Feed a cold starve a

August 10, 2002

Feed a cold starve a fever. Its a struggle just to maintain concentration when whole sections of your brain are swimming in snot. Feed it. Starve it. Whatever. You just want to lie down. Its the one time that beer doesn’t make it all better. You’re off balance with ears filled with fluid and you can’t see because your eyes water when you move your head too quickly. Perfect training to be a frogman. I used to feel these things coming on and take evasive action. I think I tend to wave the white flag a little earlier now. You can at least blow your nose on the white flag. My nose is started to be rubbed raw from honking. A second ago a single clear teardrop hit my lap. I think it was from my nose. I am losing my ability to sense the pooling of fluid. Calling all inventors. I need a clear plastic cup that can be suspended from my nose in my private moments. I would refrain from using tissues at this time in order to slow the reddening and stinging effect of paper on flesh. A sensor would beep when the cup was full and I could replace it with an empty one.
I saw a bunch of guys in their hot rods in the lineup for the Horseshoe Bay ferry today. Some of them had vintage tent trailers in tow. I’d noted this ultra chic trend in “vintage era camping” whilst on our cross continental journey. It harkens back to a time when the forests were in better shape and the wilderness was still there to be abused and exploited without guilt. I read some accounts of the boom in car camping during the 50’s and 60’s while out there doing it myself. It seems a great toll was exacted on the flora and fauna causing many campsites in national parks to be closed. These areas are slowly returning to their former glory. Most of the hot rod owners are, at least, in their fifties save for the odd late 80’s rockabilly stalwart that has stayed true to the revival. I can completely identify with their fetishism. The early eras of heavy consumerism were much more innocent and the design elements and materials were just so much more solid. You can’t argue with asbestos, nitro cellulose lacquer, bakelite and mother of toilet seat. Sure some of the manufacturing processes cause cancer but you have to admit things looked better. Plastic can’t compete. When those hot rods are sitting in a queue with 10 Dodge Neons and 30 mini vans with Thule boxes its easy to tell who has put more passionate thought into their vacation. Lets hope they don’t take the whole lifestyle back to the campsites with them though. I seem to remember a lot more beer caps and broken glass to cleanup. Put an oil pan under that thing too. Maybe they can use the drip cups I’m having designed for my nose. Feed a bucket-T. Starve a street rod.