Catching the Deadliest Catch on TV

I don't watch a lot of television anymore, but whenever I have access to a television with more than three channels, I always try to catch "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel. Even the Discovery Channel is giving in to this reality-TV stuff. Or wait, wasn't the Discovery Channel one of the originators of reality-TV? I mean actual reality-TV as in the stuff they're showing was actually real? Anyway. Deadliest Catch follows the crew of five or six crab fishing boats in the Bering Sea. It's all very dramatic. In one episode three of the fishermen went overboard and only one was fetched out alive.

In another episode, one of the crew members approached his captain to confess that he was hoping they could finish the fishing and go back to shore as soon as possible because he had a court date in Seattle coming up and if he didn't show he'd be put in the slammer for eight months. His captain, like all of the captains, seemed to spend most of the days estimating how much money he was going to make and barking out orders. Not exactly your sympathetic character. Or, as Chris put it: "Why that guy would ever think that captain would give a shit about his problems, I'll never know." In the end, they caught enough crab to get ashore in time for the guy to make his court date. By one day. Talk about cutting it close.

This show is addictive, but it has made me wonder if I should ever eat crab again considering the true cost.

...

What a fucking night. Planned to go camping at Chaco Canyon, where the New Mexico astronomy club was hosting some kind of event and letting the public look through some pretty high-tech telescopes. I think there was going to be an interesting talk on the history of the area and the role astronomy played in the ancient civilization.

Instead, on the way there we hit a (relatively small) steer. Now part of Chris' car is damaged. Amazingly, we were able to turn around and drive it back the 2 hours it takes to get back to the city. Christ, I keep thinking of that steer. There were two of them in the road, each facing opposite directions so when he swerved to avoid one, he hit the other. I'm pretty sure it died. I can still see their eyes, staring at us right before we hit them. All I could see was their eyes because they were dark-haired. Chris said all he saw were their white hooves.

Then, on the way home we were passed by two speeding police vehicles and a fire/ambulance. Turned out to be a pretty bad accident. A SUV with a trailer had flipped over in the middle of one lane and it looked like another car had some front-end damage. I saw one of the firemen trying to get under the SUV, which made me think there were people trapped in there. *Shudder*

I'm so glad to just be home safe.

It's the weather...

Albuquerque can't make up its mind. One day its rainy and cold. The next day its hot and dry. One hour its blustery and your eyeballs feel like sandpaper from all that dust blowing at your face. The next hour the air is so still you can barely manage to walk to the mailbox. The weather here makes me nervous, mostly because I know I have to drive in it and I don't want it to suddenly hail or rain. I don't trust New Mexican drivers in the rain and the streets aren't built for rain. No drainage. A drizzle causes a river on the surface roads, which were dangerous enough to begin with because the sun had scorched the road markings to the faintest suggestions. And the local news stations are always going on and on about the state's horrible drunken driving problems.

A few days ago, it rained. I should be used to it, but I stared glumly out the car window and said, "I hate this weather. When will it end?"

Chris looked and me and said. "You do? I thought you liked this weather."

And I do recall saying I liked rainy weather better than sunny weather. I said that all the time when I lived in Hawaii. I'm not even sure if I truly meant it anymore, or if it was just something I said. As of late, I'm realizing I do that often. Just say things to say it without thinking about whether I mean it. That probably makes me a hypocrite since I'm sure I said I don't like small talk or I'm not good at small talk.

I think I'll shut up for now.