Dave Thoughts

Since your votes for president in the general election don't really count (insert Dave's rambling, incoherent rant on abolishing the Electoral College here), get out and vote in your state's primary. I completely understand that it's inconvenient. Vote by mail. I voted in my primary 3 weeks ago, and have to keep reminding myself that the California primary isn't until Feb. 5. I'd be lying if I said I didn't care who you voted for (though I actually don't care what party), but get out there and actually do it. You forfeit the right to whine later if you don't care enough to fill out a ballot.

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: "All I Want is You" by Barry Louis Polisar

Everyone in my house is doing their best to infect me. I'm not saying it's deliberate. That would be wrong. It just seems a little much, is all. My wife has been sick or injured for pretty much a month. This has caused me to retreat to my library as a sort of disease-free holdfast. Thanks to Loma Linda's unique policy on sick days (sick? who gets sick? thems vacation days!) I cannot be sick. Therefore, I have isolated myself, am bombarding my system with echinacea, and shunning loved ones. The holdfast is now being assaulted on both sides as my stepdaughter is now ill. Germs now hold the east and left gates to the stronghold. I suspect my dog may be ill as well. Well, not really, but he's a pug, and how can you tell? It's like trying to diagnose a throw pillow. I remain healthy, but how long can my stellar immune system hold out? Perhaps if I set up some sort of time-release Lysol discharges around the library door...

As if the sickness wasn't depressing enough, we lost Heath Ledger. His portrayal of the Joker in the upcoming Dark Knight had me, as a fanatic Batman devotee, excited beyond words. Now we'll never see that as it could have been developed over several films (as was the plan). Moreover, I don't think he meant to kill himself. I just don't. I think he worked himself into exhaustion, had trouble sleeping, and was careless with drugs in trying to knock himself out to get some rest. I've been there myself and I just think it's kind of a tragic mistake. Maybe the test results will prove me wrong, but that's just my random take.

For California, it's been relatively chilly (we're talking 40-50 here) and all the mountains surrounding my workplace are snow-covered. This place really does get beautiful in the winter. Everything that's brown during the intolerable summer, becomes alive and green. You get to see snow waaaaay in the distance where it can remain pretty in concept and not interfere with driving. Best time of year to be here...unless you're sick...which would be everyone but me....where's my Lysol?

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: TGIF
Current Music: "Grace Like Rain" by Todd Agnew

As the time tested combination of nostalgia and boredom inspire me to blog, here are my favorites of 2007.

Movies
1. Juno
2. I Am Legend
3. The Orphanage
4. Michael Clayton
5. Zodiac
6. 3:10 to Yuma
7. The Hoax
8. Charlie Wilson's War
9. Transformers
10. 300


Video Games
1. Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga
2. Bioshock
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
4. Mass Effect
5. Assassin's Creed
6. Halo 3
7. The Orange Box
8. Vs. Marvel Trading Card Game
9. Scene It: Lights, Camera, Action
10. Beautiful Katamari

TV Shows
1. The Office
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Lost
4. The Daily Show
5. Scrubs
6. Heroes
7. The Colbert Report
8. House, M.D.
9. 24
10. Hell's Kitchen

Fiction Books (some may be 2006's that came out in paperback this year)
1. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessi
2. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
5. The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen
6. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
7. World War Z by Max Brooks
8. The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
9. The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien
10.Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Non-Fiction Books
1. The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush
2. Manhunt: 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson
3. Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis
4. I Am America...and So Can You by Stephen Colbert
5. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Music
1. The Altar and the Door by Casting Crowns
2. Dreaming Out Loud by OneRepublic
3. Juno Soundtrack by Various Artists
4. Strange Weirdos by Loudon Wainwright III
5. I'm Not There Soundtrack by Various Artists
6. Who We Are by Lifehouse
7. Magic by Bruce Springsteen
8. Into the Wild Soundtrack by Eddie Vedder
9. All That Is Within Me by MercyMe
10.Exile on Mainstream by Matchbox 20

Current Location: Colton, CA
Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Lord of the Rings Soundtrack

Having just performed herculean feats of manly moving (I did!) I am now looking very much forward to the weekend. It's been a very long week. Not much sleep. 2 trips to the ER: one for a co-worker who diced her thumb in the lab and one for Jan and her mutant flu. Both are now doing well. Jan and the co-worker, not Jan and the mutant flu, that is. Much playing of Call of Duty 4, which is my newest Xbox obsession. Much pounding of echinacea so I don't get said aforementioned mutant flu. It's possible this entry verges on disjointed.

