THE MOOSE OF HAZARD

This is the kind of thing I will have to watch out for on the roads in many places I'll be travelling (if and when I EVER!!! get my freakin' bike, that is!!!). The signs aren't a joke. If you're in a car and you hit one of these guys, it pretty much writes off your car, and too many people have been killed in such a way, not to mention the lovely and unique moosies themselves. On a bike, there's noooooooooooo chance of coming out clean. The moose own the land, as far as they see it, and we're just visitors on it, so they commandeer (through size alone) the utmost respect. We've yet to see one on our forays through the woods, and I don't think I could bring myself to shoot one even then, although many people do.

Still no real word on ETA for Cherry Bomb. I spoke to the broker who is clearing her through customs in LA, a few minutes ago, and he said she's still not released. It takes between 24-72 hours to complete such a monumental feat and, of course, as it is ME, here, it will be 73 hours. We are still hoping for early next week, and if it won't cost too many arms and legs (as I need them to operate the machine that everyone stateside is now convinced isn't even REAL) I may be able to extend and fly home a couple of weeks later than oroginally planned. So far, I'm up to $125US in phone calls alone trying to sort out this mess that should never have even BEEN a mess, as I originally was led to understand it. I'm feeling pretty defeated right now by a system that nobody appears to understand, Mac is almost ready to shoot just about ANYBODY in the head right now, and Gwyn is life-savingly philosophical and therefore holding us steady on that little ledge that separates us both from the abyss of complete insanity and machine gun mayhem. So far we are managing to stay out of mental asylums and prisons as we cannot be committed to either facility for simply FANTASIZING abou how we'd like to get this resolved, but I dunno how long it will last. The lovely Gwyn is smiling serenely at us both while we rant ourselves blue in the face. She is convinced that I'm meant to be here this long for reasons connected with friendship and sisterhood. I'm trying to stay calm. So far it is working, although I have also unfortunately had a flare-up in the last 24 hours of occipital neuralgia, which is apparently stress-related, and for which I can only get tylenol or ibuprofen across the counter. I haven't had a flare up for some years now, probably three or four, so that indicates where I'm at in the scale of stress and worry in contrast to other stuff I've had to deal with this past few years, which hasn't brought on this horrible condition, thank God. The ibu staves the worst of it away, even though I still feel it there above my right ear in random surges and flashes and I'm hoping it won't get as bad as it was a previous time when I had to spend several hours in hospital emergency having Voltaren injections to stop me from foaming at the mouth with pain. Not a happy puppy just now.

Keep watching, and Do watch out for the little moosies, huh?