Traffic

The whole LSD, STP, marijuana, heroin, hashish, prescription cough medicine crowd suffers from the "Watchtower" itch: you gotta be with us, man, or you're out, you're dead. This pitch is a continual and seeming MUST with those who use the stuff. It's no wonder they keep getting busted.
-- Charles Bukowski

Saturday, January 6, 2001
One year ago: Man on the Moon
Three years ago: Zine Fun

Since I hadn't heard from Jack this week, I wrote Thursday night and suggested I drive up on Friday after work. He agreed to this plan, since he has his older daughter with him again and doesn't want to leave her alone yet. I had a treat for him -- I recorded Junkyard Wars on Wednesday night, so he could watch it this weekend. If there's a show that could have been designed for him, that show would be it.

I got up to Bellingham in time for us to go out to dinner. Jack wanted to treat himself to a steak, so we went to Stuart Anderson's Black Angus. I don't think I've been there before. I drove, so he could have a beverage or two and let off steam.

The restaurant is a big western-themed steak house. We had to wait in the bar for a short while before getting seated. I don't like bars that have TVs blaring over them; it's so hard not to look at the screen(s) and I find it not conducive to conversation. But soon we were at our table (and Jack was happy with the amount of gin in his gin and tonic).

It's been rough for both Jack and his daughter adjusting to being in the same house again; she was gone for most of the past year. But it seems she does want to make a go of it. This past week she's contacted her parole officer, gotten in touch with a social worker of some sort, and made another application to a school program that's aimed at teens looking for their GED. The bad parts: utter unconcern for anyone else living in the house, and a lot of petty annoyances like leaving all cabinet doors open, leaving trash everywhere, and imbuing Jack's recliner and the futon with the smell of cigarettes. She does smoke outside, but the smell hangs with her (in her hair, I guess).

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After dinner we went back to Jack's place and watched the video of Junkyard Wars. I urged Jack to only watch one of the episodes I'd taped, in order to stretch the fun out.

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When Jack had talked about our plans for this weekend, he'd suggested that we could do some work on his motorhome on Saturday, if the weather was good. "Bring some old clothes," he said. Ha! All my clothing is about the same age, so I guess it doesn't matter what I wear.

A---- was willing to help in this project, for money. We drove out to Ferndale, where a colleague of Jack lets him park the motorhome. I hadn't realized that it had been leaking! We stopped on the way, to get some special caulking, a caulking gun, a good scraper, and lattes for everyone.

We spent a few hours taking everything out of the vehicle and rearranging so that stuff could dry out better. A---- and Jack took turns climbing up the back and scraping out the old caulk, then Jack put on the new stuff. I hope it works! We borrowed a shop-vac and got things into a better state inside. We were lucky that it was a warmish afternoon (for January), so the caulk could flow correctly.

Jack and I wanted to see the movie Traffic, but this didn't appeal to A-----. We bought her a snack at McDonalds by the mall and said we'd see her later. We thought that the movie was at the Sunset theater. Oops! But we still had time to get to the only other possibility, the Sehome Theater. We made it just in time.

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Wow! Traffic is an impressive film. Jack knew most of what it was about before going, which is more than I did. But I'm a longtime fan of Steven Soderbergh. I know the scenes where the father is looking for his daughter on the streets were hard for him -- we've done the very same thing! Soderbergh does a good job, handling a large cast and a complex story.

We got home and ate dinner -- chicken with mushrooms and white wine, that I'd put in the crockpot in the morning.

In the evening, we watched more of Junkyard Wars. I was amused to see how much A---- was into it! I don't know if this is because of the crafts and tool skills that she'll be learning at her new school program, or what.