wow – major milestones met on the ’69 Firebird development. Got the thing to start – with the “key”. Yeah, I know, I have had it running before – in fact my dad and I got it running the morning of my wedding. BUT, that was done using non-factory wiring – this time, I actually cranked it over using the key. Not only that, but the dome-lamp that was used in it 25 years ago, is STILL working. Sure enough, I put power to the system and when I opened the door, the light came on. Awesome!

I am feeling totally reinvigorated to get the car running again. Here’s hoping!

i found a grey hair. OR at least i THOUGHT i did. luckily, it wasn’t. it was in my beard thingy, it was not too long, but it was near white. upon further inspection, it was a blondie. thank goodness. i asked Jess to tell me at the first site of a grey hair. some of my friends have been grey for a while – no biggie. and it wouldn’t be that a big a deal to me either if i would have gotten it 5 or 6 years ago. but now, i am too close to 30 to be dealing with grey hairs. too close.

a few years ago I went hiking on the appalachian trail in virginia. there is lots of AT in virginia – but I got on it near Rt 7 (as it heads west from DC). I slept in a hostel called “Bear’s Den” hostel. The next day I went hiking out and enjoyed a 10 mile hike in the woods. It was in the fall, so I was wearing my orange so as not to get hit by some hunter.

that night, I was resting in a leanto and figured i would be spending the night alone. Nope. Some creepy guy came up to me and started asking me questions like “Are you scared to sleep alone” and “I hope you don’t mind me smoking pot”. I was like, “Uh, yeah, you’re creepy”. And I packed up my things and rolled out.

But it was getting dark. And cold.

Little did I know, I was going to be hiking right past “Mount Weather”. Which is some sort of secret (or not so secret) facility where they operate FEMA, some parts of Homeland Security and other things. That explains why they wouldn’t let me in for a drink and looked at me like I was crazy hiking by their facility at 11pm.

Anyway, I just remembered that trip and thought I would look it up on Google Earth. I also remember hiking and finding a base that was clearly located inside a mountain – but it wasn’t NORAD (or maybe it was) but it was located in Western Maryland…and I thought it started with a “K” but I can’t remember the name now. Oh well.

For you GPS nerds, the facility is located somewhere around

39 03 43.20 N
77 53 19.84 W