Please tell him that the scar adds character

However the A/C has failed at the house, so he's recovering in a post-anesthesia haze in the middle of a heat wave.

It's hot, it's humid and it's redneckular. Welcome to a Tennessee summer.

I did manage to break away and get in some gym time at the Sevier County Recreational Center. It's a gym only in the loosest of definitions. After finding the non-broken elliptical machine I got a decent sweat on. I was going to try and get in a chest workout, but the lack of enough benches, adequate weights and navigating a group of surprisingly scrawny-yet-toned rednecks deterred me from getting more than just a couple sets in before I gave up. The heat, the sweat and the locals.

I was thinking about this area on the drive back up the mountain. It's like there's this beautiful geographic area. Gorgeous mountains, rambling lazy streams that are postcard-beautiful. And then all these shitty lazy bumpkins happen upon it and decide to exploit it to an astonishing extent.

And they all smoke. All of them. Everyone here smokes. A lot. All the fucking time. Everywhere. Even while having dinner. It's amazing.

About 36 hours and I'm back to sanity with acceptably healthy parents and almost 6 hours left in the weekend.

Huzzah