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Juno Soundtrack

It rained this weekend here in California. So what, right? Yes, that's the normal reaction in most of the country, but here whenever we get rain that lasts more than an hour, it becomes a bigger story than whatever Brittney Spears is currently doing to traumatize her children. Local news goes live, people swarm grocery stores, and the normally crappy drivers of SoCal lower their game several notches. TONIGHT, STORMWATCH BRINGS YOU LIVE COVERAGE OF WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ....THE RAIN!!! Now, I will grant that we live on the border of the desert and we're not in any way equipped for rain so things flood easily. Also the fires earlier this year created a lot of loose soil so mudslides are a concern. But I used to live in Seattle where the opposite was true. People feared the sun when it made its tri-yearly appearance. Now I live in Hydrophobia land.

Not much new to report here. I spent the weekend fighting off whatever mutant cold strain is going around and watching movies. Stardust and Amazing Grace were extremely good, Rescue Dawn was ok, and Shrek 3 was-honestly-one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Stay or Leave" by Dave Matthews

I don't know about you (as I barely even know about me) but 2007 was a pretty big year.  I got hired at Loma Linda and got promoted to the ridiculously long title of Assistant to the Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences.  I love where I work.  It's a community environment and I love the college atmosphere and since I ran out of ways to figure out how to be a student, this is about as close as I can get to it.  The work varies from day to day.  Some days I sit at my desk and do expense reports and filing (mind you I do this while listening to the muppets on my ipod) and some days I'm at conferences all over the country.....and some days I have to figure out how to ship freeze-dried penguin liver samples to Vancouver (FedEx was not enthusiastic about that).  I got married!  I married my best friend and she is ludicrously awesome.  I hate listening to other people gush about how awesome their significant other is, but mine is better than yours so you can just sleep easy knowing that.  Marriage is awesome, hard, maddening, and wonderful often within the same hour.  I attribute all success in mine to my wife.  I would have divorced myself from myself in my teens had the option and technology existed.  I'm a step-dad too!  I suck at that!  I mean I'm really, really, really bad at it.  You can ask my step-children!  Granted, parenting-wise, they are pretty much done but as a relief pitcher in the ninth inning of their childhood, I am throwing metaphorical fastballs over the catcher's head.  This, along with a possible onset of whatever type of maturity I will ever attain, convinced me that though I thought I really wanted kids one day and I'd be a great dad.....that I wouldn't.  I just wouldn't.  I'm too impatient.  I'm not giving enough.  A child should be the center of everything a parent does and I can't do that.  I'm not equipped.  Those of you doing it.  Kudos.  I respect it tremendously.  I've always said though that if you can't do that, you have no business having children.  I can't....so I won't.  Now this wasn't so much a biological option in my marriage before, but we'd discussed adoption and other things and this was the year I let it go.  It's not my role.  My brother plans on cranking out 12 so I'll be a great uncle, but not a father.  I don't merit that.  Ok that got very heavy, so let's move back to the wacky.  I traveled a lot in 2007!  I hit somewhere around 20 states....17 of them in five days with my brother on a 2000 mile madness trek that we'll be talking about when we're geriatric.  I got a Xbox 360, which may not seem like a life changing event, but ask my wife.  It's in our family photos.  Me, the step-kids, the dogs, and the xbox.  Overall, 2007 was pivotal in my life for a lot of reasons.  There have been long stretches of very hard times, but a lot of very amazing blessings, and chiefly a wonderful wife.  God shepherded me through another year.  Bring on 2008!

PS-Let's all sit back and note that this is the SECOND consecutive year I did not drive a car through my house.  I feel a trend!!! 

Current Location: Colton, CA
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: None because my ipod is being operated upon

This year sucked. I honestly can't recall a year in my life that was so blah at the movies. Now, I haven't seen all the year-end releases yet, and I'm still hoping that I see one movie worthy of a Best Picture Oscar. But, since I am bored and the new year approaches, here in order of release are the films I'm looking forward to in 2008.  I'm sure others will come along and surprise me, but these are ones I'm already hyped about from trailers or source material.

