Dealing with people sometimes... just kind of leaves you speechless. Maybe it's just me, but with "coaster people," the attitudes and so forth seem even worse.

Had one tonight that I was dealing with who thinks it's perfectly ok to insult others, use slurs and slanders, etc, because he "doesn't care what other think." Kid must think he's God's gift to the world or something, since other people obviously mean so very little to him. Frustrating thing is that in his efforts to "not care" he's going to end up offending enough people that the only one that he'll really hurt in the long run is himself.

Sad that some can see so little when they think they see so much.

Oh, but I was talking about "coaster people" wasn't I? Ok, if you're into coasters and parks at all, you're more than likely familiar with a lot of the websites and other discussion forums out there. You may or may not be aware of how political many of them are. Some are very well known for their open attacks and flames upon any that disagree. Some it seems that it's almost a miracle if they don't have some sort of insult somewhere in their messages, and others it doesn't seem unusual to see the owners of the sites ban anyone that disagrees with them Generally speaking, I try to avoid most of the places like that since I find they end up being a real downer for me. Which is something I don't need, since I can get down fairly easily, and when I'm down, it's hard to get back up again. (yeah, I know, low self esteem, combined with being a natural loner and a bit of mild depression... seems like I've always been that way. Others don't believe I'm like that, so I guess I often hide it fairly well. But it hurts and it sucks to feel like such an outsider so much of the time. Alas, I digress...)

Anyways, thought that I had found a place that's pretty much free from most of that, and for the most part it is. But for whatever reason, and it may very well be my imagination exagerating things, it feels like one of the admins at the site has taken either a dislike or a distaste to me. I thought that I was known as a polite person, but when he misunderstood one of my posts and thought I was attacking a friend of his, he didn't hesitate to blast me in public. I dunno, I always thought that the polite thing to do was talk to someone in private first to ask what was up and give someone a chance to correct themselves. But not him. Fire away and fry the guy. Frustrating thing was when 2 of the other admins (including the site owner) felt it was totally appropriate to blast and flame away at someone publicly who has never been in trouble on the site, though in all honesty I think the main reason they agreed with him wasn't because of what he said but because they're his friends. I still don't think that what I said was even slightly offensive, but since it was a friend of the first admins....

Ever notice how for some people "friendship" means that it's ok for people to act like major jerks to other people. You'll back them up, no matter how wrong they are, just because they're your friend?

In any case, it sure seems like this admin has it out for me a bit now. I also do some work on the site, but I've noticed lately if I do things, it feels like half the time he's out lashing out at me for overreacting, over enforcing the rules, etc. It might not bother me so much, except that he's a good enough "friend" of the site owner that because of whatever his littel vendetta is, I feel like I've also lost the favor of the site owner. Someone that I also considered a friend. Now I'm left to wondering a bit.

Wondering to, since my roll on the site was due to expand quite a bit after I move, but now I'm starting to wonder if it'll happen, and if it's a good idea if it does. And I'm back to feeling like the outsider again, basically be shoved out and not listened to or considered much because I'm the "new staff" and the one with possibly the least social ties to the rest of them.

Maybe I'm being oversensitive again. It wouldn't be the first time. But in so many ways, I feel like this one guy has basically decided that he doesn't like me, for whatever reason, and as such, since the others are his good friends and I'm not, that I'll soon be on the outside looking in, and for very little other reason.

It's frustrating to, because these little political games, cliques, and garbage are so much a part of the "coaster enthusiast" community. You see it everywhere- from the clubs (ACE's E.C and "a-list") to the sites, to the discussion forums. And if you're a "celebrity," then if you offend others are act like a jerk, it's ok, because all the ones that think you're cool will back you up. I'm just sick and tired of it happening so often and in so many places.

Anyways, I'm rambling. I'm a bit hurt, a bit ticked off, a bit confused, and contemplating what I'm doing in certain areas, and what I should be doing. Much as I love coasters and parks (and if you know me, you know I do), I'm just so sick and tired of the petty, childish, garbage that comes from so many with the same interest that I'm starting to wonder if I should just drop out of the "community" entirely. Not that anyone would probably care much if I did, and sadly I can see a couple being happy that the "stick in the mud" was gone. Never thought that trying to obey and enforce rules and show respect to others would be thought of so badly...

Sorry for not updating much on this. With moving to Florida only a week and a half away, our huge moving sale coming up this weekend, and trying to get in last visits, packing, etc., it's been a very hectic, busy time. On the good news front, my wife has a job in Florida now, we've got a place to move to, and things are looking pretty good for my job prospects there to. Yay!

Now for the rant. Big hotel peeve. Whatever you do, do not EVER stay at the Super 8 hotel on hotel circle in San Diego. Went there to stay so we could visit my sister.

