021704

 

San Antonio, TX

Tuesday February 17, 2004

     4:20am  The next day. I woke up about five minutes ago. I slept like eight hours last night. I went to bed at 8:30pm. I just woke up right now. I'm going to go eat breakfast, do my stretches and stuff then I'll get out of here for the day. I gotta go for my hike and show up at the church at ten.

     5:09am  I'm leaving my mom's house. It's all dark outside still. Man, I'm loving this waking up early and walking every morning. I had me a damn good breakfast. I had a peanut butter sandwich and a bowl of Total cereal and a big glass of Tampico punch. Vitamin C. I'm all ready.

     5:30am  I just walked by this guy by his truck. He asked me how I was doing and I said, "Good morning to you, brother. How's it going?" He tells me, "Not too good," and pointed at this car. He goes, "Look, check it out." His Volkswagen just got all four tires stolen. He said, "Yeah, I called the police and they're on their way over." I told him, "See how complicated cars make things?"

                   "New tires are always good. There's a brighter side to everything," I told him." He laughed.

     5:58am  It's forty eight degrees, I think. On the front of the Bandera Community Church sign it scrolls the temperature. I'll wait until it says it again, though. I'm not sure.

                   Thirty eight degrees. It's supposed to get in the lower seventies today. I checked my little weather radio. I didn't bring my scarf.

     6:00am  I walked over to the Exxon. I checked the ashtrays and got one snipe. I'm cheating, I'm sorry. Everything in moderation. I don't smoke at all barely.

     6:18am  I just went in the Exxon and talked to Becca. She thinks I'm crazy, dude. I think I had told her my stuff a long time ago, but I think she forgot it. I told her my stuff. She was all, "You're crazy. No, I don't think it's going to happen." Just like I want her to.

                   She told me, "You don't work here and see all the people who don't give a shit that come in here." I told her, "Exactly, because they're all a bunch of lazy asses who come here to feed their death machines."

                   The kids are taking over soon and I'm going to be the first in line!

     6:35am  I went for my hike in the woods and I'm at my hideout now. The platform up in the tree. I'm going to get a picture of the sunrise.  

     6:37am  I am sitting here patiently waiting for the sun to come up. You can see how the sky over USAA is brighter than the rest of the sky. That's where it's coming up. Sun rises in the East, I think.

                  Wow, the sky is getting really bright. I'm going to take a picture of how bright it is right now.

                  It's a lot brighter now. The sun isn't up yet. I can't wait 'til it pops up though. I have three pictures left on my camera. I'm going to take all three of them.

                  Then I'm going to walk my happy ass to Walmart and develop my film, wait an hour to get them back, then go home and look at them.

     7:01am  This is awesome. There's swarms of birds flying by. I see them in the distance, like a crowd of birds over there. This one group came really close by. I should've taken a picture of them. That's cool. I'm going to come see if they fly by every morning at seven, I'll come up here.

     7:03am  It's awesome, you can see the pink aura over there where the sun is about to come out. It's cool.

                   And I realized I had some weed. I smoked a bowl yesterday with that girl and that dude Roger and there was still some left in there. Whoa, that's cool, another group of birds that went by. When the group came real close to me they were all squawking and everything.

                   It feels good to be free.

                   I just realized all those birds are flying South for the winter.

                   I lift my head and there's all this stuff going on. There's birds going by, there's an airplane up in the sky, It's awesome.

                   Oh my god, this badass thing just happened. This mile long trail of birds just flew by. I looked up and I got a picture real quick. I wish I could get a picture of the whole length of this train. It's awesome.

                   It just surprised me right out of the blue. That was awesome.

                   I see another plane.

                   And another one.

                   And another one. I see them everywhere, man.

                   That pink spot is getting pinker.

                   I think I remember hearing on my little weather radio that the sunrise is at 7:13. Oh yeah, I got some good hits of weed from the little that was in the pipe.

                   Man, what a magical morning I'm having.

     7:12am  Here it comes. Oh man, it's almost here. I'm like getting excited.

                   Two more airplanes. They're everywhere.

                   Man, I need some binoculars or a telescope up here.

                   There it is, it's poking out.

