Many Happy Returns

...because I'm hangin' with my Moms. Also other family members, in the land of approximately 15000 "lakes" plus many other smaller bodies of water. Our road trip went supercool, and I'm trying to think of something to say about it.

hmmm...

Well okay so here it is: (and this has been said before) I like a lot of individuals, but people as a group are a terrible blight upon the earth. Which is not to get into a political dribble drabble. Instead, I just mean that getting out in the SW/W where there just are no people is very refreshing, because you don't have ugly human-things blocking your view and filling your ears and nose. Also the hamburgers are much tastier.

The empty desert. The trees--by which I mean not the sad little things most of us have surrounding our demesnes, but huge-ass oaks and ponderosa and and and... It's not that communities are bad by themselves, or even cities--it's just that, in fact, most of them are ugly. Some places, which you'll recognize when I say 'suburbia' and 'strip mall' are even fugly. These are the creations of egotistical people who can't see their own insignificance in the grand scheme of things. Another reason the W is great--lots of humble(r) folks (and really, they were actually "folks") who were not concerned with their own importance 24/7. Another refreshing thing.

The mountains are where it's at. This is what makes you realize that you are a tiny speck of dust in a world of boulders. This is where you just can't seem to figure out the distance to anything, because the immensity of spaces takes your parallax away. Also, let's hear it for Lewis & Clark National Forest. Big ups!

As Calvin said, the world isn't so bad if you can just get out in it.