1) I’m really sick of having to try three or four times before premium.xanga.com lets me post to my ‘blog.

2) I keep reading Tom Tomorrow, and then regretting it. For instance, he mentions this, which makes me kinda sick to my stomach, but is also good information to have. It says, in part:

The US intends to shatter Iraq “physically, emotionally and psychologically” by raining down on its people as many as 800 cruise missiles in two days.

The Pentagon battle plan aims not only to crush Iraqi troops, but also wipe out power and water supplies in the capital, Baghdad.

It is based on a strategy known as “Shock and Awe”, conceived at the National Defense University in Washington, in which between 300 and 400 cruise missiles would fall on Iraq each day for two consecutive days. It would be more than twice the number of missiles launched during the entire 40 days of the 1991 GulfWar.

“There will not be a safe place in Baghdad,” a Pentagon official told America’s CBS News after a briefing on the plan. “The sheer size of this has never been seen before, never been contemplated before.”

I’m sitting here at my desk that I’ve been away from for a few months. The Kids are downstairs doing their thing, involving what sounds like a frame drum in between conversational elements. No one cleaned up my mess while I was gone; all the crap is still here.

I can listen to all my music again. I didn’t take the external drive with me when I went, and that’s where all the music lives.

“Sing it everyone
Got my eyes got my face
Sing it everyone
Got my nose got my blood…”

This song always reminds me of North Cascades, which I’m currently geographically close to, rather than far, far away in Texas, which has no mountain ranges. Well, El Capitan. Whatever.

I was in the Vanagon, listening to this song (‘Sinner,’ by Neil Finn), cruising along through the national park, dancing around the switchbacks through the mountain passes, in the slow and steady way you do when you’re driving a Vanagon.

The song is based on a couple of looped jazz samples, with a nice, relaxed, bluesy groove.

“Under moonlight I stood wild and naked
I felt no shame just my spirit awakened
Sinner”

If you’re me, this is a song you should sing along with. And if you’re not me, you might enjoy it anyway.

“Today I am still disconnected
To the face that I saw in the clouds
And the closest I get to contentment
Is when all of the barriers come down
Sinner”

North Cascades is closed for the winter, which is just as well, because there’s much that I have to do here in town.

If you’re one of those Mac OS X icon collector people, you want Naked Stick Figure Guy icons.

You’ll delete them pretty quickly, but they’re funny.

More Elk Mountain, WY. This time viewed from the west.

Toppenish, WA

26 Jan 2003 8:47:11PM

Teapot Dome Gas Station, near Zilla, WA.

26 Jan 2003 8:37:53PM

As I crossed the border into Washington, I realized that I might be able to get a fill-up at this most excellent gas station. It’s a little building in the shape of a teapot, which commemorates the teapot dome scandal.

Unfortunately, the place was closed. I pulled in and pretended anyway.

No, it’s not on fire.

Near Fruitville, ID

26 Jan 2003 3:54:34PM

I didn’t gas up in Oregon. I didn’t have an empty tank as I got to the Oregon border, but I filled up anyway. The reason: in Oregon, all gas stations are full-service by law. So the question arose if I should photograph the gas station attendant or not. I decided to circumvent the question entirely by not needing a fill-up while there.

Brigham City, UT

26 Jan 2003 10:45:33AM

Wamsutter, WY

25 Jan 2003 1:07:44PM

I just got in to Seattle. Made it home. I’m exhausted, which is why I can’t post more gas tank pics at the moment, since that would require going out to the car and getting the atlas.

I know you were waiting with baited breath to find out whether I got Regular or Plus or Deluxe, but that’ll have to wait.

In the mean time, here’s a pic of Elk Mountain, WY, viewed from the east. (Click it for a larger version.)