Sunday, June 5, 2005 5:13 AM - Comfort Inn, Las Vegas, NM

Well, I've been so busy the past few days that I have not had time to write ... want to try to get it down before I forget.

I met a lot of Mac's friends Friday morning at the viewing ... the trip to Santa Fe was uneventful ... I helped carry the flag rapped coffin from the hearse to the bier for the ceremony ... 21-gun salute, and Jim Bennett presented the flag to Howard.

We went back to Mac's place, and folks gradually showed up with food ... Stu, who doesn't drink very often (or very much) went a few sips over the line ... Jim and Howard left off some steam, and Jim and I bonded even more ... He gave me his jump wings, and promised to "blood" me when he pinned them on my Stargate cammo jacket.

With Stu, Jim, and your humble narrator too full of Good Cheer to be trusted behind the wheel, Howard drove us back to town in Stu's rental car ... we stopped on a quiet section of road a little after midnight to do some star gazing ... first time I've seen the Milky Way since I left Freeman Lake in 2001 ... Jim was really blown away when I showed him the "teapot" in Sagittarius ... "I can see it!!" "Yeah, and I'll bet you could even draw it from memory!"

We dropped off Stu and Jim, and I got an extra bed for my room so that Howard could spend the night ... we talked until about 03:00, then crashed.

Yesterday (Saturday), we drove back to Santa Fe to pick up the rental truck ... we used my ID and Stu's credit card ... we left the truck to do some shopping for storage boxes with lids ... we found a hobby shop where the plastic kits were 1/2 price, so I bought two - a Klingon D7, and a 1:48 F-18 with Blue Angels markings, molded in a dark blue plastic, so all it needs is yellow accents and the decals ... I also found some 2x3 zip-lock bags.

The real treasure was finding a Tandy Leather shop ... just the smell of the place carried me back to my youth ... I showed him the checkbook cover I had made as a set (with a wallet and a key purse), but they no longer carry them ... I got a wallet kit anyway, because it had a folding slot for ID, like the kind I've been using for years.

We returned to Mac's and they started packing, while I crashed on the sofa ... we had thought about seeing "Kung Fu Hustle" at the local drive-in, but Stu & Jim are leaving in the morning, so we had to get back ... I was back in my hotel room by 22:00, and couldn't find Jim's jump wings until after they left ... when I found them, I called and arranged to meet them for breakfast so he can pin me.

Been having trouble reading the cards from my camera on Orion, but I can deal with that when I get back to DC ... I picked Comfort Inn because they advertise high speed 'Net access, but I haven’t had time to try to get my wireless card to talk to the WLAN, so I've been using my cell phone to connect ... there were 105 message waiting for me, mostly spam ... haven't had a chance to send a broadcast e-mail to The0ldGang ... maybe later.

I'll have to call out to the house to get someone to pick me up later today to help with the packing, but I told them that I just need some Alone Time.