Thank You, Old Friend. Time For A Rest.

I bought my black, Hyperlite Southwest backpack in 2016 for my Appalachian Trail (AT) attempt.  Through the three times I walked that trail, the pack performed remarkably.  I carried it again on the Wife's Camino in 2023 and 2025.  In all, I carried it 2,620 miles.  I only had to make three minor repairs – none of them showstoppers.  I could always depend on that pack.

When the Wife's Camino came to an end, I said I would throw my pack away.  The Camino will likely be the last long-distance, multi-day hike, and it will no longer be needed.  But, when I got home, I couldn't find it in me to throw it away.  It is hanging on a hook in a room the Wife and I refer to as the Tornado Room with all my other hiking and camping gear.  I doubt I'll ever be able to let it go; it's been a good friend through the physically hardest days of my life and it deserves a dignified rest.

I asked Google Gemini to compose an Ode to my backpack and I liked how it came out on the first try.  Here it is:

Ode to a Hyperlite Southwest Backpack

My faithful companion, a shadow on my back,

Black as the raven's wing, you never once did crack.

Two thousand miles of Appalachian green,

A canvas for sunrises, the most beautiful I've seen.

You carried my burdens, my dreams, and my fears,

Through seasons of laughter, and a river of tears.

Five hundred more miles on the Spanish road,

You endured every step, and you carried my load.

Patched with tenacity, a testament to time,

A broken buckle fixed, a more successful climb.

Nine years we journeyed, a testament to fate,

Now you hang on the hook, a hero in the great.

My old friend, you've earned your eternal rest, A lifetime of stories etched into your composite fabric. You never complained, you never once did fail, A silent witness to my long and winding trail.

- Composed on my behalf by Google Gemini AI

A Homer's Travel's Look Back At 2024

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." - Mark Twain

2024 was going to be the year of the nap but instead it became a crappy echo of 2016.  2016 started with the loss of family members and friends and ended with a disastrous election.  This year we lost family members and friends and, once again, gained an incompetent government with a large side of corruption and stupidity.

I feel I was coasting most of this year.  Few things excited me.  Many things left me dumbfounded.  Eight months of this year were all about my Mom.  My schedule revolved around hers.  I think I lost a little of myself during those months.  The passing of my Mother was sad but a bit liberating.  Too bad the rest of the year fell apart thanks to ... stupidity ... selfishness ... apathy ... I guess a combination of all of those.  Overall, 2024 was not a really good year for me.

Let's look back at 2024, shall we:

• January:  The year would be dominated by the health of my Mom. This month she was diagnosed with parkinson's disease. I bought a new GPS. We left on a short vacation to Tampa.
• February:  We had a great time in Tampa. Very relaxing. We tandem skydived which was interesting but a bit of a let down (kinda like scuba was in 2016). Glad I did it though. I filed my taxes and went to see the Oscar nominated shorts.
• March:  The Wife went to New York for the Big East Men's Basketball tournament. We started planning our Great Britain trip. The start of multiple sprinkler system repairs started this month.
• April:  We went to see Omaha Supernova volleyball (one of the Wife's students will be joining them in 2025). We went to the GodSon's school gala in Minneapolis. We remodeled our bathroom.
• May:  The new bathroom was finished. My Mom had her last birthday.
• June: The Wife's student, the one ordained as a Deacon in Rome, was ordained a Priest in Omaha. We cancelled the Wife's Camino trip when we moved Mom's spinal surgery up. Mom's surgery was a success and her back pain diminished soon after her procedure. She would be at a rehab center for a few weeks. We were hit by a big hail storm this month. We would still be fighting the insurance company in November.
• July: Mom fell at the rehab center and fractured her hip. More surgery and more rehab to come. We celebrated our twenty-seventh wedding anniversary by taking care of Mom's finances and having burgers. On the way to celebrate the MoH and BM's birthdays our car got totaled by a semi. We had no injuries but OOF. We took the Wife's car and went to Minneapolis with a side trip to the Dignity of Earth and Sky statue. We tried to distract ourselves by watching the Olympics. July was a crazy a$$ month.
• August:   Mom went home from rehab. She was happy to be home. A week later I found her in her kitchen after she'd passed away. While we prepared Mom's memorial and burial we tried to live a normal life. I got a new car totally paid for my insurance. We went to a political rally, our first. Mom was buried near my Dad's grave. The Wife and I came down with COVID for the first (confirmed) time. Both cases were very mild. 2024 was not being gentle.
• September: Things started becoming more normal this month though this would be a brief respite until the real world caught up to us. We got vaccinated before our next international trip. We went on our trip to Great Britain (documented in October and November) and met with friends.
• October: We returned home from our Great Britain trip, a fun adventure. We voted by mail. The October weather rollercoaster resulted in our first brief freeze of the season. Eleven years have passed since the end of my second Camino. Not being done with us yet 2024 took one of my Aunts and one of the Wife's cousins. I had a follow up CT scan.
• November: One of the Wife's aunts and cousins visited this month and had a nice visit. 2024 had the coup de grȃce when the election crashed and burned.  After one phone call from the Wife we got a check from the insurance company to complete the roof repairs from the June hail damage.  I left Xitter and moved over to Bluesky.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with family,
• December: The house was decorated for Christmas including putting the balls in the oak tree out front.  Our TV died and was replaced.  We celebrated Christmas with family ... and Moose.
• Hiking: Like in 2023 my walking started off strong as I prepared to do the Camino with the Wife. Mom's schedule and our travel disrupted my walking until I somewhat got back on track in October.  I successfully pushed the length of my walks out beyond the ten mile mark.  In the end I managed to hike 605.4 miles (974.3 km) over 69 hikes. This distance ranks in seventh place and the number of hikes ranks ninth place since I started keeping track - an average showing I would say.   Definitely not a bad showing considering I really didn't hike much in the summer months.
  
