NRKANGEL

I read a post from another 'coat who hails from Burlington, VT (Hiya Liz! Thanks for the nice comment! :kiss:) and it occurred to me that the world is really a small place. I'm a transplanted Canadian living and working in California who travels a lot for work. At least once or twice a year, I make my way to Burlington and nearby Montreal, Canada in order to visit IBM (one of my company's clients). It was on one of those trips that I have one of my favorite travel stories. It was winter and I was headed down from Montreal in a rental car. Being from Canada, I've driven in snowy conditions before so I wasn't particularly concerned. Besides the snowflakes were the big, fluffy type that lazily plopped themselves down on my windshield and this had lulled me into a false sense of security. At the time, I only had the hotel on my mind and just wanted to grab a hot shower and check e-mail before heading to dinner. By the way, if you're ever in the Burlington area and have the chance, visit the Culinary Academy that's housed in the same location that used to be the old Governor’s mansion. It’s more than worth the effort if you want to spoil yourself (or a date) with a little elegant dining. So there I am, enjoying a casual (albeit slow – like 30-45mph slow) drive and not in any particular hurry, when it suddenly occurs to me that I hadn't seen any traffic for some time. There was no one in front or behind me that I could see and even the highway going in the opposite direction seemed void of traffic. Feeling a little creepified, I looked around a little more closely to see if I hadn't somehow maybe entered the Twilight Zone. The road ahead had been plowed, but not in the last hour so I could barely see the blacktop. The most recent tire tracks were quickly becoming a vague winter memory as only slight indentations remained and were being patiently wiped out by the thick snow. I resisted an urge to stop simply because I wanted to get to my destination, but I was fascinated at how the world around me suddenly became a vast, white wasteland. Trees with naked limbs and branches clawed at the grey skies while the hills next to the highway loomed above like titans passing judgement. Naturally my thoughts slid uncomfortably close to "what the heck do I do if I drive off the stupid road?" Just about that time, the car starts to pull to the side by itself (doesn't that just about figure?) and I realize that, slow as I’m going, I’m starting to slide. I take my foot off the gas, turn into the slide but it becomes pretty obvious that nothing I do will help. Turning the wheel does nothing, tapping the breaks does nothing. I would have had more success flapping my arms or praying to the Cold Miser for all the good that my defensive driving was doing. The only good news is that I was going so slowly that when I actually started to spin out, I could have finished the New York Times crossword puzzle (in pencil – I’m a coward) before I’d made one full rotation. During the ridiculously slow ballet, I stayed in the car only because I knew the damned thing would probably run me over if I got out. (And how the heck would you explain that to anyone coming along after? [i]"What? You got hit by your own car in the middle of the highway? Where are you FROM anyway?"[/i] :stupid: So I stayed inside, totally at the mercy of nature, physics and the fickle hand of fate. Finally, two full turns later, the car stops facing the wrong way and about two hand-spans from the center guardrail. I get out and see the big loopy signature my car made in the fresh snow and bite back relief masquerading as nearly semi-hysterical laughter that's trying to break free. Far in the distance, I see headlights of approaching traffic. Not wanting to be an obstacle (and certainly not wanting anyone to see me in this situation) I climbed in and s-l-o-w-l-y turned the car around and inched down the road again. Everytime I think about this incident, I get this picture of me in a car on a snowy highway doing big, slow spins while the music

POLGARA

Today I realised how fast time moves, 6 months ago I was buying my Firefly DVD set, and I still think it was yesterday, 5 months ago, I was watching "Objects in Space" thinking "Damn why did Firefly get cancelled" and now its been almost one month since Serenity started filming, I just cant believe that in less than one year I will be seating at the nearest theatre with my popcorn and diet soda watching what I have longed for since my favorite TV show got cancelled, offcourse all my fellow Browncoats will be joining me in that last part, so...I am not alone after all. SERENITY IS FINALLY HERE