• The Bucket List                    January 11            Morgan Freeman & Jack Nicholson....COME ON!!
• Cloverfield                            January 18             I have no clue what this is, but the trailers have sold me, plus its JJ Abrams
• Jumper                                  February 8             Could be really cool SciFi, but contains the Samuel Jackson X factor.....
• Semi-Pro                               February 29           Will Ferrell is on a hot streak, Blades of Glory was great this year.
• 21                                            March 28               Adapted from Ben Mezrich's awesome book "Bringing Down the House"
• Iron Man                                 May 2                     PLEASE, GOD, LET A MARVEL MOVIE BE GOOD
• Narnia: Prince Caspian      May 16                   Possibly the best trailer I've seen all year, I cannot wait to go back to Narnia.
• Indiana Jones 4                   May 22                   I really, really want this to be good....and I really, really doubt it will be
• Incredible Hulk                     June 13                 They can't make TWO godawful movies about the Hulk in a row.....can they?
• Get Smart                              June 20                 Steve Carrell in an update of one of my favorite TV shows ever.
• WALL-E                                  June 27                 Pixar.  Period.
• Hancock                                 July 2                     All Will Smith movies that open Independence Day weekend are required viewing.
• Hellboy 2                                July 11                   YES!  I like Hellboy.  Shut up.  Could be a great year for comic book movies.....
• The Dark Knight                   July 18                    I haven't anticipated a movie this much since Lord of the Rings, BATMAN BABY!!!
• The X-Files 2                        July 25                    When this series was good, it was amazing....it was also very NOT amazing at times
• Step Brothers                       July 25                    See aforementioned Will Ferrell comments (note: must re-watch Anchorman)
• Punisher: War Zone            September 12       Better casted Punisher, new direction.....eh, maybe?
• Valkyrie                                  October 3                I will see anything Bryan Singer directs, plus they try to kill Hitler so everyone wins
• Body of Lies                          October 10             Ridley Scott directs DiCaprio and Crowe
• 007 (Bond 22)                       November 7          Casino Royale was one of my favorite movies of last year, need more Bond!
• Harry Potter 6                        November 21        Best book in the series.  Best movie?
• Star Trek XI                            December 25        JJ Abrams reboots Trek
• Killing Pablo                          December 31        From the bestselling author of Blackhawk Down
• Coraline                                 December 31        Creepy children's fable by Neil Gaiman
• Time Traveler's Wife            December 31        Best book I've read in the last four years......can it be a good movie?

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: "Grey in LA" by Loudon Wainwright

I am aware, in the same way I'm aware that I owe Visa a lot of money, that I should be updating this frequently. Somehow I manage to go weeks without doing anything on here. Shame on me. I'm personally abashed. I've abashed myself. That should please you all.

Lots happened recently. Jan and I went and saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra in Anaheim. If you've never seen TSO, you are-and I mean this kindly-an incomplete, malformed half-person. They play Christmas music...but they play it the way Air Supply would have if they were better. Oh and there's explosions. I can't get in the holiday mood without TSO.

As part of my burdensome job I was forced, FORCED, mind you, to go to Las Vegas for five days to aid with the ASHP Midyear Convention at The Venetian. The Venetian is a ridiculously lavish hotel/casino with an Italian theme. Clearly I did not stay there. My wife is French. I stayed at Paris-a ridiculously lavish hotel/casino with a French theme. This was part of my job. What else has my job forced me to do lately? Well the Dean took the whole staff to lunch in a hummer limo. Barbara Bush came to campus for a talk and I went to represent my department. Yeah, so clearly I'm just snowed under with burdensome and onerous tasks as the holidays approach. Oh shoot, I forgot to mention that instead of a Christmas party we went as a school to see Cirque de Soliel. And, yes, I'm fully aware how obnoxious I'm being, but most of you work for the federal government and get Arbor Day off so I have to get my digs in where I can.

Here we are only one week from Christmas. This is my first Christmas totally without visiting with my family, so that's kind of odd. Both that I'm 28 and it's the first time it's happening and also that traditions and things that are normally part of my holidays aren't there this year. But Jan and I are making our own traditions (did you READ the TSO paragraph???)and that's exciting too. To you and yours, happy holidays and a very merry Christmas!

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: WHY A/C IN DECEMBER????
Current Music: "Finally Home" by MercyMe

For reasons passing my understanding, I am sitting my office at 6 a.m Basically, here's what happened: I had to leave work early on Monday and I can't afford to miss hours. So I woke up at 5 a.m. feeling not completely horrible and it made sense to me to just come in two hours early rather than leaving two hours late. So here I am in my office....and my lights aren't working. Oh I have power to all my outlets, but my lights won't work. So I'm sitting in my office, in the dark, which somewhat limits what I can do, waiting for the sun to come up so I can see my desk. Yes...it's going to be a day.