                   Aww, it's beautiful. I took two pictures of it just coming out. That's awesome. I feel so little.

                   I'm going to go blind if I don't stop looking at it.

                   It really is magnificent. All that power.

                   Here, check this song out. Why Does The Sun Shine?

                   Well, that was the last exposure on my film. Time to go walk to the Walmart, develop my film and go look at it.

                   Oh yeah, my mom's got the computer back. I can use my digital camera now.

     7:20am  Okay, now I'm walking to Walmart.

                   As the world turns.

                   As my project evolves.

     7:44am  I just came upon this really cool tree stump here. Over where the wall and the Legalize Herb thing are. It looks real cool. I wish I had a camera. Actually, I'm going to go buy one at Walmart. I have a camera at home already, but I want to take a picture of this stump when I come back from Walmart.

                   The stump has a cool little face to it. It's got like a nose and a mouth. I want to draw on it and stuff. It'll be awesome.

                   Not only will I buy a camera, I'm going to see if they have any bypass loppers.

     7:55am  Passing by Smokestone.

     8:00am  Whoa, I just almost tripped and fell. I caught my foot on this wooden stump sticking out. I was able to catch myself with a tree. I got a little smudge in my pants. That was weird. I was just walking and almost fell down.

                   Walking is still safer than driving.

                    I gave that tree a hug and thanked it for catching me.

     8:05am  Okay, I'm already by the Walmart.

     8:13am  I'm out of the woods. I came out over here by where the buses are.

     8:22am  I'm coming up to the checkout stand to pay for my camera. On the U.S. News bullshit tabloid the headlines say, "Saddam dying. U.S. Docs Battle to Keep Him Alive for Trial." That's hilarious, man.

     8:25am  I found me some twenty four inch bypass loppers for $8.86. I'm going to buy them. They have other badass ones for twenty bucks. All I need is this one though.

     8:30am  Hey, I ran into Mike. He used to be a cashier when I worked at Albertsons back when I was 16-18. He's working here at Walmart now. I walked by and said, "Hey Mike, is that you? Do you remember me? From Albertsons." He remembered me. Ha, he's working at Walmart now stocking the shelves. Hehe, I gave Mike my intro. Hehe, everybody at Albertsons knew about me getting in that wreck and going to the hospital. He probably thinks I'm crazy, hehe.

     8:35am  Everybody probably thinks I'm crazy. I'm walking around with a bypass lopper in my hands.

     8:44am  Bought me a breakfast burrito at the McDonald's. I ate it at the bus stop and I'm walking to the woods now. Oh yeah, I've got one H. I have to wait around for my film to be done. Then, I want to go back in the woods and cut some trails with my new loppers.

     8:45am  Damnit, I forgot to see how much gloves are. Ah, I'll get those when I come back for my film. I'll write it down.

                   I'm going back to that hangout I found earlier. I'll take a picture of it.

     8:53am  Cool, I found that spot again. I'm going to go up this big hill up to the top and see where it goes.

                   Oh man, when I got to the top of the hill I saw six deer! That's cool. This hill was high. I'm all high now. It's awesome. I left my loppers at the bottom of the trail.

                   I'm going to take a picture of the antenna at OP Schnabel in the distance.  

                   Cool, now you can see how far I walked. That little platform is right next to the antenna.

     9:05am  I just came up on this old building back here. It's got these two golf carts in it. I don't know if anybody lives here. I'm going to look around.

                   Okay, I see a driveway and somebody's car. I'm going to get the hell out of here.

                   Oh yeah, I climbed up on top of the hill. It's like virgin territory for me. I've never explored it. I saw a big herd of deer. I started hunting them down for a picture. That's how I found these buildings.

     9:10am  I just took a picture of that hill I just climbed up. You can see my loppers down at the bottom. I'm going to go back. I'm going back to clear up that cool place I found with the stump. The place with the face on it.

     9:15am  I just climbed down the hill. I took a picture of it looking up.

     9:23am  Passing by Smokestone again.

     9:32am  I stopped and I took off my thermal. It's heating up. The sun's coming up.

     9:39am  I just took a picture of the cool stump with the face on it. I'm going to see how long it takes me to clear all this stuff out and I'll take a picture of it again.

