Blog of Josh Hall

So i want a really decent sized grill area in the center courtyard.  What I want to do, is make a ruben’s tube right along the back of the grill.  if you don’t what a ruben’s tube is, it’s basically a equalizer visualization done with flames.  see it in action here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyIphO4Ypoo

Got back from Italy late saturday night, and it’s been a lot of reality hitting me in the face ever since.  before I list everything, Italy was great.  The vatican is the most amazing place i’ve ever been.  Pictures will be uploaded soon.  so here’s what’s hit me since i’ve been home:

1. 2 summer classes started last week, so i have to catch up and do the current work
2. allergies are killing me one tissue at a time
3. estate grass needs cut, house needs repaired, and it’s sucking out money from us
4. room is a wreck
5. going to miss another month for recording
6. bathtub leaked into the livingroom ceiling, so i have to repair both.  joys of being a home owner
7. not going to have any renters come june 17th, gotta find someone, or two, fast.
8. got a new job working downtown, daylight, so lots of prep work before i can move over.
9. have to spend money to get airconditioning back in the truck
10. never got my estimate on my truck from being hit
11. lots of other little things

weeee!

this is the most lucid dream i’ve had in a long time.  So i’m taking the bus somewhere.  The bus actually varies a few times from a 15 passenger van, to a charter bus, but this is a minor detail.  The seat layout was consistently like a 15 passenger van, bench seats, isle way on the side.  The drive was a big old guy, maybe 60, and those old style glasses with the double bar across the nose.  There’s a large fellow in the row behind me, and a black guy talking on his cell phone on the bench infront of me, and then the driver.  We’re cruising a long for a while, making stops, people getting off and such, and we get on this divided highway.  he pulls off the highway into this parking lot for a building, when i know the route calls for us to go a little further and then loop back.  He looks  the mirror and asks the three of us left on the bus if any of us want to get off at that last stop, because he’s running a little late and just wants to turn around in the parking lot, cut across the median, and head back on the highway so he can get back on track time-wise.  The cell phone guy ignores him, and the guy in the back just sits there too, so the bus driver turns around and looks at me and asks me if it’s ok.  I tell him that I don’t mind.

      So, do the loop in the parking lot, cross the 2 lanes of left coming traffic fine, off-road it a little bit on the grass median strip, which seems to be really wide.  We’re going at a good speed, he starts turning to the left, so that he can keep accelerating as we merge, and just before we can reach the road, we go over a large hill, and on the otherside of that hill…nothing.  This was a bridge section of the highway, and he had just driven us right off the cliff.  I had been looking out the front window this whole time and can still see the image of coming over that hill, and realizing that there was no ground on the other end, and seeing the bridges on either side.  The bus driver was shocked.  He calmly turned around and said, "Crash.  We’re going to crash, I’m sorry.  Best to hold on to something so you don’t flip around."   So i laid down on my back across the bench, left arm holding the lip of the bench, and right arm tucked between the back and seat holding on for dear life.  I started to pray.  I started to think "wow, so this is how it ends."  I started to think about how my mom would react.  I swear we fell for a good 30 seconds.  My eyes were closed the whole time; body stiff as a board, trying to prepare myself for the hardest impact i’d ever feel in my life. 

   And that sense is the last thing i felt or heard.  Until i started coming to.  A female EMT, short brown hair, in her 40s is reaching towards me to put an oxygen mask on me.  I start to struggle a little, wanting to get up and show her that I’m fine, I’m disoriented, I try to give her a thumbs up but my nerves can’t do it convincingly.  She tells me to calm down for a while, just sit tight.  she pushes against my upper lip and i scream in painful agony, it feels like my whole face is swollen.  She pushes on the bottom of the chest, where the rib cage stops, and again i scream in pain.  she comes back up to my face and pushes, and it’s fine now for some reason, i’m a little relaxed at that, then she pushes again on my chest and i scream for her to stop, i think about my snowboarding accident, and it’s the same pain.  I fear that i separated my sternum from my ribcage again.  I start to cry from the pain and tell her i have a history of chest pain and to stop pushing on it.  She tells me that my blood pressure is high and that she needs to find out why.  I tell her it’s because i’m scared she’s going to kill me by pushing on my chest, which is totally true.  She does an "oh" look, and stops.  they get me on a stretcher and get me in the back of an ambulance to take me to the hospital.  I don’t think the bus driver made it, but i saw the big guy behind me on a stretcher too.  on the ride there, I’m telling the EMT lady exactly what happened.  I remember that I always felt that my back was falling towards the ground, so it seemed that the bus didnt twist around at all, just straight down on it’s wheels.  I was thinking about how much time i’d get off work, but i couldnt remember what day it was.  I was thinking about how this would be on the news.  I was thinking about if rachel’s family would come and see me in the hospital.  I was laughing at how i survived.  I had no idea how far we fell, but i know it was far.

and i woke up on my back, with hands on my chest, in the same position as i was in the ambulance.  Actually, i really did transition out of the dream, like slowly things from inside the ambulance started to be replaced with things from my dark bedroom.  It just faded away.

Moral of the story:  Don’t eat a reese’s klondike right before bed OR never tell a bus driver to drive across a median.

1. Rage Against the Machine – Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce springsteen original)
2. The Cardigans – Iron Man (Black Sabbath original)
3. Johnny Cash – Hurt (Nine Inch Nails original)
4. Nirvana – Lake of Fire (Meat Puppets original)
5. Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Somewhere Over the Rainbow (music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg)
6. Matt Weddle – Hey Ya (Outkast original)
7. Zebrahead –  Wannabe (Spice Girls original)
8. Marilyn Manson – Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics original)
9. Lisa Loeb – Goodbye to Romance (Black Sabbath original)
10. Finger Eleven – Walking in My Shoes (Depeche Mode original)

Truck got hit.  I was in the right lane, doing about 35mph, someone in the left lane wanted to exit, but the problem was, they had to get through me to get to that exit.  The scraped and dented my whole left side.  And then took off.  MOTHER EFFER.  This was about 2:30 am saturday night, so i’m pretty sure they were drunk and didnt stop to avoid the cops.  I have a $1,000 deductable, so i’m going to have to pay for it pretty much.  ballz.

Luke Ravenstaul was out celebrating cinco de mayo saturday.  His wife was not present.  He tried to pick up 2 girls minding their own business at a table with "you two look lonely."  Wow.  He totally should have been like,  "I’m the mayor of pittsburgh, I’d like to give welcome you to my city with a ride inside my limo."  I mean, that’s how i’d do it anyway.  He was certainly getting his drink on.  Almost felt bad for him.

europe in 10 days!

"Why be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first rate Gershwin?"