Current Location: The dark of my office
Current Mood: whaaa
Current Music: "I Don't Want to Be in Love" by Good Charlotte

Yes. It did in fact take me an unholy amount of time to post the rest of my trip rundown. In my defense....I'm very lazy. When last we left the intrepid duo of Yaeger boys, we were half-frozen in the wilds of Maine. Our next stop was my best friend from grad school, Rob's, digs in Vermont. To do this it was necessary to cross New Hampshire. It really couldn't be avoided. After a lobster lunch at a small restaurant near Acadia, we set out across New England for South Royalton, VT. Honestly, no one lives north of Massachusetts. No one. It's completely dark and forested. People may huddle together in little enclaves, but all you're to see is dark and trees. My brother is of the opinion that in order to "visit" a state you must interact with the people who live there. I am of the opinion that if I am physically in the state, the visit has occurred. We were nearly out of New Hampshire to the Vermont state line, when my brother swerved off the road. "This is no good. I need to interact with locals or this doesn't count." That is how we ended up on the campus of Colby Sawyer College, a small liberal arts school in New London, New Hampshire. My brother parked and then wandered into one of the dorms (a note to Colby Sawyer, your security is not that awesome) and talked to girls, got invited to help with a garage sale, got discovered as a poser, and ran quickly back to the car where I was waiting and rehearsing what I was going to tell the state police.

South Royalton, VT is where they keep the University of Vermont law students, of which my friend Rob is one. There are 600 students in the school and a good 200 of them were at the "Welcome Dave/It's Friday Let's Get Obliterated" party. I don't know if you went to a party school, but I went to James Madison University and much like Vermont because of the rural location, the only thing to do really is gather people together, drink, light things on fire, and try to avoid frostbite. This we did in the Virginia mountains where cold was 30 degrees. It was 17 degrees and people were walking around in short sleeves at this party. Out of control. People were pledging, stuff was on fire, ....just nuts. Good times were had, I have missed my bro Rob quite a bit and it was great to meet his friends (none of whom will recall me once they sober up come...June-ish) and see a bit of his world. I personally crashed out in Rob's apartment around 2 am, but was awoken around 3 am and looked up to see, I kid you not, six or seven people sitting around my sleeping bag, smoking weed from a hookah and Rob was playing the mandolin leading them in singing protest songs. It may be the most surreal moment of my life. That addendum to the party ended around 5 am and I was sound asleep when I was awoken by someone downstairs screaming, "WHERE'S THE POT? WHERE THE $*($( IS MY POT? OH $*()I LOST THE POT!!" I took that as a cue to get up and get on the road before my local experience included meeting Vermont State Police.

From Vermont we drove south to Philadelphia where my cousin lives. We had a nice night there playing Wii and catching up. By this time in the trip, Steven and I were approaching catatonia. Sunday we got up, had a quick breakfast with my cousins, and then drove the final leg from Philly back to DC, where I caught a flight from Dulles to Atlanta and from there home, where my lovely wife scooped my remains into a car.

7000 miles. Unbelievable. I think now, just after a Thanksgiving weekend of doing nothing, I'm finally caught up and recovered. It was total insanity, but it was a heck of a lot of fun and my brother and I have stories enough for years. Also we may have to stay out of New Hampshire for legal reasons....

Current Location: Sunny California
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Trans-Siberian Orchestra

It began with Steven's "vision". My brother doesn't have ideas. He has visions. It makes them harder to argue with and tougher to medicate away. This particular vision involved his personal quest to visit all 50 states in five years. I have the same goal, but spread over my life. New England was a blank spot for us both. Six states sitting there waiting to be crossed off. I had a conference in Washington DC and Steven's vision was that once I was finished, he'd pick me up, we'd drive up to Maine, loop around, and be back in time for my return flight. In case you're wondering, that's about 2000 miles worth of driving. I said yes, because.....well if nothing else, it would make a more interesting blog entry than "why I hate people who turn around in my driveway".
The conference was good. It was a national meeting of grant administrators and....yeah I just put myself to sleep so screw that. Probably the most interesting portion of my trip was the battle between the Marriott and Normandy's over who had to put up with me. This argument necessitated me trundling up and down Connecticut Ave. with my luggage three times (once at 2 a.m.) and leading me to an intimate familiarity with that stretch of the city (want to defect to Malta? I know where the embassy is!). I didn't do any sightseeing in DC, having been there over a dozen times, but I did get to see two of my best friends from grad school, so all in all a fine visit to our nation's capital.

