morning six am so fast arrivin' driftin' through sleep in a-larm snoozelndI clipped this and stuck it in my wallet:
jessica's mom is real nice welcoming, for the ten minutes I am awake and conversant before we have to leave because jessica starts her temp job at 8 am.
not before early morning photos in front of the house morning at the Mill Mountain, roanoake's first northwest style gourmet java house
monk's prayer tea variety is peppermint goodnessreading USA Today absurity
hackers crack pentagon headline largely unsubstantiated and now they're providing a web site review service
cruising charlotte late nightFIZZLESS FLUIDS:
A $1.5 million Coca-Cola dispenser on the space shuttle Endeavour has gone flat. The dispenser has not delivered a full serving of the soft drink since blasting off Sunday, and it overheated Tuesday. That means no Coke or Diet Coke for the six astronauts, though noncarbonated PowerAde was available. The failure may give Pepsi an edge in the soda space race. Pepsi has Russian cosmonauts filming a commercial on the Mir space station.stuart bush asks me to spare a half dollar, I'm struck by the gleam in his eyes urged out of the cafe by the contientious staff
the cafe that donates proceeds to the local orchestra, or something
find him on the street and tell him I'll give him a dollar, and that I'd like to take his picture. he didn't mind, he'd just gotten out of the hospital, cuz his ankle was swelling painful - they just said to take tylenol for it. I took a facial closeup, missed his plaid pants, he seemed sort of anxious to get away at that point.stopped by a local streetside farmer market to by some road chow
- raw broccoli, carrots, spinach.
to get to davidson, I have to ride the bus back to lynchburg, where I already beenand then I have a half n' three hour layover in the middle of an extended industrial park
the lynchburg greyhound terminal, uh, yeah.
I think I might be developing a cyst in my foot. in I think seventh grade, this thing grew in the ball next to my left pinky toe, it grew up huge and painful to pressureize, so they removed a marble sized peach chunk thing growth yuck.a few minutes with a largely mute soon-to-be job corps graduate in computer database work, "dave" and I'm ready to headit's four miles to anything that qualifies as "local colour" so it has to be the mall for a lark, I cast the i ching,should I go to the mall? number 45, gathering, includes the phrase "it is profitable to have somewhere to go."
hot summer sun and asphalt being laid beside me
no sidewalks I'm covered in highway grime and exhaust
walking near freight trains, rail riding I hadn't thought of for travel
to a mall immediately no different than any other damn thing in america
except the asile are packed with antique stands, the first one John Eckrich I encounter specializing in collector cups, like that stuff you can get every so often at fast food joints
goddamned green lantern, green arrow from 1976 selling for $50. slow poke rodriguez from 1973 for 1973.
do these cost so much because people like one character?everything is supply and deemand
his son john
a serta mattress man told john sr. that he heard sue, this 14 year old, say she was going to marry john jr. one daythey did marry, but john's a workaholic - from 16 year old bag boy to corporate efficiency expert for Giant Supermarkets, margret sez "he works even when he's not gettin' paid." so he got divorced,
but the divorce worked out so good, he even babysits her kids by her next marriageI arrive at Elliot's table looking for i ching coins, chinese round cash pieces with square center-holes
he's in the middle of a rant about patriotism alive and well in america
after he empties a can full of coins and we search through them, I volunteer to help put them back
cuz I'm a good patriotwe share a good chuckle. I stopped by waldenbooks, looking for the I Ching, to copy down the chinese names of each of the eight trigrams into my pocket sized utterly abridged version of the text
I find Ken Wilber's A Brief History of Everything leaps off the shelf at me
he seems to be trying to paint a pretty broad picture of the world, what he calls "orienting generalizations"
I have no reading material, and sometimes I do that too, so I bought it.
walkin' back along the new road
some highway makers sight my hair, ask whassup from across the wayI stop by for a brief chat
I'm travelling across america to teach folks about the internet. you know that that is? the guy closest to me sez he "ain't never heard of the internet"
the guy in white leans forward off the guard railshit larry, where the fuck you been? it's all over the tee vee!
in my own little world, larry guesses.
anyways, its startin' to feel like that again in the same durn place.
I call colin, he conference calls mom briefly before the bus comeswil and ben meet me at the terminal, each in dark shades, vaguely thug likeno colin, I haven't showed since I left he pities the fool who sits next to me.
weird bridge between swarthmore and greyhound.
they take me to a local all-night diner early in the evening, the Athens
ben claims it has the highest population of manic depressives in the vicinity. ordered fried catfish and fried squash, green beans, sugar iced tea - felt pretty manic depressive myself.
rollin' through downtown charlotte, everything looks so damn new post-eighties architecture and recent urban revitalization like a new library and street art installations and the blumenthal performing arts center huge-ass train-stationesque lobby with massive murals
and line dancers to modern country
it's police blocked off people filled
"speed street", for race week
automotive worship, many virtual racing simulators - I guess crowds like interactivity and they weren't dancin'but the line dancers were, we stopped and watched and briefly hooted; I noticed one lady had her smile, attitude, legs shakin just cranked excited to be havin' a good ol time we would call and response some screamin' an hollers
afterwards I went up and got her autograph
alisa ward, keep smiling. wandering beyond the first stage, there was much virtual racing, many beef
a favourite race hero, Jeff Gordon #24 came out on a coca-cola stage holding a coke and telling everyone to buy coke, to enjoy the coke sponsorship, with a twenty foot coke bottle behind him, and coca-cola banners all 'round we wandered around, sat on a bench
dropped into the performing arts center, attached to a mall, grand atrium with much marble, and somehow a piano. ben got wil goin' on the bottom part of some blues, he soloed on top. I slapped time on top of the piano until they two told me to quit that racket.
the lynchburg greyhound terminal
no fake id, no music party
tit joints or lax bars options
no hollywoold sortiee
feed thyself
the waffle house
ben raves about hash browns "all the way"
hash brownsscattered on the grill,
smothered in onions covered in cheese
chunked with ham
topped with bert's chili
and diced with fresh tomatoes
with that belly bomb,
back to ben's house, we sit around with brownie the mammoth dog, watch the making of luxor casino promotional video, and listen to ben's dad's county-shaking snoring.
justin hall | <justin at bud dot com>