Category Archives: Travel

Faith and Spirituality, Travel

Jon and the Big Picture

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Winter                              First Moon of the New Year

Jon and I went to the Yak and Yeti, a Nepalese place in Denver.  We had the buffet, talked of politics and generations, family and China.  Jon’s a bright, well-informed, guy whose political views have nuances.

He’s worried, for example, about a currency collapse if the dollar is no longer the world reserve bank note.  I haven’t followed the argument closely, but from what I know of it, it imagines a scene in which China pulls back from the dollar, suddenly giving the privileges of the reserve to some other lucky money.

Here’s my two cents.  As the world’s largest economy, it is in no one’s self interest to torpedo the US markets, especially for China.  The interlocking nature of trade reduces the likelihood of hostilities, whether fiscal or military.

Britain, bestride the world at the end of the not so long ago 19th century, made a shift of the nature Jon anticipates, falling to second rate power status.  Yet Britain and the British have survived.

We will not suffer the same fate.  At worst, and I imagine, at best, too, we will be demoted from hegemon to co-hegemon.  China and the US, perhaps eventually India, will share responsibility for word leadership.  That’s bad for America 1ster’s but good for a world that can benefit from dilution of power in any one country’s hands.

Then we got in the rental Nissan, navigated through the blinking lights of Denver, the front range at our back and went back to  Pontiac Street.

Family, Travel

Shopping in the Physical Universe Is So Last Millennium

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Winter                                       First Moon of the New Year

Off to Joann Fabrics with Ruth.  Kate and Ruth found fabric to make several dresses, some for Ruth and some for Elizabeth, her American Girl doll.  Granpop went off into the wilds of mall land, proving to himself once again that shopping in the physical universe is so last millennium.

Searching in real time for objects that can be in one of several locations takes a lot of time and, as happened to me this morning, is not always successful.  I did get a new battery for my watch…something that has to be done in the physical world since I don’t remove my own watch backs, though I could I suppose.

Finding a camera strap and a lens cap for my camera proved impossible in the amount of time I had.  Best Buy had neither one, but I did pick up some double A batteries.  The Wolf Camera, supposed to solve my remaining problem acted like the ivory pileated woodpecker.  It just wouldn’t appear.

By the time I got back to Joann Fabrics, an hour plus later, Ruth and Kate had made it to the cash register.  They paid, we hopped in the car and went to Panda Express.  Big fun all round.

Family, Travel

Zoo Interreptus

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Winter                            First Moon of the New Year

Gabe, Jen, Kate and I settled into the Nissan rental for our trip to the zoo.  We headed down the boulevarded Martin Luther King to Colorado, took a left, south, and followed the signs to the zoo, not far away, especially not far away compared to the zoo…

This entry was cut short by the call from Jen to go pick up Jon.  The zoo faded into the afternoon as Jen and I drove out Hwy 70 into the Rocky Mountains, crossed Loveland Pass and dropped down its far side to the Arapahoe Ski Area or A-Basin as skiers here call it.

The clouds had an unreal rose and gold tint and the mountains in front of them looked like a movie set.  We drove up Loveland Pass behind a gasoline tanker truck and descended in 2nd gear.

Denver traffic coming and going from the mountains during the snow months, especially on weekends, can resemble a good-old fashioned Chicago rush hour, but this particular evening the road had plenty of space.  Ruthie and I scooted home ahead of Jon and Jen.

On the way out I noticed several vehicles with Co-exist bumper stickers, a sure sign of paganism.  Made me feel good.

Kate says Jon’s head knock is a serious concussion, the kind that, if repeated, could result in brain trauma.  Nothing to play with.

Family, Travel

Family

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Winter                                      First Moon of the New Year

Got to drive into the mountains.  I hadn’t planned on it, but Jon fell today while skiing and bonked his head, didn’t feel good enough to drive home, so he called for support.  Jen and I drove out in the rental, then Jon and Jen drove back in their car and I brought Ruth home.

It had an oddly powerful effect on me, this drive.  It felt good to support family, very good, in a tangible hands on way.  Made me rethink our decision not to move out here.  A part of me wishes we could be here, be available for these kind of ordinary family incidents, a strong part.

The other part, the rooted emplaced part, says moving still makes no sense.  Selling the house in this market.  Leaving friends and health care providers behind.  Political connections.  The museums.  Our gardens, bees and the house we’ve adapted to our life.

These are difficult, no right answer dilemmas.  Wish we could be both places.  You know. They divide their life between Andover, Minnesota and the Rocky Mountains.  That sort of thing.  But, even though we have adequate funds for retirement, we don’t have enough to bi-locate.

I imagine we’ll stay where we are, not out of inertia, because it makes the most sense right now.

Family, Travel

Jon, Jen, Ruth and Gabe

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Winter                   First Moon of the New Year

Sunny and 54 here in Denver today.  Heading out to the zoo with grandson Gabe and daughter-in-law Jen.

Ruth and Jon drove into the mountains to A-basin at 5:30 this morning.  Ruth has an all day ski lesson while Jon will try to find runs not crowded with newbies.  Not much snow here so the existing runs have become clogged.

