Relaxing weekend

I went back to Woodland CA this weekend to visit my family, and the last of my friends that have stuck it out there amidst prohibitively high rent, rampant conservatism and an almost complete lack of interesting things to do. Friday night turned out to be a warm, clear night (I’m used to Portland weather now so I’m easy to impress) so I decided to setup my telescope in my Dad’s backyard and took a looksee at what, I thought was Venus, and a few consellations. After that I went relaxed in the hot tub. Believe me, I did not enjoy such lavish living growing up… For the first time in his professional life, my Dad’s company has actually been able to generate surplus revenue for more than two consecutive years. What does my Dad do with this spare money? Buy toys.

My girlfriend Jane went with me this trip. My family loves her. I think they enjoy seeing her more than they do me.

I have a fairly nice bike that, prior to this visit, never made its way to Portland. So, while I was there, I broke it down, put it in a box so it could be flown back to P-town with me. My Dad took to riding my bike after I moved, and while riding it one day, the rear tire blew out on him which ended up bending the back rim a good inch out of center. If I want a bike with rear brakes I’m going to have to get the rim straightend. Otherwise my bike is rideable. I plan to ride, instead of drive around Portland this summer, during my time off.

The only real drama that took place during the entire weekend happened on Sac International airport on our way home. A Southwest baggage taker, after verifying with me that the contents of the 5’x3’x8″ double ply cardboard box that I had with me was, in fact, a bike, charged me $50 for it to be transported as baggage; we only had one other piece that we were checking in so I expected to be charged a maximum of $25 if the box turned out to be “oversized” by thier classification. Anyway, after his corpo-metrosexual ass repremanded me for having not put it in a hard case, he informed me that Southwest would not be liable for loss or damage.

“What the fuck are you going to do with it that requires a hard case and a transport fee of $50!?!… blast it into space? Shove your policy up your cornhole, fuckwipe!” I bit my tongue to keep from saying, to prevent my becoming the next outraged antagonist on TVs reality show “Airport”. The Southwest website stated a $25 fee for oversized baggage. I scowered the fuck out of thier site and didn’t find a G-darn thing about bikes being fiddy. Man, I wish I could be responsible for NOTHING and get paid for it. FuckASSes! (It made the trip ok though, so I’ll cease my rant in this otherwise happy post).