We're checking in at 11:30 or so. First room they give us, the window is open, beds aren't made, towels all over the place, water bucket sitting on the table full of water, etc. Obviously the room hadn't been touched by the maid service.

So we go down to get another room. Get up to that one. The kids are exhausted, and they're asleep practically before they hit the beds (which were at least made). Then we start realizing the problems: bathroom door won't shut unless it's kicked in from the outside since the bottom of the door is coming apart and jams on the door frame. There is hair on the bathroom floor (ewwwwww). The clock is wrong and can't be reset to the correct time. The fridge was left open and smells. Their "welcome" magazines are waterlogged, bent, folded, and stained. But we're tired, so fine, we'll deal with it in the morning.

Get up to get our "complimentary" breakfast, which is supposed to be from 7:30 to 9:30. It's 8:00, and nothing out yet. So when my wife asks, they open one box of mini danishes, one box of mini cinamon rolls, and one box of mini muffins. Oh, yeah, the juice machine doesn't work either.

I go down and complain as I'm checking us out (and at this point, the sooner we're out of there, the better), and the guy tells me, "You slept in the room last night, right? Well then you got what you paid for. If you didn't like it, we could have gotten you another room last night, or given you your money back then and let you go someplace else." Like I'm going to do more hotel hopping that close to midnight with 2 exhausted kids. Please. His only offer was a 10% discount on our next visit to that hotel, as if we would ever want to go back.

Needless to say I was on the phone to the corporate office while standing there in the lobby and watching two other people complain. Have to wait and see what they say, as they told me it might take 5 days to get back to me.

Worst..... Hotel..... Stay.... Ever!!!!

Ok, so the insurance company is still screwing around with the money. They were supposed to wire it into the account over the weekend and it'll be there by Monday. Any surprise it's not there? Oh, but at least the actual check finally arrived today- 3 weeks after they told me the first time that they mailed it.

So anyways, we borrow money to take the kids to Disneyland and get a much needed couple of days out since it'll be our last chance before we move. Pick everyone up after school on Friday, and we start driving. Through wonderful, extremely heavy LA traffic. Bad enough that it's going to make a 90 minute drive 3 hours. Yay!

So we're about halfway there, going south on the I-110, just north of the 105 interchange by a couple of exits. I'm in the middle lane (number 3) and wanting to move to the left so I can get to the carpool lanes, which are rolling smooth, while we're stuck in stop and go traffic in the normal lanes. Margaret has just told me that it's fine with her as long as I don't get us killed (she hates heavy traffic and gets very nervous in it due to her mild clautrophobia). So there is a nice big opening on my left to move over, so I hit the blinker, check the lanes, look again, and move over. Finish the change, and I'm turned around facing front again after turning the blinker off when, *WHAM*, right in the back of the car!

Turns out this kid (he was under 21) was driving a huge, raised, 4x4 pickup in the number 1 lane (far left), had been rolling faster than I was, and apparently decided to change lanes to (I'm guessing) and didn't notice that we were already there. Ran his oversized tire right along the back door of the passenger side, caving it in a little bit. But after a little weaving, the car is still driving fine. Then he pulls up on my right and starts screaming, yelling, cursing, threatening... about the only thing I could make out was him saying it was my fault amidst all the other garbage and hatred spewing out.

So we start to move over to the right to take the next exit, with him swerving all around me, nearly hitting me a couple of more times, honking his horn at me, and cursing and swearing the whole time. Get off the freeway, and there's a grocery store right there, so we park in the lot. Lo and behold, here he comes charging, yelling, screaming, and begging for a fight. Does he care if anyone is hurt? No. (thankfully, no one was) Does he care about damage? No. He still hadn't looked at his truck, even 30 minutes later, he was so busy charging around screaming. He threatens me, though I'm telling him to calm down and we'll get it straightened out. He threatens my wife, screaming at her to get in the car. He terrifies my kids. He's so far blown out of control, it's just downright scary.

Called 911 fairly quickly, and had 4 CHP there pretty quick, thank goodness, or I don't know what this character would have done. Only damage? The back door on the car I was driving was dented in a bit, with one chip of paint. He's got a very small nick on his hubcap, and I'm not even sure that came from us as opposed to hitting something else on the road. Otherwise, no damage. But he's ranting, raving, screaming, cursing, and going on and on.

Never did hear his side of the story, as I wasn't interested in getting anywhere near him. But apparently he was telling something wildly different, as one of the cops (a younger lady) mentioned that one of us had to be lying. Hmmm, look at the guy running on emotion and so incoherent he can't form a normal sentence, and with no driving experience, and compare him to me, who's totally calm, reasonable, helpful, and with a perfect driving record. Gee, wonder who that would be?