                   This is real close to the wall with the all the roots and that cement thing says Legalize Herb.

                   I took a picture after I cleaned up all the brush around it. I'm going to take my army pants off.

                   This place needs a name. Lemme think.

                   I think I'm going to call this place Snarlwood. That's kind of hard to say. Maybe I'll think of a better name. See, because it has a face with fangs and shit. Like a snarl. Here, I'll take a picture of it.

     9:57am  I think I'm going to walk back to the Walmart now. Wait, I gotta hide the lopper. Don't want to take it back.

                   Shit, there's something cool up on top of the wall. I'm going to check it out.

                   It's somebody's backyard grill. Ahh, nothing old or antique.

                   Oh shit, I just remembered I had to be at Bandera Road Community Church at ten. Damnit.

     10:21am  I'm back at OP Schnabel Park. I hauled ass over here. I'm over by the pavilion already.

     10:29am  Came up on Bandera Road in front of the park.

     10:34am  I showed up at Andre's office, on the other side of the main street into the neighborhood, Ford's Landing. I asked for Andre and they told me he wasn't there. Ha, I thought I was late and he's not even here.

     10:39am  I went into this haircutting place next door. Some Clipper's Barber Shop. 684-0039. I asked him, "Hey, how much will you charge me for a #1 buzz? He said, "Uhh, I don't know when the bus comes." I told him, "No, I mean a buzz, a haircut." He told me, "It's eleven dollars for a haircut." I told him forget it. Screw that.

                     Whoa, the construction at BRCC is huge. They're making the church all big. They already have three buildings. It's going to be a huge church.

     11:07am  I walked back to the church and Andre saw me. He asked me, "Is there any way you can get a hold of me?" We traded email addresses. I want to talk to this guy. I don't want to send him an email. He told me to be here at ten so he could talk to me. I don't know. I'm going to go walk in the woods. I got my cutters.

                     I gotta walk back to Walmart. That's right.

     12:23pm  I have been cutting a trail this whole time. That's why I haven't made any entries. I just crossed Bandera and thought, "I'm going to cut a trail diagonally to the Walmart straight through." Yeah, I've changed my mind about going to Walmart and getting some gloves. I've got gloves in my mom's back yard. The ones that I pulled all her weeds with. The ones I mowed her back yard without a lawn mower with. I'm going to Walmart and get my pictures.

                     Aw shit, I just found a trail right next to the one I was cutting. That sucks. Oh well.

     12:40pm  I'm going to walk down this corridor. I'm tired. I'm going to stash these bypass loppers under this fridge I found out here. Then I'll go walk to the Walmart and get my pictures. I'll go ride the bus somewhere.

                      I need to check my email.

     12:48pm  I walked a bit South and I ended up in some neighborhood.

                     French Creek Village. I'm on Hetherington now. The street we turned on yesterday to go to Dana's house.

                     Alright, here's the entrance to the woods right here.

     12:50pm  I think I'm going to stop at Dana's and see if she can hook me up with a half ounce again.

                     Maybe her grandma's home and I can tell her some more stories.

     12:52pm  Dana's home. She said I just missed Roger. He just took off walking to Walmart. I asked her, "Hey, do you think you can score me a sack today?" She said, "Let me check." She went inside. When she came back she had a little pouch of weed. She told me, "Oh, the guy wasn't there, but we can smoke a bowl." She loaded me up a good bowl for my sneak-a-toke and now I have a bowl to puff on all day. Badass. Oh yeah, then she was all, "I've met you before. I know I have. Like at Marley Fest. Weren't you there?" I told her, "Yeah!" I told her my whole Marley Fest story. She said, "Yeah, I even read your sign." I told my friends you had some pretty good ideas. She said, "I was telling Roger about that."

     1:27pm  I'm back at Snarlwood. I'm going to drink some water and smoke some weed. Ha, I got weed.

                   Man, if I hadn't of gone trail cutting after the BRCC and ended up on Hetherington, by Dana's. I go and knock on the door and she smokes me out and gives me a whole bowl! Double-stuffed and everything.

                   I feel very sorry for the fools or the organization of fools that plot my assassination.

