Glow in the Dark Muff

One evening at Clearfork, a hasher rushed up to me and wanted to know if I had a blacklight. He said that since I’m an engineer, he thought I might have one. I do have several blacklights at home, but I don’t carry them with me to hash events.
The hasher explained to me that one of the harriets had a glow in the dark muff, but it only glows under blacklight, so he was searching furiously. Guess I’ll have to start carrying a blacklight in my hash bag.

Too Old to Run

An amusing thing happened while running in the Full Moon run on Monday evening. When a group of runners came to a street intersection in a dilapidated industrial area of town, a homeless man was standing in the street intersection directing imaginary traffic. There were no cars anywhere around. When he saw the runners approaching, he smiled and started directing us. He waved us through the intersection until he saw me. Then he held up his hand for me to stop, and told me that I was “too old to be running”. I found the comment so amusing that I smiled the rest of the race…..and I’m still smiling now.

Recovery Day

Mondays are always recovery days for me. After a really difficult run like Little P’s Tourette’s trail, I need time to recouperate. At my age, I have to run pretty hard to stay up with the pack. The swimming pool at the end of the Tourette’s trail helped a lot, but I’m still pretty tired and sore today. It will be a few days before all of the scrapes and scratches heal. As Little P said, “at least it’s a trail that y’all won’t soon forget”. Fortunately, I didn’t get any poison ivy or other itchy stuff, as some folks did.
In summary, it was a challenging trail with excellent food, and a refreshing pool at the end. What more could I ask for?

Sleepless in Pasadena

I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep, so now I’m updating my blog to kill time.
I’m thinking about fuel costs, and the fact that I don’t believe gasoline prices will go down anytime soon. Last Sunday’s Hash run ended at Stuck on the Bone’s house, which is about 45 miles from where I live. My combined mileage for driving there and back, plus a couple of “car backs” was over 100 miles. My little truck gets about 22 miles per gallon, so that amounts to about 4 ½ gallons of gasoline. At $3.75 per gallon, that comes to $17 worth of fuel for the trip. Guess I need to start carpooling.

That Nose Thing

Ever notice how you get that strange feeling across your nose after you’ve had a few drinks. What causes that anyway?

Janis Joplin

My wife & I recently went to see the "Love, Janis" play about Janis Joplin. The play is based on a series of letters that Janis wrote to her parents when she was starting her career. It’s a moving, bittersweet play that showcases the talent of Janis and the human emotion of her tumultuous career. The band was fantastic and recreated the psychedelic sound of the 60s with great enthusiasm.
The real Janis, sang with several bands during her short career. She started out singing with “Big Brother and the Holding Company” then formed her own band called the “Kosmic Blues” and shortly before her death, formed another band called the “Full Tilt Boogie”. Even though Janis was messed up with drugs and alcohol, she was an amazing artist. Who can forget such wonderful songs as “Me & Bobby Mcgee” and “Piece of my Heart”?
Janis and I both attended Lamar University in Beaumont in 1965-66 where she was a sociology major and I was an engineering major. But as far as I know, I never met her. Too bad, because she was such an incredibly talented person.

Showers for TXIH

I’m working on a shower system for TXIH 2008. At this point we plan to have a 10 X 20 canopy divided in the middle. There well be 2 hot showers on each side of the divider. We haven’t decided what to call each side yet. Maybe Men & Women, or possibly Prudes and Exhibitionist….maybe even Hashers & Perverts. In any event, we hope to have a nice system so everyone can be clean & comfortable.

Beer for Breakfast

I’m wondering what to eat for breakfast this morning. Most Americans eat cereal, milk, bacon, eggs, pancakes, waffles, orange juice, yogurt, or some combination thereof, for breakfast. But what do people in the rest of the world eat for breakfast? Is it similar, or is it a completely different paradigm? I’ve only traveled to Canada, Spain, and Mexico, so my education is sadly lacking. A lot of my hasher friends have seen much of the world, so could you please educate me?

Predictions for 2008

1. Gasoline prices will hit $3.50 per gallon by summer
2. The stock market will falter under the weight of increasing energy prices
3. Electricity & natural gas rates will continue to rise
4. A Democrat will be elected President
5. California will win the court battle to establish their own CO2 regulations
6. The US Supreme court will decide that an individual has the right to keep and bear arms---within limits.
7. Many Americans will continue to confuse government & religion
8. More people will look to H4 as an outlet for the stress caused by the items above.
9. TXIH will be a smashing success
10. Pull the Plug will continue to do his best to not be DFL. Except at the PC runs where it’s a foregone conclusion.