Couldn't take the horniness anymore. I woke up this morning after a very sexual dream with wood so I decided to take care of it. Ah. Felt so good. Messy, but good.

This weekend is Pride Weekend in DC. Lots of things are planned and I'm sure all the men, hot or not, will be downtown celebrating their pride. Being out as long as I have been, I'm over the whole pride thing. It's turned into a rather commercial event anyway. I haven't been downtown for the pride events in probably 6 years. I think though that if I was dating someone I might enjoy it more and even go to the events. But now I just have no desire to go downtown, get in the traffic, fight for parking, or get lost in the crowds. It's just not my thing anymore. Just like not going to the bars anymore. I'm over it. I know that we as gay men should be out and show ourselves to the world but you and I both know that the news will only show the drag queens and the leather daddies. No matter how many gay men show up in business suits or stand behind banners from professional organizations, it will still be the drag queens and leather daddies who make it on the news. So for me this weekend will just be another weekend. Nothing special. But for those of you who are planning on joining the fun, have a great time!

My drive to and from work is usually uneventful. I usually drive to work in less then 15 minutes. The drive home is a little longer, 20 to 25 minutes depending on the traffic. Today it was a longer drive home. I drive on 66, which is a major highway outside of DC. I'm only on 66 for maybe 3 exits. It's usually a very short trip. Not today.

On the way home today, I merged onto 66 east with ease. I worked my way over to the far left lane. The two right lanes always back up around the exit to the beltway so the farther left you are, the less you have to sit in traffic. The traffic was moving very smoothly and rather quickly. I estimate we were all traveling between 65 and 70 miles an hour. Now the speed limit on 66 is 55 miles an hour. No one ever travels that slow unless a state trooper is around. Today was no exception. We were going with the flow of traffic. I was about 2 car lengths behind the car in front of me. I was just thinking about what I needed to do when I get home. Without warning, a RAV 4 in the middle lane, right next to the car in front of me decided to switch lanes and get into the left lane. Without looking, the RAV 4 swerved into the left lane sending the car that was currently there swerving into the shoulder lane. This car swerved back into her own lane so as not to hit the Jersey wall but then back again so as not to go into to the middle lane but did it with such abruptness that she lost control and turned her wheel the opposite way too hard and too fast and slammed into the Jersey wall. Her car slid against the Jersey wall and then slightly away from the wall and finally came to a stop. The RAV 4 that had caused this reaction didn't even know it had done so and kept driving. It was no where to be seen. Since I was directly behind the car that hit the Jersey wall, I was showered with rocks and debris.

I quickly pulled over onto the shoulder several car lengths ahead of where her car came to rest. The car behind me did the same. We both grabbed our cell phones and jumped out of our cars. I ran back to the damaged car. The two women in the car were fine. No air bags, no injuries. They were just badly shaken up. And the car didn't look all that bad for slamming into the Jersey wall so hard. Both women in the car already had their cell phones out and were calling the police, and AAA. After talking about what we saw and giving her my information, we just stood around looking at the car. We didn't say much after that. After 20 minutes or so I told the ladies that if there wasn't anything more I could do for them, I would need to get going. They assured me and the other guy who stopped that they were fine and the police were on their way. I told her I was more then willing to give a statement to the police and describe the vehicle that drove off and what caused the accident as I saw it. She said she would pass my information on to the police. I then made sure once again that they were okay and then I left. I was really shaken up by this. My legs were shaking and I was scared. I have never been in an accident of this nature (knock wood), nor have I witnessed such an event so closely. I had planned to run some errands on the way home but decided I just wanted to get home and sit down. That's what I did.

About an hour and a half later I got a call from a Virginia State Trooper. When I don't recognize the number on my caller ID, I don't pick up the phone. I let the voice mail answer it. Once I saw the light blinking, I called my voice mail and got the message. Trooper Madison of the Virginia State Police said I was a witness to an accident and she wanted to get my statement. I called her back and got the dispatcher. He said she was already on her way to another call and she'd have to call me back. I haven't heard from her at this point. I hope she calls before I go to bed or before I forget all the details of the accident. However, I don't think I'll be forgetting it anytime soon. I'm still a little shaken by it. It happened right in front of me. If I had been tail gating like I sometimes do, I would have been part of the accident, I'm sure. Scary. I think I'll drive slower from now on.

On this date in 1848, Paul Gauguin was born. He is considered one of the leading painters of the Postimpressionist period. During his career he was influenced by van Gogh, Seurat, and Degas. He worked for a short time with Vincent van Gogh. Later in his life he retreated to the South Pacific where he eventually died of a heart attack in 1904 after a bout with drug addition. Many of his paintings depict the life he lead in the South Pacific. You can see some of his work here. The painting you see here is: Madeleine Bernard. 1888. Oil on canvas. Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture, Grenoble, France.

It was Field Day at school today. It's a day where the students do different activities all day. All of the activities are sports related. Each class decorates T-shirts with some kind of design to show class unity. We decorated ours with a hand print design as you can see from the photo. Also, you can see in the photo that I'm all sweaty. I participated right along with my students. It was a lot of fun. One of the activities they were able to do was to climb the school's rock wall. I decided to take a shot at it. You can see I was doing pretty well. The wall stretches across the gym and is about 60 feet long and about 10 feet high. It's obviously not nearly as high as a regular rock wall but then again most of the students who climb it are only 3 feet tall. So anyway, I was able to go from one side all the way to the other. I had a great time doing it and didn't fall off once. Makes me want to go rock climbing! In high school I used to go out to Great Falls and climb on the rocks there until they put up fences so we couldn't do it anymore. I haven't done it in probably 20 years. I should go to the L. L. Bean store and climb their rock wall sometime. That would be fun!