Storming the beaches of Gulf Shores

In about an hour I'll be piling into the car with my wife, Leia, to go to the beach.  We are headed to a resort called The Beach Club at Gulf Shores.  http://www.beachclubal.com/   Leia's mom works for the company that developed and manages that property and they gave her a free 3-day stay.  WOOT!  I have been living high on the hog this summer with lots of free vacation spots.  My college roommate's step-father (did you follow that) has an awesome lake house that is only about 2 hours from where I live and I was down there for Memorial Day and July 4th.  Now I'll be in this pretty swank resort on the Gulf for Labor Day, and I haven't paid out a single red cent.  Hells-yeah.  It pays to have friends with money and/or connections.

If you read my last blog (more like a rant really), then you will know all about my recent battle with "shingles".  I am happy to report that I was given a clean bill of health by my doctor yesterday . (Don't tell my wife, but this doctor was kinda "hawt".  Bit of a cougar, but still, I wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating animal cookies if you know what I'm sayin')  That means I don't have to get a refill on my Valtrex.   Great news for two reasons: (1) Getting a refill for a medicine that was formulated to fight genital herpes is somewhat embarrassing and (2) That s#!t is expensive as all hell, at $95 for 21 pills and that is with my insurance!  I shudder to think what some poor uninsured bastard with the shingles would have to pay to alleviate his misery.  The price was worth it though because I started feeling much better after about 2 days and I didn't get anymore breakouts.  Damn good thing too, because the small patch I did have made me pretty miserable.  It still itches a bit, but the intermittent shooting pain disappeared around Tuesday and I don't miss that at all.  Just imagine someone sneaking up on you and giving you a shot in your lower back every few minutes.

At first it looked like Labor Day this year was going to suck big time because I wasn't feeling well and it looked like Ernesto was going to hit the gulf coast.  So either I wasn't going to be well enough to enjoy my vacation or Ernesto was going to keep us from going at all.  But now I'm just about all healed up and Ernesto is hundreds of miles away from where we will be.  I hate it for you poor bastards on the east coast that will be getting hit.  If I hadn't moved away from Charleston then I would be right there with ya'll.  Tomorrow I'll be sure to pour out a sip of margarita on the beach for my east coast homies.

In other news, I continue to add content to my extended 2old2con blog.  Check it out at http://www.timandleia.com/LAN  I will be finishing up my write-up this weekend while at the beach.  I have my laptop in the car and it is loaded up with everything I will need.  I also have the LAN photos that I haven't posted up yet and I will be editing those and posting them in the write-up.  The pictures are going to need a bit of work because my digital camera is pretty cheap and the shots didn't come out so well.  I'll have to do a lot of brightening, sharpening, cropping, etc. in order to make most of them passable, but some of them are probably beyond salvaging.  So yeah, while I will be enjoying my Labor Day weekend and relaxing, I will also be working on developing more content for you, my loyal fans (If you are reading this and are not currently a loyal fan, then kindly go to heck).  

I pasted the text of my existing write-up into a Word document just to see how many pages it is.  Currently I am just over 40 pages and that is single-spaced text in 12 point font with 1 inch margins.  I really want to finish this thing so I can get it posted up on Monday, which would be exactly one month after the LAN.  By that point I should be nearing 60 total pages of write-up which (for you math challenged folks) works out to a progress rate of 2 pages per day.  I have never written any single thing that long before, and it has me wondering if I shouldn't go ahead and start working on that book I've been meaning to do.  Writing something big seems so daunting that it can keep you from even getting started, but if you just do a little bit each day it isn't so bad.  I got fired up about it and found a couple of websites that will allow you to publish your own books for a very reasonable fee.  (blurb.com and lulu.com)  Lulu.com will even sell your books for you and you get to choose how much royalty you want to make.  Sounds interesting, and at the very least I could have a printed and bound paperback copy of my LAN write-up for under $10.  Hmmm.....

I hope everybody has a fun and safe Labor Day weekend.  Stay safe on the roads and for the love of all that is holy, do not drink and drive.  For the international folks and anyone else that is not going to have a holiday weekend, I shall remember to pour out a second sip of my margarita for you on the lovely white sands of Gulf Shores.

Maybe.