Okay, just one more...

My buddy in Iraq, Erick, sent me this. I thought it might be neat to compare with Dave's cannon:

Clearly, that's no pumpkin. Wonder what the enemy'd do if we did launch pumpkins? Or just the seeds? Hmm...

One big Howitzer

So I'm talking with my buddy Dave at work the other day (the Kohl's job) and somehow, someway the conversation led to an interesting revelation: He's in possession of a homemade cannon that some friends of his from the engineering dept. over at OU and he put together to launch pumpkins. Now Dave's a quiet guy from what I know of him and seems the honest type; he's a big fan of the second amendment and is very open with the fact that he owns all kinds of firearms. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm of the same persuasion, but a homemade HOWITZER?! That's a little mind boggling, but Dave set about explaining what he and his friends did to make the thing and who they got to sponsor them in the pumpkin launching competitions. Then he sent me some pics and videos:

 

 

I can't upload the videos unfortunately, but it's impressive to hear this thing fire! Here's what Dave said about its construction: Well, all ten of us put in $20. The Moore Fire dept. donated $300 (because they knew me). And my mom's work donated like $50. We found a hay wagon axle that a farmer didn't want and we gave him $20 for it. We bought the barrel and breech plug from Metal Supermarkets who we made an agreement with to put their name on the cannon if they gave us a discount. We took the barrel and plug to a machinist to get them threaded. We brought the two peices back to my grandfather's house and I made the firing mechanism and machined the plug to mount it all. Then my team had to design a way to mount the barrel to the axle. Once we figured that out we return to Metal Supermarkets to get all the pieces including the big barrel sleeve. I cut them to shape and a friend's dad helped weld it all together. The barrel was hammered into the sleeve (not easy) and tack welded into place. A mount for an adjustable tractor equipment top link was welded on, and the link was attached. A simple hitch was made and the cannon was painted. The decision for the olive drab paint was all me because I wanted it to look as scary as it really is!

It's not everyday you meet someone who can do these kinds of things. Pretty neat, eh?

Autumn

Well, it's nearly 2am and here I am typing when sleep should be the priority. Too wound up from work I guess. Oh well, I'll live. Fall is finally here, and I love autumn! The sound of the name alone is soothing and cool. I like it so much in fact, if I ever do have a little girl I think I'd push for her to be named "Emily Autumn". Those flow well together. This is a mellow time of year, less sweaty, and the leaves have started to turn. I guess I like this period most since every month, from August to December, there're special days of some kind to celebrate. Aug. and Sept. hold various birthdays, Halloween in Oct. (and Tori's b-day, she's Erick's wife!), Thanksgiving in Nov., then more birthday's and Christmas in Dec. Of course underpinning the whole season is football- football, football, FOOTBALLl! Yep, great time of year. Long walks in the cool evening amongst rustling leaves and fading red sunsets; the sounds of Pop Warner games carrying over rooftops; the mingled scents of burning leaves and logs on the fire... It's poetic in its own way, even at 2am.

The Armadillo podcast

El Fenix sent me this url after reading what I'd written about Austin: http://phenixrising.typepad.com/the_armadillo_podcast

If anyone wants to get a better sense for what I was saying, check this site out. To El Fenix I say, "Thanks, I needed that."

Double-time

Well, I've finally rejoined the ranks of the dually employeed. Yep, got a second job at the Movie Gallery across the street from Kohl's. We're inside the Wal-Mart, next the optomotrist and beauty shop. In all honesty, the pay isn't worth my time (many jobs are like that) but there's a certain intrinsic satisfaction about the place I find. It kind of reminds me of high school, when I worked for Craft's Etc toward the end of my senior year. That was a great place to work! Balsa wood dowels, cheap aluminium conchos, helium highs, helium headaches, model cars, cheap candy, fake flowers... The store felt small despite being otherwise, and the people who worked there were quite a colorful lot. We had heavy-metal goth chics on staff as well as jocks, an old lady or two, some wierdos posing as picture-framers in the back, and I'm pretty sure our boss was a coke addict, although I don't have any evidence to back the claim. Her nose was always red though, and she wiped it a lot...

