RAIN, ASSORTED DISASTERS, AND AN OPPORTUNITY TO READ MY OWN OBITUARY

What a fascinating week! There is a sense of having been assigned the task of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Enhancing this odd, surreal sense of futility and dark comedy is the growing list of broken things, crushing deadlines that leave me meditating on the seven labors of Hercules, and being informed this morning that I died yesterday in a one vehicle automobile accident.

First, I may be a dedicated employee but not enough so to come to work on a rainy day if there was an opportunity to call in dead. Even though I found a bit of morbid humor in this, there was also a sense of anger as the careless announcement of my demise on Facebook caused serious consternation with several people.

To compound the carelessness of the posting, numerous people are offering condolences to the person who posted the note indicating that they had lost a good friend. This is in spite of the fact that I responded on two separate occasions that the rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated.

So, I am left with one obvious conclusion, and one theory. The conclusion is that those who are offering condolences don’t read what they respond to. The theory is that the person who lost a good friend did not notice they had inadvertently input a wrong name, an easy thing to do on Facebook if one is not paying attention.

Meanwhile, the rains continue. I learned long ago never to complain about rain in the desert.

With that said, however, I must note that the never ending cycle of rain this monsoon season is nearing Biblical proportions. The desert is green as in Emerald Isle green, the streets are rivers, and the back yard is filled with vegetation to such a degree that we could easily hide an elephant or least a very large dog.

Yet, it is never dry enough to cut it. And so IT grows. I am unsure what IT is but in wading through the underbrush to retrieve a ladder this weekend IT sparked an unprecedented allergy attack.

Uncontrollable sneezing, watery eyes, scratchy throat, dominated Saturday afternoon, the evening, and Sunday morning. This was joined by an epic sinus headache that blurred my vision and made my head throb violently with every movement by late Sunday evening. This sort of took the fun out of the weekend. Still, amazingly, I was able to persevere.

Friday night I worked on the galley proof for the Route 66 travel guide as there was a request from the publisher to submit the final edit, as well as suggested photo substitutions by Monday morning. I also initiated the selection of twenty photos, and the writing of captions, for the Arizona segment of the Route 66 Atlas so the publisher could begin development of a rough layout. This project also came with a request for completion by Monday morning.

I continued working on these tasks for several hours on Saturday morning. Then I went hunting for a new cooler motor ($99.00), which I installed before lunch. On Sunday evening something else broke in the cooler (tonight’s project).

Saturday evening was spent discussing possible involvement in the development of Route 66 tours in conjunction with New Zealand Today magazine with Sam Murray over dinner at Redneck’s Barbecue on Beale Street. It was an interesting and possibly productive evening that left me with a great deal to ponder.
On Sunday morning I resumed work on the book projects. A brief respite in the form of delivering a ladder to my son’s house and providing a lesson on the laying of shingles as a temporary fix for a roof leak came before lunch.
By this morning the sneezing had abated but the throbbing in my face, and subsequent headache, was almost unbearable. For reasons unknown this made the report of my demise delivered by a concerned friend quite funny.
Before reports are circulated of my impending death, or before I cause undue concern, it should be noted that as this evening there is a dramatic sense of improvement with only an occasionally runny nose and slight headache remaining.
Needless to say with such a very full weekend, I fell behind on other pressing projects. Perhaps the most exciting of these is an idea to utilize the 2014 Route 66 Festival as a means to provide a promotional venue for the entire Route 66 community and at the same time give someone an opportunity for an unprecedented Route 66 adventure.
In a nutshell, businesses on Route 66 can have their name, contact information, and website included in the official website and promotional material for the contest in exchange for a small one time fee, and a certificate offering a free room, dinner, t-shirt, etc. from that business. Museums and non profits will receive free advertisement in exchange for a certificate for free admission, a t-shirt or …
All of these items will be used to create an ultimate Route 66 adventure package. This will be given away on Saturday night during the festival (winner must be present).
If you would like more details about how your business can participate please drop me a note.
In the meantime, back at disaster central…

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