Weekly Ephemera #145

Ok...It's been a while since I last posted.  As a matter of fact, I didn't post even once in June.  This is the first time since August 2006 – when I started Homer's Travels – that I've had a month without a single post.  This is unlike me.  The reason: my third Camino.

• Since my last post, the Wife and I finished her Camino (and I finished my third).  I could have posted while I was walking, but it didn't feel like an important thing for me to do at the time.
  
  We returned from Spain on Tuesday and I am having a difficult time re-entering the real world.  I was originally going to put together posts to document each day of our walk across northern Spain, but I stopped taking notes on day two or three.  Instead, I'll be composing three posts: my impressions of the walk, photos taken by me and the Wife, and a magnets post.  I'll give one preview of my impressions: I'm very proud of the Wife.
• Speaking of being proud of the Wife, this Friday was our twenty-eighth wedding anniversary.  The Wife celebrated by having a spa day.  We didn't go out or anything, as we were/are still tired.  It takes a while for your body to recover from walking thirty-seven days straight.
• While I was walking I was still reading.  Actually, I stopped reading for the first couple of weeks of our Camino.  Not sure why I stopped, but I eventually re-started my reading, and it became an important part of my after-walk recovery.  I ended up finishing three books which I will post about eventually.
• After getting home, I started catching up on my TV watching.  It was an activity that didn't require me moving, which is the only activity I could psychologically muster.  The only notable show was "Ironheart".  I like how it became a mix of tech and magic, and I was pleasantly surprised when an infamous magical villain was introduced.  I hope there's a second season.
• I ended this last week going to a concert – more on that in a later post.

Happy Birthday Mom

This would have been my Mom's ninetieth birthday.  Based on some genealogy research and some questioning of my one-hundred-years-old Great Aunt, she probably would be turning ninety-one today but that's a whole different story.

Happy Birthday Mom!  Miss you.

P.S. We are celebrating this birthday by starting our Camino and leaving Burgos to our first stop, Rabé de las Calzadas.

The Wife's Camino - Part Two - Getting To The Start (Burgos),

The Wife's Camino is starting on a good note.  Our Lyft driver was early, our flight to Chicago and Madrid were on time, and we managed to get on an earlier bus which got us to Burgos two hours early.  On top of that the weather is over 80℉ (27℃) and while there is rain in the forecast over the next few days, it is afternoon rain which means we have plenty of time to get to where we're going before the rain starts.

I definitely didn't pack well this time.  It seems I have more stuff and not enough stuff sacks.  I also think I have a lot more weight which doesn't make since.

We are both strangely sore and stiff after getting here which I'm sure will not make tomorrow very fun.  We are walking just under 8 miles (12.8 km) which isn't too long but will surely kill us.

I hope we don't look and feel like this guy in Burgos.

After today, WIFI will be sketchy at best and cell data will be slow, if not non-existent.  Posting will be unpredictable.

Weekly Ephemera #144

• Since I will be walking close to three hundred miles starting next Friday, I decided to be lazy this week and did not walk at all.  Instead I watched eight movies including: "Knives Out", "Her", "MI 7", "The Tomorrow War", "Smile 2", "Multiverse", "The Visit", and "The Mandela Effect".  The first four were pretty good.  The last four were a mix of so-so and ok enough.
• We are slowly getting things together for the Wife's Camino later this week.  I insect-proofed our sleeping bag liners with Permethrin in case of bedbugs.  One of the Wife's ex-co-workers brought his kids over to check out our yard – they will be mowing and watering plants.  I went around locating where various things we will need are – things like dry sacks, rain jackets, my pocket knife, compact flashlights, etc.
• Not sure if I will be posting while on the Camino.  Since we are walking shorter stages this time I will have more time at the end of the day but that doesn't guarantee I will feel like writing posts.  I may post some pictures ... or not.  It will be a surprise for everyone.

The Wife's Camino – Part Two

Next week, we'll be returning to Spain to finish the Wife's Camino.  We're flying to Madrid and taking a bus from the airport to Burgos, where we left off two years ago.

To bring everyone up to speed, we started walking the Camino in May 2023.  Our original intention was to walk the entirety of the Camino.  With hindsight, I planned stages that were too long and pushed both of us too hard.  When we arrived in Burgos, we were planning to take a day off – our first after eighteen days of walking.  Along with the difficult stages we were walking, the Wife was having very painful foot issues.  When we arrived in Burgos and we were recovering from two long walking days, we decided the Wife's foot issues weren't going to get better, so we ended our attempt.  Before we even got back home, we decided to split the remaining two-thirds of the Camino into two legs: one in 2024 and another in 2025.

In 2024, just days before we were supposed to return to Burgos, my Mom's health issues led to us canceling our return to the Camino.  After some more thought, we decided we weren't getting any younger and had to try to finish the rest of the Camino this year.

Over the last two years, the Wife has worked on her foot issues.  She got a pain-relieving cream prescribed by a foot doctor.  She combined this with wider shoes.  She hopes these changes will fix the foot pain she was experiencing.

