On the way to Burning man

ontheway1
Originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

We left Burleson about 6am. we were already one hour behind schedule. This is amarillo were we stopped for lunch.

The way it started.

I started planning my trip about a year ahead of time. Since I knew no one else that was going I got online to chat groups and met some. A guy here in DFW area runs a theme camp and had a meet and great about 2 months before hand. Met my first "Burners" there. Great bunch of people.

We (that group) decided to caravan the 30 plus hour drive together. Share driving, gas etc.

Well two weeks before lift off, me and Mark the other guy with a vehicle didnt have enough riders and gas was around 2 bucks a gallon. So I went online and posted I had room for a rider and he posted he had room. I got an email from a lady in houston needing a one way ride. So she drove up from houston on Thursday night, she had to work late and didnt get to my house until 2 in the morning. She crashed on the couch. We were suppose to meet Mark at 5:30 at caballas but woke up a little late.

So up at 5:30 and already late. Me and Paulina (my rider) who I just met 2 hours before, jump in the already packed truck and haul ass after leaving a voice mail with mark to go ahead and take off for Amarillo and we will catch him.

We caught him about 90 miles down the road. and that is really when the trip started.

Paulina, my rider is 27 from Russia. she has lived here in the USA for 7 years and was doing interperting for NASA. she speaks flawless english. and much better than I. She had been to Burning-Man 2 times before.

Mark had a big duelly pickup with a box trailer and tons of stuff. He is in his 50's retired, cares for his sick mom. he had been to BM 3 or so times.

the other riders were Ron and Salina, newlweeds my age. Tom who is my age. Toms wife road with us to Durango were we dropped her off with her parents. None of them had ever been.

It took us until 11 that night to get to durango. lots of stops. Every 2 hours we would stop for snacks/gas/p breaks. those took 20 minutes each time. Its challenging to drive across country with people you just met. But everyone did great, no one got overly excited or upset.

Life as I know is over

Ok this stinks.
with my job I am on call one week out of 4. I get "calls" all hours of the day while on call. So they need to get in touch with me. up until about a year and half ago the company gave me a cell phone. They then changed policy and said they will only pay 25 bucks a month to a cell phone, there thinking was you will use your cell phone mostly for personal use and they shouldnt have to pay for that.
Well "The Man" was not getting away with that with me.
I dont need nor want a cell phone for personal use. Its one more way the "man" keeps you down.

So my co. said they would give me a pager. fine with me.
So for the last year or so I have not had a cell phone and all was right with the world.
I still have yet to hear a valid argument on why you must have a cell phone.

well my smart co. did an audit and found out they are paying about 120 bucks a month for my pager....OOOPPSSS
needless to say they quickly came up with a solution. get a cell phone and we will reinburse you for it. No dont go get the 1000 minutes blackberry enabled one, just get the cheap one be resonable etc.

So today I got the evil thing. My voice mail is "you have reached my cell phone, I dont answer the cell phone and I dont respond to voice mail, if you need me page me thru "XXXX" (our co's ticket generator) .

Basically means if there is a ticket I need to work, our ticket generator will page me and I will respond as I normally do.
You want to talk to me call my home phone or my desk phone.
I wont have the evil GW empire pumping there microscopic zombie drugs into my ear!

and cell phone co's do whatever they can to get every nickle out of you. What a scam. But if you know how to read you can keep above water. Dont let the man get you!

ok carry on

Burning Man

Burning Man



How do you explain Burning Man to someone who has never heard of it.

How do you explain it to someone who has but has never been?

How do you do this when its family members.

How do you do this when you communicate as poorly as the President of the U.S.A.?



I am going to try.



But I will do it by just jabbering over the next few months on this blog.



I first read something on burning man in the mid 90’s.

My first impression was of people running around acting crazy doing whatever they wanted. No limits, no commercialization, no big band playing. It could be compared to some of the “Hippy” fest from the 60’s and 70’s without the rock and roll bands.



Basically it looked like one hell of a good time.



A few years ago I started asking my wife to go with me. The conversation went something like this.



“It’s a big party in the desert, looks real fun”



“Hotels?”



“well uh no you camp in tents”



“Like a camp ground?”