I guess I should try to describe my brother at this point. You know what? That's really not going to be possible beyond this: you know when you were sitting around with your friends in high school and someone brought up a place and one person would always shout out WE SHOULD GO THERE! My brother is that person with a high-paying government job, a reliable automobile, and some kind of obsessional disorder.

Wednesday was the longest driving day. We wormed our way up the I-95 corridor, which for those of you who have little experience with the northeast means traveling through DC, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Newark (home of the gag reflex), New York City, Connecticut (which I'll get to), and Providence before you hit Massachusetts. All of the aforementioned cities had traffic. Nothing compared to Connecticut. Out of all the states we visited, only Connecticut gets a thumbs down. It sits there, blocking access to the rest of New England, providing residence to all of the crappy drivers who work in New York City. Also, it apparently is closed for construction. The state. Closed. One lane of highway open from border to border. There are no obscene rhymes to chant that rhyme with Connecticut. I know. I sat there for three hours and tried to come up with some. We finally arrived at our destination (Plymouth) and collapsed into the only hotel room we'd have on the trip for all of six hours.

Thursday morning I awoke to my brother standing over me with a slightly manic look on his face. "We're behind schedule. We need to be at the rock in 60 minutes. It's GO TIME!" That was 8:30 a.m. The rock was of course Plymouth Rock, which is situated next to a replica of the Mayflower and in the middle of a herd comprised of every schoolchild in Massachusetts. I think we were the only non-chaperones over 4'5" within a mile of the rock. It's a rock. We made up some time after taking a picture of the rock. From there it was to Boston, where we ate lunch at Cheers (awesome!) and took the tour of Fenway Park (awesome!). Then we got in the car, drove north through New Hampshire, and half of Maine to a little island called Acadia National Park (according to the brochure the 2nd most visited national park in America). I'm betting most of those people do not wait until the middle of November to visit. We rolled into the park in the blackest night I've ever experienced, past all the signs which had tarps over them (Steven assured me this was not at all a problem), past the CLOSED RANGER STATIONS, and found the one open campsite in Acadia. I'm not much of a camper. I think the last time I camped was when I was 10. I recall disliking how outdoors it was. My main problem this time was that it was 30 degrees and, though my brother dropped right off, me and my insomnia didn't cope that well. I laid there and shivered through the night, praying for wolves to attack us, and didn't drop off until light was streaming through the tent.

Friday morning at 9 a.m. I heard the tent zzzzzzzzzzzzzip open and twisted my frozen carcass to look at my brother poking his head through the opening. "Are you still sleeping? WE NEED TO HIKE, MAN!!!" So we hiked the ocean cliffs of Acadia. Despite my hypothermia (IT WAS REAL, STEVEN!) the beauty of the park really stole the morning. If you ever get a chance to go, IN THE SUMMER, go. Gorgeous. After a 3.3 mile hike (yes I measured) we got back into the trusty tripmobile and continued on our way. I'll detail the second half of the trip the next time I have an absurdly large block of free time at work. You won't want to miss it. It involves lobster, hookahs, and random New Hampshire liberal arts students!

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: body angry at Dave
Current Music: Pan's Labyrinth Soundtrack

1. Halo 3
2. Bioshock
3. Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga
4. Elder Scolls IV: Oblivion
5. Marvel Ultimate Alliance

7000 miles, 15 states and the District of Columbia, bitter cold, odd rugby parties, and a new hatred for Connecticut later, I am home. I will blog in detail when my brain catches up to my body (I believe it may still be in Maine).

Current Mood: tired

Well, wrapping up loose ends here at work and getting ready to bravely leave my beloved wife and dogs (and xbox) for the arctic cold that is the east coast. Most likely, no updates until a Tripsanity recap.

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: Training for the East
Current Music: Halloween Theme

I had actually forgotten today was Halloween until I was driving through campus and an Oompa Loompa walked in front of my car. Now normally I don't start hallucinating Oompa Loompas until well after noon, so that threw me. You would think I'd recall what day it is since I spent last night in possibly the lamest haunted house in the long, sad history of lame haunted houses. Fearplex. They called it Fearplex. Basically it consisted of me leading a congo line of my wife, my step-daughter, and several of her friends at shuffle speed through a maze of dark rooms where people would pop out and I'd advise them to try the redhead at the back of the line because my wife is probably the most nervous haunted house goer ever. She screamed in line when someone tried to give her a flyer. However, the planning of the house was so poor that we were continually getting lost and having to ask the ghouls for directions which ruins some of the atmosphere. I WILL EAT YOUR FACE AND FEED YOUR ENTRAILS TO MY....oh take the second left and loop around the headless babies....BABOONS OF DOOM!!!