On my part, I have put together a plan with much shorter stages.  We will also take days off when necessary.  This will lengthen our Camino by quite a bit but it will also be easier on us both.  The only thing I worry about is potentially losing the social aspect of the Camino.  Our slower pace most likely won't sync up with other pilgrims.  This sort of happened during my second Camino when G_v and I walked longer stages than other pilgrims did.  It did diminish the experience somewhat.  On the other hand, this is the Wife's Camino, and a slower pace will make it more enjoyable, allowing us to linger longer at more places along the way.  In any case, it's likely the plan will change as we go, depending on how we're feeling.

We are both looking forward to returning to the Camino.

You can read about the first part of the Wife's Camino starting with this post from 17 June, 2023.

Book: Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash"

I decided to start reading some sci-fi 'classics' so for my sixth book of the year I read Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash".  The book was published in the summer of 1992.  It's a very computer/internet heavy science fiction story set in a satirical alternate future.  I had difficulty reconciling the WWII and Vietnam war references with the advanced level of technology used in the book but it still works when you accept that the book is less a narrative and more a commentary of where the real world was heading.

The book started out slow with a lot of exposition of how computers and the internet work which is understandable.  In 1992, few people understood the internet, and many weren't using computers for anything besides work.

Some of the action takes place in the Metaverse, a term first coined by Stephenson.  Despite Meta (formerly Facebook)'s trying to create the Metaverse, this part of the book has not come into existence yet.

Once all the exposition was out of the way, the book read a lot smoother.  Once I accepted this was some satirical timeline where computer tech was more advanced than ours, I started to enjoy the book a lot more.  The novel's world-building was a bit weird and took some getting used to but added a bit of humor and a lot more strangeness to the read.

I gave this book four stars out of five in Goodreads.  I have avoided classics because I often couldn't get past the outdatedness of the material but, if I get over my hangup, I will find many enjoyable books to add to my collection.

Weekly Ephemera #143

A fairly slow week  for us.

• We had a roofer back on our roof repairing/replacing a couple of turbine vents that were making squeaky noises when it was really windy – which it has been lately.
• I walked three times this week for a total of 25.5 miles (41.0 km).  On one of my walks downtown, I bought a magnet at a store specializing in Omaha/Nebraska memorabilia.

  

  Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha, in magnet form.

• I finished watching "Andor" and decided to rewatch "Rogue One" since it's pretty much Andor season 3.  Really liked Andor and Rogue One is one of my favorite Star Wars movies.
• One of the Wife's friends spent the weekend.  We ate a huge brunch, while laughing, at Louie M's before she headed back home.
• Our next trip, the completion of the Wife's Camino is approaching rapidly.  More on that later this week.

Guatemala 2025 - Magnet Edition

Better late than never, I guess.  The last set of travel magnets collected during our Guatemalan adventures earlier this year are available in the Travel Magnet tab at the top of the blog.  We purchased eighteen magnets from the trip.  They are a mixture of the nice and the cheap.  Here are a few of my favorites:

A carved wooden Jaguar mask.

A magnet that incorporates actual lava from Pacaya volcano.
(On the back it indicates it is from a 2010 eruption.)

A wooden magnet incorporating Mayan textile.

My favorite is from Orchigonia.

Several of the magnets we bought appear to be handmade which makes them special.  Others are more generic and labeled with a sharpie.  Still, they all prompt my memory and bring me a little joy.

Weekly Ephemera #142

• The Homer's Travels' week was all about the Pope.   Cardinal Prevost was on the Wife's shortlist but, like everyone else in the world, thought he was a long shot.  When he became Pope, the Wife was over the moon.  Not being religious myself, even I was moved by how happy everyone seems to be.  I wish him well.
• I planted a few plants in my corner of the backyard.  Several of the ones I've planted over the past couple of years have come back up again but I have a few holes where some didn't make it.  I'm still maybe four or five plants away from filling the space under the fir tree.  We saw a couple rabbits in the backyard so keeping my fingers crossed they will leave them alone.
• I walked three times this week totaling 26.2 miles (42.1 km).  It's starting to warm up, suggesting a hot summer is coming.  This coming week will see temps approaching 90℉ (32℃), so I will be sweating a lot, I think.
• I went to see the latest Marvel movie, "Thunderbolts".  I enjoyed it.  This movie and the last Captain America movie earlier this year have been lower-key and remind me of the earlier Marvel movies.  Sometimes you have to get back to the basics.

Great Britain 2024 - Magnet Edition

As I mentioned on Sunday, I finally photographed and uploaded the Great Britain travel magnets.  We bought forty-nine magnets on the Great Britain trip so to pick a few favorites for this post isn't easy.  I usually prefer the handmade magnets but none of the ones we saw were handmade.  Still, there are quite a few nice ones now on our new magnet display wall.

A wee beefeater.

Stonehenge.
(We must like this style as we bought four at different places.)

Wooden ones are nice too like this one for Lindisfarne Priory.

A nice city one from Stratford Upon Avon.

A Scottish Hielan Coo.

The Wrexham AFC mascot.

If you want to see all our travel magnets, click on the Travel Magnets tab under the blog header picture above.