Run your fingers through my hair and cuddle me real tight

[austin_dern]

My humor blog this week was one full of exploration of the real me. My insecurities, my inability to understand the comic strip Compu-Toon, my relationship with Thundarr the Barbarian. You know. Here's the roster of recent articles:

• MiSTed: Altered Destiny, Part 4
• His Advice Is We All Floss Early So the Power of Compound Interest Helps
• Statistics Saturday: Places both Thundarr the Barbarian and I have been
• _Compu-Toon_ is being _Compu-Toon_ again, this time with oscilloscope monsters
• I was all set to make him listen to Camel's _Snow Goose_
• What's Going On In Alley Oop? Why did the aliens stop shooting at them? June - September 2023
• Another Moment to Help You Understand Who I Am
• MiSTed: Altered Destiny, Part 5

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Here's more of California's Great America, from our full day at it.

Grizzly's entrance leads to the roller coaster's infield and a pleasant area inside, before going to another entrance that walks you up to the launch platform, like so.

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And here's a nice view of the lift hill on the left and one of the return hills. Also someone enjoying a rest on the grass.

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Safety sign warning they have to close the restraints for you to ride. Also you can see some of the ramps leading up to the station there.

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A rare-these-days photo from me, as we ascended to the platform, catching it down low and seeing some of the gates where they're almost concentric shapes.

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And we got a walk-on! At this point we were starting to think we had come on the right day to the park after all.

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Train ready to depart. They were running both trains, which surely helped keep the wait time down.

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Safety checks before the red train takes off.

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And here's our blue train getting ready to arrive. The same model trains as at Seabreeze's Jack Rabbit and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk's Giant Dipper, too, so these were pretty much old friends by now.

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Just past the ride we could see one of the haunted house walkthroughs for Halloweekends. Cedar Point has a different school name but the same general idea.

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Fun ride! Here's the walk down from the roller coaster.

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And from the exit a look back at the station. You can see the box for stowing things opened up there.

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The exit path offers this nice view of the turnaround.

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Trivia: Mercaptans are a family of organic compounds, all foul-smelling; methyl mercaptan, with a 'chain' of a single carbon atom before its sulphur-and-hydrogen end, is the prime ingredient in bad breath. A mercaptan with a chain of 18 carbon atoms before the sulphur is used as a silver-polishing wax. Source: Molecules at an Exhibition: The Science of Everyday Life, John Emsley.

Currently Reading: Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America, Megan Kate Nelson.