The end of last week was INSANE, and it didn't help that I was out late Thursday night with Gurl, Jon and Keith at Titan, and then to the Lantern after that. Add a frenzied trip to the Hellmouth, back to DC, then out on 66 again for the trip, and the haze didn't clear, literally and figuratively until we got past Front Royal.

However, Steve's farm in West Virginia was a much-appreciated paradise, with rolling hills, rustic decor, cows and lots of quiet time for coherent thought. He brought Buddy, his amazing aquatic bulldog along, who never stopped running around. I thought bulldogs were a sedentary breed. Saturday morning we grabbed the fishing poles and a seine and went down to the river, actually a tributary of the Potomac. We took the seine and placed it downstream of where we turned over rocks, in order to stir up hellgramites to use for bait. These critters are dragonfly larvae that look like the thing that crawled out of Checkov's ear in Star Trek: Wrath of Khan. However, the fish loved them, and I landed a big 'ol bass with one on the first cast. We managed to catch enough for dinner, fileted them, and fried 'em up right proper.

This morning we took a hike up the mountains, and I saw my first box turtle in the wild! Later, we saved another one that was crossing the road by assisting it's trip back into the forest. Steve is planning on getting another bulldog, so we stopped by this homestead up in the hills where a couple were breeding bulldogs and boxers. Another first, as I had never seen so many bulldogs in one place.

Tomorrow morning I fly out to Orlando for work. Not actually Orlando, but a suburb north of there. Not much time to do anything else but work and sleep, but it'll be another good getaway from da 'hood.