Date: 2005-02-25
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

man, what a week. as far as preparation goes, i seam-sealed my tent (which is a mansion, by the way... couldn't be happier with it), sno-sealed my shoes, and bought some stuff at wal-mart. travel toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. the travel section was very nice and had miniature everythings. i'm thinking of dropping the mesh long underwear top and adding a fleece vest. it's going to be cold, no doubt. i also decided to go with the chameleon II's initially. they just seem to be a little better all around. my attempt to fatten up (i'm at 160-165 now) was in vain, primarily because i had my wisdom teeth pulled on the 10th. not fun, but i rented five movies beforehand, and that was nice. out of those, donnie darko and outbreak were my favorites. i need to see donnie darko again. it's hard to follow when you're on hydrocodone... anyway, it's almost time to leave! exciting!(the remainder of this entry isn't hiking-related, so i give you permission to skip it)my last day of work was monday, but it was a marathon finish... eight days in a row, 8-10 hours a shift. i feel like a learned a lot in my two and a half months there. i always wanted to learn to run a cash register, and now i can. gas station clerks get an interesting perspective on society. when a person buys something at a convenience store, they don't care about how they look or act. it was nice to see people be themselves instead of putting on a show. that said... some people are just insane. there were four gas pumps that we couldn't see too well from the store and people would drive off regularly, so those four were converted to pre-pay only. you know what that is, right? i thought it was common knowledge. anyway, the staff was treated to a steady string of idiots that didn't see the sign and decided to come in and yell at whoever was working. is this concept so hard to understand? gas doesn't come on... what do you think? i would hope that most people would look for a sign to explain something, but "geez, the guy inside must be stupid for not turning on my pump" was the most common assumption.so here's what i learned:1. "the world's full of big heads. you just gotta look over them." some random guy said that after i was blasted for not turning on a pre-pay pump, which i couldn't have done anyway without them paying first...2. class has nothing to do with being money, race, religion, or sexual preference. every group has good ones and bad ones.3. manners are endangered. "give me this" and "give me that" were seldom accompanied by a please or thank you.4. the food stamp system is seriously flawed. first of all, a convenience store should not be allowed to accept them. it's not a secret that you pay for the convenience. second, you can buy energy drinks (such as red bull) with food stamps. that doesn't need an explanation. lastly, people abuse it... blatently. when you're buying chips and dip on food stamps while talking to your friends about getting smashed later that night, the rest of the united states wishes they knew where you lived.5. tobacco is an evil, evil product... i had customers that would buy reasonable food on stamps, then pay for their carton of cigarettes in cash. there's too much money in tobacco to outlaw it... it'd be worse than prohibition. but people are spending more and more money tobacco products that are killing them and costing the government plenty in health care and other areas... making 20,000 a year and spending over 1,000 of that on a product you don't need isn't good for anybody. if you smoke a pack of marlboros a day, that will set you back $1,197.20 every year.6. second shift in a small town is no fun.7. i've written WAY too much about this.