photography lesson

8:33 AM – I asked Jim about the pros and cons of point-and-shoot vs. SLR digital cameras, and his answer grew into a full-fledged photography lesson. He used to shoot photos for catalogs, and in order to avoid using an enlarger and losing detail, he would use a camera with 8″ x 10″ film. The shutter was operated by hand — arm, actually — a piece of cardboard that he pulled out of the camera and pushed back in to expose the film. The quintessence of old school.

McAlister’s

7:45 AM – We passed by a McAlister’s Gourmet Deli on the way back out of Grenada, MS. We ate at one in Gulfport the other day; it must be a regional chain. We’re 207 miles north of the border, with about 150 miles to go before we leave Mississippi.

The icing on the cake. The…uh…highway……cake.

We had driven 20 miles north of Grenada, MS, when we stopped to switch drivers and heard from 3 different people including a truck driver that we shouldn’t go any further north. They had all experienced glare ice and witnessed several recent accidents.

We decided to turn back.

I’m sitting at the Comfort Inn in Grenada. We’ll leave as early as possible tomorrow morning, provided I-55 is driveable.

the Nissan factory

5:34 PM – There is an enormous Nissan factory with its very own water tower (!) north of Jackson, MS, 118 miles north of the border with Louisiana.

the seat adjusts to all of these healthful positions!

4:00 PM – Dad and Jim have fallen asleep. If you haven’t guessed by now by my selection of occurences to journalize…yes, I am bored.

hold the horsey sauce, please

3:42 PM – Is there anything better than a quick lunch at Arby’s for three guys on the go? Well, ok, yes. But the food wasn’t too bad. The Market Fresh Sandwiches™ have at least a semblance of quality to them. And while I’m at it, Nike would like to remind you to Just Do It™, and Citigroup encourages you to Live Richly™.

wipe it good

2:50 PM – It’s raining heavily now.

Nice pants.

Convicts in Mississippi wear pants with wide horizontal green and white stripes. Just like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, or maybe a minty candy cane. Mmmmm, criminalicious.

I could have walked faster than this.

2:00 PM – We finally got out of the huge traffic jam in Gulfport where a road race had 3 lanes of the road blocked off. We’re crusing on Highway 59 North, 58 miles from Hattiesburg.

out like a light

1:29 PM – Jim has fallen asleep.

A light rain has started to fall. I’m reading a handout that was given to residents to explain how to get electrical service to their trailers. I see that FEMA has contracted Bechtel to install the temporary service pole and meter.

In this area, electricians aren’t even required to have a license. As long as the job will cost less than $10,000, they don’t even have to be insured. That would explain the quality (cough cough) of previous work that we’ve encountered when we’ve worked on the breaker panels.