Friday, March 19, 2010
I have spent 4 days in self imposed exile inside libraries… good libraries, great libraries… finding treasures… but now it is time to escape… to go outside…
Here in Washington DC it the weather is spectacular… It is spring… a spring made better by the contrast to the hard, record breaking winter… I missed the winter, but am enjoying the spring…
The daughter has been spending time with me in DC… We ate lunch today on the patio at the Poet and Busboy… chasing Anthony Bourdain… She had to leave for Maryland early, and the kids needed care, so I continued my research alone…
Tomorrow I join her and Kellie and kids in Maryland for the day (and night) then return to Virginia for a last night before heading home…
Now Saturday…
I am up, I am showered and dressed… I am packed… and most important I have a cup of coffee…
The car is packed I’m ready to go… (oh no, we are resorting to song lyrics again) but there is a problem… the phone/GPS filed to charge overnight… The technology is failing me… My target, southern rural Maryland, is a convoluted place… and the GPS would be useful, but I have a map, (and strangely a compass) and know how to use them…
Bye, Randy
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Modern Travel and the Equine Paradox
Monday, March 15, 2010
I still like to believe that there is glamour in flying… we are leaving on the big jet airplane…
its a view which is hard to defend…Instead, we fight traffic, look for a place to pull over, jump out as the traffic cop shoes the cars away… to the check-in counter… Then security, and with it access to the sanctuary, we approach the alter… we take our shoes and coat off… we pass through the portal, always deferent to the high priests of the temple…
What ever the imagery, it is lines… frustrated people, clueless people… all working their way through lines… to the machines… load your stuff into the bins, remove shoes, jackets, bracelets, watches and jewelry… pass through the security scanners, the portal… the sound of the buzzer signals that you are unworthy… retreat back through the portal, try again… Meanwhile your belongings are being scrutinized by the priests and priestess… will yours pass tests… or will it too be sent back, to be dissected and inspected, leaving no part untouched…
I pass through the portal on my first try, apparently worthy of flight… the women ahead of me is pulled aside, isolated in her glass cage… Was she less worthy? What sin did she commit which resulted it the purgatory of the glass cage…. We fellow pilgrims take pity on her, gather her belongings and set them aside for her to reclaim, should she be released….
I, having found worthy, gather my belongings, repack the stuff, then rush towards the next test… the next portal, the gate… Here, it is not a test judged by the high priests… here it is a competition among the masses, to board, to find space for the stuff, the too much stuff we carry aboard… Into the final temple… the plane.. where we can sit and rest, until rest itself becomes an ordeal…
Of course, once again, I am flying my beloved Virgin Airlines… so once aboard I will be bathed in the cleansing red and purple lights… music at ready. But having planned sufficiently, I have time before boarding for a last beer… It’s a long night aloft… I have a cold… and beer and cold medicine have great powers to assure a pleasant sleep while flying… Tomorrow I will awake in DC… Washington DC… claim my rental car and go off on my adventure…
But first, I must drink my beer, save these words of wisdom, turn off and pack my computer and head for the gate and another line…
Now Friday, March 19th…
I have been busy, very busy… I have eaten corned beef and cabbage in the presence of people wearing green... I have haunted libraries and museums and dusty places with secrete knowledge, in search of that knowledge… I have found things I was looking for… but I have also found knowledge best forgotten… my favorite so far…
Drum roll…
“Professor George Bartholomew’s Equine Paradox”…
More later,
Randy
I still like to believe that there is glamour in flying… we are leaving on the big jet airplane…
its a view which is hard to defend…Instead, we fight traffic, look for a place to pull over, jump out as the traffic cop shoes the cars away… to the check-in counter… Then security, and with it access to the sanctuary, we approach the alter… we take our shoes and coat off… we pass through the portal, always deferent to the high priests of the temple…
What ever the imagery, it is lines… frustrated people, clueless people… all working their way through lines… to the machines… load your stuff into the bins, remove shoes, jackets, bracelets, watches and jewelry… pass through the security scanners, the portal… the sound of the buzzer signals that you are unworthy… retreat back through the portal, try again… Meanwhile your belongings are being scrutinized by the priests and priestess… will yours pass tests… or will it too be sent back, to be dissected and inspected, leaving no part untouched…
I pass through the portal on my first try, apparently worthy of flight… the women ahead of me is pulled aside, isolated in her glass cage… Was she less worthy? What sin did she commit which resulted it the purgatory of the glass cage…. We fellow pilgrims take pity on her, gather her belongings and set them aside for her to reclaim, should she be released….
I, having found worthy, gather my belongings, repack the stuff, then rush towards the next test… the next portal, the gate… Here, it is not a test judged by the high priests… here it is a competition among the masses, to board, to find space for the stuff, the too much stuff we carry aboard… Into the final temple… the plane.. where we can sit and rest, until rest itself becomes an ordeal…
Of course, once again, I am flying my beloved Virgin Airlines… so once aboard I will be bathed in the cleansing red and purple lights… music at ready. But having planned sufficiently, I have time before boarding for a last beer… It’s a long night aloft… I have a cold… and beer and cold medicine have great powers to assure a pleasant sleep while flying… Tomorrow I will awake in DC… Washington DC… claim my rental car and go off on my adventure…
But first, I must drink my beer, save these words of wisdom, turn off and pack my computer and head for the gate and another line…
Now Friday, March 19th…
I have been busy, very busy… I have eaten corned beef and cabbage in the presence of people wearing green... I have haunted libraries and museums and dusty places with secrete knowledge, in search of that knowledge… I have found things I was looking for… but I have also found knowledge best forgotten… my favorite so far…
Drum roll…
“Professor George Bartholomew’s Equine Paradox”…
More later,
Randy
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