I'm leaving for home in about twelve hours, having achieved my three primary goals for my stay in Rapid City: to play a lot of video games, to read everything and everything, and to get out of the house often. That third one didn't go as smoothly as I had planned, but then, I didn't know this week was going to be the cold week.

While driving around town Monday night, I drove up Skyline Drive, the road cresting a sharp, sudden ridge of hills that--along with Cowboy Hill(s) to their north--neatly bisect the city from north to south, dividing the affluent, newer west side of the city and the dignified, older east. At night, I like to drive the slopes and curves of Skyline and look out at the fantastic view of the city it provides, tens of thousands of tiny lights carpeting the expanses of the plains just beyond the Black Hills. Monday night, though, the road was covered with hard-packed snow. To further my campaign of not dying a fiery death in an exploding car suddenly pitched into some jagged, hillside rocks, I decided to stop at Dinosaur Park to drink in the breathtaking view. So I parked my car, and stepped out to survey the old city, from Lakota Homes in the north all the way to Echo Ridge at the southen edge of the city. Just then, the mucus in my noze hardened, snot freezing instantly on contact with the -20° air and immediately I knew: I will still miss this place when I leave.

But I'm going back to the Grand Duchy* of Iowa tomorrow, for my sixth and perhaps last stint as a student there. It's hard to say what will happen, but it doesn't really matter. Looking at the long run, at some point I'll stop going to school and start my "real" life as an "honest" taxpayer, and I'll be able to live a grand life surrounded by beautiful women and swimming pools, just like the Grand Leader. In the long run, the particulars of what happens between now and then--college--is immaterial. I'll get out some day, with one degree, many degrees, or none, and in the long run it probably won't make much difference.

My thanks go to the economy for making my new life philosophy feasible. I hope it's not nihilism.

~

For now, I'm off to go wish one Mr. Jesse Jund a happy 21st birthday, and I would advise you to do the same. Kippis!

* I know, until now I've always said the Kingdom of Iowa, but it turns out that some time ago, Duke Vilsack had to give up absolute sovereignty to His Highness King George III in order to keep the nukes. Go figure.