“Just take a look at your body now, there’s nothing much to save /
A bitter voice in the mirror cries, ‘Hey, Prince, you need a shave.'”
And some sleep.
Decompression will come after this week, the last of my adventure. I awoke early this morning in Omaha, Nebraska. I had visited some interesting sights uptown last night, so today I went downtown for a few hours of exploration. Omaha is a major city, but a conservative one. The stores in Old Market don’t open until noon or later. The streets were entirely empty as I drove around, like a ghost town at 10:30am. Is everyone at church? Asleep? Disappeared?
Old Market is a beautiful area. Cobblestone streets, small boutiques and galleries. I had a croissant and coffee, and sat browsing the local weekly newspaper. There were many articles about art and culture. The writing was poor (dare I say unschooled), but interesting topics of discourse. I grabbed a couple extra copies and went on my way. I stopped by Drastic Plastic, Homer’s and a few other stores in the area. They were all very quaint and down to earth; the owners and clerks amiable. At Drastic Plastic, they had a copy of the new Calexico/Iron and Wine collaboration, so we listened to a track and talked for a few minutes. I purchased a copy of Black Dice’s Cone Toaster 12″ and a t-shirt.
From the highway, I called Apple Computers to talk about my laptop. All I wanted was to make an appointment for service and repair. They forwarded me to technical support. On the phone and driving (without hands-free) they asked for the laptop’s serial number. I reminded the voice on the other end I was driving, but he said it was necessary. Within five minutes Chris and I were troubleshooting. I was installing disks, clicking icons, running diagnostics, holding down button combos (apple+shift+option+power, apple+option+o+f+power, etc.) to reset different connections on the logic board. For seventy-five miles I drove with my knees. At 85mph. While playing with the computer. And talking to Chris. Despite learning much about him and the internal make-up of Mac’s, we resolved absolutely nothing.
I crossed the Mighty Mississippi River and entered Galena. When I was a child I once took a ferry boat ride down the river. It was big and it was beautiful. When I was much older, I told someone–an authority figure be it a professor or otherwise–I had done so, and they scoffed at me. I was told the river didn’t stretch that far north. I started to think I imagined the whole trip. Maybe I had never seen the Mississippi. Today I learned that I was right all along.
In Galena, I passed the home of US Grant. This weekend was the annual Civil War Re-enactment. They staged a battle in town this morning. A Wal-Mart was built here semi-recently and it has recognizably changed the feel of the area. I arrived at the Galena Territory at precisely 6:00pm. My aunt and uncle were awaiting me. Their house is in a cul de sac. We sat on the porch talking and watching the sun set. We ate steaks and salad and fries. Right now I’m sitting beside the porch. I can hear the insects’ din filtering through the open door. I’ve always enjoyed staying out here. It feels like vast nothingness, the middle of nowhere. I will sleep well tonight with this white noise filtering through my ears.
