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| Each section contains 100,000 dimes. This is almost 600,000. When filled to the top, it will contain 1 million dimes. |
January 6th I was in Bozeman performing for a company that does the ecological pre and post designs for mines. While there I visited Montana State University’s Museum of the Rockies. It’s a big-time dinosaur museum and research facility.
When discussing dinosaurs, the museum talks about “millions of years,” and to help people get a better idea of what a million looks like, they are collecting 1 million dimes in a big vertical bank (right). It reminded me to remind you all to save those pop-tops for me. I haven't reached 100,000 yet, and I want to get to a million myself. PLEASE HELP!
For the drive to Bozeman, I rented a new 2011 Dodge Charger, fully loaded: leather seats, built-in GPS, Bluetooth, totally killer sound system, and a Hemi V-8. I was with my graphic artist, Jim Hughes (picked him up in Boise and brought him along for the road trip). About 2 hours south of Bozeman, I asked him, "Want to see what this baby can do?" He says, "Yeah, do it." So I’m looking down at the GPS to see where it will record my maximmum speed. I’m having trouble reading it because of sun glare. I’ve got my attention on the GPS. Just then a cop shows up and I get pulled over for doing 89 mph. As he gives me a token ticket for $40, I tell him, "We were about to open it up. If you had waited two minutes you would have gotten me for doing at least 140!" The cop laughed at that.
On January 10th I went to my Pro-Toasties (Toastmasters) meeting in San Mateo, CA. What an amazing group of speakers are the members of this small but professional group. We meet the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month, if you would ever like to join me.
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| Hawaiian fruit stand |
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| Big wave surfing |
January 16th was the birthday of the lady I date. We went to O’ahu, Hawaii for four nights, on an actual vacation.
It was awesome. I wish I could tell you that I did all kinds of exciting things, but the truth is I kicked back and didn’t do a lot. We walked on the beach, drank some wine and saki, ate a lot of farm-fresh, exotic tropical fruits, and watched the sunrise. We watched surfers and took a hike in a botanical gardens.
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| Hawaiian sunset on the beach |
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| Brutus the sea turtle |
The one thing you have to do there is eat shrimp on the north shore of O'ahu, so of course we ate shrimp. It was delicious.
And we met Brutus the sea turtle. I think of him as my mo’o (water spirit). He’s cool. He’s got that natural, built-in, laid back ‘hang out in the sun on the sand’ attitude.
My partner bought a bone necklace from the bone carver, and I nursed from a tiki god.
After our trip to Hawaii, I returned to California and went to the Silicon Valley Chapter meeting of NACE (National Association of Catering Executives). This group is active in doing events for Silicon Valley corporations, and all types of events in general. I was a member when I lived in the Bay Area in the 80’s and 90’s. I expect I will become active again with them.
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| Cam-Plex - Gillette, Wyoming |
Later in January, I flew to coal country, Gillette, Wyoming, and did two shows at the amazing facility there called the Cam-Plex. The gigs were for the county government. The first night I did one of the best shows of my career. The second night went well, but that first night was an amazing show. I will try to get a YouTube video up soon. Again, that Midwest hospitality just can’t be beat. I love working in MT, NE, WY, IA, and SD. The people are great, even if the weather is not like the Bay Area.
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| Long and slow in ice and snow |
If you’ve never crawled down the highway at 25 mph for 1,000 miles on b-U-m-P-y I-c-E, you haven’t driven in all situations. I barely made it to the gig. I was scheduled to go on at 5:30 pm, and I arrived at 5:10 – yikes!
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| Ben Ulin |
I was hired to do strolling magic for the first hour, then a show later in the evening, so as I began to become a tiny bit panicked that I would not make it on time, I got on the cell phone and called my graphic artist and buddy, Jim. He looked on the internet and found me a great pro magician locally, Ben Ulin out of Des Moines.
I hired Ben to do the first hour of strolling for me, and he was excellent. It would have been hard to beat his talent at any price; amazing energy. He came and did that hour of strolling magic for me so I could unwind and be fresh for the show, which went well. Thanks, Ben!
On Tuesday, Feb 7, I did the first of seven magic lectures for magic clubs across the southern states: St. Louis, MO Feb 07; Kansas City, MO Feb 8; New Orleans, LA Feb 11; Dallas, TX Feb 12; Houston Feb 14; Austin Feb 15; San Antonio Feb 16. My plan is to visit my daughter, Jessica, in Kissimmee, Florida now that that is over, then I I head back to California, towing a trailer of my things out of my Mississippi home back to the west coast.
I hope to see you on the road...
AWS