So now we're dealing with insurance companies and waiting for the reslts of the report. I know that I was in the clear and not at fault, and this kid in his brashfulness hit me. Whether it was because he wasn't paying attention, didn't see me already moved into the spot, was driving recklessly (which if it was like he was when we got off the freeway wouldn't surprise me), or what. But he hits me, I get the damage, and he goes ballistic on my wife and kids. Thank God it never progressed beyond that. But it sure makes you wonder about some people these days.

What a couple of weeks it's been. Sitting here fluctuating between depressed and just ticked off.

The school district I sub for right now screwed up their payroll and forgot to get my hours in, so I didn't get paid by them this month. While normally it would really put us hurting, it shouldn't have been a big deal, because we were supposed to be getting a check from State Farm for some of the cash dividends on a whole term life insurance policy I've got. Not a huge amount of money, but enough to cover a variety of things, including putting aside some money for the move. It was supposed to be here around 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ago.

In the meantime, thanks to my not getting the one paycheck, and our normal month-to-month survival, money has run out. My cell phone was cut off a few days ago, and is waiting to get paid to get reactivated, and our home phone is on a disconnect if they aren't paid by the 28th. Then my van decides to get in on the act- the passenger window actually came out of it's runner and is now totally separate from the mechanism that raises and lowers it. If we're not careful, it'll actually fall down iside the door, where we have to get it out with pliers. This is on top of the cooling system that already needed work, and other things. Then, on the way home from being out a bit on Saturday, the front wheel starts making noise, like somethign is loose and rubbing or grinding. My guess is it's the brake assembly, but can't tell. And there's no way to get it taken care of until that stupid check gets here.

So back to State Farm. They cleared the check to be issued almost 3 weeks ago. After a bit over a week, I called, and the girl that was handing it mysteriously couldn't be found, nor could all of our papers. So they refaxed them in to someone else who was going to personally deal with it and get it mailed out the next day. So, just to be safe, I call again 5 days later when I notice the numbers on the website haven't changed. Oh, well, it's been printed, but it hasn't been mailed yet. It'll probably go out in tomorrow's mail. Why? Dunno. Guess the one handling it personally couldn't remember where the mail box was. So it was supposed to go in the mail on Thursday. It's Monday. Guess what? No check yet. Grrrrrrrrr.

Oh, and did I mention that State Farm is the company that screwed us royally several years ago when one of their clients rear ended my wife and they didn't want to pay the claim?

So here we are hoping that it'll be here tomorrow. It's got to be here by Wednesday or stuff is going to be hitting the fan. We're supposed to be taking the kids to Disneyland this weekend, for their second time ever, and last shot to go before we move to Florida. No check= no Disneyland. And there's no other time to go.

So here's hoping, and praying that it gets here. Because otherwise what I'll be writing won't be pretty.

I had two visits to SFMM last week, and both were pretty much related, so I wanted to get something posted up. However, since I've done a bunch of full fledged TR's for SFMM in the past, I don't really want to do that again. So here's a "notes, observations, and experiences" write up for you.

I first went out to SFMM on Monday to buy tickets for the youth group that I was taking to the park on Friday for their Christian concert night. First thing I noticed as I came in was the new slide they are building in Hurricane Harbor, which is another version of the funnel slide that Holiday World put in last year. It's coming along well, and work was proceding quickly on it. Small crowd today, but they had two trams running, and were rather quick to have them ready to load up. That's nice since usually the wait for one is so long that I choose to walk instead.

I only had one bad experience on Monday, and it felt rather typical of the way SFMM has been run the last couple of years. I knew that we were pushing out deadline on the advance ticket sales a bit, which is why I drove to the park. I had called last week and they told me on the phone that I could come to the park, pay for them, and pick them up. Oh how I wish I had gotten the person's name. After waiting for a half hour for the 3 people in front of me at the group sales window (turns out "group sales" can only do groups of up to 50, and anything larger has to be broken into multiple transactions. Umm, hello!! Shouldn't group sales actually be able to handle large groups??) I finally got the window, handed them my form, and pulled out the cash that the kids going on the trip had paid me with (we weren't that big a group) The guy looks at me and tells me that he can't sell me the tickets at that window.

What? You're group sales, right? And we're a group. Right? Well, yes, but apparently group sales doesn't do group sales if they're advance purchase tickets, or some sort of nonsense like that. The only thing that he ends up doing is refering me to another phone number, which I concluded must have been to someone in trailerville in the back of the park (where the offices are). They then tell me that because it's a special event, that even though I was just buying group tickets, because it was on the same day as a special event I had to buy special event tickets, and those could only be done through mail orders. So if I just find the nearest post office box.... as I look at my cash for the tickets and note that I need them for 4 days from now.. Long story short, I finally got the person on the phone to "make a reservation" so I can buy the tickets on Friday morning when the park opens, because they don't have the tickets for it yet. (Don't ask, I can't figure it out either) So I made the arrangement and left it alone. Arrghhhh. At least on Friday when I came to pick up the tickets they had 2 windows open, moved quickly, and handled us with no problems then. But apparently they don't know how to handle advance group orders in person.

