Personal Log, Saturday 24 Apr 2004, 2312 Hours

Just like yesterday's entry, I've posted a censored version of Nicki's letter to help explain the madhouse of what happened.

Wow�.today was just soooo jam-packed, I�m surprised that I had time to take your call. Things started off pretty early today when I got up around 0630 to help out dad with a delivery. We would have left for the pickup around 0720, but I held us up for a few minutes so that I could eat some waffles for breakfast. We went out to a little town called Stockett, and we were picking up this 36� RCA color TV. It wasn�t even really that heavy, but dad wanted some backup anyways on it, which was just fine by me. We got back around 0820, just in time to gather around the shop when the other scouts started showing up for the second part of our canned food drive.

  When everyone got there, we had a ratio of about 1 adult to 1 kid to 1 vehicle. We were going to pick up food from the same area that we dropped the bags off at last week. I paired up with Bailey again, only this time he brought his Mazda 5-speed manual pickup, and of course, he let me drive it. I tell you what, that truck is the hardest manual-transmission vehicle that I�ve ever driven. It�s kind of hard to explain it, since you don�t know much about manuals, since you�ve only driven automatic transmission vehicles, but let�s just say that it�s was the hardest manual that I�ve ever driven. Also, being a freaking Jap truck, it�s small as hell in the cabin. If Bailey was still as tiny as he was when I first met him, I could understand why he�d go for a truck like this, but now with him being as tall as he is, I don�t understand it. I�ve included photos of the event today, and if you�re curious what he looks like, look for the scout in uniform with the brown hat.

  Anyways, Bailey and I took off to cover 1^st North. What we did is that we first went down second, heading to the mailboxes on third so that I could drop off Friday�s letter to you. We then took off on 1^st North and started collecting bags around 15^th, because of the construction downtown and the fact that there were few, if any, houses before 15^th. However, this time around we collected the food from both sides of the street, instead of just the south side like we did when we were dropping the bags off. How it worked is that I would drive the truck on the side of the street at about 10 MPH and whenever either one of us would spot a bag I�d stop, and Bailey would run out and get it. However, we had to leave some food behind because we�re not allowed to enter gates to pick up food; it all had to be on their porches or hanging from an unsecured position.

  We got up to about 36^th when a van pulled up being driven by an adult from a different troop, and he came up complaining that basically we were dipping into his kool-aid. Bailey and I apologized and just let him take the rest of the route, which was just only a couple blocks more. Besides, the guy didn�t miss out on much, I think that only six or seven bags that we collected came from the north side. Besides, we returned with a full truck bed of food. After we delivered our goods, we went back to our route and this time started going up and down the streets, only this time Bailey drove and I ran. I only had to pick up two or three more bags, fortunately, because I was wearing my boots and I didn�t have my braces.

  As you can see in the photos that I sent, we filled up one adult�s truck full of food and the scout trailer as well. Once we all met back up in front of the shop, we all headed out to the food bank here to check in our loot. Not much happened there, but I included a few photos showing the lines of vehicles that were there just to drop off food. I mean, I have to honestly say that I was surprised by it all. I really didn�t think that there would be so many people there so fast. In the end, we turned in 3,650 pounds of food, and I think that that was the most that any troop here in town turned in.

  After this all went down, Bailey came in and I showed him my mammoth of a computer. It hasn�t changed, but he was surprised at all the �bling-bling� on it, especially my sound-activated neon tube. We chatted for a bit, and he was talking about having me trick out his computer when the time comes. After that, I cleaned up the room a little again and played some computer games for a couple hours, just to kill time until the bowling outing. Michele and I talked a little again, but other than that, not much.

  When the time came, I went down to the front of the shop around 1420, and met up with all the scouts as they arrived. It was kind of funny, because one of the adults had like a 15-passenger van that is referred to as the troop bus, but Bailey and I just took my car and we headed on out. Since we didn�t know where on base the bowling alley was, and because we were going to meet up with one scout at the visitor center, we just headed out and waited there until the �bus� pulled up and past the gate. We tried to sneak in right behind them, but three other drivers decided to be dicks and not let us in. I had a little fun with it by ordering Bailey not to lose sight of the van, no matter what. I even started yelling at him when the van turned in front of the MPF office (the building right after the traffic light with the missile right in front of it), and I told him that he was fired when the van went out of sight, even though we both knew exactly where it was.

  We caught up with them no problem, and got things easily sorted out to start bowling. I now no longer need to use a 9-10 pound ball, I�m now at a 15-16 pound ball too, BTW, but my game sure as hell has gone to hell. Either that, or the lane is freaking cursed. I was playing with Bailey and three of the other adults, and we all had trouble nailing strikes. It was nothing like the last time that we played during Thunder Alley at Little�s Lanes with Rico and Danni. Bailey pretty well bombed out for the most part, and I remarked to another adult leader named Warren that we should make the loser make up the difference in points with push-ups to the winner�s score. He kind of snickered at that, but I was sort-of serious. I wouldn�t have minded doing that, because for a while now I�ve wanted to just drop down and start doing sit-ups at least. It�ll be interesting to see how things will be when you get home.

Man, it was indeed something. I've included photos of the roundup of the scouts when we were gathered in front of the shop, before and after we were done for the day, pics of the food we collected, and the line of vehicles waiting to drop off food at the food bank.

When I got home from bowling, though, I sat back helpless as my mood absolutely plummeted. I mean, Nicki didn't tell me more than I already didn't suspect, which is that there's a chance now that she won't make it, especially if she can't pull it together and start doing full situps. I think what bothers me the most is that if she didn't make it is that our future would be radically different. Is that what really has been bothering me as of late? I suppose so.

Later on tonight I had a dismembering experience. I was talking about my pain with Michele, and at some point I started floating above myself. Before that, thought, I was in deep mental meditation, I think it was anyways, and I honestly feel like Nicki was reaching out to touch me. In fact, I think she tried it more than once. The last time she tried it, I finally accepted to connection, and it felt good, until something happened on her end. At least, it seemed to happen on her end. The connection was suddenly cut, and it left me in tears.

I'm hoping to expand upon it a little later on tomorrow or the next day, but for now, I need to get some sleep.

End log.