“Um well no, there are no services, it’s the middle of the desert”



“Oh, well uh what kind of entertainment do they have? What kind of food”



“Well nothing unless you supply it, it’s a participation event you make the entertainment and bring your own food and water.”



“were is it and when?”



“Its in northwest Nevada in the Black Rock Desert the last week of August, they burn the man the Saturday before Labor Day.”



“Isn’t August the hottest time of the year?”



“well yes but the nights do get cold and they do have dust storms so bad you cant see, they call them white outs.”



“and burn what man?”



“Just a wooden man they build and burn on Saturday”



“So let me see if I understand this, we are going to drive 1800 miles to the desert of Nevada, AT the hottest time of the year. Camp in a tent with no electricity, no water unless we bring it, the only entertainment is what we bring or make except some wooden man they burn on Saturday, there are dust storms that are so bad there are white outs. No showers unless we make our own. No restaurants, nothing for sale and you want me to do this? Honey, you might have hit your head cause you have lost your damn mind!”

so...

So I goto burning man and that is a whole story in itself.
Maybe I will tell you about it someday!

I left on friday before the huricane, arrive sunday morning.
found out the next Saturday that New Orleans was gone...hummm
the next morning I left, finally got to the interstate and got outside radio.
I kid you not the first news I recieved from radio or anything other than a naked hippy was this abc news radio...

Prsident Bush says, "we at the white house are going to do everything we can for the victims. We are having a blood drive at the white house and I encourge every American to go out and give blood"

What a stupid person (I cant call him a Man cause he aint one!)

Blood? WTF? and this was before I found out how bad it really was. That guy that is our president has to be the dumbest president we have ever elected. I cant even imagine anyone more stupid than him. My cats have more sense than that stupid fool!

I finally got a phone and called home, it had been 8 days since talking to my wife.

"well your sister and her husband had to evacuate"

when did I have a sister in New Orleans? Well come to find out I dont, it was another gulf coast city. Yea she probably lost her chit, but they saved the cats. Now me, I would have left the cats and grabed the videos!

sister sent me some shirts

I am a T-Shirt and blue jeans guy.
Always have been.
I could make a t-shirt last 10 to 20 years.

I just got rid of a shirt that my wife had when she was in High School.

My sister sent me some t-shirts the other day.

they should last me a few years.

and they represent me quit well.

I like this one.

This is my favorite shirt

I killed a cat and another one dies soon...

We had 3 cats

One Hillary got from santa clause...yellow cat...house cat ok cat as far as cats go.
no meat on the bones so wouldnt make a big meal.

this black and white cat with a hitler mustache that a relative adopted from her nieghbor cause the neighbor made it stay outside. Well hello! they made it stay outside cause it pisses on the carpet...so we have kicked it outside and I suspect it will find the same fate as...

the other black and white cat that just showed up one day..we took it in fed it etc, but it was typical stupid cat so I kicked its butt out and it got hit by a car.
No loss at all...

I hate cats and dont know why I let my daughter talk me into them...

now she has a rat...she goes and stays a week at grandparents and comes back saying she has to have a rat and granma gave her a cage etc..
but the rat dont bother me, he looks studly...big ugly SOB long tail and its a rat! you tell people we have a rat and they go ohhh uhhh gross yuck...yea we got a rat, want to stay the night? we let it rome the house...he might snuggle with you.

gets them losers out of the house quick.

but cats? worthless animals. death to all cats.
I want one of them pigs for a pet, raise him or her up, then pork chops and bacon.
or maybe some snake, taste just like chicken.

My camera kicks butt...to bad the owner cant use it right!

My camera is awesome. The following pictures I took with it, yesterday at the pool (the pool that we built ourselves ha!) I took nearly 300 pictures in just an hour or so.
I was playing around trying to learn it see all that it does.

This set is chase jumping in. I had it set to sport and continous shooting. You just hold the button down until your finished and it will take up to about 22 pictures before it gets bogged down...5 to 6 pictures a second! then wait about 20 seconds or so and you can take another 22 pictures!

These pictures are resized so I could upload them. If you click on the pic it will open up, the opened up size is one half the original size. Here on the blog they are about 1/5 to 1/8 the size depending on your monitor resolution.

I have hundred upon hundreds of pictures. The sad thing is I dont have the best artistic eye to take pictures with. But if you take thousands one might really good, the law of averages you know!


Getting ready

close