Date: 2004-03-14
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

This is my last prep entry. Tomorrow I will be at the top of Springer mountain. My flight leaves in 6 hours (it's about 12:30am now) and I can't sleep. I probably won't, though that shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who knows me... or maybe to anyone at all.Anyway, I wanted to use this space today to say goodbye and thank you to some very special people. In the mad rush to get everything taken care of before I had to go, there were a lot of phone calls that I never got to make. I don't think these people have any doubt that I'm thinking of them, but knowing it is not the same as hearing it, so here it is.First though, a special shout to the people at ULA (the makers of the ULA P-2 Pack I'm carrying) and Antigravitygear.com. The gentleman at ULA sent me not one but THREE hip belts, all within the span of this last week and to two different addresses, at that. I'd ordered the pack 20 pounds ago and my hips have done some shrinking. The original belt, custom sewn, no longer fit. The pack came so close to my leave date that I didn't have much time to futz with this problem - I wrote the company and they immediately mailed out a new proper fitting belt without any delay. Unfortunately they moved so quickly I didn't have time to tell them I was going to be in Florida the next day. So when I emailed him back to find it had all ready shipped to a place I'd no longer be, he mailed me yet another one to my grandparent's house. All this without even getting the first one back. What a great company - you can't beat that service anywhere! My other happy service story goes to the guys at antigravitygear. They made my 0.4 ounce pepsi-can alcohol stove, and also a custom pot cozy. The cozy is insane, btw - if you don't use one, start. Not a single one of my meals, unless I'm frying something, requires more than 1 ounce of fuel to cook, because it simmers inside the cozy for as long as I leave the lid on (we're talking as much as HOURS here that you can walk away from the thing, come back, and still have steaming hot food). On top of a fantastic product, the guy who runs the place is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Handwritten notes, phone calls just to see if you have any questions... wow.So now, some fond farewells until I see you again, to my loving family - Mom, Dad, Shelly, Kate and Patrick (yes, you are family), thanks for your unending help and support and love. Don't cry, mom, I'll call you lots. And hey, Moose and Squirrel... NO SMOKING! We have a deal, remember? Paula and Bill and 'Kid', and Aunt Sylvia, wish me luck! We haven't spoken in a long time but I think about you a lot. Hyam and Lisa - well, we didn't have that dinner but I'll let you make it up to me when I get home :P Grandma and Grandpa - thanks for spoiling the hell out of me my last days in civilization. Can you send Cheesecake through the mail? And to Jo, who will be with me every step of the way, even if she is stuck back in Canada. Think abute me, ey?And to my family at TOGIT, my slav... er.. employees Frankie and Todd and Dan and Duncan, and my boys (who have all, quite frankly, grown up and left home) on Team TOGIT, and my writers and players and loiterers and otherwise familiar faces... take good care of the place while I'm gone. I know I can come back and find it better than when I left. And of course my friends, Steve (you better have at least half a book done when I get home!), Andrew and Chris (thanks for making it to the poker game!), Scott (AC someday, someday), Nathan and JT and Ashley (I'm sorry I couldn't see you all again before I left)... well, this is starting to turn into some sort of Emmy Award acceptance speech, so I'm gonna cut it off here. Forgive my nostalgia, but... well, I'm sure you understand.Anyhow, I should be able to check my email with reasonable frequency, so please write to me! Use togitnj@yahoo.com as it's the only one I'll be looking at. And of course you can read my maildrop schedule here on the journal, so if you write me a physical letter, be sure to include a self addressed stamped postcard and I'll write you back. My next entry probably won't be for a week or two, as if I don't have internet access, I'll be mailing home my journal pages and digital picture cards to my lovely transcriber Kate, who will stuff everything up here for me. Stick with me, though!