Anyways... also finally got my season pass processed. I will say that it was very nice with the renewal. They asked if I wanted a new picture or just wanted to use the old one. I chose the old one, and within about 30 seconds they handed me my new pass- without even having to go to the processing center. It was all done at the will call window, quick and easy. Very nice.

Notes from both days: SFMM looked very clean, neat, and you could tell several spots had been touched up, cleaned up, and even some touch up paint was used here and there. The couple of main gum walls (on Gold Rusher and Jet Stream) were both obviously recently cleaned. They actually had music playing throughout the park that you could hear, and that helped to give the park an atmospheric feeling that it hadn't had in a long time. They were obviously working on the old monitors in the queue lines. Every coaster but Flashback (no loss) and Superman (closed for the year) was open- including Deja Vu and X both running consistently well both days. And every single flat ride was open, every water ride. In fact, there were a grand total of 4 rides closed- the two I mentioned, the monorail, and the skytower! Talk about a turn around!

The ops were generally very good. A bit slow on Deja Vu, but with the restraint mess on those, that's to be expected. But they were moving as quickly as the belt/ harness deal would let them. Had several that were very friendly, and didn't notice one bad apple in the bunch, except for one that seemed to be having a fit on Jet Stream on Monday, and his lead promptly sent him away- to break or home, I don't know. But he left and I didn't see him later. Most of the coasters were two train ops as far as I could tell. Riddler's was one, and Batman might have been (I didn't ride it either day), but every other coaster that could run 2 trains was running them when they needed to. That's also a marked improvement from the past.

On Friday, there were a few things I noticed. Normally for the Hallelujah Jubilees, the park is packed. It was much lighter this year, with the cars barely starting on the fourth parking lot section. That actually made it very nice, with manageable lines for just about everything- including less than an hour for Goliath, X, and many of the other rides that would normally be 2 hours or more. Scream was again it's typical walk on all day. Got to see a couple of excellent concerts. Superchic(k) put on a fantastic show despite their secondary vocalist not being there due to being dog sick. And Plus One has certainly moved into the rock sound, and it was great to touch bases and talk with Nate Cole, one of the members of the group, again. It was nice that he actually recognized his old teacher.

Also, the water rides were nice and wet- or at least Jet Streamer and Log Jammer were. Just the way that we wanted them. Also took my first ride on Dive Devil in a very long time, and had a lot of fun with that. Ended up getting the video for me and my friends. Now I just have to figure out how to turn their encoding on the cd into something that can be played on any computer (e.g. covert it to windows media or real player)

Overall, outside of the dumb group sales situation, I was very pleased with the park. There were a couple in my group that remarked how much better the park was than it had been the last couple of years, and one of the guys actually went out and changed his ticket to a season pass he was so impressed with the difference. I know that while I was wondering a bit before, I'll certainly be making an effort to get out there at least a couple of more times before I move. And I'll be sure to get the kids to Hurricane Harbor finally before we go!

Well, I'm in the midst of running around accross the country looking for homes in Florida and visiting family in California. But somehow, in the midst of all that, I found a little time for some fun. So here, in all it's very long glory, is a write up about my first chance to visit and get a small taste of Busch Gardens in Florida.

The Place: Busch Gardens, Tampa
The Day: Tuesday, April 6, 2004
The People: me and Adam (a former student of mine)
The Weather: Clear, moderately warm. Really, very nice overall.
The Crowds: varied (you’ll see what I mean when you read)

After having been out with the Realtor for a while that morning looking at homes and seeing what else we could, I met up with Adam a few blocks away from Busch Gardens. We took a brief look around the area, since it was all new to me, then headed for the park, arriving at the gates around 2:30 or so. Parking would normally have a charge, but if you’ve got a pass
(and Adam did) then it’s free. Which was nice since the outer lot we were parking in sure looked full, though not unexpectedly so since this is Spring Break for so many places.

After parking we hopped on the tram (which smelled vaguely like SFMM’s, though not anywhere near as bad and was much cleaner) and headed to the gates. First impressions are everything, and BG gives a very good one with lots of greenery, trees, and attention to detail even before you get in the park. Montu and Kumba are easily spotted from a distance outside the park, but much of it remains hidden and waiting to be discovered when you enter the gates. So I purchased my platinum pass on their monthly payment program (which also gets me into SW: San Diego free- anyone want to take me? Hehe), had them size up my hand on their little scanner thingie that they use instead of pictures, and we were off, deciding to check out Montu first since it was closest to the gate.

