Went to dinner last night and while we were waiting on our table we went to a Barnes and Noble that is next door. I understand that retail has taken a nosedive over the last few years, and that even 15 years ago I was surprised B&N was still trucking when other retailers began to close their doors. But I was still shocked to see the state of this store last night, because these are usually tidy and well kept stores. It looked like it hadn't been vacuumed in weeks. There was trash and junk piled everywhere. There was visible dust all over the shelves, and this misspelling on the 50% off sign. IN. A. BOOKSTORE.
I know I've been saying for years that we were watching a societal collapse in real time, but dang, when I remove myself from being fascinated by it all, it absolutely grieves my soul to see it all playing out.
It is this same surreal feeling that I get whenever we drive through the little run down towns outside of the cities all over America. They are all the same. We live in this time where everything around us is artificial and disposable. What exactly is that supposed to inspire? Not much, that's for sure. Even these little towns that held some kind of 'old timey charm' just look decrepit and forgotten now.
Everything just feels like a movie set. An old movie set for a movie that used to be a fan favorite, but everyone that liked it is already dead. All the world's a stage and blah blah blah.
On Sunday we had plans to take Owsley to Six Flags, courtesy of the Cedar Fair/Six Flags merge and the passes we bought for the Kings Island trip. We were getting ready to leave and I got a text asking if the food bank was ok, and that's when I found out a tornado had touched down around 11:30 the night before. Our lights had flicked on and off a couple of times but there had never been any sirens or tornado warnings. An F-1 had hit and torn roofs off buildings, uprooted gigantic trees and caused lots of wind damage. Fortunately our building was ok and not a single person was injured.
For over a year I watched people build this Veteran's Park and they literally only opened in October. There was actually a helicopter on that pole.
For almost two years Owsley has been asking if we could go about 30 miles out the next time we went to Six Flags and take him to this little amusement park, Fun Spot, so that he could ride a particular coaster that was built in 2023 and has won a bunch of awards. It is kind of crazy to have this coaster at this particular place, because otherwise it is a lot of carnival type flat rides. You can buy one ticket to ride ArieForce One for $12, or you can purchase a day pass for $35. We figured Owsley would want to ride it more than once, so we bought day passes. Plus there were go-kart tracks, bumper cars, bumper boats and two more little coasters (a credits a credit!)
Fun Spot opened at 10 and Six Flags opened at 2, so the plan was to hit up Fun Spot for a couple hours and then go to Six Flags for a few hours. When we got to Fun Spot there were maybe four other cars in the parking lot. A man overheard us mention Six Flags and pulled up the app and showed us it was closed due to having to clean up storm damage, so we ended up just staying the entire day at Fun Spot. Owsley ended up riding ArieForce One twenty times (not in a row) and we rode the go-karts a ton. Unfortunately they required closed-toed shoes and I was ill prepared, so Peppy and I took turns and I wore his shoes. I think it would have been more fun if we could all three go together, but it was still a lot of fun.
Well this is unreal. He says he hopes he stops growing by at least 6' because that is when it becomes 'inconvenient.' Owsley, if you are reading this, and you probably are, you are such a gift to my life. I am so thankful to be your mother. You really did seem to inherit only the best traits from me and Peppy. Except your height definitely didn't come from your dad.
I don't think I've ever seen the golden rule featured at an amusement park.
The park never got really busy and there were many times that we were the only three people riding something. It did pick up a little bit in the afternoon and we assumed that maybe people who had planned to hit up Six Flags had come here instead. I think we would definitely come back here again on a day we were planning to go to Six Flags. I would really like to ride Hurricane again.
Clearly stole this picture from Theme Park Archive.
This looked and felt like it was put together as a science project in 1980. It was fabulous. Also stole this picture from the internet. I wanted to showcase that we got the gray train that day, so it added to the whole 'this was built in my garage' feel.
I just read that Elon Musk changed his name to Kekius Maximus on Twitter. Meaning of name Keke- in African culture it can mean a variety of words from "spike" to "strength" to...."long awaited child." Of course, Maximus means greatest. So we've got the greatest long-awaited child. According to whom? I am also long-awaiting someone, but it sure isn't him.
Today is not even the true new year's day, or the true year for that matter. But whatever. Simulations keep on simulating and lemmings keep on following each other off of a bridge.
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