Today is my last day in Wallowa, OR. I'm helping my parents pack up their things and move down to California for the winter... it's not a permanent move, but they intend to spend much of the year there (we call these sorts of people 'snowbirds'). So I've been here nearly two weeks. I do enjoy coming back to the countryside - some typical activities I've been doing:

- Go to the tavern with friends from high school. "Jeromie! Your mom is my aunt!" the bartender tells us. I think the bartender used to babysit me. She would draw me little Pac Man pictures and holy crap did I love it.
- While driving a frankentractor (tractor + lawn mower + snomobile) a quarter mile to a dumpster I notice my parents' horse, Jim, on the neighbor's side of the fence. Chase horse to the street and back to the house.
- Dog runs off into the creek. Chase it across the creek back to the house.
- Scare away raccoon to take the dog out to pee.
- Wake up, change trailer tire in pajamas.
- Drive car to the lake to take out my parents' boat. To start the car I have to flip two switches and use a push button. To turn off the car I unfortunately fuse my left index finger with the 200° exposed backside of toggle switch #2. For a moment I wonder if I've electrocuted myself. Damn car.
- Drive to town of Enterprise. Pick up 26' moving truck. It is ridiculously big... 26' is a lot of feet. Consider leaving apartment to live in a U-Haul.

I do enjoy coming back to the countryside. I've seen a lot of old friends and it's nice that everybody still knows who I am around here. I've spent time in both bars here, one guy tried to steal the bar bottle of Crown Royal, which is the dumbest thing you could possibly do when the 'packed' bar only has 12 people in it and you live in a town of only 800 people. It doesn't feel like I left six years ago... but that's what the calendar tells me! Many people here are indeed older... even the pets. Our two primary cats are so geriatric that they walk very slowly, and instead of a 'meow' it's more of a 'creak'. Kinda funny. Creaking cats.

I've also been working nearly full-time while down here, which is a perk of dealing in the internet biz (I can still make money!). I had somebody contact me to see if I was interested in a job for Disney doing Flash work, which I thought was pretty cool, but I'm not down with full-time work right now and had to turn it down. But I still thought that was pretty cool.

Speaking of internet, and biz... I've converted the studio apartment we call a moving truck into a PirateJokes.net advert! Check it out:


(there's one on the driver's side, too)

Here's an excerpt from some spam I received recently:
cure process but also involves pumping additional water, sodium nitrite and
phosphates directly into the flesh to speed up

On another completely different note, Montreal is possibly the most amazing city I've ever been to. Please go there. Stop fooling around. Just go. Have some absinthe at Bily Kun's, tell David the bartender that Mike in Seattle sent you. You will come back with a beret and think you are Toulouse Lautrec. 'Snakes on a Plane' in French is 'Serpents a Bord'!

Tomorrow we drive down to California in a two-day adventure. And in less than two weeks I have the pleasure of Alice's company as she flies down for our own Disneyland getaway vacation! Hooray! Maybe I can get her to draw me some Pac Man Disney pictures, I forgot how much I liked that.