BG is a beautiful park when you enter, and it doesn’t hide that it’s as much a zoo, if not moreso, as it is an amusement/ theme park. Animal displays and attractions are abundant throughout, and I would have loved to have had a lot more time to explore them. But with the park closing at 8pm, our time was a bit limited, so I only got to see a few of them here and there. The other thing that I noticed quickly is that sure enough there were a lot of people there. But since I had been expecting it, I didn’t mind so much, and the theming and scenery gave plenty to look at while wandering over to Montu.

And here came our first surprise of the day: Montu was a near walk on. I think we waited for about 3 trains to ride in the back row, then when we took a reride it may have been a 5 train wait for the very front. So we were able to get in 2 quick rides on what are normally the best seats on an inverted. The back row was great! Intense, original, I loved the ducks and dives into the trenches, and just an awesome coaster all the way around. But the front seat really caught me by surprise, actually feeling more intense than the back. When I got off of the front seat ride, my feet were numb and tingling like they do on Batman: The Ride, something they didn’t do as much in the back. But it delivered in spades throughout. This coaster easily moved into my top tier of coasters, and if I were to grade it, it would probably get a 10 out of 10, or very close to it.

And for the question that I know a couple are going to ask: which is better, B:TR, Talon, or Montu. In all honesty, I don’t know, and I’m not sure that I could pick out a favorite. It sounds chintzy, but if I had to pick one, it would probably be whichever one I was closest to at the time, because all three are fantastic in their own right.

From there we hopped onto the skyflight ride that took us to the back of the park. The station for it is huge, and apparently it’s because it used to share part of it with the monorail ride that is no longer there. I had been given the impression on the website and other areas that it was still operating, but alas it’s been gone for a while now according to my friend. He also said that the skyflight is closed a lot of time to. So after about a 25 minute wait, we hopped into our bucket and took off, flying over Rhino Rally (which had a maxed out, overflowing queue area) and other parts of the park. We landed in the far back of the park, and were a bit dismayed to find even more people over here, and the coasters and rides in this part of the park all had pretty long lines. After walking around and seeing all the long lines, and since it was midafternoon, we decided to get a bite to eat instead and hopefully wait out some of the lines. So we stopped in at the Moroccan Palace, where I had some very good ribs. They also have a frequent diners card here for pass holders, which gives you a free meal after you buy 10 (which you already get a discount on) so that’s a very nice treat for passholders.

A show was starting there as we finished eating, but once we realized that it was a “Vegas style” version of ballroom dancing to modern and 80’s rock songs, we left since neither of us was really interested in seeing that. Heading outside, we realized that there were still some long lines, but hey had been going down. We settled on Kumba, which the greeter said had about a 20 minute line. It turned out to be 15, and coming back around for our second it was a couple minutes less than that.

Kumba was my first “non-gimmick” B&M coaster and it was incredible, impressing me just as much as Montu did. The zero-g roll caught me totally by surprise as I didn’t realize it had one, and was just an awesome ride all the way around. In all honesty, if B&M were building rides in the last few years like the two they built here, they wouldn’t be getting panned for being “boring and mundane” or forceless. Both of these are easily a couple of the best coasters I’ve been on, and I’m seriously looking forward to lots of time on them after we move here. Again, if it got a grade it would be a 10 out of 10.

From there we moved onto Scorpion, which I was surprised to find is a stock model of an Arrow corkscrew. It runs only one train, and when we had gone by earlier it had quite a line, but coming around now. It looked to be in very good condition, though, with the paint and landscaping looking very nice, clean, and kept up (which was actually true of everything in the park. I didn’t notice anything on this trip that looked work out or unkept at all). We hopped into seat 2.1 and it surprisingly delivered a very nice ride. With these I typically place my head all the way back and lean it on the left side otsr, but in this case I didn’t need to. I didn’t notice any bumping, banging, or jostling, and neither did my friend. Afterwards I said that it was one that I wouldn’t mind reriding in the future when my kids and friends want to ride it, and I meant that. Except for time, would have been willing to take another ride or two then also. I’d probably give it a 7 out of 10, which is incredible for one of these old jobs.

Next stop was Scorpion, a Swarzkopf single looping coaster. My friend hadn’t ridden it before because, as he put it, “it looks so simple. There’s nothing to it, like a kiddie ride.” Boy was it fun to show him what Anton can do. Scorpion delivers just like it was expected to- fast and furious throughout, with big g’s on the helix and the loop- enough so that it made Adam cry out it shock and surprise! Again, an excellent coaster, and one that I hope to get to know much better in the future. Grade would be an 8.5!

