So.
Thursday the 24th, in my last minute preparations, I called amtrak to
find out whether they had bike boxes stocked in their emeryville
station, as it was actually more on Aarons (my housemate, hi! I'm
writing this on the plane, get any good pictures?) way to work, (and
we wouldn't have to wake up *quite* so early!) than jack London square
in Oakland (hi too short!) The operator who helped me, sue, had me on
the phone for 45minutes, doing all manner of thing except (ever. Ever
ever) telling me if there were boxes at the station! She basically
went to great length to confirm my reservations and review all my
information, but never answer my only, very basic, question! While I
was quite irritated at this waste of my time for 44 minutes, in the
45th minute, sue discovered that from July 15th to august 9th, the
last train in my trip, the Albany, ny to Springfield, ma train, would
not be taking checked baggage! After a full minute of me double,
triple and for a fourth time checking to see that I had this correct,
that if I had gotten on the train in the morning, and gone through
with trip, I would have been stranded in NY, I promptly hung up to
see about flying out, which I had avoided at the beginning due to
environental concerns and the train had seemed a little more bike
friendly. Several minutes later, I had an outgoing flight
confirmation in my inbox for a Saturday night red eye and had
canceled my train tickets, a full refund for which more than covered
the price of my plane ticket. I'm on fronteir airlines right now, all
3 seats in my row to myself(!), my 3 checked bags and bike let on for
a low "starving artist" price (thanks girls!) and getting some good
writing done. Joe McPhee is featured in this months 'the wire' and
told a story about dropping his sax just before a big gig that was to
be broadcast nationwide, and how Pauline oliveros, seeing his state
(terrified, his word) showed him to a place that would fix it up real
fast for him... The whole ancedote helped calm me down some as a
feeling of comraderie and faith in the experimental/avantgarde music
community strengthed yet again (i'm inspired daily, as you'll read, I
think).
Big up to grux, marcella, caroliner, Mick (even though you wouldn't
let me sit on your shoulders at Doo nord), Jacob, kasper, derrick,
Jonah, and the whole (brutal) sf noise scene who have been as
supportive as earth since I first started playing in sf.. I'm taking
that energy energy with me on this trip, thank you!
... And while i'm at it, I might say hi to my coworkers at the Hilton
and rose's cafe, and thank you all for letting me go on this trip so
readily, even if I'll have 2 months of coffee drinks to make and wine
to pour upon my return... Thank you!
Dianne Eveland, my partner in romance and adventure,
has made a last minute decision to join us for the entire trip after
Boston! This ties in with our original plan to try to have a couple
extra (non instrument bearing) people along to help distribute the more
communual supplies a little better. Dianne's ability to drop
everything and join us was enabled by a fortuitous subletting of her
apartment from August through October, as well as her works'
willingness to give her the time off, which is no surprise as she
works at a bike/hike/camp/play store called the sports basement and
they love a good adventure as well as or better than a good coworker!
They have also been a boon in as that she gets a great discount on all
the camping supplies we needed! She may well have something of her
own to add to this all once I send her the password to post on this
blog... !
Kurt hasn't yet met her, let's hope they get along ok!
This has been something of a rambling, personal entry, afforded
largely due to my being on a plane with little else to do (well, in
terms of continuing to find shows and campgrounds) though did read a
very interesting article in a 1989 national geographic about the
Tibetan nomads, thought I might pick up a tip on the old nomadic
lifestyle in general, but mostly just walked away with a yearning for
a yak herd of my own... And a general reinforcement of some basic
ideas about living off the land and going slow to conserve energy.. A
tinge of guilt at not taking the train, oh well, they create tons of
trash, paper tableclothes and disposable everything, no recycling,
according to Dianne.
I should get some sleep, I get into conneticut at 5:34am, and won't be
picked up for a few hours after that due to my own misunderstanding of
time travel and such... It's ok, I'll reassemble my bike as much as
possible and/or camp out in the pickup area, which I'm fully equipped
for with a mat and sleeping
Bag... May even set up my tarp for a little privacy! That's not
"suspicious behavior" is it? Heh heh heh...
Night!
Sent from my iPod
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