UPDATE (PART 3)
While my dad and I were in Kansas and we had a weekend to kill due to the rain on Friday. So, after we rested up a bit on Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The front lawn was really fun. There stood Claes Oldenburg's gigantic badminton birdies. I'd seen these on TV before, but I couldn't really appreciate how big they were until I saw them in person.
The rest of the museum was wonderful. They have a great collection with works from some of my favorite artists like Henry Moore, Alexander Calder and Alberto Giacometti.
On Sunday we decided to visit the Kansas City Zoo. It's no secret that I love going to zoos and photographing animals. Unlike people, animals don't pose and put on fake, cheesy grins when a camera is pointed at them.
The thing about the zoo this time was that we came across some seriously strange looking creatures.
Wasn't this guy in " The Dark Crystal ?"
Insert your own joke here.
Check it out. A warthog with a mullet!
On Monday after we installed Copper Hopper Chopper at the arboretum, we got back on the road and began the long 900 mile journey home. We had planned on breaking the trip up into two days, but when we reached the half way point around Indianapolis, we were not tired yet, and so we kept going. By the time we got to Columbus we were only four hours away and we thought it would be silly to get a hotel with such a short distance to go. So, we kept going, and that's when the trip really felt long. We were very tired, and I think we traded off driving about every half hour for the last two hours of the trip.
Without a doubt, the strangest thing we saw on this trip was a restroom in Indiana that had a broken gumball machine in it. What that was all about, I don't even want to guess.
Nine days later, I'd have to leave for Washington again, so I took some time to hang with some friends and try to relax before the next trip. One of the things we did was take in some movies. That's where we saw this "Vader Van."
Returning home from Kansas marked the beginning of a string of bad luck. My old company where I worked my first real job went out of business. I'm sure it was a long time coming, but it was still a surprise, and a very sad one at that.
My sister's car was stolen in Washington and recovered just about a block away. It was good that she got the car back, but enough damage was done that she was without a car for a while.
In a ten day stretch, I lost what would have been the two biggest contracts of my life. It wasn't anyone's fault. The situation for both projects just changed or went away. I can't talk about them here, especially since one of the projects may still happen some day, but I can say that both would have been huge and lots of fun. Major bummer.
And, there were a couple of other things that went wrong, such as a broken Airport Express and an ATM card that mysteriously vanished, but things are now looking up. I don't want to announce anything prematurely because I have some big obstacles yet to overcome, but I'm working on something big. Something I probably should have done a long time ago.
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