On Monday I drove about 350  miles to work elsewhere for the week.  It’s a long  but beautiful drive through the Rocky Mountains and over the Continental Divide — in the summer. (The same drive in the winter is a completely different story…)

Photo below–nearing treeline, after going through the Eisenhower Tunnel:

Unfortunately AM radio in the mountains is still comparable to the South: Bible, Country music, Limbaugh, Bible, Hannity, Bible, Country music, Country music, Beck, Classic rock,  Bible, Country music. I mean … COME ON.  Mind control experiments are alive and well in rural America via AM radio. It made me remember why I subscribed to SIRIUS Radio for so many years. It’s a shame that SIRIUS has, possibly, the WORST customer service and billing policies in the world and that I refuse to reward terrible customer service with more of my money.  That, and even after numerous complaints, they still have their political talk channels labeled as “Patriot” (for conservative talk) and “Left” (for liberal talk). I mean, really, SIRIUS? Sat radio for teabaggers.

One happy surprise: I had MSNBC and Comedy Central in both hotels I stayed in (Best Western and Doubletree). In the past, the hotels/motels I stayed in only carried CNN and Fox, so I was glad to see the lodging in western Colorado has caught up with the diversity of the country and its tourists / travelers.

It’s a good thing I was able to watch MSNBC too, because they covered the last American combat brigade leaving Iraq on Wednesday night — exclusively. Apparently Fox News spent an entire 10 minutes total on this event. After 7 1/2 years of war, I find it appalling that the “Support the Troops” network couldn’t be bothered.  And The “Maverick” tweeted that George Bush should get some credit for the “victory” of the pullout.  Haha. First of all, McCain’s judgment is worthless. You couldn’t pay me to consider his opinion on anything. And also, too, victory? Yes, Bush should get credit all right: for telling us we needed to invade Iraq in the first place. But more about that later.

The best part of this week was that my brother was in the same area as I was, on a work detail, and we got to eat breakfast and dinner together every day. That’s never happened before and was a lot of fun.  Back home, son 2/2 spent part of the week with son 1/2 to help take care of the dog and cat: Hugo and Hillary Kitton. It was Sibling Week in my family.

Worst part of the week: yesterday I was awakened at 4:45 AM by a man in the room next door to mine, who sounded like he was projectile vomiting — repeatedly! And loud enough to wake me up in the next room — who knows how long that was going on before I woke up. SO gross. I knew I had to get out of there before he died and reanimated.  Seriously.  It sounded like he had The Rage.

So I’m home and really need to catch up on important things like laundry and dog / cat belly-rubs and the internets.
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