     1:52pm  I'm in the Walmart.

     1:58pm  I just got new pictures. I got new batteries from Walmart in my bag. I am totally sponsored by Walmart.

     2:08pm  Oh, I ran into Heather again. The pretty girl I met at Crossroads that one day. I said, "Hey, what's up? Umm, refresh my memory on your name." She said Heather, and I went, "Oh yeah." We're supposed to go trail walking on Friday at noon.

     3:10pm  Ivan's giving me a cigarette here at Ingram. I appreciate it, brother.

     4:05pm  I just got off the bus at the library downtown. I'm going to go check my email, man.

                   Man, I am just so torn about this Heather girl. She's beautiful. She would look so much better if she didn't wear so much makeup. She kind of thinks just like me. But, I don't know what to do. Like, if I wasn't on this mission I would totally want to go out with this girl and be her boyfriend. She just screams appeal. I am so attracted to her. She's hot. I don't know if I can do this though.

                   We're supposed to go hiking on Friday at noon. I had a long talk with her.

                   I'm going to go check my email at the library.

     4:10pm  I just went in the library and there's like an hour wait for the Internet. I'm going to go for a walk downtown. I'll be back in thirty minutes. I'm going to take a piss in the bathroom.

                   I took a hit of weed outside the library.

     5:24pm  I just got out of the library. I had a productive online session sending emails. I emailed Kati. I emailed the bus driver about the walking stick. I emailed the guy about my webpage. I did everything I needed to do.

                   I'm going to walk to Travis Park and smoke some weed.

     5:30pm  The driver on the #4 let me on. I appreciate it, brother.

     5:32pm  I was walking away from the library and I saw Laura, this girl who works at Centro with Elva. I asked her where she was going and she said to Elva's. Hey, I want to go to Elva's. I asked her if I could go. She asked me if I had bus fare and I told her, "Nah, I'll get a courtesy ride." Well, I sure as hell did. She called Elva on her cellphone. I was all, "Ahh, don't tell her. I'll surprise her." It turns out that it's not cool that I come over because her sister will bitch or something like that. Oh well.

     5:37pm  I'm in Travis Park. I'm going to walk around.

     5:58pm  I was walking down on the Riverwalk and some guy came up to me, "Are you walking?" I said, "Yeah, it's the secret to life." I gave him my intro and got his email address. He was all, "Alright! Do it!"

     6:00pm  Richard hooked me up with a cigarette down on The Riverwalk by the Five and Dime. I appreciate it, brother.

                   Damnit, I'm smoking. I thought I quit.

                   I did some good work today. I'm just going to smoke one.

                   Everything in moderation.

                   If excuses were money, I would be rich, hehe.

     6:30pm  I was telling this guy in a military uniform my story and this guy Chris walked by and recognized me. The guy just took off walking. I asked Chris if he wanted to smoke a bowl. I asked him if he knew where I could score some. He took me to some apartment, but the guy wasn't home. So I came back to the Five and Dime. I'm going to ask people to hear my story.

     6:37pm  I crossed the bridge and I talked to this girl sitting on the other side. They agreed with a lot of my platform, but they wouldn't listen to me. So, I went up to the Lone Star Cafe. I saw this really beautiful girl, Eva greeting people at the entrance. I went up to her and asked her if I could tell her a story. She asked me, "Is it quick?" I told her, "It can be." She listened to my whole platform. She's a very pretty girl. I told her, "Thank you so much for listening to me." I tried to give her a hug but she said, "No, we're not allowed to. I'm at work."

                   I'm going to go back in front of the Five and Dime.

                   Her email was evajada@yahoo.com.

     7:00pm  I had another great presentation. Even got all the way to San Francisco in my odyssey story.

     7:20pm  I just talked to this ignorant old man and his daughter on the bridge. He was all telling me, "Well buses are death machines too. They get in accidents and when they do forty people die instead of four or five." I told him, "Just compare the statistics and ratios, man." He was all ignorant and thumping his bible towards the end. We had a good conversation, I guess. I listened to him and he listened to me. He wouldn't give me his email address though.

                   He all was bragging and telling me, "Oh, I fly an F18." I should have told him, "Man, I think your job is unnecessary. Nobody needs to die."