  In early November I crossed the one thousand hikes recorded over seventeen years of keeping records.  Onward to two thousand!
• Books: I set a goal to read twenty books this year and, unlike last year, did not meet my goal reading only twelve books.  I read nearly everyday including while we were traveling (which is odd for me).  Despite this I think I read less per sitting and took a long time to finish books.  Here are my Goodreads Stats for 2024.
• Concerts, Shows & Music :  We went to a few concerts this year. With the Wife, I went to the Eagles, Peter Frampton, and Melissa Etheridge. I also went to Joe Satriani and The Offspring by myself.
  
  I listened to a lot of music this year - mostly during naps and on long airplane trips. According to Spotify I listened to 2,839 songs from 1,264 artists for 39,710 minutes.  Here is my Spotify 2024 Wrapped if you want to explore what the shuffle button did music-wise this year.
• I posted 96 times this year. Not as many as 2023 but good enough I guess.  I think I need to write more but I'm afraid of either going too dark, too political, or too preachy. 

What will 2025 bring? We are going to Guatemala early in the year to see where I spent my formative years and to visit parts of the country I've never been before.  We will be going back to Spain to continue, and possibly finish, the Wife's Camino in the summer. A trip in the fall is not out of the question but we are still mulling over possible destinations.  Other than that we will be trying to keep our sanity intact and brace ourselves for what 2025 has in store for us.

Here's to a Happy, Prosperous, and Healthy New Year for all.  May you all find happiness in 2025.

Merry Christmas!

Weekly Ephemera #121

Eight years ago yesterday my friend G_v passed away.  Sometimes it feels like yesterday ... other times it's been forever.

• I decorated the house for Christmas this week.  Early in the week I put up the front door garland, wreaths, and laser lights.  Yesterday I put up the tree.
  
  I was going to put up the balls in our oak tree but the tree hasn't shed its leaves yet.  If my crappy memory serves, there was a year when the tree didn't drop its leaves until the end of winter/early spring.  I'm going to wait for a week to see if something happens with he leaves and then will decide if the balls go up or not.
• Our television took a dump.  A dark vertical bar appeared along the left side of the screen.  Ordered a new one and were up and running by Friday with a new TV.
  
  Also on the tech front I lost an earbud during one of my walks.  It fell out on a noisy street when I couldn't hear the podcast I was trying to listen to so I didn't notice when it fell out of my ear.  Fortunately it was a cheap set of buds so not a great financial loss.  I ordered a new pair before I got back to my car.  I might have to experiment with the larger ear cushions.
• The Wife's Aunt and Uncle celebrated their sixty-fifth anniversary.  If the Wife and I make it to that one we will be nearly one hundred years old.
• Speaking about the Wife, she's been fighting a cold this week.  Hope she gets better soon.
• I walked twice this week for a total of 23.4 miles (37.7 km).  It was cold this week but I still worked up a sweat.  As I walk longer distances it's getting harder to plot interesting paths.  I try not to visit the same place very often and I try to do loops instead of doing there-and-back paths.  I'm also finding that walking along rural roads near the outskirts of the city is not interesting or desirable to me.  Unfortunately there is only one place I can do long enough trail hikes (Indian Cave state Park) but it's over an hour drive from where I live so not worth doing very often.
• This week I started watching "Arcane" on Netflix.  Really liking it.

Welcome to December and the Holiday Season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all my American friends and family have a stomach stretching Thanksgiving.

