I've been out of cell phone range. Ironically, with the cell phone range, went my sanity.

So as some of you may know, I left on tour with the Hypnosis company about 2 weeks ago. It's been a real interesting ride, kids... going through South Dakota, we blew a trailer tire. When we went to go and replace it, the highway (I-90) was disserted, so it made me feel safer while walking on the sode of the highway to go grab the fender that had blown off 300-500 feet back. After that we started to notice this mean howl coming from our back end. When we came to destination one, we realized that the nasty noise was originating from our rear differential (the gear box that pushes the back two wheels). The freindly folks in Powell, WY filled the fluid back up and mentioned something about the preload on the bearings being too tight. Yesterday we spent the two hours and drove down to the World's largest hot springs in Thermopolis, WY. On the drive back, we had begun to hear the metal in the gears from the rear differential scraping at eachother and it began to make a thunderous screaching. We took our chances and drove back over a small set of mountain (i forgot the name of the mountain range, but we are somewhere in the rocky mountains) to the next largest city which was 150 miles away, Casper, WY, and now thats where i sit, using a dial up connection off of my laptop. It feels good to be back in a city with a Walmart and more than 5000 people.

So i miss home guys... a lot. I really didn't realize how good i had it until i left our shitty little state. I forgot what a jetta looked like until we passed a vw dealership here in town. Everyone out here owns trucks and uses them because, well, we're in the mountains. The shows are going good, I'm having some fun, seeing some cool things, meeting some cool people, but i just miss laying in my bed in my cool ass room with my sg classic and my traynor ycv40 with the 6l6's. I miss my car, my silver jetta with the new shift knob and the new wing. Whn i come back, part of my newly acquired funds will be going into giving the good old diesel an oil change and having my back door fixed. I also have to pay my mother back for having the truck fixed while i was away. I miss my friends... even if i think that they only put up with me because i have a liscense. I never really vocalized that point before, but from about early june until i got my liscense, everyone seemed real annoyed with me and like i was some kind of wieght dragging them down or something. Once i got my liscense it was like everything was cool and then they all just wanted to go riding around in my car. Never-the-less, I still kinda miss everyone.

Today i got word that my dog died. Almost every houshold memory I have includes my 130lb german shepherd, Rambo, that died of old age this morning at 3 A.M. (eastern). I got the call from my mom this morning and i was pretty upset. Now it just kinda fits in with my overall mood of "well, i'm still breathing and Brit is still waiting for me back home, so i guess it's alright." I really miss my dog though. We got him when i was about three, so basically every memory i have, every freind i've had, has had to meet and experiance the dog, our household alarm system. It's almost like losing a parrent. Rambo really cared about me and my sister. He used to get scared when we were around water, so one day when we were around the pool, I was sliding down the slide, he cleared the four foot gate just in an attempt to stop me from going into the water. He bit my back and grabbed my swim shorts, and i still have a scar where he bit me. I wasn't mad because i know he was trying to help me. I was his kid, i wasnt his master, i was his friend. I'm really going to miss my dog. This otehr time when he was a puppy, (he had to be like a year and a half and just just stopped growing) during the winter time, he loved the snow just as much as my sister and i did, so he loved to spend time outside. It had to be like two days after christmas because there were no vets open, but rambo was just getting jumpy and trying to get at something, I dont remeber if it was food or something my dad had, but my dad put him in the backyard. in the backyard we had these twenty steps that went down to the back from the kitchen door and at the top was where we kept our milk box. After Rambo realized that no one was coming outside with him to play, but he was being punished, he tried to get back into the house by jumping up against the door, and he landed on the milk box, shattered all the empty glass bottles, and got it all in his front right paw. That whole night we laid him down on the big down pillow infront of the fireplace where the Big tv was. we spent the whole night picking the glass out that we could see and then in the morning we took him to the vet. That was one of two times he ever really need someone to look after him. Later, that summer, he decided he liked to chase cars, he broke down the gate and ran head first into the side of a police car. at least he had fun doing it. He died peacefully and lived a full life.

The thign i miss most is my girlfriend. I almost go used to the idea that Brit and I have to be appart for some time while I'm in the middle of nowhere working, but she's going to Maine to visit her aunt. That should be harmless, right? But there in maine, she has this very rich pretty boy friend who lives in a mansion and has own appartment on the grounds. He has a boat that litterally sails it self, kind of like those million dollar beneteaus. She always tells me how much she loves me and whatnot, but i have this feeling like, maybe, just like kate, shes going to end up choosing the older, more sophisticated rich boyfriend over me. IF she did i have absolutely nothing to compete with. I have a diesel jetta and a gibson, but other than that, i don't have even compare monitarily. Brit isn't doesn't seem like a gold digger, but come on, every woman in the world likes the guy with the cash because she can be pampered and going on shopping sprees and shit. I care about Brit a lot and would be totally wrecked if somehting like that ever happened. I should really have nothing to worry about, but like i said earlier, I'm 50hours away by car, and these rich kids just make me nervous. This is just me ranting out on paper... or well a computer screen, but i really wont feel any better until i come home in september.