Not that the people at the Movie Gallery are like this. They seem to be a "normal enough" lot. There's just something about the place and the work itself that brings up the old memories. I guess when I figure out why, some of the magic will wear off. We'll see. For now it's up at five am, off at two in Kohl's and then over to the Gallery until closing. Not everyday, of course, but close enough. The extra cash should go a long way to getting a new car with A/C. Sweet, cool air conditioning... this had better be worth it!

The Mist

So there I am, looking through other blogs late the other night, waiting for the effects of the alcohol to wear off before posting anything obscene to my little nook of the web, when I come across the following post at http://themistofme.blogspot.com/:

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Hey! You! Read this!!!
Leave your name and...
1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST!!!!!!!

Well, it's not every day a total stranger will tell you to leave your name and she'll choose what flavor of Jello she'll wrestle you in. So naturally, I did as requested. This is what she wrote back:

1. I'm not sure I actually know you but I do appreciate the comment!
2. Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail.
3. Um, Grape?
4. Argh. Ahoy matey!
5. Oh, you know. That time we went to that place and did that stuff. It was great. Everyone was, like, you know and oh! That one guy was there! That was super cool!
6. A lion like the ones on tapestries
7. Do you really think you're raving or is it just a good adjective?
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST!!!!!!!

Grape will do just fine! I'm keeping up my end of the bargain, gladly. Perhaps there is some delightful wierdness to be found up here afterall...

Red River rollin'

The devils have been at me again. It's that or the alcohol, but either way I'm feeling malignant and I swear it's no fault of my own. Tomorrow's the Big Day, or so I've been told everytime the t.v. comes on, or the radio cuts to commercial, in class and at work. "Texas sucks! Texas sucks! Texas sucks!" over and over, everywhere I turn. Thousands of screeming bumpkins, the decendants of land grabbers and salt-of-the-earth types headed south to "Big D" for the newly renamed Red River Rumble. Apparently "shootout" was too violent for marketing; They needed something more p.c. for the t-shirts. God bless the capitalists.

Unbeknownst to me, and I am quite sure most Texans, this is the biggest game of the year. The Cotton Bowl is sold out, and "it don't git any bigger then the Cotton Bowl". Unless of course you're at Kyle Field, Jourdan-Hare Stadium or Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, just to name a few. And certainly there are larger, older rivalries elsewhere but don't bother trying to explain anything like that to a Sooner in this state of mind. I've tried it twice, and both times got a look as if the very horns of Bevo himself were protruding from my skull.

What kind of hell am I in here? Surrounded by people who don't understand me, forced to root for a team I've hated since second grade, missing the good-time vibes and wild rhythms of city I once called home. I do miss Austin the more I stay in OKC. Yes, it was for the best that I left; there was no future for me then. But lingering effects remain. There is a certain wild man freedom about Austin that can't be found this far north. It's visceral, breeding the kinds of impulses that would make a man sleep on the street for a night just to see how it feels, and hang out with an old drunk named Bird while he gives drumming lessons to anyone fortunate enough to wait in his bus stop booth, for tips of course. I had to leave though; It was getting to me. I suppose that's a part of being Kept, but how I do miss it all.

I predict a big win for the Horns in the morning. Let's say "40-3" Texas. If those bastards let me down and lose, I'm going to have to eat an 8"x11" photo copy of a longhorn bull in class on Tuesday. And if anyone thinks that alone is hard to choke down just remember this: On Monday, no one south of the Red River will care all that much if things went badly on Saturday. I, however, will have to deal with a poor Texas showing until May 2006, when God willing I'll be leaving this place! Enjoy!

No looting!

My old buddy Ryan sent this pic to me the other day. I found it an apt explaination for the lack of looting in East Texas after the storm. God, I do miss home!