I’m back…I think. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a wedding and reception with 450 – 500 people. We had a great time…We think. I saw a bunch of old friends, and made some new ones…I think.

I almost died…I think. Got a piece of food stuck in my damn throat, and couldn’t breathe…started to get dizzy from lack of air, and some football player put the Heimlich maneuver on me. As a result of that, the food was dislodged enough for me to breathe and eject it, but my right-side ribs are trashed. Getting out of a car is a trick, and I have to roll out of bed. I guess it’s better than being dead.

I-40 from North Carolina to Tennessee, and back, is a beautiful drive, but, since the hurricanes dumped so much water in the mountains, we’ve got some major problems. There is one tunnel westbound, and two tunnels eastbound. Both directions are down to one lane, because of the Hole. Right before you pass through the first eastbound tunnel (uphill), the interstate disappears. I mean, it is gone; replaced by a hole with a diameter of about 500 yards, and a thousand feet deep. So, the NCDOT had to steal one of the westbound lanes…it took us about an hour and twenty minutes to go FIVE uphill miles. No shit. 1:20. This is going to take a while to fix, and I have no idea how they’ll do it…there’s nothing there to fix…so, if your heading west, add about twenty minutes because you’ll be going downhill, which is no problem for the trucks…BUT, if your heading the other way, add between one and two hours…those damn trucks just can’t stop and start going uphill. This has been a public service announcement.

My wife and I are tied. We both puked. Me, from choking, and her, well, she gets drunk about once every three or four years, and Saturday night was one of ‘em. She was red wine puking ass drunk. I guess it was all right the HOLE added about an hour and a half to our ride…she needed the sleep. Poor Baby.