We had been checking out the bumper cars and Cheetah Chase throughout this time, but the lines were just to long for both. Finally they had gone down some, so we got in line for the bumper cars, only to notice that they were moving pretty slow and didn’t seem to be connecting with very hard hits, so I told Adam he’d have to whack me another time. We took another look at Cheetah Chase again, and started to get excited to see the line was gone! Then we realized why- it had broken down. And whatever the problem was, it was going to take a while as the entire operating crew was coming out the exit heading out somewhere else while a couple of mechanics remained in the station working alogn with what looked like it might have been a lead. So Cheetah Chase was out for the day and will have to be the one coaster that I pick up on a future trip.

We also did a lot more looking around in different parts of the park throughout all this, checking out the “Curiosity Caverns” which housed some snakes, bats, and the like, a few minutes of a show where they played drums, flute, xylophones, etc while moving around a bunch of scaffolding (quite fun to watch, really!), gators, and various other things before finally making our way back up to the front and to Gwazi. Both sides were open, but it was quickly apparent that they weren’t dispatching them together, with meant no dueling. :( But even so, I looked forward to riding on both sides, and lines were pretty short, averaging probably a 2-4 train wait on each side.

We took a ride on Tiger first, then Lion, both near the back of the train, then took a ride on each in 1.2. And while you could tell they had elements that were mirrors of each other, it wasn’t enough to really be able to tell exactly what was different about them (though you could certainly tell they were different!) Quality of the ride on each was, once again, excellent, and they moved up pretty close to my top tier. Tiger seemed a bit rougher than Lion, but Lion seemed to deliver a bit more air- especially in the front. But a favorite? Couldn’t tell ya! There were 2 things in the ops that bothered me though. First, they pretty much never dispatched the two sides together, and the rare time that they did, it was purely accidental. I would have loved to have ridden it with them dualing, but it never happened.

Also, are seatbelts a new addition to Gwazi, because it sure seemed like it. They looked new, but more than that, I think it was some of the oddest, and most time consuming, loading operations with them. The lapbars are locked up while everyone buckles their belts and the ops check them. After the ops have checked all the belts and given the all clear, then, and only then, do they release the bars so they can be locked down. And then the ops have to check all the bars before the train can be released. Slow, and a bit annoying. And it’s only for those 2 reasons that it gets knocked down a bit to an 8 out of 10. If it’d been dualing and the belt ops made more sense, I could easily give it a 9-10.

It was also here that I had my one “incident” at the park. While in line for Lion the last time, we got stuck behind a couple of people who couldn’t figure out how to move into a station line. While we were waiting for them to move, a couple of kids (more appropriately “punks”) proceeded to hop over the hand rails to get into the station, and happened to go for the line that we were aiming for. So Adam and I conveniently “cut them off” and took the spot in line that we should have had if they waited (it meant all of a one train more wait for them) and I told the kid, “Happy to see you didn’t get hurt when you hopped the hand rail.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, I’m sure you can figure it out, but if you’d like, I can ask an op to explain it to you.”

And at that point, we turned our backs to them. Being all of 16 years old or so, I wasn’t worried about them, though Adam got a bit teed off, especially as they thought they were really cool, called over a couple of 14 year old friends, and trying to stir a fight behind us the whole time. Among their more mature comments including such things as, “they must be gay and gays are ****” and other various things. Needless to say, they weren’t very smart, but since closing was coming, I wasn’t to worried about. We rode, got off, and walked a bit to do some shopping in the last few minutes.

But lo and behold, as we turned a corner, here comes our new “friends” with one of the 13 years olds being really cool and thinking he’ll shoulder block me- except I saw him and got my elbow up for him. Guess I must have knocked the wind out of him a bit as he gave me a rather breathless, “pardon me” while still trying to look cool and I tried not to laugh at him. So I pulled out my camera and said, “Hey, if you’re so cool, guess I should get a picture of you then!” Idiot proceeds to pose for me (flipping off my camera), so I say, “Cool, now I can show security who you are.”
“Yeah, you’re going to get your film developed that quick, huh?”
Adam and I look at each other, and at my digital camera, and just start laughing and walk away into one of the stores.

To bad we didn’t see them after that. I would have loved to have actually reported them, but with the park closing and everyone leaving, it seemed a bit pointless. But it gave us a bit of entertainment at doofus’s expense.

Outside of that, we had a lot of fun at Busch Gardens. There is a ton to see and do there, and we didn’t come close to seeing most of it. I can’t wait to get back, and am excited about the prospect of this being my “home park” in a few short months.

Thanks for reading another one of my monsters!

