Exit Strategy

....cab

Last day of class was very productive. I only bought one new tool!

What q show. I'll come back. SC

Footloose in Tucson

Well, another productive day in the engraving class. I'm starting to get where I can controll the gadget reliably - usually.
After class, I took a free gem show shuttle downtown to where a lot of the main shows are. It quits running at 6pm, but there was way too much to see in one hour so I decided to risk public transportation again. Went to one of the main fossil and mineral venues. Could have bought my own T-Rex, but decided not to mortgage the farm. Went to see the meteorite guys from Germany - no doubt the ones Coppertone heard about on NPR - and for $20 bought a little piece of the Bensour meteorite 4.56 Billion year old. thats older than dirt. That's older than anything you can touch on this planet that hasn't been metamorphosed. These are the guys with the moon rocks. Not brought from the moon, but meteorites of lunar origin.. They had just scored the biggest lunar meteorite ever from bedoins in the Sahara - a fairly nondescript looking rock the size of a misshapen softball that was priced for more than a family of T Rex skeletons. In this one motel room are me, the two german meteorite hunter-gatherers, tables of pieces of other meteorites, the moon rocks and the bouncer. He's Alex, a 6-6 350 german with alot of tatooes and a mohawk haircut. Actually very friendly.
Well then, I was really hungry but starting to wonder about getting back to my hotel again without spending $40, so I asked the desk clerk if there were city busses. Yes there are, big terminal plaza nearby, but since it is Sunday they quit at 10pm but they go out past even my Hotel. Great. So I have a nice mexican dinner first, then head over to the terminal about8:30 only to discover that all the busses quit an hour earlier.
Hmm. So I start to walk in the direction of my hotel, thinking maybe I can flag a cab that's going it that direction and avoid the "We'll be there in 20min"-no show BS. After walking about 3 miles, with 5 or 6 left to go this was beginning to feel like a bad idea, when finally I did flag a

Tucson - Hick town

I'm standing between the host/hostess desk and the front door of Acadia,an upscale restaurant in this "sophosticated city" , home of the Tucson Gem and Chachka Show" holding up a sign that reads "Hilton East - Help" because I've been waiting for close to an hour for a cab back to my hotel; there's no cab in sight so I'm starting to hit up the exiting patrons for a ride. The host is sympathetic but nervous, he's handed me a complimentary glass of their best Cote de Rhone (mearly ok) because he's aleady called 4 cabs all of whom were supposed to be here 30 minutes ago, so I've been waiting now an hour in a city that has shit for public transportation. Merde. Nada. Exiting patrons are mildly alarmed, and nervously unhelpful - all going the wrong way. But finally l spy a cab disgourging passangers outside and commandeer it. It's $40 back to the hotel; $30 metered fare and $10 tip to the poor independent driver/dispatcher who's cell phone won't stp ringing.
En route home we pass the Bashful Bandit, a bar where grandpa George says his name is carved on a table back when it was Rio Rita's. That was before the name change, before the bikers took over, before someone drove a car in through the back and some one else used a forklift to tip it upagainst the wall, before the murder/shooting. I decide not to stop in and look for his signature....

School in Tucson

I'm attending a 4 day class on hand engraving as part of the Tucson Rock and Gem Show
Great day in class. I'm starting to get the hang of the power graver, making nice cuts about 30% of the time compared to 5% yesterday. So far we are doing leaves, flowers, cornrows. I went outside today too. It was beautiful, so several of the other students and I had lunch on the patio. Lunch is furnished as part of the class, and is in the hotel restaurant which is pretty good. This evening several of us are going to a jewelry show downtown via shuttle to see work by a guy who builds incredibly complicated rings. Time for a nap.