Munich to Munich

I was around ten when I began to open my eyes. I know why. My world had changed. For the first ten years, life was small. I played little league baseball for Gene’s Pony Keg. A thrill was being issued uniforms instead of t-shirts. No matter that the heavy, baggy wool pants and shirts were […]

Another Night in Bangkok

The Chinese fight attendant smiled at me and I wanted to fall in love. She was pretty and so kind it almost makes the trouble of this trip worth it. This leg of the trip is almost over and I will be in Shanghai soon. I woke up early at the Patumwan House at 6AM […]

Boys, Work and War

I never saw my father work. Well, I saw him DO some work, but never at the place called Work. He left the house at 6AM to go to work, and was rarely home before 6PM. He went to Work. What the hell does that mean? Work was a place to me. Until I was […]

Sweet Home Alabama

Bill called around 5PM or so and we left for a 4th of July party in Mobile, Alabama. We drove along the same route I used to take to get to the Dog River Marina before I sailed from Alabama to Panama, then turned left to go to a house right on the west bank […]

Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2012

For my friends who worried that I would, I did; someone stole my heart. When I leave, I will carry a heavy heart until I can come back. I will miss her, and I know she will miss me. I see her every day now. When I went into the mini-mart yesterday in Phnom Penh, […]

Ostrava, Czech Republic 2006

If you were colorblind here it would not matter. Everything is shades of gray…and cold. I got off the train in a stark station that was barely lighted and, once again, cold. Other European train stations are magnificent. Not this one in Ostrava. It was tired, with no life. The stores in the station were not […]

Ostrava to Prague, Valentines Day, 2006

I am on the train from Ostrava to Prague. It is 6:30 at night, damp and rainy. The project in Ostrava did not go as well as usual. It was frankly disappointing. The client had to keep running the equipment that we needed to test. It reminded me of the Canadian woodcutter who wanted to […]

One Day in Laos

I woke up late, around 7AM, and read the news from the Tea Party News Network and Fox News on the internet. I can see the Mekong River out the big windows. I slept with them open and could smell breakfast cooked on charcoal on the sidewalk one floor down. I drank all the in-room […]

Lilacs, Picket Fences, and Trains

Lilacs, Picket Fences and Trains Spring, 2013 This trip to Munich, I left from Mobile, Alabama. I took a light jacket. I didn’t need it when I arrived, but was only there for a short time, then to London for the weekend. It was a bit cold and grey, as the English say.David and I came back […]