Stoopid Stuff

Is this stupid beautiful or WHAT?

Crazy. I gotta say, the train has a LOT to recommend it.

Labels: flapdoodle

posted by mikey @ 6:55 PM 3 comments

Crazy Train - A Retrospective

Thought I'd share a few quick pictures from the Flapdoodle so far.

Labels: flapdoodle

posted by mikey @ 1:52 PM 0 comments

Operational Intellignce

OK. I've done the initial recon. Couple of things leap out.

First. Y'gotta pay attention. There's a bogus, decoy Ringlers on Burnside. Too small and too hoity, not to mention toity to be our destination. Just sayin...

Second. There's some open tables in the front, and some more all the way in the back. The rest are booths or pool tables. Whoever gets there first needs to secure those back tables.

Kinda QED...

mikey

Labels: flapdoodle

posted by mikey @ 10:31 PM 0 comments

For the Last Time, Dammit, the Reason is BECAUSE

People keep asking me why I'm taking the train to Portland. Instead, I suppose, of a plane.

I could explain how planes are a necessary evil, this trip is neither of those things, but rather a chance to relax and have fun.

I could explain that, when traveling alone, it's nice to be able to talk to the people around you, maybe get into their heads a little, without being suspected of any and all sorts of bad intentions.

I might even explain that you just never know if you might find a friendship or a romance on a train, along with a chance to think things through.

But mostly? It's because you get to SEE STUFF!

Let the adventure begin...

Labels: flapdoodle

posted by mikey @ 2:19 PM 0 comments

I'd Always Rather be Lucky than Good

Some people just live right or something. I don't know from Portland. Been there a couple times, always had some other things on my mind, like bikes and weapons and money and, well, you know.

So I check out the recomended hotels. The Ace has this cool vibe. I'm not even sure where it is, but it's got the flapdoodleing kind of sensibility that just seemed right, so I didn't give it a second thought.

I didn't know where the actual Sadly meet-up was going to happen, but people kept telling me you can get around Portland easy, don't really matter.

Hokay. I'm in.

So then the decision gets made. It's Ringlers. Hey. Works for me. So now I plug the addresses into Google and imagine my self-satisfied smirk when I saw that the Ace Hotel and Ringlers Pub are all of three blocks apart. This is going to not only be fun, but easy.

And I couldn't have done a better job of it had I had one and a half clues about what I was doing.

Say it again, with me.

Yee Hah...

Labels: flapdoodle

posted by mikey @ 11:22 AM 1 comments

Democracy in Action

So yesterday it occurred to me that I would be in mid-Flapdoodle when election day rolled around. See, California only moved it's presidential primary up on the calendar. The rest of the election, still called "The California Primary" because to call it "The guys who are too inconsequential to care about election" would have been politically incorrect in every possible sense, remains on schedule for the Traditional first Tuesday in June.

Well. Imagine my consternation. What's a Flapdoodler to doodle doodle do? I got on the blower to the Registrar of Voters, expecting a bureaucratic runaround, but instead was immediately offered a solution: Early Voting. You can go to the Registrar's office during business hours, even on weekends, and cast your ballot! What WILL they think of next? So, in my daily travels, I stopped down on Berger in industrial San Jose this morning.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I was struck by an ominous sense of deja vu. But it was real. I HAD been here before, and not in a good way. See, the same complex houses the county "Department of Revenue" where you come to negotiate and pay fines, probation costs, reperations, any of the economic sanctions that can be levied by the county or state.

I shook off that ugly sense of impending interaction with the county criminal justice system and strolled into the registrar's office. It was a busy place, as you'd expect one week before an election, but as it turned out I was the only person there for the early voting. And as they were doing lots of pre-election training, there were a large number of people to assist me.

And that was it. In and out in ten minutes, my civic duty done, I can now proceed down the path that beckons me, the path of Flapdoodle...

Labels: flapdoodle

posted by mikey @ 1:27 PM 0 comments

And So it Begins

I'm calling this trip "The Great Oregon Flapdoodle" in honor of Gavin and all that has gone before. I'll be taking the Amtrak "Coast Starlight" up to Portland, or "PDX" as all the cool kids say, and then enjoying the company of many PacNW Sadlys, and any helpless strangers and small animals that happen by.

How did all this come to pass? I'm not sure. I was planning a train trip to Seattle to get my head straight and just get out of the freakin valley for a while, when this opportunity arose.

Y'see, I've met a lot of people out there in Left Blogistan. And some of them are pretty special. And I've really valued the opportunity to interact without having to reveal my sadly mundane, truly banal self. But there's one. Gavin. Probably the BEST fucking writer operating on the 'tubes in complete anonymity, Gavin can do things with the english language that will make you laugh, make you jealous, make you understand and give you a righteous boner.

Gavin is the other side of the coin I occupy. Gavin is a bright, clever dancer, a fencer with words to my blunt instrument. I always felt we were finding different ways to say the same thing. And Dr. Ms. soontobemrs Marita. That's a woman to address politely, and with a respectable amount of awe.

So, whatevs. I can't pass this up. Train leaves on 5/31. Stay tuned, kiddies. This might just be messy, and madness always lurks just outside of sanity, but the Flapdoodle is ON, and the train keeps rolling all night long...

Labels: flapdoodle

posted by mikey @ 9:05 PM 1 comments