Jon moved out here ten years ago and has taken full advantage of the location.  He skis as often as he can, which means weekly at least in most cases.  He climbs mountains and skies down rugged terrain.

He’s no youngster, either, at 43. He’s stayed in good shape and manages his chronic illnesses with grace.  He has diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and addison’s disease.  Any one of these would give most folks an excuse to sit in the easy chair, but not Jon.

He’s an artist, a teacher, a father, an athlete and a home renovator. Pretty impressive.

Dogs, Family, Travel

Travel Weary

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Winter                                    First Moon of the New Year

We’re off to Denver this afternoon.  Though I want to see the grandkids and the new addition to Jon and Jen’s house, I confess I’m travel weary and not looking forward to the airplane.  Also, I’ve just begun to ease into a new rhythm, working on my three major projects, doing the short burst training and going away for a week means I’ll have to reestablish all those things when we get back.

Once we’re in the air, on the ground and tucked into our hotel room, I’ll feel different, excited to be there, I know.  But right now.  Not so much.

The dogs are away at the kennel and the house has an empty, hollow feel.  Their energy, tussle and pull, keeps three year old inquisitiveness as part of our daily life.  I like it and miss it.

Though.  When we got to the kennel yesterday, Rigel, one of our big girls, right at 100 pounds, shook off the handler who had a leash ready for her and ran away from the truck.  Straight to the door into the kennel.  She likes the place.

Talk to you later from the mile high city.

 

Faith and Spirituality, Great Work, Travel

The Frigate Bird

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Winter                                     First Moon of the New Year

The Frigate Bird

This photo comes from the series on the Panama Canal, but I connected with these birds in Rio.

Abundant all along the way these graceful animals love the liminal zone where land and ocean meet.

The Ipanema Plaza, our hotel in Rio, had 17 floors with a coffee shop, swimming pool and lounge area open to the air.  From that vantage point I watched these graceful birds sail the thermals created by the meeting of ocean air and the breezes coming off the land.  They swing up and down with casual, almost lazy movement of their wings.  Maybe once.  Twice.  Then the soaring continues.

Ipanema beach shines white in the mid-day sun and these birds flew in oval shaped patterns, watching the beach, the streets and whatever else can be seen from their height.  It was balletic, an aerial gavotte.  A composer could, I’m sure, develop a line of music from their regularity, floating up, then down, curving in a pass over the beach, then circling back, watching, always watching.

It was the purity of their line, the effortlessness of their flight, its calm, unhurried grace.  That’s what took my heart.

 

 

Media, Travel, Weather +Climate

A Puzzle

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Winter                                 First Moon of the New Year

Here’s a puzzle.  Tuesday night is trash night here in Kadlec Estates so I trundled out both the regular trash and the recycling.

The moon, at about 3/4’s full, was there, the lesser lamp, but the greater in aesthetic impact; Orion had risen in the eastern sky, now his usual upright self after his disturbing Southern Hemisphere headstand; and, there, on the western patch of lawn, the portion that abuts the driveway and goes down to the street, were regular bare patches, about 6-8 inches wide, then a much broader band of icy snow, a pattern that repeated several times as the yard slopes up toward the garage.

What could cause such regularity?  Baffles me.

Soon I’ll have several more chunks of photographs posted about the cruise at www.ancientoftrails.tumblr.com .  Going through them brought back a lot of the trip, its diverse geography, flora and fauna.  This trip will take a long time to settle in.  My eventual goal is to post my ancientrails entries in tandem with the photographs, but that may not happen for months.

Family, Travel

A Third of the World Between Sibs

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Winter(?)                                  First Moon of the New Year

Both sibs have sent photographs recently.  Mary has taken several pictures of elephants in a series placed around Singapore.  They’re part of a fund-raiser to help Southeast Asian elephants.

Mary lives within short walking distance of the Botanical Gardens of Singapore, a delightful collection of Southeast Asian plants placed on large grounds.  In fact, she used to work there when her university had its campus on the grounds.

The fund-raiser reminded me of the Charles Schultz cartoon characters St. Paul had up a few years back.

Singapore is an unusual place, a city-state like days of yore, think Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Rome, Venice.  It refers to itself as the air-conditioned nation.  Mary refers to it as Asia-lite.  I enjoyed my visit there a great deal.

Mark, on the other hand, is in a much less humid environment, Saudi Arabia.  He is in his fourth month teaching English in Ha’il, a former caravan serai on the pilgrimage route to Mecca.  It sits in the northern third of the Arabian Peninsula, near the center and has some elevation, about 3,000 feet.

He has settled in there, having taken trips into the desert three times over the last couple of months.  The first time he went dune bashing in motorized vehicles. The second time he  visited a camel breeding operation run by a student, black camels, and in his most recent foray wandered the desert where this photography was taken.

That puts me in the heart of the North American continent, Mary at the tip end of the Malaysian Peninsula, near Indonesia and Mark in the sands of storied Arabia.  That must be about a third of the way around the world to each sibling.