Fun in the Midwest

Ah, small, midwestern towns... how is it that there is no demand for a decent cup of coffee? This roastery is the highest rated coffee shop in this town - and it's a town with a college - and the americano (actually was just a drip coffee, the woman working here had never heard of an americano) is just like what you'd get at a Denny's. Sadly, the semi-decent coffee place in Gallipolis went out of business shortly after my last visit. Apparently something happened to one of the two investors and they had to close several of the businesses he had just started. I remember having a great conversation with the guy several years ago; he was nice and really cared about revitalizing the small town he had come from. I hope he is okay.

I just had an amusing (albeit slightly depressing) exchange with a cashier at the Lowe's nearby. She asked for my phone number when I was finishing my purchase (probably for the same, inscrutable reason all stores do these days) and asked where my area code was from. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "It's from Washington."
Her: "You came all the way from Washington to West Virginia?"
Me: "I'm here visiting family."
Her: "Yeah, that's the only reason to come here."
Me: "Oh, come on, it isn't that bad."
Her: "Yes, it is."

Ouch.

Nepal Shopping

I also stopped at Dick's and bought all of their water purification tablets, a purification bottle, bungie cords, a lightweight sleeping bag, mosquito netting, and a few other misc items for securing things to my backpack. At Lowe's, I bought another hardhat, knee pads, and more disposible breathing masks. I'm worried about bringing the masks because they are just waste and it sounds like Nepal has a really hard time with waste disposal.

I wonder if they are looking into the technology that the Swedes (or one of those other Scandinavian countries) developed to turn waste into power. I doubt Nepal has the resources to support that though. From everything I am reading and hearing, they seem to have a culture that is antithetical to organization and improvement; it'd be a long article to justify that statement and I definitely suggest you take it with a large grain of salt since I've only heard this suggested third-hand. I've yet to get a good explanation of where people think that comes from though. Is it from the religious influence? Or the sheer diversity of people? Political issues? Given that waste disposal is a problem many (most? all?) countries have, I doubt it's so easily explained.

What Matters

Yesterday I spent most of the day doing things for my grandparents. I was really glad to be able to spend so much time with them but it didn't leave me a lot of time to do Nepal prep work. Today, I have to put more time into getting ready. I need to do more language study, lay out and evaluate all of the items I want to take, find an additional bag/suitcase, start packing, and lots of other things. But it was nice to be able to cook for them (slow-roasted pork shoulder, cauliflower, and gnocchi) and plant 8 bushes in the front yard; digging in the ground here is quite a bit easier than in the Pacific Northwest actually. I hope I can get my prep work done quickly because the more time I can spend with my grandparents the better though.