Maximus (II)
Paramendra Bhagat
March 20, 2003

--- Topless men and women by the oceanfront in Miami Beach, displaying bodies of diverse shapes, sizes, masses and contours for the benefit of the passing oceanliners
--- One holds more cargo than maybe 500, maybe a thousand trucks
--- "Watch out for the four-wheeler in the left lane, mile marker ..."
--- Spring Break leftovers
--- USA Today has numerous pages of coverage on the first day of the war in Iraq
--- You fuel up at one end of Texas, and then you fuel up again at another
--- "There's nothing west of San Antonio"
--- Going west on Interstate 10, coming back on Interstate 40, through the spring time snow in Flagstaff, Arizona, the two casinoes in Acoma, New Mexico, caching, loop
--- The Little America Truck Stop in Flagstaff ... the place is actually carpeted, the bathrooms dry, parking plentiful and one way like at the Rest Areas
--- "Fat people are stupid"
--- "I've been called Osama before"
--- "Honey"
--- The bluest blue Pacific, the green Atlantic
--- Pasadena, just passing through
--- Before ever setting foot, or rather tire, into the state, I thought of California in terms of dot com dares, software, Hollywood and referendums
--- But it's also a major farming state
--- Chanced upon a fair in Tulare where kids in different age groups were showing off their sheep, pigs and cows in competitions, replete with referees
--- The animals walk, as does the thoughtful looking referee
--- "All the lambs on display today do our industry proud. I am impressed with their muscularity ..."
--- "This county produces more milk than any other part of the world. Used to be Wisconsin, not any more ..."
--- The valley in California, the only part of America I have seen flat like the floor, like my homevillage and hometown in south-east Nepal ... they even have tall mountains on the horizon
--- Sacramento, Janakpur
--- "I have not been to Nebraska"
--- "You will go to Nebraska"
--- An aspiring entrepreneur of a brother
--- Internet Cafes at the major chowks in Janakpur
--- A rupaiya millionaire in the making perhaps
--- Warren Buffet does not buy stocks these days ... he buys into privately held companies
--- What is the percentage return on your investments
--- What interest rate does your credit card charge
--- Are you swimming
--- Or is it a sinking feeling
--- Salt on the skin, salt in the mouth, salt on the undone bikinis, salt perhaps on the blaring sun
--- "They can track your truck down ..."
--- Satellite communication
--- Engine idling, no engine idling
--- And you feel the truck slide, it can't have been ice, must be rain water and engine oil on the pavement; you manage to stay in lane
--- Accidents happen, you see a few each day
--- Cars slide off the road every time it snows, you see it
--- Speeding tickets are given aplenty
--- Except to the biker who sped up to over a hundred in the tunnel in Baltimore
--- It is a window office, it is just that it moves at 70 miles per hour
--- Alligator meat, ostrich, bison
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