Truly - Wise Buddha Radio Edit

I had one of my usual stupid busy weekends two weekends ago, but it was my birthday weekend, so it was to be expected. And unlike most people when I drink more than one or two drinks, I have major issues sleeping, so I spent Saturday and Sunday really tired. Sure, I was able to sleep Sunday night which is unusual, but I didn’t get to bed early enough to make up what I missed the previous two nights.

Martha was out of town the week leading up to my birthday weekend, so I wrangled up some work friends to go out for drinks after work. I had made these plans before I knew that Sci-Fi was going to be showing an all day Stargate SG-1 marathon, but I’m glad I went out instead of staying home to watch TV. That’s kind of lame. We just hung out and talked about work and the usual co-worker type conversation.

HRH was coming in on Saturday for the Birthday Baseball Game, so I knew I had to get up to clean the apt. but I was awake at 4:30 with a major headache (I was home by 7:30 which means I had stopped drinking by 7:15, but I still had a hangover). I finally gave in and got water, ibuprofen and crackers. But it was too bloody humid to sleep. It was the shittiest bloody day of the summer - weatherwise. Cold (60s) and High High HIGH humidity – my least favorite kind of weather – let’s sweat and be sticky and miserable but cold at the same time. It sucked! I actually cranked the AC and CLOSED ALL THE WINDOWS. I never close the windows in the summer, but it was too icky nasty not to. I cleaned the bathroom, washed the bathroom and kitchen floor, vacuumed and made up the couch into a bed for HRH. And it was all done by some ridiculously early hour like 10:00 a.m. I try not to be out of bed before 10:00 a.m. on Saturdays!!!! Yes, I'm a slacker.

HRH showed up around 2:00, I guess. Crossing the Ambassador Bridge from Windsor to Detroit was a nightmare that weekend. It took the Libertarian an hour and a half to cross it Saturday morning around 2:30 a.m. as there were only two people working. It wasn't much better when HRH crossed over. HRH had expressed an interest in seeing the Henry Ford Museum, so we walked across the street to check it out. I had thought I had never been in the museum before but I figured out I had been. I would have bet money on me never having been there, except for one quick trip in a few months back to give my friend Malcolm his Dan Gurney for President bumper sticker. [Don't be fooled by that price. The last time I stocked up (when you have Dane, the inconsiderate shithead parking his 1978 Cadillac as if it's a Toyota Echo, you occasionally have to replace your bumper stickers and cover up the damage the jackass has done to your bumper) they were $10 a piece.] Malcolm is a conservator there and he has more cool stories (if you're a huge racing geek like me) that will make you weep with jealousy (like having breakfast with Dan Gurney and driving Old 16 with Paul Newman). And if you don't care about cars, he was involved in the restoration of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House. Very cool.

HRH thought the Henry Ford museum contained only cars built by Ford, although an example of every one ever built. At first, she was confused by the Honda that was there. If you go here, you can view the slideshow of the pics I took at the museum. I tried to take pictures of the plaques that explained them and sometimes they come before the car, sometimes after, sometimes between pics of the same car. I did not take a picture of the mother huge train that is in there, but every person who walked up to it said, "It's huge." I heard that they had to dismantle part of the building, including the roof, to get the sucker in there. There is more than cars in the museum, not that you could tell that from my slideshow, but if you check out their website, you'll see they have lots of other stuff (not that I could tell you what those other things are as I've only ever seen the cars).

Saturday night was the baseball game and even though the Tiges lost (dammit!), I had a good time, and it didn't hurt that there were fireworks after the game. I didn't take pics of those for some reason. Sunday was spent with my dear friend Suzy who came from Toronto to celebrate my birthday. I picked her up around 10:00 for breakfast (at a lovely greasy spoon coney island) and then we went straight to Greenfield Village, the other half of Henry Ford's vision of preserving American history and a staple of field trips for all Detroit schoolkids. In fact, the field trips I remember were the Village and the Zoo. I honestly don't remember any other field trip. What do kids in other states/cities do for field trips?

I took zero pictures in the Village, for some insane unknown reason, although I distinctly remember carrying my camera around the entire darn day. Suzy already did her write-up of the day, and she did a much better job than I would, so go and read her very well-written and much more interesting account.

And she got to experience my favorite restaurant which she wrote about as well.

And there ya go, my birthday weekend in all its glory!