Cold As Ice

Cold As Ice                                                                         759

Tuesday, April 12, 2005-2:45 P.M.

I'm in Duluth, Minnesota, on the shores of Lake Superior, and it's cold as hell here!  My hotel, the Voyager Lakewalk Hotel is right on the lake, and last night, the wind was howling, the building was shaking, but the room was warm.

Nothing special to report, other than my bookings in Myrtle Beach fell through.  They were double-booked, which basically means that either two people were involved in the booking process and they both filled the dates with two different comics (it happens) or the same person booked the dates, and then booked them again with a different comic (it happens) or some other third option that I can't possible imagine.  Regardless, I have those weeks off now, which actually isn't bad because I now have them open for work that may be closer to home, or if I'm unemployed completely, that's more time with my wife and baby daughter (and what's so wrong about that?).

I got off the phone with my doctor's office today, and they're upping the dosage on my thyroid medicine, as well as putting me on Glucophage, which probably has something to do with the diabetes that runs in my family.  Hooray!  More pills!  Actually, I'm not advocating pills in replacement of excercise and nutritional responsibility, but hey, if they're offering them, take 'em, I  say.

I'm not too excited about my drive home tomorrow.  It's 1100 miles by my reckoning, and part of that is going through the flypaper maze called Chicago, Illinois.  Invariably, I always catch traffic going through Chicago, but until my Toyota sprouts wings and I can fly over Lake Michigan, it's the Dan Ryan Expressway for me.

I'm looking forward to the show tonight, it's at a restaurant called The Tap Room in an entertainment complex with some stores and other bars and restaurants.  I stopped in last night to check the place out, introduce myself around and have a Jim Beam and a Diet Coke (Whiskey is a constant proof to me that God loves us...if you have one.  If you have five or more and start fighting with your knuckles, then it's the Devil's game all the way). 

An apology for yesterday's entry.  I had forgotten that Jaime Wixson was from IronWOOD, Michigan, not Iron Mountain, so forget what I said about that.  Also, a hello to my old buddy Ricky K. of OnTheRun, Florida for a quick overview of my comments about the Mackinac bridge.  He claims that the bridge is only the world's third longest because "the Japs beat us out on that one, too."  But I only intimated that it's the longest SUSPENSION bridge, not the longest bridge of all.  I think that claim may be substantiated.  Hey Ricky....Sprechen Zie "Back Child Support," hobo?

In the meantime, a very happy tomorrow to all, I'll be in the car driving for about 15 to 16 hours, so think of me as you're home sipping coffee or hot cocoa, as I'm stuck in a car, dodging deer, road debris, pissed-off truckers and the like as if I'm in a demented video game that never ends.  I'll have one day off to decompress, and then it's off to Allentown, Pennsylvania.  Road report will continue on Sunday when I get home unless something noteworthy happens along the way.

Happy Spring!

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY