And now, for my next magical trick...

Hooray! I found the rabbit! I was reaching down into that hat for a long time, and the audience was looking skeptical, when I finally found those ears and yanked it out! All of which means I found renters for my house! Lease signed this evening. It's all not quiiiite done yet, as I still have to cash the verified check and install the new countertops (which also got done today), but I'm very close now. Almost bubblegum time...

What's the next magical trick? Why, to earn a highly competitive fellowship position in Washington, DC, of course...

Thanks for all the good luck vibes from you guys out there! It seems it might be working....

Even more thievery!

The good news - a sudden flurry of interest in my house for rent yesterday, including a couple parties keen on moving in ASAP! The bad news: on my last trip to the supermarket to use the Wi-Fi, I'm pretty sure I left my cell phone on the table. An hour later, it was gone! Nobody turned it in, I don't ave that much stuff to sift through, so I can only conclude that it was stolen. Grrrrrrr. So now I have almost no ability to communicate, and the potential renters can't reach me.

Jennie bailed me out by lending me her extra phone, and also drove up late last night to call the phone and try and help me locate it. That was generous and nice of her to do.

Bugger, man. Well, off to try and figure out how to restore my communications, so I can hopefully close the deal on a rental....

Trip wrap-up

Well, I can tell most of you have little faith in my butt-kicking capability by the lack of comments. My work here in Colorado is almost done, all that remains now is installing new countertop when it arrives (and sink), finishing the taxes, and finding a tenant. It seems my adventure will be on a hiatus for a while, as I need to buckle down and work a bit, as well as tend to an interview in Washington, DC. As such, I've decided to wrap it up and call this the end of the first chapter of my walkabout. I went and selected one picture (I think) from each stop -soon the tracker map at the bottom will show a little line graphic of the approximate path I took. Thanks for keeping me company on the ride!

I'm coming to chew bubblegum and kick ass

Winter clothes . . . check
Big stick . . . check
Steel-toed boots . . . check
Bubblegum . . . I'm alll out of gum.

Anybody recognize this delivery of the line?

Time to pay the piper

Well, this has all been great fun, but it has come time to pay the piper. I will be leaving New Orleans on Sunday to return to Boulder, where I will be for an indeterminate period of time. I have to try to get a new tenant, and get collection proceedings going, and do my taxes, and some work on the house... you get the idea. And then, unless something changes, I will have to look for work - of the high-paying, soul-battering kind. I sure hope I am feeling better by driving time - last night was an unpleasant, fever-soaked experience.

Maybe I'll get some notice about my fellowship application, maybe the collection agency will actually be able to come up with some $$, but I'm not counting on any of that. So, stay tuned, but it may be that this is the end of my travels - it seems the bungee 1) held, and 2) was shorter than I expected. At least, I would be able to say I went out on a high note. ;)

A side note: New Orleans certainly made an impression on me, and even on Papa Smurf, too. When climbing into the truck from the passenger side, I hit the rearview mirror, which came off, along with a chunk of the windshield! It was pointed out that - "Hey, that looks kind of like Louisiana!". Sure enough, the missing glass perimeter is fairly close to the outline of the state!

Mardi Gras!!!

Whooooeeee! That was some party. I am pretty exhausted, and my cold has made a comeback - I'll be recovering the rest of the week, I think, but it was worth it. I would be writing all night to tell the whole story. Suffice to say, Carnival in New Orleans has something for everybody - live music, colorful parades, dances, dancing, food, drink, smokes, costumed crazies - almost any party/fun you want to have, you can over here during Carnival.

I'll just tell you how it all ended. It turns out that Bourbon Street gets shut down at midnight on Mardi Gras - fitting, since Wed is Ash Wednesday. It's he only day of the year they have to close. I didn't know this, and so I wound up in section just outside the French Quarter, where the bars were still open, and a couple bands were playing. A DJ was set up outside one, and was jamming all kinds of latin music, and everybody was dancing in the street. I joined in and stayed out there until 2:30 in the morning. The street was not closed -passing cars just had to run the gauntlet of gyrating people, who would rock the cars, dance in front of them, and generally be silly, but let them pass. It started raining, but the party kept going. Me too - ditching my shoes to splash in the puddles. Finally, fatigue and the rain thinned the group enough that it was clear it was time to go home, so I hailed a cab and that was it.

You can see all the photos I've put up in the Parades Galore blog - the photo gadget there automatically updated to include the new uploads.