(Phaysis)

My trip to Texarkana for the holiday was good.

I left a day later than I had wanted; got out of here at 10am wednesday morning and arrived in Texarkana around 4:30pm. Neverminding the smooth traffic flow, the two traffic jams (on a highway, no less), the torrential rain for 30 miles of the trip, the slowdown caused by accident rubberneckers, and the 10 miles stuck behind a 20-wheeled crane moving along at a leisurely 55mph, the drive up there sucked. The drive was around 45 minutes longer than usual. But I got there.

But for the visit, though, I got to see more of my family, buddies, and friends than I usually do on my typical two-day whirlwind weekend. Got the chance to help my sister and her husband with their “new” computer. Oh my god that piece of shit is ancient. After dealing with cleaning the dust out, upgrading the OS from Win95 to Win98, trying to get them online, installing more ram (it originally came with 16 megs of ram), and dealing with a new video card, they finally have a new computer and are now able to go online and check stuff out. So, to them, I say, “Welcome to Phaysis. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

I managed to eat quite well the entire weekend. The dinner was at my sister’s in-laws’ little shindig. Was nice to see them all again. Afterwards, I left to go see my own friends for the first time since getting home. Hung out until the wee hours of the morning, then went home. Friday, same thing — go out, come home late.

I managed to borrow a pc-card modem from a friend of mine, and was able to get online on friday nite. That was cool, kinda. Dialup sucks. (I’m so glad to be back home on my cable modem.)

Thursday night, though, I was so bored that I decided to indulge in my new hobby: wardriving. I was under the mistaken impression that Texarkana residents are still in the internet stone ages, unlike Austin, which have businesses that advertise free wireless access as a major selling point. So, on my drive, I found a ton of wireless hotspots in this one corner of town, and surprisingly enough, 95% of them were encrypted and secured. I did find three spots, though, that were wide open. That wasn’t so surprising.

I drove by this one hotspot and whipped into the parking lot to examine my readings. Found out it was open, and the major street that I was on was deader than a doornail, so I zeroed-in on the access point, picked up my laptop, and proceeded to associate with the node and I browsed for a good five minutes, tittering like a little schoolgirl. All the while, though, I had my eyes flashing between rear-view mirrors on the lookout for cops, guards, feds, whoever. A couple of times I had to do “turnarounds” in parking lots when the security guards in their nice trucks started coming my way, but not with this hotspot. I did my (mostly-legal) business and cruised on through the neighborhood and out of sight.

My little experience there gave me a few important survival tips, which I’m still compiling. But I had fun.

Ah, :sighs: work today, coupled with the long weekend and the tough driving, has left me tired and in need of some sort of energy or something. I want to write a journal entry detailing what all happened this weekend, but you’ll have to excuse me today. My writing sucks. Ah well.

Anyway, I got to have lunch with my mother sunday, and I hung out with her for the rest of the day until I had to leave for home. I left Texarkana around 8pm and got here at 2am. Total time for drive home: 6 hours and 57 seconds. I loaded my stuff into my apartment, unpacked, and got ready for bed. Let me tell you, sprawling out on my own big bed, with soft sheets, after that long drive, is a helluva lot better than trying to catch catnaps on my mom’s couch. Damn straight.

Ok, time to go kill some food. I’m starved.

I had a good ol’ long session up at Mojo’s today. Spent about 12 hours up there, just a programmin’, lookin’ at the photos I got developed, an’ chattin’ with any of my friends who was just passin’ through. Was a good time. An’ today I actually made a chunk a’ headway in my programmin’ duties.

But anyways, several hours after most a’ my people done left, this woman comes up to me (I got my laptop, see) and she asks me if I got any geeky skills, for you see she’s got some problems with her laptop. I says “Sure” an’ she sits down with me an’ I help her out. Hell, didn’t have much better ta do but play good Samar’tin. Well, after tryin’ ta fix her “com port” thang, which didn’t work out, I move on ta fixin’ her wireless connection. I get that fixed, and she was so ‘preciative. We sat an’ shot the shit fer a while, I intra’duced myself, an’ she was so thankful she asked if I wanted ta go fer a ride, y’know, ta take care a’ me. She was gonna smoke me out! Heh!

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I get stoned maybe once a year er so, but I figgered ta-night jus’ wadn’t the night, so I turned her down. She was cool with that. I was cool with that.

So we kept on chattin’ an’ whatnot, playin’ with her dawg (a well-b’haved nine-year-ol’ rottweiler, I might add), pokin’ ’round on her laptop and such, and then this gal asks me if’n I got a girl! Heh! I says “no, I don’t really,” then I point ta my laptop an’ say, “An’ this is prolly why.” She got a good laugh off’a that. An’ then, a few minutes later, she asks me if’n I’d like for us ta get to know each other better, y’know, non-computer stuff. She pro-po-zishins me! HEH!

Well I tell you what, it ain’t often I get hit on by a 41-year-old woman. Now, don’t get me wrong, she was good lookin’ for a woman her age – thin build, long curly hair, had kinda a Janis Joplin / Hippy thang goin’, but I jus’ wadn’t in the mood I guess, bein’ all shy and such (I figger I’m kinda “passive-agressive” with girls), so I turned her down again. And she was cool with that, and I was cool with that.

She asked me if I hung out there often, an’ I told her “Just about every day” an’ she laughed. Sumphin tells me perhaps that I’ll be seein’ her again. Y’know, I hate ta be the “woman” in this sitiation, playin’ coy like that, but if she comes back ’round, I think I might jus’ take ‘er up on her offers.

An’ lemme tellya, it’s women like that who keep this town cool. Gawdamn do I love this place. God bless Austin.

Y’all stay tuned now, y’hear?