                   Oh, I saw this guy walking around trying to sell these lite-up toys. I asked him, "Hey, can I tell you a story?" I told him my mission-objectives and after I said marijuana he was all, "I'm working, man." Whatever. Later on.

                   Man, I've been standing at this spot by the Five and Dime all night long. This guy just walked by and I asked him if I could tell him an interesting story. He said no and I asked him, "Have you always been that ignorant?" He turns around and says, "All I tell you is no and you say I'm ignorant?" I told him, "Well yeah, aren't you proving me right?" He turned around and walked away.

     7:39pm  I asked this old lady if she had an extra cigarette and she said that was her last one.

     7:40pm  Carrie gave me a drag off her cigarette. I appreciate it, Carrie.

     7:45pm  I had a great presentation with these two ladies at the restaurant by the Five and Dime. They had to go because their food was ready.

     7:55pm  Hehe, I talked to these gay guys. The three gay guys. They asked me, "Are you heterosexual?" I told them, "I just might be the happiest man in the world, but I'm not gay. I wear the rainbow colors because I am a beam of light for others to follow."

     8:15pm  Shane hooked me up with a rollie at Travis Park. I appreciate it, brother.

     8:26pm  Had a really good presentation with this one girl at the bus stop.

     8:31pm  Going to try and get a courtesy ride on the 91.

     8:32pm  Got a ride.

     9:22pm  I had just had a great presentation with this girl on the bus now. She listened to my whole story. She just got off right now. I told her both stories. I told her my first attempt story too.

     9:27pm  I'm at West Telemarketing. I'm going to walk the seven miles home to my mom's.

     9:35pm  I came to West and used the bathroom. I layered up in the bathroom. I want to score a sack of weed, damnit.

     9:50pm  Badass! Scored my half ounce! I called that shit. Good 'ol West Telemarketing.

                   That was all my money.

     10:05pm  Jose is giving me a ride to Babcock North. I appreciate it, brother.

     10:11pm  Jose dropped me off at Prue and Babcock. I'm going to walk by Carlos' house.

     10:14pm  Sorry, I'm going to cheat. I feel really bad. I'm going to smoke a cigarette. I got a cigarette off Jose. Umm, I'll just limit myself to the weekends, man.

                     Oh wait, I don't think today is the weekend. Damnit, today is Tuesday, man. I'm a failure.

                     Screw it, I'm going to smoke it anyway. This will be my last one today. I'll start tomorrow, hehe.

     10:26pm  Isaac is hooking me up at the Subway! Gasoline for the stomach, badass.

     10:48pm  Man, I just had a great presentation with that guy at the Subway. He listened to me good. I was even hauling ass on my scripts and he paid full attention. He hooked me up with two soups. That's awesome.

                     He asked me, "What kind do you want?" I told him to surprise me. He sure as hell did.

                     That's awesome how I scared at the Subway. That guy listened to all my shit. When I first walked up all I wanted to get was water. He was all, "What? You don't want a sandwich or anything?" I told him, "Yeah, if you'll hook it up, sure!" I told him, "I'm a long-distance walker. You'll give me some gasoline for my stomach?" He hooked me up with two soups. Badass.

                     And I got his email address. cromao@yahoo.com

     11:20pm  I just got to Carlos' house. I was going to get some water. I see the lights on inside. Nobody answered the door. Oh yeah, Carlos still has my stick 

on his front porch. The one I broke when I got dropped off in SA by that trucker. It has been there since 12-20-03 10:21pm. I can't believe they haven't thrown it away. I guess they think it's a souvenir or something. I'm going to take a picture of it.

                     Notice how it's missing the handle, because I took it off and reused it for my new one.

     12:27am  I came out to the lookout point at OP Schnabel. I'm going to rest then walk home.

     12:48am  I'm walking up to the Exxon.

     1:25am  I am finally at my mother's house. I am so damn tired, man.

     2:20am  I was just talking on the phone with Heather! She called me. By the time I answered it she had hung up. I called back and she was all drunk. I don't know about Heather. She's umm, interested it seems. I'm attracted to her, but I don't know what I'm going to do. We're just two very different people.

Next day..