I travel with 2 laptops and 2 iPads. It drives TSA into a tizzy — and so it did today.
We are now at the Delta Lounge or otherwise said ‘Golden Corral for the middle class‘.
The Utah and Idaho trip was nice. Cleansing. The mountains are always good for perspective and my memories of this area are strong. I lived out some of my finest years in this area.
The weather and sun were a nice break from the cold of Ohio. I’m no fan of cold winter weather anymore. At least not for 5 month stretches. A few weeks or even a month is enough.
We do miss little Martini when we have to leave her behind. But we will re-unite in a few hours and the pack will be back together. At least for 8 hours or so. Tomorrow morning, me and the Jungle Fox will head out for West Virginia. Brittany will come along on Thursday after work.
It seems we reach a point where we must reconcile our desires and goals against our remaining productive time. I’ve always thought I would write at least 2 more books (and maybe 5).
I want to write a history of MYO while I am able to reasonably articulate the timeline and activities from inception to present.
I also want to finish Webb, which I’ve been working on for 10 years or so. I actually envision this concept as a trilogy.
Prioritizing writing is difficult when layered against my current backlog of a real job, multiple charities, building a house, raising a dog, and trying to get a start-up tech company off the ground.
All things I’ve signed up for. So who am I complaining to?
I feel when I have time to think and write, I can produce decent work. Not great or even close to great. But not bad. But it takes a lot of time to write well. And it’s emotionally exhausting to maintain that focus for 3 or 4 hours at a stretch.
So we will see. In the larger lexicon of my life, it won’t matter if these projects get finished or not.
Brit and I met Kelly and Henry at Jim Dandy’s Brewery for a beer. One of their beers was a Russian Imperial Stout. When I asked what made it a ‘Russian’ style stout, the bartender said ‘something to do with the brewing style’. Which is what I would have guessed. But when I pressed a bit and asked ‘what specifically about the style makes it Russian’ she said she had no idea. I wonder what she thought I was asking?
We got some good quality time with Carlita and visited the College Market. Brit and I took a nice drive the long-way around to Pebble Creek and then back on the old highway. We caught up with a few of my old rugby mates. We visited the local dog shelter and met some nice dogs, but of course left sad that we could not adopt them all.
Our last day in Salt Lake City I managed to slip away for an excellent Thai lunch, and then happened in a new bookstore next door. Since I have a lifelong habit of never exiting a bookstore without having bought at least one book, I picked up a copy of ‘Cat’s Cradle’ along with a book I have not read before ‘This Other Eden’.
“People think I’m funny,” he once said, “but I’m just angry in a clever way.“
Kurt Vonnegut
In my 20’s, I became aware of and a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut. I don’t remember how I discovered him. It might have been John-Lee who introduced us. But I was in the navy and we had plenty of time to read while we were out playing sailor on the high seas. Vonnegut’s books mostly defy any kind of genre classification. Sort of science-fiction’ish but mostly human tragedy glossed over with clever humor and wit.
It will be good to re-visit some of his work. In his way, he tried to continually remind us of the absurdity of the human experience. I wonder what he would say about the era we are living through now. Of all people, he would likely be the least surprised as he seemed already to know we are a confederacy of dunces. Capable at times of grace and love and intimacy and great art and scientific brilliance, but always overshadowed and limited by the idiots among us. The fascists and war-mongers and unimaginative cowards who band together and make life difficult for the rest of us.
So it goes.
I mostly worked in the hotel lobby while Brittany was doing her consulting gig. We had some ICE agents staying there. It was unsettling to see them walking through the lobby in their SWAT gear with their arrogant swaggers. Dumbshits to a T, but as the saying goes, they don’t know they’re dumb. I really hate those bastards.
I got to know the hotel staff since I spent so much time in the lobby and they opened up to me about how hard it was to be nice to these people who are out there terrorizing people of color. Most of the hotel staff was Tongan or Fijian or Samoan. But they were careful to be nice to these devils in disguise, lest they get a complaint and lose their job.
Sunday morning, while lying in bed watching the France/Wales rugby match, I took a surprise call from Ndeshipanda. That made my day. She is in Cuba now. The Namibian Navy put her into a 4-year training program for engineering. She is now doing her Spanish language learning but in September will start her official program. It’s a great opportunity for her. And overall good life experience.
“I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.”
Malcom X
Humbly Submitted
Robert Myres – Portneuf Valley Rugby Football Club, Flanker (ret.)
The Martini Tales 