I am now officially on vacation. Tomorrow morning we’re leaving for the Ozarks (yep - I were a hillbilly!).

I’ll be back in a week and a half or so.

Exactly seven days from this moment, Chris and I will be in the car on our way west for two weeks of visiting family and (hopefully) having a lot of fun. It takes two days to get there - assuming the weather cooperates - but we’ve always liked road trips and on the way to our destination is a stretch that I’ve never traveled.

My dad and his wife live in a small town just outside of Branson, Missouri. I grew up in Aurora, Missouri which is only an hour and a half away from Branson so I spent a lot of time in that area of Missouri when I was a kid. It’s changed drastically since the late 70’s, early 80’s, but there’s still a lot there that has been there since before I was born.

One of those things is Silver Dollar City located on top of Marvel Caverns and the only theme park (to my knowledge) whose theme is an historical one - the late 1800’s. You may have heard the town mentioned on old episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies. Here’s a little history of the real town and the theme park.

I have no idea how many times I went there as a kid but I’m pretty sure we went at least one time every summer and usually more often than that. It’s gotten larger since then, but doing some searching on the ‘net and checking out the official website, I see that it has not strayed from it’s theme and most of my favorite attractions and shops are still there.

One of those attractions is The Flooded Mine.

It’s a floating ride that takes you through - you guessed it - a flooded mine. It’s flooded because it also happens to be a prison and some of those crafty criminals did some extracurricular blasting, causing it to flood. When I was a kid, this was purely a float-through ride with no interaction. Much like Pirates of the Caribbean, all you did was enjoy the relaxing ride and watch all the goofy animatronic scenes around you. In recent years, they’ve added shotguns so you can help the Warden keep the criminals under control.

Being a purist, I don’t really like that but I’m just glad the ride is still there. One of my clearest and fondest memories of the ride is the music that’s played while you’re going through the ride. I can only hope that has not been changed. The last time I was there - over 10 years ago - it had not, meaning it had been the same for at least 20 years. That makes me hopeful that it’s still the same.

In the past decade or so, SDC has added some new, modern roller coasters such as Wildfire and Power Keg. However, the only roller coaster I’m going to make a point of riding is Fire in the Hole.

This is an indoor, dark ride in which you ride a train through a burning town. The post-civil war vigilante group, the Bald Knobbers (a real group that later turned into violent extremists), set fire to the town causing all sorts of mayhem.

Most coaster enthusiasts would probably label this ride very tame or even a kiddie ride, but even though my grandmother could ride it with no problems (despite the three dips and sprinkle of water at the end) it’s a lot of fun. Being a dark ride adds a thrill to it and for me, pure nostalgia will be enough.

SDC has two walk-through features, Grandfather’s Mansion, which is basically a fun house, and Huck Finn’s Hideaway.

At the end of one of these, and I can’t remember which, is one of my fondest memories of SDC - what I used to call the star room. All it is is a room with mirrored floors and lights on the ceiling and walls, but it always made me feel like I was floating in space.

In general, SDC is my favorite theme park because of childhood memories and the general atmosphere. Even when the park is busy, it has a laid back feel to it. Immersing yourself in the past - even if not wholly accurate - is a great way to forget the troubles of modern living. And since we’ll probably be going the day after the Election, it’ll be a great getaway.

I’m looking forward to a new section, added since my last visit - The Grand Expedition.

The Grand Exposition is supposed to be a replica of the World’s Fairs of days past. I’ve always found World’s Fairs fascinating so it’ll be pretty nifty walking through this place.

Of course, the whole place will look different to me because the park will be throwing it’s Christmas celebration. Personally, I think that’s a few weeks too early, but I don’t run the park. Even though the place will be covered in Christmas lights, I’m sure I’ll still feel all those familiar feelings, smell those distinct odors (and most of those were good, lol) and wholly enjoy myself at my favorite amusement park.

I especially look forward to stepping into the old Candle Shop and smelling my favorite smell in the world - one wholly unique to that one shop. If it’s gone, well, I guess I’ll cry.

I haven’t been posting much lately. I don’t have any real reason why not. I haven’t been overly busy but I just haven’t felt much like writing at all.

It’s been a pretty standard summer. Garden did okay - bad pumpkin crop, but at least I got some. We tried to camp again and did get one good night but it started raining the next morning and we went home. Damn those hurricanes. Even in Maine they won’t leave us alone.

So, it’s my birthday and I got up at 6:00.

This is very odd for me. I hate mornings and I normally sleep as long as possible - I don’t have to be at work until 7:30 - but I didn’t feel like sleeping anymore.

When I got on the scale it told me that I have lost 11 pounds in the past three weeks.

So far, it’s been a decent birthday.

Every once in a while I’ll enter a contest if it’s easy or if the requirements are interesting. A while back Pink Raygun had a contest to guess the top 8 movies in their March Madness movie tournament. I guessed four and I won. Woo hoo!