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: "Collide" by Dishwalla

The smoke having finally cleared from sunny California skies, it is now time for TRIPSANITY '07! This Sunday I will be embarking on an eight-day trip spanning the country. Sunday I fly from Cali to Salt Lake City to Washington DC, where I will be attending a conference of research administrators. This will basically consist of me staring blankly at various speakers and trying to locate printed material that I can read later for understanding. I have several friends in the DC area and it will be quite nice to see them (plus this looks like an annual thing so I'll be back). On Wednesday, when the conference ends at noon....is when it begins. My brother, who "works" (the quotes are required because he is not only a banker...but a banker who examines other bankers so I'll let you guess his hours) for the Federal Reserve in Richmond, will drive up to DC, pick me up and our goal is to see all of New England before my return flight on Sunday night. But, Dave, you say in a concerned and vaguely annoying voice, isn't New England NOWHERE near DC? Yes. You are correct. This would stop sane people. Yaeger men are not sane. Wednesday we're driving from DC to Boston. Thursday we're taking it further north and camping in Maine. Yes I will bond with nature in Maine in November. I expect "damp" and "cold" will be words that I shall use to describe the experience. From Maine, we travel to South Royalton, Vermont to see my broham Rob who I have not seen since being paroled with my master's degree from JMU. Wow, Dave, that seems like a lot. You must be done. NO NO NO I scream at you in a slightly disturbing falsetto, THE MADNESS CONTINUES! From there we head to Philadelphia, PA to spend Saturday night with my cousin, who I have not been able to see in ten years.....also he has a Wii.....the two things are LINKED I tell you! Quality family time (at this point probably fueled by a combination of caffeine pills and meth) will continue until I am dropped at Dulles Airport in DC for my Sunday night home via Atlanta to Ontario, where my wife will take my remains home for burial. For review: the madness will be hitting California, Utah, DC, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Georgia in 8 days. BOO YEAH! 14 states and a district! Bring on the tripsanity!

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: TRIPSANITY
Current Music: Trans-Siberian Orchestra

As of this morning, the two fires that were closest to us have been contained. The fire the most directly threatens us now is the Slide Fire, which is completely out of control and burning its way through Arrowhead and Running Springs and advancing on Highland. However, that's about 23 miles away and that's a heck of a lot easier to fathom than a fire being closer then my Walmart. I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers, but there's a lot of people out here in a world of hurt who could use them more so keep thinking of them. Still extremely smoky, but the wind has died down. I am currently not on fire. Further updates as flammability warrants.

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: thankful
Current Music: "Love Like Winter" by AFI

Just drove through Del Taco for lunch and as I had my window down, ash was wafting into my car like snow flurries. 500,000 evacuees so far. There's only one major fire in my area, but it's the only one they haven't even begun to contain.

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: ashy
Current Music: "Clocks" by Coldplay

My backyard has a very nice view of the San Bernadino Mountains, which is normally a tranquil scene. Currently it looks like Mordor. Wildfires in the mountains continue to rage. The most tangible effect for me is the air quality, which is somewhat akin to standing directly your bbq if say you were cooking....forests. House smells like smoke, dogs smell like smoke, I smell like smoke. It's smoky is what I'm trying to convey.

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: and smoky
Current Music: "Let's See How Far We've Come" by Matchbox 20

I make my triumphant blog return in the midst of smoke and flame! As I sit in my new office in LLU's Medical Center, I can see...nothing, really. Wildfires in the mountains have caused a giant cloud of smoke to descend on the campus. We're apparently in no real danger, but sitting in the midst of what is at this hour the top story on the AP news wire, caused me to get off my butt (metaphorically, because let's face it...I don't move much) and put something up on my blog, which I'm now connecting to my facebook page. The Santa Ana winds were blowing up to 80 mph and have knocked a good portion of my roof into my front yard (ah the joys of renting) and hot and dry conditions have kind of created a perfect storm for fires. It's worst up near Big Bear and down in San Diego, but we're getting our fair share of soot and ash at the foothills. Should I at any time actually burst into flame, be assured I will blog up until second degree burns.

Current Location: Loma Linda University
Current Mood: FIRE
Current Music: "The Saints Are Coming" by U2 and Green Day