On a Wednesday afternoon, no less.

350 pounds of pot recovered after stop
Story updated at 12:09 AM on Friday, May 26, 2006

The Franklin County Sheriff's Office made a major marijuana bust after a Wednesday afternoon traffic stop along Interstate 85 and arrested a Blacksburg, Va., man for drug trafficking.

A sheriff's deputy stopped a Red Mustang for traveling 105 mph on I-85. The driver - identified as Edwing Rene Castro Reynoso - did not have a driver's license with him and the deputy observed what he believed to be marijuana on the front seat.

The deputy arrested Reynoso and while searching the Mustang, authorities found 350 pounds of marijuana.

Reynoso was charged with speeding, no driver's license and drug trafficking.

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 052606

In Wonder...

A.J., you were right: Wonder Boys the book is even more amazing than the movie. I can't put it down. No surprise, really, since Michael Chabon (whose name is, I recently discovered, pronounced in a most baffling way)is a fucking genius, and reading his books makes me never want to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard, as it were) again.
Had to take the dog to the vet on friday morning, as he had been pretty violently ill for a few days prior. We finally called them on thursday, after several days of hemming and hawing, and of course when we got up on friday he was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as if mocking me for being worried enough to make an a.m. appointment.
The good news, though, is that he was in fact recovered, allowing me to join the b.h. and his bandmates on a jaunt to Macon this weekend. I had never been to Macon, outside of gas and pit stops en route to Savannah and various less attractive areas of central and southern Georgia. The Hummingbird is beautiful. Perfect. Exactly what I would do if somebody handed me a shitload of money and said "Here- open a rock club." The b.h. went in the van with the band, and our friend A. drove with me. When we walked in and sat down, we ordered a beer from the bartender, a wiry, black clad biker type, who as it turns out had learned to bartend in a bar owned by the same guys who own the bar where I learned to bartend--900 or so miles away. Weird. Serendipitous, even. Sometimes I find the smallness of the world very comforting.
Sunday was a festival of overindulgence at house of A. Took the dogs (ours and A's) and walked down the road to a pond at the back of his pasture. Watching them bunny hop at the shorline through reeds and weeds, chasing and swimming and snorting and generally having a really good time was the perfect way to end the weekend. I only hope the Zen feeling lasts through having to leave the house again (in three and a half hours). Doubt it.
In other news, Tim Easton has released his fourth solo record on New West this week. It's called Ammunition, and it's fantastic. Check him out at www.timeaston.com. Can't wait to see him in a couple weeks.

Oh, Jesus.

So my tire was flat for the second time this week, and I had to take it to Sam's Club (yes, yes I am aware that they are the devil, but my mechanic told me to, even though he is a tire & allignment guy, because he can't beat their prices, etc. etc). Anyway, I had an hour to kill, so I started perusing the illustrated copy of The DaVinci Code, complete with photos of artwork and landmarks. Since I had just finished the book the day before, it was all fairly fresh in my brain. As i am paging through the book, out falls a small business card, printed on one side with the words "Examining the DaVinci Code" in the same font as the book jacket, as well as some of the same images from it. On the reverse side, in very small print, a paranoid message about how one-third of the people who have read the book believe it to be true, followed by reasons (but not proof) about how it isn't, and then a rambling message about Jesus.
"The DaVinci Code offers you no hope!" it exclaimed. (I knew it was "exclaiming" and not merely "stating" because there were exclamation points.)
"Read the bible every day. Obey what you read." the card said next. I don't remember what it said after that because it was insipid. In any case, I went through the whole section (like, thirty or forty books), and sure enough, there were cards in every copy of the book.

So my question is this:
What the hell are these people so afraid of? It's a fiction book, right? Well, that and a major motrion picture starring Tom Hanks--but still. My theory is that they are afraid because they don't really have faith. They have fear, and suspicion, and major fucking control issues. So i have to wonder... why isn't Tom Cruise a Christian?

Colbert Roasts President Bush - 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner - Google Video

Holy crap!!! I can't believe I waited this long to watch the whole thing!
Do it NOW!!





Colbert Roasts President Bush - 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner - Google Video

Lost time...

