Here There and Everywhere

Every now and then, when it doesn’t matter, when I don’t have a tight connection, I take a window seat because I really love topography. I especially love flying the polar route, seeing the ice fields in Greenland and northern Canada, and I always love mountains. This flight, I have a great seat, 20F, and I love it because while it is a window seat, there are only two seats in front of us, so I can exit and enter my seat as I please, without disturbing anyone, so it is like...

From today’s AOL News/ Huffpost: So here’s the thing. In the USA, as in many countries, people study their ancestry, their bloodlines. Some people want those bloodlines to make them special, but anyone who has read history in any big-picture kind of way understands that most of history is people coming and going, waves of migration, immigration and emmigration, mostly depending on food supply, but often, too, depending on employment opportunities. Bottom line, most of it is about...

From the bone chilliing 47 degrees mid-day on my arrival, the temperatures in Seattle flew up up and up. By Sunday, the American Mother’s Day, the temperatures were up 30 something degrees, in the mid to high 70′s, and Monday and Tuesday were the same. Good thing we got most of the heavy sorting and tossing andhauling done during the beautiful, but cooler weather before the weekend. We had a lovely Mother’s Day, Mom got to sit out in the sun, under a huge umbrella, got to...

You are fifteen, poor, black, and motherless as this book opens. Dad drinks, and isn’t around much. You are the only girl in a family of brothers. Having sex is no big deal, and there is one guy you really like, Manny. Your oldest brother’s pit bull is having puppies, and you are having trouble with throwing up most of what you eat, especially every morning. Dad says a hurricane is coming, but he’s said that before, no big deal. As this book opens, it has the feel of a myth...

Thank you, John Mueller for this article from The Press: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/14/241177/iran-raps-saudi-plans-bahrain-merger/ PressTV – Iran Majlis condemns merger of KSA, Bahrain The Iranian Majlis (parliament) has condemned the Saudi proposal for merger with Bahrain, saying the ?unwise' measure will further destabilize the region and multiply its problems. The Saudi plans to annex Bahrain ?will extend the Bahraini crisis to Saudi Arabia and push the region toward...

We have a mission, and that I why I am in Seattle. My sisters and I have to clean out my Mother’s condo, now that she has moved to a very elegant new living situation, with a lot of people her own age to play with. Mom has talked about this for years, but always with concern that when it came to dividing things up among the sisters there may be some greed, or that we might come to blows over the division of the possessions she is not taking with her. She came up with a system, whereas...

When I travel, I check with Weather Underground so I will know what to pack. While I barely had time to unpack and do mammoth piles of laundry to repack for the next trip, I did have time to check the weather. Lovely weather, highs in the high 50′s and 60′s, going up to 80 on Mother’s Day this coming Sunday. So when we landed, and the pilot said “Welcome to Seattle, it is 47° out, my only possible response was “That can’t be right.” But as soon as...

AdventureMan looked at the map. We had thought we would stop somewhere in Louisiana today, spend the night, but . . . you get this close, and with just a little effort, we could be home. We could pick up the Qatari Cat. We could have dinner with our son and his wife and our sweet little grandson . . . We smile at each other, and head home. We stop for gas in Jackson, Mississippi, and find a family run BBQ nearby, where lunch is quick, and delicious, and we are back on the road in no time....

The morning drive is interesting, as we leave Interstate 40 and cut across Texas headed toward Dallas-Fort Worth. The road is fast, and cuts through cattle ranches, farms, ranches and some deserted towns. By noon, we are more than ready for a stop, and decide to try to find something in Decatur. We don’t want same-old, we want local, and AdventureMan spots Don Jose’s. Lunch was good, and you are just going to have to take my word for it because I forgot to take any photos. Don...

Every now and then pure unexpected magic happens, a blessing, pure grace. Every now and then you make a stop and all the right things happen. We had not enjoyed our breakfast the previous morning at the Far View Lodge, so we decided to get on the road early, and find a place to eat on the road. We were up and out by seven, and it took about half an hour just to get off the mesa and down to the main road. Once we hit the main road, we start looking for a good place to stop. We see a sign: ...