i don't understand all this talk about the weather underground being radical. i've always found the weather underground to be rather mild.

i like caves. they are cool - 55º all the time. they are also cool as in fun & enjoyable. i have slept overnight in the same cave 2 different times - once with scouts and once with summer camp. sleeping in the cave is especially cool. and, cool.

with summer camp we went on the wild tour and our tour guide was seriously hugenormous. like, he probably weighed 25 stone [that's britspeak for 350 lbs which is britspeak for 159 kg]. so we would crawl through these tiny places and he would walk above us in the wide space and yell down stuff about don't be afraid he'd fall through onto us because the rocks were really strong. i am not sure that without experiencing this yourself you can fully comprehend what an assish thing this was for him to say.

one time i took mini-me and cousin racetrack to a local cave for a day tour. we really had a good time. well, i had a good time and they at least pretended to be enjoying themselves. the highlight of the day [besides the lovely cave sights] was this guy that kept like worming his way into our little group. he was old enough to be my dad and he was there with his wife, but he sort of latched onto us like creepy granddad guy. no, really. he kept acting like the kids's granddad. i wish i could find this one picture i took where the kids were standing about 10 yards away, smiling, and he is like rightthereinfront sort of leaning in from the side with this manic grin on his face. "Hey, Look At Me! Hello!" ha! he was freaking hilarious.

stalactites are on the ceiling and stalagmites are on the ground. "c" for ceiling and "g" for ground. sometimes they grow all the way together. they're formed by tiny little drips of water over the course of billions and billions of years. also found in caves: bats and blind fish. the blind fish will pretty much leave you alone, but the bats can be a little crazy and are likely to poop on you if provoked. hence the phrase: gone batshit.

anyway, here's a picture of the blind fish, for your enjoyment. i was going to do the stalactite-stalagmite picture, but those things look disgusting.