Well, today is my last day of work at one of my jobs. If you don't know, I essentially have 3 jobs- I substitute teach, I do a lot of work at my church (normally not paid, but every now and then they surprise me), and then I work at the Disney Store. On a good week, the last one will give me 2 days of work at about minimum wage, and if I get 3 days I'm in shock at the "huge" amount of hours. What a week to actually get 10 whole hours of work! ;) So obviously, after my other 2 jobs and my wife and kids, it's a rather low priority, and certainly isn't a necessity by any means.

So anyways, Spring Break starts when school is out, meaning no teaching work for me for 2 weeks. So working with my church, I'm scheduled to leave tonight on a red-eye flight for Tampa to meet up with some friends and look around (more on that in a bit). So I let the boss know at Disney 3 and a half weeks ago that I won't be able to work since I'll be in Florida, then immediately afterwards I'll be in Sacramento for Easter to see my family before we move. Plenty of time to work the schedule around my not being there, especially since I barely work. Right?

Apparently not. Not only did they schedule me to work tonight when I'm supposed to be driving to the airport and getting on the plane, but tomorrow when I'm out of the state. So I let them know, and at least got tonights shift switched. No options for tomorrow, so they're giving me a "no call no show" for the shift (which is a bunch of bull). Then they come out with next weeks schedule- 4 days of work!! 2 when I'm in Florida, and 2 when I'm in Sacramento! Hello!! Idiots! Then they tell me tough luck since they hadn't given me permission to take the days off, and I should have waited to buy my plane tickets until I knew if I had the days off or not.... excuse me for a sec while I pound the wall.....

ok, better. Permission? I work less than 10 hours a week, and they know they're low on my list, and I need their flipping permission to go house and job hunting? And I'm supposed to wait until the last minute to buy my tickets (so I can pay more for everything) on a trip I have to take? Are they that stupid? Apparently so, and they seem completely unable to see that I gave them plenty of notice and that there is no way I would be available. Might as well tell me I would need their permission to go to court or attend a funeral also. So next time I get sick, should I ask them if it's a good time also, or should I put it off?

So anyways, with my shifted shift, I get off at 2pm today, at which point I'm handing them a shirt, my tag, and saying goodbye and good riddance. Stupid. And since they're losing the other guy who does shipment next week, the only one they screwed was themselves. Hey boss, hope you have fun moving all those boxes I've been doing for you, since none of us who did it are going to be left since you couldn't realize that Disney isn't our god, and that we have a life to live.

Anyways, enough rantings.... I'm hopping on a redeye flight tonight to Tampa, where I'll meet up with some old friends from our church to stay with them. I've got 5 days of looking around neighborhoods, meeting principals (since they are the ones that do the hiring), meeting some family I haven't seen in over 10 years that lives nearby, meeting up with one of my old students from way back when I used to teach, checking out and interviewing at a church or two, meeting up with a real estate agent for a day of house hunting and seeing what we can afford and where... In other words, it's going to be a very busy, rather hectic 5 days that I'll be there.

And with all that, I know I'm going to need stress release. Thankfully, there's Adam, my former student. It may be Spring Break, but we're going to chance the park anyways, and Tuesday afternoon/ evening we're going to Busch Gardens, Tampa for my first time. I expect the crowds to be big, and fairly horrible (though there's a chance of showers that day, so I'm hopeful that will chase people away), but I'm anxious to get a look at the park that is going to become my new home park in a few short months.

And I've got a new digital camera to boot, so I can snap off a lot of nice pictures- and actually have them availabe to show right away. Unlike the 10 rolls of film I have sitting here from last summer and new years. heh.

So a lot of work? Yes. A lot of running around? Yes. And not a lot of time for fun, but we'll get some in. And with all the stress lately, I'm in dire need of a roller coaster fix to scream some of it out.

Well, for a blog that I hoped to be centered on parks, I'm sure not doing well there so far. But what a pain in the neck week it has been.

My father-in-law went into the hospital 3 days ago with some numbness on his left side. He's still there. Right now they think it may be diabetes related as he had very low blood sugar, but they're still running tests and more tests, and calling in more speciallists. In other words, it's one big mystery still, and looks to be for a while yet. He really needed to take a break and get some rest, but this isn't how you hope someone will do it.

That and our money and other problems just seem to get worse. Can I say that I hate the cost of living in CA? It reeks. Then to add to everything our washing machine goes out last night. We've got maybe $20 to get us through a week, and then will get $40 to get us through til the first. In other words, no money to get it fixed, which means we'll be wearing dirty stuff here pretty soon since there doesn't seem to be to many other options. Great... Just makes me hope all the more that things work out for us getting to Florida and getting a home, as so much of that kind of stuff will be upgraded, and we'll be making more money while paying less.

