Saints preserve us. Not that we’re saints, but then… if we were, wouldn’t we be preserving ourselves rather than asking others to do it for us? What’s with the look? Hey… you’ve got to think about these things when you’re an explorer, you know.

Right. Leaving matters of religion out of this (since, after all, we represent many faiths), avid readers of Big Green‘s putrid blog “Hammermill Days” will know that we have embarked upon an intrepid journey northward from the mysterious and little known island the inhabitants refer to in their obscure dialect as “manna-hat-un” and sometimes “nuu-yawk” or “nuu-yawk, gah-dammit.” (Several natives used an even more complex variant of the second term – I believe it’s pronounced, “nuu-yawk, yuhfuggin-nidiot”.) Whatever the name may be, we chose to leave this place behind, with its deep grimy canyons, overpriced lunches, and peculiar honking denizens, so northward we went, straight up fifth avenue and deep into the unknown. What sent us in this direction? Instinct mostly. And the coaxing of Marvin (my personal robot assistant), who has some kind of navigational device built into him that always makes him choose north when you ask him for directions. (He’s like a freaking compass with casters and a great big yap.)

All right, there was a better reason to head northward. The two Lincolns – posi and anti – who have plagued our existence since their arrival in this time period, jumped into a taxi and told the cab driver to take them to the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill. The cabbie seemed to know what they were talking about, and he went north, so we’re following him. Not much to go on, I will admit, but that’s what we’ve got, okay, so get off my back… JUST CLIMB OFF, DAMMIT! Ahem… forgive me. It’s the pressure, that’s all. You can’t know what it’s like unless you’ve taken on an unknown continent with no one you can rely on for support or guidance – a sojourner cut off from civilization and condemned to find his way through the wilderness in the company of some very questionable associates, one of whom is, quite frankly, a vegetable. It sickens me to think of what Magellan must have gone through… or that guy who explored the Hudson Valley…. what the hell was his name?

I would be less than honest to suggest that we are experiencing anything like the hardships faced by the early exploiters… er…explorers of the North American continent. For instance, they did not have the New York State Thruway, though if they had, they probably would have been denied access for lack of negotiable currency (I doubt Henry Hudson had an EZ-Pass tacked onto the hull of this ship). Yea, I say unto you, our fortuitous discovery of the Thruway actually made our journey home a simple matter of following the expensive ribbon of asphalt through the remote valleys of upstate New York until the right exit sign appeared. I tell you, the gods of the State Department of Transportation were smiling down upon us (quite literally, from their enormous yellow vehicles) as we made our way along this magnificent causeway (’cause way up yonder, they’re ain’t a whole lot of other good roads). I can only wonder at what might have been the source of their amusement. (Perhaps the fact that we, unlike our fellow Thruway travelers, did not have a vehicle, and we’re trailing along behind Big Zamboola like mutant ducklings.)

Such was our journey home. (And as such, it sucked.) Can you believe it’s more than six bucks to get from New York to the Hammer Mill? Jesus Christ on a bike. (No doubt, Christ on a bike could have made it home faster.)

Got your bearings straight? Well, then, where the hell are we? What’s that? The Bering Strait? How the hell did we… oh, right. You’re just repeating the last two words of every sentence that comes out of my mouth. How helpful. Stop it!

Yes, friends… that’s right. We still haven’t found our way back to the Cheney Hammer Mill, which we now presume is no longer under the control of the dreaded space alien Gizmandiar since his ignominious defeat at the pseudo-pods of the equally dreaded (though beloved by us) space alien sFshzenKlyrn . (Long story, actually. If you’ve missed the last few installments, click that Usual Rubbish link and scroll down a bit.) Anyway, we spent several salty days at sea following our splashdown in the Atlantic (or was it the Pacific… because the Atlantic isn’t so terrific, though the Pacific, I hear, is not all it’s cracked up to be…) before Marvin (my personal robot assistant) caught sight of land. It was the first we’d actually heard so much as a squeak from Marvin since his collision with the alien drink dispenser last week, and though his exclamation was a bit of a non-sequitur, it was clear that he had seen our journey’s end up ahead.

