Venice

EXODUS — BRUCE

It is super-hot — in Palm Springs today. After I get out of treatment at 10 a.m. it is already almost 100 degrees. I hate this kind of heat, in spite of it being dry. Maybe I hate it because it is dry, but I have never experienced a hot and humid climate. And today I am hoping to ditch the heat along with the humidity. That is if I can reach my marker today in the next twelve hours or so.

My clue from the V-WAN is to “Get some pipe for the commune boys: be home by 6:06 p.m.” . I am hoping there are chase vehicles or we are Lojacked in case we head in the completely wrong direction. But at worse, I turn around late tomorrow and come back to this dry heat. Maybe it will rain while I am away and cool things off.

“Get some pipe” sounds like a reference to the PVC, ABS, Copper, etc. pipe aisle of Home Depot. The founder should have just passed out a phrase book to us vampires so we can turn these obscure phrases into their meanings. But I guess he probably did say “Going to get some pipe at Home Depot” a dozen or more times a week given his fondness of construction and aquaponics. Lots of pipes needed for both of those. Maybe you can never have enough pipe.

“For the commune boys” was totally unintelligible to me. Maybe it was supposed to be a clue about the location. Or maybe they forgot to quote or misspell something, but that didn’t help me figure out the clue at all. It did help confirm I figured out the third (apparently redundant piece) correctly… probably.

“be home by 6:06 p.m.” is a second reference to Home Depot, and 6:06 p.m. is 1806 in military time. Home Depot store 1806 is located at “3639 E Federal Way; Boise, ID 83705”. So I am headed to Boise via the I-15. We were told to get out of California as fast

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as possible, and I-15 is also usually the faster route. I pack up and head north for Primm, Nevada where I leave California. Potentially forever.

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EXODUS — PATRICK

It is hot and sticky — in San Diego, although it is cooling down since it is late afternoon. I should finish dialysis at 6 p.m., but I am still training and the other vampire was willing to stay until the end of the shift. So they pulled the needles out of me early. I am almost ready to go it alone, but they wanted a couple more weeks to make sure the fistula was fully mature.

I don’t have very far to go today, somehow my destination appears to be Las Vegas, which is only five or six hours away depending on traffic. I should be able to get there before the casinos close.

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