Then my wife has to go and suggest that we really need a day out at Six Flags. No kidding!! If only we could, but we won't have the money to renew for another week and a half, then I'm going to FL for a few days. So guess we'll just have to wait on it. But I could really use a day- if nothing else just to get out for a while and scream it out.

Which is one of the reasons that I like the parks and coasters so much. I can go in totally aggravated and stressed, and let it out on the rides- screaming, yelling, or just plain relaxing and watching people. I always come out of the park so much more refreshed than when I went in, and boy could I use that right now. Hopefully soon.

Ok, warning ahead- this one isn't coaster related. Well, at least not directly.

After years of living in CA and watching housing prices skyrocket until they are way out of reach, and seeing CA work hard at putting the shaft to teachers and those wanting to be teachers, it's time to get out. Something that we knew was coming for a while now. So we've made plans to move to Florida this summer- the Tampa area specifically, and figured that we'd move, rent a place for a while, and try to put some savings together to eventually buy a house with.

That pretty much got scrapped yesterday. The renting and saving part that is, not the move. After talking to a broker yesterday, and her financing officer (or something like that) we're qualified for a no-money-down loan of an amount that is plenty for us to be able to buy a home with right when we move! And, it turns out, my father has kept an account for me since I was a babe with the means to provide a small down payment to, which helps even more. So we're excited because now looking at things, we can have our own home by August/ September if all works out smoothly, and can look forward to Christmas in our own home- something that was little more than a dream while we lived in CA! I can't believe how excited I am over it, and am looking forward to visiting the area in a couple of weeks to start checking things out.

And for the die hard coaster geek people, here's the part you'll like: it'll be 15-30 minutes to Busch Gardens Tampa, and around 90 minutes or so to everything in Orlando. I can certainly handle that. :)

We're already diagramming out what we want in a home- "the must haves", "the would likes", and the "couldn't care less abouts". So right now the plan is for a 4 bedroom home, around 1400 square feet (more if we can get it), hopefully with both a living and family room, but we'll be happy with a great room also, pool not really wanted but a nice sized yard- big enough to add one in later if we want to.

On a side note, what is it with kids sometimes. I sub high school right now, and like to think that I'm not to terrible to the kids, as long as they do the basics. Get the work done that the teacher assigned, obey the standard school rules, and do it the way you're supposed to, and I have no problem letting the relax, talk, and goof off a bit (within reason) at the end of class. A lot of them know me for that.

But I had another group yesterday that made me want to scream. Took them 15 minutes before they would shut up and be quiet long enough for me to tell them what they were supposed to do. I had to send 3 kids out of class (which I hate doing) and had to report on about 7 or 8 others. Adnthe only ones they screwed were themselves when they didn't have time to finish the assignment they were given as a result- one they had to turn in. So a bunch got in trouble, only a few finished the work costing them in their grade, and no one enjoyed the class. How much easier would it have been to come it, sit down, shut up, and get the work done? Then they would have had 5-10 minutes at the end to talk and relax the way they were at the begining and nobody would have gotten in trouble for it!! Talk about aggravating.

Anyways, that's my rant for today. I'm off to get lunch with a friend as well as take care of my daughter, who's home sick today (and on a day where she was going to be awarded Student of the Month to! Poor kid!)

If you're into the coaster and theme park arena at all, you've probably heard this already, but if not...  Cedar Fair, the owners of Cedar Point, Dorney Park, Knott's, and others is buying Six Flags Worlds of Adventure (the former Geuaga Lake/ Sea World Ohio) from Six Flags.  As part of that purchase, all of the animals are being moved from the park to other Six Flags parks or other areas as Cedar Fair has no interest in running the animal side of the park.

All speculation about what this means for the future of the park aside, in so many ways I find this to be a great loss.  It's no secret that Six Flags screwed up the park in so many ways- what could have been a tremendous success with the merging of the parks turned into a colossal bomb.  And when there was so much potential to.  If they had been willing to take the time to do their research and invest what they should have into the park, SFWoA could have very easily become one of the major destination parks out there- for all age groups.  Instead, the area is losing what perhaps was the best part of the park- the former Sea World attractions.

Gone will be killer whale, the dolphins, the penguins, and so much more.  Gone will be the beautiful area where families of all ages- kids, parents, and grandparents- could go and enjoy the whole park together.  Gone will be so much of what had given the park so much potential.

Sure, they are leaving the rides, and that areas also has a long history- much of which Six Flags ignored as they developed it in their short tenure.  But that part can be redevolped with enough time, energy and focus.  And developing a ride-based amusement park is what Cedar Fair is known for.  But the heart of the other side of the lake is gone forever.  What a tragedy.  And even if they are successful at turning Geuaga Lake back into a successful amusement park, I for one, will miss the Sea World part even more.

Long live the sea life, you will be missed by many.