EBONEZER

Hi guys! I'm at my new best freinds house. She's my new best friend because she has DSL and she's willing to share! Unfortuantly she lives about an hour away from me...and i have no car. In any case, I have to tell about the most exciting day of my life! Sense the non-excistant 'nun incidenet' that is. I hope your all comfortable. Soooo...Stephanie and I were talking this other girl, Katie, and her horse home. And we get the horse out of the trailer and in his little stall and we got out of the truck because Katies grandma, Maggie, was going to feed us and i was HUNGRY. But instead of coming out of the house with food, Maggie comes running out screaming "Fire! Fire!" and shes pointing over at the mountain and sure enough there is a small fire and a lot of smoke. Lighting had stuck there and started one. You have to understand that we are kind of out in the boonies. There is a LOT of sagebrush that is really think and really dry, sense we are 5 years into a drought. Fire touches the sagebush and FOOM the sage brush becomes ash and smoke. So anyhoo, we run around grabbing shovels and jump into the truck and drive up the road to try and get to the fire before it gets REALLY out of hand. We get as close as we possibly can on the road, then jumped out, grabbed our shovels and started running through the sagebrush towards the ever growing fire. Running through the sage brush may sound simple enough, but it isn't as easy as it sounds. We're at altudude and the sage is thick. I was the last one in our group, beaten by the 11 year old and her 50 year old grandmother. This is why I quit the track team. In anycase, I DO get to the fire and then I have to stand there for a second to try and figure out what to do. Nobody else seems to know though so i just start throwing dirt onto the fire. Some lady in a pink shirt shows up and starts yelling about how we have to make a perimiter. This sounds good, but the fire is moving FAST and we can't get far enough ahead of it to make a block thing and not get burned. Somehow i find myself in front of the fire, madly throwing dirt on the thing and it looks like we might actually have it when the wind changes and the sage right in front of me practicly explodes. I decide that this might be a good time to move. I follow Maggie down to the truck and Stephanie moves the truck out of the way. At this time, two firetrucks FINALLY arive, 20 minutes after the call was made. I recognise both guys, a father and son team. These two make up the entire Rancho Haven Voulunteer Fire Department. They do have water though. Somebody knocks on the door of the closest house to find that nobody is home. This person does have four horses and four dogs, though, and to top it off, one of the horses is blind. We grab the dogs and shove them in some random guys truck, and he takes them to my house and puts them in the kennels. We grab the horses and lead them to Maggies house, where they are left to run maddly around the round pen. Even the blind one. I think the blind one did less running and more standing still then the others. That taken care of we run back up the road, and knock on the door of another neighbors house. The door is answered by two small boys, the oldest is three. We ask them if their parents are around, and they answer, "No. I guess not." After a lot of searching and tears from the younger one, we find the mom in the back. The woman has some fish and some chicken. We decide that her animals arn't worth saving. While all this is going on, more fire trucks show up, and even a little plane, which drops that red stuff on the fire. We decide that there isn't really anything else we can do, so we go back to Maggies, and she finaly feeds us, although nobodys really into eating. Brian, Maggies husband, drives up on the quad, and tells us that the house we grabbed the horses and dogs from came close to buring down. The firefighter people had to knock her fence down to get into her yard, because the fire was in her y

MAI

Ok, so I was having this not too fabulous day. So of course I turn to my good ol' Firefly dvds to get away from "it" (some who its and some work its) for awhile. Usually I just grab the first one I lay my hands on and pop it in. Today I thought I would watch my favorite episode, HOG. (hehe just realized what the acronym spells). Well, wouldn't you know it.... today would be the day that an entire construction crew decided to descend on the parking lot in front of my apartment.... So, there i am watching Firefly at full blast and realizing that the voices (the ones on the show --- not the ones in my head) in full ear drum splittin' mode make the entire firefly watchin' experience that much better! SO, my suggestion everyone run home RIGHT NOW and watch at least one episode at the highest volume your speakers can handle. Then you too will know the joy.....

ASTRIANA

You never know the things you'll learn from one day to the next... Today, I learned about Canada Day, which happens to be today. :wink: (I think I'm being constantly amazed at how many other "independence"-type holidays are out there that we Americans don't even know about...) Check this out: