More on rural WV

I was talking to my son on the phone today and he pointed out that I somehow missed relating the most funny (odd) part of our drive together through rural West Virginia in my previous blog posting - and he's right; I did! Which makes me wonder about how addled a person can get and still function. I started out telling one story and ended up on another point, having lost the original notion entirely. Good grief.

In my defense...

Well, there really isn't anything in my defense. I was an idiot. So back to the story:

As we were driving through the back roads of West Virginia, watching hillbillies watching us from their porches, we also noticed something we haven't seen anywhere else in years - those great big satellite dishes that used to be so prominent in people's yards maybe 20 years ago. (They are about 9 or 10 feet in diameter so they are pretty noticeable.) In the hills of West Virginia they are everywhere. Everyone who ever aspired to be ANYONE must have had one. And still do. Amazing. (The scene in the movie "Mars Attacks," with the middle aged couple in their trailer house reacting to the invasion of hostile aliens from Mars with a racked shotgun and a determined "Well they ain't gettin' the TV" resolve is oddly reminiscent here.)

Huge satellite dishes. In about 3 hours of driving we counted 47 of them. (Now I know Mark and Todd will correct either my count or my 'duration' but pay no mind to that. Suffice it to say there were a LOT!) They are dotting the hills of West Virginia like...

Those old mobile 'arrow' signs in the back country of Tennessee...

Or like 'adult bookstore' billboards along the Kansas interstate...

Or like Wall Drug signs in South Dakota.

I'm noticing a trend here. Everywhere we go together we seem to end up finding 'features' that strike us as odd and start us looking for patterns and repetition. And before we know it, in between lively conversation about other stuff, there we are, counting satellite dishes. (An engineer, a cognitive psychologist and a nut thrown together for a period of time in a small space will probably just naturally work up to that sort of thing.)

We need to start planning another trip.