Java Nation, has weekly Irish jam sessions on Monday nights. When I was told this, I was expecting five or six people to be hanging out, but in actuallity, there was close to thirty people there. I was a taken aback a little bit, but they were very open and I got to just jump right in. However, I didn't know many of the songs that they were playing, but I guess when you play a rytheme instrument, you don't really need to see the music.
The other new outlet is baseball. On the 3rd and 4th of June, there is a vintage base ball tournement up in Nebraska and I talked with the president of our base ball club and he told me I was more than welcome to go up and play that weekend with them...so I am going to be making the trek up there to play some 1860s base ball. I am trying to convince Andrea and a couple of our friends to come up with me, but if they can't it's no real big deal, I just thought it would be fun to have some people watch me do what I like to do.
Have you ever gone to get your oil changed and it ended up costing you about $150? Oh, it has, doesn't that suck? So I go to get my oil changed last week and the guy checks my coolant in the car and lo and behold, the temperature is a lot hotter than it should be. So he tells me that in about 45 minutes, he could replace the temperature gauge and it would only cost around 125 dollars. I had the time, so I said sure. So it worked out and my car isn't going to explode anymore, well for the time being....it keeps making a rattling noise and the guy told me I should have it looked at. I have just been considering getting a new car, but that is going to be muy muy expensive.
And one more thing...as I am reading my latest book, The Civil War Chronicle, I have started to read more and more about General William T. Sherman. The guy that kicked the shit out of Georgia as he marched from Atlanta to the Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to get part of the Confederate Army to surrender. Most people know who I am talking about...Andrea won't, but most people will. Anyway, there was this picture of him in the book and he just looks like one mean mother fucker...
Doesn't he?? Doesn't he look like some mean son of a bitch you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley?
Here are a couple of pictures that I took off of our balcony. The sunsets, when everything goes right, can be quite wonderful, but not as awesome as the ones on Brevort Lake. The photo on top is my favorite, and one of my favorites that I have taken down here.
Other than that, my first day off since April 13th is right around the corner. On the 19th of May, we are going to enjoy a day at Riverfest here in Wichita and that night REO Speedwagon is playing a concert...I cannot wait.
