Collin Vs. Blog

Not much to report from the road, although I am now settled into Davenport for a couple of weeks visiting the family. On the local news, they've taken to labeling this The Drought of 2005. It's hot hot hot and for the most part has been dry dry dry. We had a little rain yesterday, but it didn't do much more than turn the QC into a sauna. At 10 last night, the heat index was a cool 100 degrees, between the heat and the humidity.

Access is intermittent, so I've fallen out of the blogging habit a touch. Mostly, it's been bits and pieces, none of which really has called out for its own entry:

• I learned recently that, a few months from now, I'll become an uncle for the first time.
• At least one sometime reader will be excited to learn that Avril Lavigne is playing here in the QC on Saturday. Most regular readers will not be surprised to learn that I won't be in attendance.
• Spent last weekend with Thomas & Jenny, and it would be a mild understatement to say that we geeked out. I watched both the miniseries pilot and the first full season of Battlestar Galactica. And all I can say is wow. If you're a fanboy or fangirl and you're not watching BSG, you're missing out on the heir to the TV throne. You may giggle, and rightfully so, at the thought of Glen Larson's Cylons, but nothing of that 70s crapfest will prepare you for the sophisticated 2004-5 incarnation of the show. Smart smart stuff.
• Jodie came through Tuesday on her way to Idaho, and we caught Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that night. It's an excellent movie which doesn't vary much from the original story, except where it must. Wonka is supplied with a little more motivation, and honestly, a better actor in Depp, and the movie is much more polished. I didn't really feel compelled to weigh in on the whole Michael Jackson debate, although I could definitely see why others do.

The only other, somewhat ongoing, piece of news is that my mom, my dad and stepmom, and my brother and sister-in-law are all putting their homes on the real estate market right now. In the case of my mom, this has meant a journey to the center of the earth (the Basement), the place where the collected memory of the first 18 years of my life used to reside. As I told Jodie, I spent a fair portion of Tuesday throwing away my childhood. Merciless. No, I won't ever need my high school letters from band, debate or soccer. Gone. No, I won't ever need a cassette tape of Simple Minds, Crowded House, or Madness. Gone. No, I won't ever wear that Swatch again. Gone. No, I don't plan on putting high school debate trophies on the mantle that I may one day have. Gone. No, I don't have a use for the ratty stuffed animals that I slept with when I was 6. Gone. And so it goes.

It sounds a little sad, I suppose, but it really hasn't been. It's been pretty easy to set aside stuff that I haven't wanted or needed for close on to twenty years now, and it makes me feel a little lighter in the life department. That's not a bad thing.