Tomorrow is [a] Der Tag. I’m heading to Florida for Supercomputing ’06. Which means that due to my fear of having to hitchhike to Tampa, I figured yesterday evening was the last chance I had to see my honey before I come back on the 17th. So I went down for a good home-cooked meal date and attempted to display my nerdy acumen on Debbies computer. As it came time to tear myself away this morning so I could return to work, the bitter of parting was softened somewhat by the sweet of the quiet country morning. For the third time I found the drive from Mt. Pleasant to be very…. pleasant. It was dark this morning, and the heavy stormclouds showed some silvery bellies from the lights of distant towns. The air had the smell of alfalfa that I really love and everything was quiet. It felt otherworldy, as if I was drifting along impervious to everything, my headlights picking out the hills ahead of me, just islands in the inky dark.