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803 days ago
Today was one of those very satisfying days. It was also zomg long. The weather was so nice last night I cracked the window to let some of the cool air in. Sometime in the middle of the night I awoke shivering, even under big blankets. The blankets were hot, making me perspire. Then the cool air blowing across the bed froze me. I shut the door and zoned back out. 5:45am arrived too quickly. Ahmed called about 6:20 am, wondering if I needed a ride - I did. I also remembered I'd given him my room number, which relieved my immediate impression that he was psychic or a stalker. He laughingly said he'd be there around 7:10 am. One of his henchmen arrived at 7:20am and we hurtled into town. This guy, also from Nigeria, did not laugh much. But he spoke in a beautiful syllabic language (I assume Nigerian?) that made it difficult for me to distinguish words. It just sounded like a rush of inflected mumbling. Our meetings were held at the Downtown Club , which is situated in the ...
804 days ago
So I decided to take in some of the Philly night life. This is a rare thing for me to do - to go traipsing out in a foreign city, especially at night. Don't get me wrong - I'm not a scaredy-cat or anything. I mean, I make fire and cook meat; I drink beer and swear a lot. I drive an economical car and have no craft skills to speak of. It's starting to sound a little false that I'm a little resistant to new things, especially having traveled somewhere around 65,000 miles this year. But, there it is. So, my psychological shortcomings aside, I took a taxi ride 15 minutes into Old City with Ahmed (he's Nigerian, and giggles at everything he says - as if information, any information, is a private joke he finds hilarious). Ahmed gave me his cell phone so I could call him any time I wanted a taxi during my exceedingly humorous visit. Philly is the seat of American Democracy. It's where the Declaration of Independence was signed, where Betsy Ross' house is, where Ben Franklin spent a lot ...
805 days ago
Greetings... from Philadelphia! Not much exciting has happened today - just rode on a plane. Although the plane was pretty much the equivalent of a beat up old Ford. It kept creaking and groaning and swaying. I didn't see any holes in the floorboards, but the wing flaps (elevons?) vibrated alarmingly on descent. Despite take-off time assurances that we'd likely have a clear smooth ride, it was pretty "swimmy". I kept having the sensation we were fishtailing a lot, as if on ice. A couple of good lurches made everyone jump and exclaim in unison, "whoa!" I had this weird moment just as we were about to take off. We were pointed south, and I was on the left side of the plane, looking east. I saw downtown Dallas out the window and saw the building where Dawn works. I had one of those moments where you acutely sense a distance between places and then I wondered if Dawn was looking out the Bank of America building looking toward the runway where I sat (even through ...
805 days ago
Greetings travelers! In about 30 minutes I head over to the airport to get on a plane for my work trip to Philadelphia. I'm staying at the airport Sheraton Inn, but my meetings are smack down in the middle of Old City. Click on this link to see the area. You'll note I'm going to be centered in the Independence area of our country. I expect patriotism to ride to the surface in the evenings when work is done. By the time I get home I'll be a flag waving 'merican. Maybe. I've received some suggestions already for places to see, and Thursday after the meetings are over are perfect for museum wandering in particular. I'm interested in the Brandywine which has paintings of one of my inspiring artists from art school days: Andrew Wyeth. He influenced Carl Rice Embrey who was one of my art teachers at the San Antonio Art Institute. Carl used to tell me I had a good eye for framing what I wanted to draw or paint, and his lessons were useful then and still are, when I use that same ...
905 days ago
At 6.5 seconds the shuttle main engines roared to life, which we could see on the TV screens. Then, at 0 seconds, the solid rocket boosters exploded to life and the shuttle lifted off. About 6 seconds later the crowd higher up the hill started screaming wildly and we looked left. Just between the trees, perfectly centered, Atlantis rode a light as bright as the sun on top of a plume of white smoke and steam and climbed toward the blue sky. I couldn't believe how bright it was -- the TV screens I've always viewed launches from mutes this to a very large degree. It was like staring at a small sun moving steadily upward. About 20 seconds after, as the shuttle rolled and climbed over the trees, a vibration started. You could feel it in your body and in the ground - a subsonic sound that built and then you started to hear this loud crackling. It lasted a long time and built to a loud sound. Somehow two minutes went by and you could see the shuttle come out from behind ...