Now, those of you who have been following the exploits of Big Green over the past few months (rudderless wretches though you may be) know that we spent a fair amount of time on a remote, uncharted island just recently. Needless to say, none of us was looking forward to this landfall – I can still feel those underripe plantains scraping my palate on the way down…. uuuhhhlllllggghh… Anyway, the strange, unknown island loomed before us, filling even the hardiest amongst us with dread. It was a dark and foreboding place, seemingly lifeless, with massive palisades of sheer rock reaching to the heavens like a confinement wall around a prison. Matt ordered the man-sized tuber to row a little harder so we could get a closer look. (Tubey isn’t good at a lot of things, but rowing he knows.) I think the root vegetable may have misunderstood Matt’s instructions somewhat, since he propelled us right up onto dry land without so much as a by your leave. (Can’t get good galley help these days…)

We got out and took a look around. Was this an island? Marvin said yes, but again, he still seemed a bit addled. So we worked our way northward through the deep canyons until, exhausted from the trials of the previous few days, we stopped to rest and collect our thoughts. Marvin did a little self lubrication, while Matt, John, and I ordered a half-carafe of merlot and a basket of bruschetta to bolster us for the long and arduous journey up Fifth Avenue towards terra incognita. Anticipating our plans (which we had largely kept to ourselves), the Lincolns (posi and anti) had hailed a cab while we were enjoying our provisions and sped off towards god only knows where. How many times do I have to tell these guys? This isn’t the 19th century anymore! All of the places they knew are now something else entirely. (I can picture poor anti-Lincoln scratching his fool head over the shoe factory they built on remains of his family home.)

Anyway, it’s northward bound for us, in hopes of finding a clue as to how to get back home. I’m thinking, though, we should at least try to take credit for discovering this previously unknown island, with its awful beauty and its overpriced luncheon options. How about Greenland? Taken? Then Greensfield. Greensboro. Keep thinking… we’ve got all night.

Every man is the captain of his soul, sure. But what about every robot? And every root vegetable? I mean, how many captains can this unseaworthy scow handle, eh? Cheeez.

Ahoy, mateys! Yes, it’s your old friends in the calamitous band Big Green shouting out to you from the high seas, somewhere east (or perhaps west) of the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill in sunny upstate New York. As you may have surmised, we…. um, excuse me… Hey Matt – ask one of the Lincolns to put his finger up in the air and get a check of our wind direction. No, no – not THAT finger! Mother of pearl…. As I was beginning to say, you have probably surmised that we made it through re-entry okay. A bit touch and go, though it helps to remember that we have had much, much more experience with the terrifying phenomenon of re-entry than practically any rock band in business. (Except perhaps Captured by Robots – they’ve got us beat, for sure.)

Yes, the strange craft we borrowed from Gizmandiar lacked comprehensible controls, having been designed by a strange anemic race from a distant solar system. In point of fact, we found the retro rocket switches through the process of elimination, having activated every accessory in the bloody vehicle (including all of the vanity mirror lights… and can you believe that Gizmandiar’s ship has electric sun visors?) We hit all of the banks at once, and the resulting shock threw Marvin (my personal robot assistant) across the cabin and into what turned out to be the space alien equivalent of a water cooler (assuming, of course, Gizmandiar’s planet finds toxic sludge somehow refreshing… like the rest of us). Despite this slight mishap, our bold action did in fact slow our descent and correct our attitude to the point where we could safely re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. (Who wants to come home with a bad attitude, right? People’d just as soon you’d stayed where you were.)

Okay, enough parenthetical asides, already! (I promise.) Our saucer-like craft rocketed down through the troposphere (forgive me – or what used to be called the troposphere) and ker-plunked into a rather large, salty body of water, quite probably an ocean… but damn, I’m just not sure. We asked Marvin to use his sensor array to try and determine where the hell we had ended up, but he was still loopy from his collision with the sludge-cooler. It occurred to me that the man-sized tuber might try behaving like a divining rod in reverse and find the closest land mass, but… well… that was just a…. dumb idea… So we put together some plastic insulation sheeting and hoisted it up on a makeshift mast to catch the wind so that we would start heading somewhere. John tried to raise someone with his cell phone, but it was no use. (Bloody Verizon!)

So here we are, bobbing away on the high seas (or ocean… whatever), issuing orders to one another, none of which ever get carried out. Someone out there, just do me a favor. Bring up Mapquest or something like it and key-in “Big Green” + “lost at sea”, then let me know what comes up. There’s a good chap.