Friday, August 22, 2008

Travelling blues

Travelling always puts me in sort of a down-on-KC type of mood. It doesn't really hit until after I've been back a day or two. I think it takes that long for me to process the contrasts of where I've just been to where I am. The honest truth is, I've never visited a place that I didn't thoroughly like more than KC. This place is horrible. The climate, the culture, the politics... the only thing it has going for it is the church I go to, my friends, and family. That's all the really important stuff, anyways, so I'm good with that. But it would be nice to enjoy the same people with a much more enjoyable back drop.

What triggered this for me was the humidity. We just returned from Albuquerque last Wed night. They are over a mile high and in the desert. It was hot, sure, but never reached 100 and there was zero humidity. The air was fresh and clean. The air was also thin enough to boost my riding speed by a solid 4mph! The views are incredible. Not only is the landscape scenic, but the thinner atmosphere and high mountains lends itself to spectacular skyscapes. Oh that we remembered the camera! It has been a long time since I've seen the moon with such clarity and so large, and it kept popping in and out of the clouds which were wreathed around it with some dramatic style. The moon there must shine five times brighter than it does here in the lowlands.

10 comments:

Percussivity said...

Is that worth all that to live under the threat of Africanized Killer Honey Bees??? Yeah OK, so the stats say that deaths by killer bee stings are a mere fraction of a percent of the total death by sting tally in the US... but did you ever see the movie "Killer Bees"? Did you!?? Since the killer bees came to the US in 1990, eleven (11) people have DIED due to killer bee attacks! Do you want to be #12? Do you want to suffer a horrible death by a 1,000 stings just because you enjoy clean dry air?

Think about it.

Kansas City... no killer bees.

Maddie's Mom said...

We know exactly how you feel! Everytime we have come home from vacations, we always ask ourselves why we live in KC...but, we couldn't see ourselves leaving our church, family and friends. Maybe we could talk with the church board, and see if we can move a little closer to the west coast???

The Angry Coder said...

ROFL! A funny thing happened to me on the first day down there. I was running about on the desert floor, amidst the sage and arroyos, playing hide-and-go-seek with the chitlins (who were clad in desert cammies and do-rags for maximum hiding capability) and I got stung on my back, left shoulder. Hurt like hell. Felt like a coal was being pressed against me for a few hours and I was worried cuz I'm slightly allergic. But all was fine... I suppose it was a regular 'Merican bee, or maybe a tarantula killer.

As a board member, I'll put forward a motion to move either south or west. We aren't the only city with a 'midtown'!

Anonymous said...

I suggested we all move to Las Vegas, but that met with some resistance from, umm, the unabashed blogger I believe.

Brandon Briscoe said...

I vote Portland...

...only because I haven't been yet and I want to.

I guess that is why vacationing is important. It is nice to visit a place and see only the great things they have to offer. But if you were to move there and live there a little while and are socially/culturally appropriated you begin to realize that every place sucks in their own way.

Sure there are different levels and types of suckiness but what suck are you willing to trade for other suck somewhere else?

The Angry Coder said...

"Everything sucks in it's own way." That should be a song! Very profound.

SQLFunkateer said...

I'd vote Flagstaff, or heck, why not Cambria. Except for the whole socialism thing. But seriously, Arizona is like New Mexico without the hippies.

Now seriously, church/friends/family notwithstanding, we're all living in Kansas City because we can't afford to live all those other nice dry cool places. You know it's true.

BTW, the "word verification" for this post is "jewzfh". How appropriate since I already invoked Cartman ("hippies! hippies everywhere! they wanna save the earth but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad!").

Brandon Briscoe said...

There is no escaping hippies, they are in Flagstaff too.

I am fond of hippies in a way, there are several hippies and yuppies in my family so I have a soft spot.

I can look past the lack of hygiene but Free Love though, really. We all know that is a ridiculous concept.

SQLFunkateer said...

True, just about everywhere in the southwest is infected with hippies. Somehow Arizona seems a bit more macho and less "let's do a new age chant and dance around the fire with native american beads to unite our shakras with the great mother!" which is the impression New Mexico starts to give off after you've just passed through Texas. Not that machismo is necessarily better. Nachismo, yes. I love me some nachismos, with jalapenos. But again, this is only perception at a surface level.

Anonymous said...

We could choose Slab City California. I mean if we are gonna be down with hippies. Pilgrim likes a good Neil Young song or two. It was an ole Neil Young concert shirt with a naked lady on it that sorta got me in trouble with the old farts at KCBT.