Fires and a glowing sunset

Well, I’m finally moved out of my apartment in Corvallis.  It’s amazing how much stuff you can get done in a day when you have absolutely no more time.  Drove up to C-Town, got there at about 1pm, cleaned up the kitchen, packed my bike and remaining crap into the jeep, took apart my desk, set my forwarding address, corrected the current residents list, disconnected internet and power services, returned the modem, returned the CVT tuning notebook, wrote a short tutorial on how to use my CVT tuning program for next year’s Baja-SAE team, got back to my apartment, cleaned the bathroom, threw out everything I didn’t feel like packing (a lot of cleaning supplies and junk), mopped the floors, vacuumed, turned in my keys, and left town.  All of this in about seven hours.  My brain hurts.  And so does a lot of my body, for that matter.  Probably the cleaning products that I used to nuke the bathroom.  Note to self: gloves aren’t good enough.  Need respirator and full eye protection.  And a hazmat suit. 

Well, I also noticed something kinda bizarre on the way up to C-Town.  Along I-5 on my side of the road, I passed five or six fires along the side of the freeway.  The first few already had fire crews responding, but the others were blazing away.  It was odd that it was only on my side of the freeway, and all of the fires were about at the same stage (burning an area about the size of a basketball court in the grass).  I wonder if these were caused by a truck or something with a weedburner exhaust (one that blasts the exhaust at ground level instead of using stacks).  Or it could have been the dumbass who was mowing the grass on the side of the freeway.  Isn’t there a time restriction on that sort of thing?  Anyways.  Bizarre.

As if the night weren’t memorable enough, I was given a fond farewell by the city of Corvallis with a spectacular sunset.  It might just be that these new glasses allow me to actually SEE the fuggin clouds and hills, but it was probably one of the most amazing sunsets that I’ve seen in a long time.  A ribbon of thin hair-like clouds made sort of a broad S curve, extending up from the horizon in front of the sun and fading out just overhead.  It started out with a bright orange glow, with silver highlights from the whisps of cloud above.  Then, it gradually became an intense violent red glow.  To contrast this, the sky around the cloud was a dull yellowish green (then again, I’m kinda colorblind in that particular hue… so it could have been totally different for all I know). But the contrast that it created with the red was spectacular.  On top of all of this, there was a bright full moon on the other side of the sky.  This all seemed like fitting closure to my stay in Corvallis.  It was a fun 5 years, mostly uneventful… Except for all of the crazy times with the hoseheads, and then doodling in classes to keep myself sane, and nearly burning down the garage with napalm, and rolling Baja cars, and drinking many, many pitchers of Terminator Stout at the Rogers Annex (aka McMenamins), and of course, meeting fun and exciting people.  I guess that sort of sunset thing makes me a little bit sentimental.  Or maybe that is just a symptom of starting a new chapter in my life.  Who knows. 

Mmm… Hungry… Just realized that in all of the excitement all I had to eat today was a snickers bar and coffee.  Time to raid the parent’s fridge.

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