Saturday, March 7, 2015

Project Amol India

Getting to Cincinnati is a big piece of this.  Lotho generously offered to fly me up there but I don't know if that still works in May so I quoted the worst case of $250 to fly up there.  If that offended him, I apologize.  That's why I wrote it that way, tho.

The same applies to staying in Cincinnati.  Family and friends are up there but I have no idea who has any interest in a useless slab of meat parking on a couch for a few nights.

The next part after that is getting around.  Renting a car is maybe $100 for a couple of days.

When you're po', you can't be lackadaisical about stuff like this as it just flat won't work.  I really want to do this so I have to find a way to make it work.

(Ed:  the ride to Scotland wasn't lackadaisical?)

Not as much as it seemed.  I knew I couldn't stay in Greece as the off-season rent was €300 but the summer-season rent was €1300.  I thought maybe I could make Scotland so off I went.  Much of that thinking fell apart before I even got across Italy and Lotho and a Nameless Spirit kept me alive.  If not for them, the French would have chopped me up and served me in the quiche.

(Ed:  they are People of the Future?)

Quite.  There are more but without those two there would have been no chance.


Alternate possibility is if Yevette comes back as she would likely want to go up there also.  That suggests driving but fuel costs and staying over costs along the way would be higher than flying.  As a rough estimate, I'd say it would cost more than $500 in fuel to drive but I haven't done any arithmetic to verify it.

Some of you know Yevette from her performance as Donika in the Cincinnati concert but what you don't know is how incredibly brave she was to do it.  That may seem obvious from doing her first solo in front of all those people but that's only part of what I mean.  She traveled by herself through multiple bus changes to go about as far as I went when I rode from Greece to Scotland.

All of you have known Cadillac Man and Mystery Lady for decades so it wouldn't be right if they weren't part of it as well.

Something that would be madly cool is if Amol India has WiFi and Cat could be there via Skype.


Yes, I realize this is Alex style ... blow it up as big as it will go.  But I like Alex style, I always have.


As to why, And Then There Were Five sucks bad but that's how it goes now.  I strongly suggest some sort of gathering before it goes down to And Then There Were Four as the four will probably want pictures and there were precious few I could find of the Original Six.  Two are definitely wobbling and possibly a third as well.  You know this will come again so all the more reason to get cracking quickly to do it.


Maybe you ask why the Burning of the Hat of Eternal Accursedness did not help No. 6 but you can only burn your own evil spirits.  She had done that and was working in recent years to help homeless people.  All I can figure is she didn't do it soon enough as the evil spirits still took her down but the important thing is she did it.


Maybe you also ask why I sometimes call her No. 6 and this comes from 'checking in' as kids.  When either of our parents called out CHECK IN then all of us must drop immediately what we are doing and assemble as quickly as possible in a line according to age in front of the caller.  This sounds militaristic but I hear people saying they have trouble keeping track of two kids.  Let's see how your methods work with six.

As to the efficacy of their methods, they never lost any ... or at least not for long as No. 2 was lost in Illinois one time.  This story is unbelievably pitiful and I've told it before but the main point is they found him again.  Also, No. 6 would sometimes take off all her clothes and go wandering around the neighborhood.  Check-in wasn't 100% effective but they did manage to keep all six, with or without clothes.


I won't be bringing any baggage and it's a good chance I won't even bring any luggage.  Maybe others have accursed hats to burn as well ... how should I know ... but it would be very good to see the family together one more time without any angry or hands waving in the air ... unless it's to beg someone to stop making you laugh because you need a chance to breathe.

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