The midnight shift strikes again!

Yes, it is once again 3am and I am not where I should be: in my big, comfortable bed dreaming of sugar plums and beautiful women (not necessary in that order). Instead, I am fulfilling my NASA-born duties as a Flight Controller and working the midnight shift here in Mission Control. Quick, turn on your TVs to the NASA channel and maybe you can see me. Or, better yet, remain sleeping and don't bother with any of this. You decide.

I always feel like there's more to write here than I have time to actually do it. Most of it's the boring day-to-day activities of a humdrum life (I've never used the word "humdrum" in a sentence before...it may never happen again). Buried within, though, I can usually uncover some nuggets of wisdom or entertainment for your reading pleasure. What you're reading how is what is usually referred to in the publishing industry as "filler". No real substance yet I'm still retaining your attention. Scary, huh? Consider a side-effect of our TV-driven society in which you can spend six hours in front of the television and still only get about 5 minutes of real content. I sometimes think my life would be so much better without television, but that requires missing Smallville and there are only so many sacrifices I'm willing to make.

Here's a little tidbit I just learned while writing this post: It may be a bad idea to use alchohol-based hand santizer on hands with newly opened blisters. My excursion to the rock gym today was a bit brutal on my hands and that apparantly did not agree with my desire to sanitize. Live and learn.

On another totally random note for all you fans of "The Rube's strange nocturnal habits", I thought I experienced another "episode" the other night. I woke up in bed, laying on my back, with a couple of t-shirts and a pillow case in the area of my body that would be considered my lap if I was sitting down. Of course, reaching behind my head I noticed that the pillow I was using was missing its pillow case. Now, I know all you loyal readers are thinking that I've once again performed some unnatural feat in my sleep that should be followed up with nothing short of an exorcism. Have no fear. I quickly realized that the pillow I was using actually started the night without a pillow case (I don't know either) so I did not, in fact, remove it while sleeping. And the t-shirts? Well, I think I had just dumped a load of clean laundry on my bed and I must have missed a couple items while putting it all away. This only leaves us to ponder the facts that the pillow I started the night with was different from the one I woke up with and, for some reason, I felt the need to place a bundle of t-shirts on my body while sleeping. I knew you'd enjoy that.

I think I had mentioned before that I went on a camping trip to Big Bend National Park a couple of weekends ago. Well, it's true. I don't know what to say about it other than Texas does have it's beautiful areas, contrary to popular opinion. I went with three friends of mine from or related-to work. The details of the trip are quite inconsequential and not very entertaining. All I know is that my feet were done at the end of our hike. That, and we came up with a great screenplay for a film tentatively titled "Attack of the Killer Caterpillars". Eerily enough, while discussing this future epic masterpiece we were being followed by a butterfly. We hiked for miles and we could not lose this one butterfly. Spooky.

On our last evening there we visited the hot spring which, as it's name implies, is actually quite hot. After all that hiking, though, it felt good on our weary muscles. We also got to swim in the Rio Grande at the risk of accidently crossing over to Mexico. My friend Kenny was a Mexican citizen for just about five seconds. I almost had to call the border patrol on him. Fortunately, he was able to recite the national anthem and could name the first president so I welcomed him back to the U.S.A. with opened arms.
Anyway, after 20+ miles of hiking and just as many hours in a rented minivan we found ourselves back in Houston. On behalf of the four of us, I'd like to formally apologize to whoever rents the van after us. We hadn't showered in days and by the time we returned home the vehicle acquired a permanent reek of sweat, feet, and stale cheetos. Along the way we stopped at the most ridiculous gas station/rest stop I have ever been to called Buc-ees which you can find an immense assortment of jerky along with all kinds of unnecessary Texas paraphernalia. Good stuff, really.

All in all, I'm just happy that we survived. The sun was hot, the air was dry, and the blisters were hurting. The trails were steep, both up and down, though I know we welcomed the drastic elevation changes as a great departure from the Houston landscape. Yes, it's a great national park and probably one that doesn't get nearly enough attention, though that surely keeps it relatively pristine. I recommend it to everyone who's looking for a change of scenery. Just watch out for those caterpillars.

Sunset at Big Bend