Being (or verging on) sick and sleeping for more than half the day is really, really disorienting. That's pretty much how I have spent my last three days. The weather is fantastic, though, so I am happy to be up and about. Guess I had best take the dogs for a walk so they forgive me.
In other news, school's out for the summer, and I couldn't be happier. I went downtown today, right in the middle of the day, and found more parking than I thought possible anymore. I know it's hard for the local merchants (my boss included), but I doubt I could handle the rest of the year without this tiny respite.
Looking forward to lunch tomorrow with my friend J. if the weather holds, it will be outdoors and probably very peaceful.
Talked to my friend T last night for the first time in several weeks. Feeling a bit homesick for the moment, but I will recover. The b.h. and I are headed to upstate New York this summer for his family reunion, so no annual July pilgrimage to my hometown. Oh weLl, perhaps T will get here.

Customer O' the Night

Last night she was about 18 years old, maybe 80 pounds soaking wet, and insisted on smoking indoors (both illegal and annoying, since no one who works there is allowed to) and getting drinks from unsuspecting young men (despite the fact that her hands were clearly makrked underage). She was asked repeatedly not to smoke inside. She had drinks taken away. At one point (about ten minutes before she finally got thrown out) I caught her in the bathroom, smoking again.
Me: "Do you realize that it's 70 degrees outside?"
Her: (drunkenly)"IS IT?"
Me: "Yeah, so why do you insist on smoking in here?"
Her: (affecting some sort of baby voice that she has clearly gotten a lot of mileage out of thus far) "I'm Sorry. Does it offend you?"
Me: "well, offend has nothing to do with it, really. It's not legal and you have already been told, so can you just take the fucking thing outside?"

Moments later, she was escorted to the door by the next person she pissed off. I am a patient person, I promise.

More Books

I think I am finally giving up on Fair and Tender Ladies. I understand that this is a realistic representation of what the character would really be like, and how she would really spell, and that I would probably like the character if I kept reading (I mean, i like her okay now), but I really, really hate trying to read through poor grammar and intentional misspelling and the like. More realistic? Sure. Readable? Not for me. Oh well. Sorry, K, I tried.

I did finish Cuba Libre pretty quickly, and it was pretty good. I like Elmore Leonard well enough, but I don't really get off on his stuff the way I do on say, Michael Chabon. Assuming that he was historically correct with dates and stuff though, i can honestly say I learned a few things. Not that these things are interesting enough to share, mind you.

So now I am reading a copy of The DaVinci Code that i borrowed from my friend M. Everybody in my family loved it (and so did M), and they are not easy, so I figure it'll probably be good. Right now i am less than 100 pages in and I am hooked. The writing is smart. Not "dictionary at my side for constant reference" smart, but "pause to think a minute and make sure I understood that last sentence" smart. It would be cool if I knew some french, but since I knew Spanish while reading CL, I feel like it evened out. Plus, I never, ever need french at Georgia's largest flea market, the venerable J & J, but I use my spanish there about every time I visit. I wish that my high school guidance counselor was still there, so I could go back and ask him what the fuck he was thinking trying to push me into taking french class. Seriously.

Saw some good rock and roll last night. Colonel Knowledge and the Lickety Splits may not have the best name, but they sure are talented. And Dark Meat kicked much ass. I want them to put out a split sven inch with the Dictatortots, just for the fun of putting thirty people on a two song recording. Plus, the artwork writes itself. Dark Meat with a side of Tots. The possibilities are endless. I also enjoyes Subversivo!. At least when they were not singing. i think more bands should feel free to play without singing.

Okay, I need more coffee and less pants (vinyl chair, you know).
Ahhhhhh Sunday.

T.G.I.F....

And thank god I didn't pick up a shift tonight. I know it seems like I have been incredibly slack, but as you can see from the photos I have been plenty busy. Also, my sister was in town for several days, and despite the fact that she has several years on me, she has plenty of energy and I am *wiped out*.
But, I did have a good time, and i did get a few dinner parties and country visits in, and I planted a whole bunch of stuff, too. The yard is starting to really shape up. Except for the "grass" (which is actually hay and several different kinds of grass, made to grow very quickly for the livestock which used to inhabit this place) which is now at least waist high.





Ah well- no worries. The weather is lovely and I have no place in particualr to be for the next 24 hours. Yay.

Sprung

I have been very worried that our two geese (they're not really ours, but they seem to have adopted our pond this year) had lost their yunguns to a predator or an illness of some sort. All the other geese in the neighborhood have been tromping around with their babies for a couple weeks already. Yesterday, though, Marge and Homer finally came through. And it seems that they have come to trust us so much that they actually parade the little guys by a couple times a day, close enough to our deck for me to snap a couple photos. Congrats, guys. Way to go.