My husband is a writer, and a pretty good one. (Don’t listen to what he says about himself - he’s one of those ‘his own worst critic’ types.)

Last week his first comic to be released this year came out: Kolchak - Night Stalker of the Living Dead - and it’s gotten a nice review over HERE. He’s a big fan of the character and although I’ve only seen a few episodes of the original series it’s clear that he really gets Carl Kolchak.

Later this year (June) a three-issue mini-series of his comic Femme Noir is coming out, and it’s already getting good press. He’s been working on Femme Noir for years - it was a webcomic on his first web site back in 1999 and now it’s made the jump to print with all new stories. If you like old films of the noir and/or horror persuasion or like old pulp novels, this one would be right up your alley.

And later this year or early next year another three-issue mini-series will be released of another title, Perils on Planet X. It’s science fiction/fantasy along the lines of ‘John Carter of Mars,’ ‘Flash Gordon‘ and ‘Buck Rogers (the comic and old serials, not the 70’s tv show.)

As you can tell his writing subjects are as eclectic as his tastes and in my opinion he does a wonderful job on all of them.

Over here, you can see a list of other comics he’s done in the past. (This listing is not complete yet).

Had a strange dream last night. I dreamt I was watching a series of animated shorts with The Dude - you know, ‘not Mr. Lebowski.’ And then, for no apparent reason, we were ballroom dancing outside in a suburban lawn - in the middle of the night, and he was wearing his sunglasses.

He did not, however, have a beverage.

I’ve been tagged by DKM. I don’t normally do Memes, but this one’s a bit different so I thought I’d participate.

The rules are:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.

I just got the new Stephen King Book Duma Key which is sitting here next to my desk, so here it goes:

“The sea oats belong, but the rest of that shit has no business growing witout irrigation. Somebody better investigate, that’s what I think.”

“My daughter and I went exploring one day.”

It’s nice having a three day weekend…except when you feel like crap.

An ongoing condition that my doctor tend to blow off as something I just have to deal with has been a real problem for me the past few weeks. This morning I woke up in considerable pain and it never really went away until 1:00 this afternoon. I’ve been taking pain medicine all morning, which makes me drowsy.

So, now I’m tired, still in pain (although considerably less), hungry and I have no energy to do anything. The house is a bit messy and I wanted to make a nice chicken dinner today but I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything.

Didn’t help much with all the damn squeaking this morning. We have a bit of a rodent problem and although Zoe is trying her best to catch them, they were squeaking at her this morning and she couldn’t get to them.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be better and I’ll be able to get something done. Of course, the next day I have to go back to work but at least I have an extra day to try to get ready for it.

Oh, and more ice on the way. I am so ready for Spring.

It’s the Year of the Rat again. I’m a rat in Chinese astrology - born in 1972. I don’t know how I feel about it, really.

The last year of the rat was 1996. That was the year that my life changed drastically.

The year started with the murder of my second step-cousin. She had been one of the few people that I honestly liked in my step-father’s family and the world lost a wonderful person when she was killed. I fell into a deep depression that caused me to earn my first ‘F’ and flunk an entire course in college.

However, I got that F because instead of going to class I turned to my friends, who I loved dearly. They took my mind off of it all and I felt happy when I was with them. The only things I cared about were my friends and band.

That summer, after finishing college (almost) I lost my job and had to move back in with my parents which was two hours away. It was the last time I had a group of friends that I ‘hung out’ with on a regular basis. I almost immediately started losing those friends. Looking back, I’m not really sure how many of those people really were my friends. The depression could often be manic and my moods were extremely unpredictable. I wasn’t all that fun to be around and I think some of them might have been humoring me. I don’t really blame them for not wanting to be around me much. I just would have appreciated honestly over patronization.

(patronization…is that a word?)

So, it was a bad time for me between June and July. I had been living on my own or with a roommate all through college and moving back in with my mother and step-father…yeesh.

But, that was also the year that I started working at the Humane Society and I met my best girl-friend Sorina. If I hadn’t had to make that move I would have never met her and that is something I just can not even bear to think about.

I loved that job. It has been the only job that I felt was perfect. My co-workers were great people who cared about what they were doing. Our boss was firm, fair and knew how to have fun. She was able to be our friend and our boss at the same time and she got great work out of her employees.  I enjoyed the actual work and would sometimes come by on my days off just to see people. And if they needed help, I had no problem doing so, even if I wouldn’t get paid for it.

It all crashed and burned about a year later. The Board of Directors ruined it all. God, those women were such over-zealous, micro-managing, over-sensitive, meddling bitches. (Not all of them - but enough to cause problems.) If I got one thing from my mother it’s my ability to hold a grudge and I still haven’t forgiven them for what they did. I swore never to work for any organization that was run by a Board of Directors that consisted of people who never put in one, full honest day’s work at the place they were directing.

So, I still don’t know if the last year of the Rat was good or not. It seems that it balanced out but the extremes in the ups and downs nearly killed me. I don’t know if I can take another year like that.