Tales from the Road

So, I've been living alone in an extended stay hotel in Cleveland for the past couple of weeks, and I have a few more to go still. I thought that I should document my stay so that if I am ever ungrateful for my wife and kids, I can have a reference to remind me how good I have it. It's not really that bad, my time has just been wittled down to eating, sleeping, working, and (unfortunately) watching tv. Flipping on the ol Tube makes me feel like I'm not the only one here. When I get old and KT finally leaves me for a 20 year old, I'm sure I'll have many television sets all around the house constantly on. When my kids make their obligatory monthly phone calls, they'll think that there is quite a social ruckus going on. Anyway, here are a few things that have characterized my stay here thus far:

I took this picture at the metropark on my way home from NASA. The swampy water is very indicative of what has been going on here and further south: flooding. It has been raining most of the time I've been here, and the rivers are all bloated. On the news they are always talking about new areas being flooded, along with all of the flooding that has been going on around the Mississippi.

I have been playing a ton of soccer. The soccer group at NASA Glenn is one of the oldest and most active groups. Some of those guys have been playing there before I graced the Earth with my presence. Anyway, the first week I was here I played 4 times. That might not sound bad to 17 yr old Scott, but 30 yr old Scott had a lot of trouble getting out of bed after that. I only brought 3 sets of soccer clothes, so I've been washing my clothes in the tub. This practice is definitely not new to me, but it's only able to rear it's ugly head in the absence of a member of the female race. So, here's a classic shot of my bathroom, in all of it's laundry glory!

This is a picture of all of my dishes. My cheapness prevents me from going out to eat, so I must make do with these meager items. I went to the front desk to ask them if I could get a measuring cup, and the women at the desk responded by saying, "What, are you doing some gourmet cookin?? Just eyeball it like everyone else!" I was previously unaware that measuring ingredients put me in the realm of "gourmet cookin." So, I improvised, and am now using the coffee pot as my measuring cup. I don't know what it says about our society when the coffee making utilities far surpass those designated for food preparation.

KT gave me the assignment to make some baby hats for future baby showers, so I made these three while watching a show called "Dual Survival". Cool show. I think it'd be pretty cool to go try to survive in the wild, but I'd probably be snackin on my less-important appendages after a few days. There's a hippy guy who hasn't worn shoes since the 80's. He's my hero. One thing that blew me away was that the other guy wanted to show how you could cauterize a cut in the wild. So, he cut himself with this big burly knife right down the middle of his forearm. Then, he doused the cut with black powder and lit it on fire. Sealed the thing shut, but I hope I never have to work that hard to bring home a paycheck.

I bought a sheet of copper back in 2004 to make a mat for a picture I had framed for KT for her birthday or christmas or something. I had some leftover copper, and I hid it in the scrap bin at my Dad's house. Once I started getting into making mobiles, I dug out the copper with high hopes of making a cool mobile out of it. Since it was something that I had actually paid money for, I felt a lot of pressure to make something nice, which means I put it off until now. I brought a few tools with me and some wire, and I finally made the mobile. I folded the ductile copper into little paper airplanes, and mounted them on the ends of the wire. It looks pretty cool, and it is a much needed decoration in my little studio.