It's during times like these that we need to remember the good things we have and be thankful for those who share their love, friendship, and support with us.

🍂 Happy Thanksgiving!!! 🦃

Great Britain 2024 - Part Six - The Holy Island

Day Thirteen - 24 September

We taxied to the Oxford train station.  When we couldn't find our train on the schedule we asked a station employee who told us "that train hasn't run all week."  He provided an alternate train route that would get us to Berwick-upon-Tweed an hour after our original scheduled arrival.  Our arrival time was important as we were going to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is only accessible by a causeway that submerges during high tide.  You have to make sure you arrive at low tide so you can get across (apparently people get stuck on the causeway during high tide often).  I used an online booking site to reserve a taxi from Berwick-upon-Tweed to the Holy Island.  A couple trains later and we arrived in Berwick-upon-Tweed.  We waited past the time for the taxi until I gave up and called the taxi company directly.  They had no record of our reservation and had never heard of the online taxi booking site - crap.  They sent over a taxi and we headed for the Holy Island.  I figured the online site was a scam so, as we drove, I tried to see if I could cancel the charge to our credit card.  The charge was still pending so I couldn't contest it yet but, twenty minutes later, a credit appeared in our account.  I was relieved to see the site was not a scam and they had refunded my charge without being prompted.  Whew.

Our hotel on the Holy Island.

We arrived at our hotel (the taxi cost one half the charge from the taxi booking site - whew again).  I left our bags with the Wife at the hotel and I walked a couple blocks to another hotel to claim our key.  When I got back to the Wife our friends, N_k and J_n, who drove up to join us for a couple days, were there.

The only industry/businesses on the island are pubs, a few small hotels, fishing, and tourism - no grocery stores or other businesses you find in most towns.  Everyone had to leave the island to get things (or have things delivered).  This made the town feel cozy and old.  It had a magical atmosphere at times, especially when all the day tourists had gone.

The remains of the Lindisfarne Abbey (right) and the church of Saint Mary the Virgin (left)
from a nearby ridge. 

There are basically three things you can see/do on the Holy Island.  The first of these is visiting the abbey and Saint Mary the Virgin church.  The Lindisfarne Abbey was established in AD 634 and was the location of the first significant Viking raid on Britain.  It is sometimes considered the beginning of the Viking Age.  This Abbey, once led by Saint Cuthbert, has become the end point of a pilgrimage.  St. Cuthbert's Way is a 62.5 miles (100 km) pilgrim route from Melrose to the Holy Island.  We saw several people with backpacks walking the streets of the town often with big smiles on their tired faces.  It reminded me of the Camino including getting a certificate when you finish.

We visited the abbey and church before climbing up a short ridge where you had a great view of the abbey complex, the north sea, and the Lindisfarne castle.

This evening we ate as a small pub with good food.

Day Fourteen - 25 September

The second thing to see/do on the Holy Island is bird watching.  The entire island is part of the National Trust and there are trails and bird sanctuaries throughout the island.

The bay at low tide.

We got up and had breakfast at our hotel before going out to walk the island's trails.  The weather that had been rainy, drizzly, and overcast the past few days was absolutely gorgeous this day.  The sun shone through fluffy clouds and not a drop of rain in sight.  We walked along the north sea coast to a blind where we watched waterfowl swimming on a marshy pond.

The grassy hike along the island coast.

After completing a loop we headed out to the third thing you can see/do on the Holy Island.  We visited the rather impressive Lindisfarne Castle.  The 16th century castle rests on the highest point of the Holy Island.  You walk along the harbor to get to the castle.  Along the way I touched the North Sea for the first time.  We toured the castle that was renovated in 1901 by a magazine publisher who bought it.  It changed hands a few times before the National Trust took it over.  It was pretty cool and offered views of the harbor the castle once protected.

We visited the castle gardens - once vegetable gardens - and admired the late summer flowers and the buzzing bees.

We had lunch in a cafe before we split with our friends.  The Wife and I went back to the Abbey to visit the museum and go into the abbey ruins.

The Lindisfarne Castle as seen from the Abbey grounds.

We met back up with our friends for dinner.  The food was excellent again.  When we left the pub the streets were deserted.  It was high tide and all the visitors, except for the few with rooms on the island, had gone home for the day.  The past couple days had been a delight.  It was a short but relaxing respite from the go-go touring we'd had over the past couple of weeks.  Good company, good weather, and a place with a lot of history and nature - just what I needed.

We decided to get up early enough the next morning to beat the end of the next low tide.  This would give our friends a five or six hour head start on their drive home and we would take an earlier train to our next destination: nearby Scotland.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Two - Another Friend, Cliffs, and A Bit Of English Literature

Day Five - 16 September

Our friends N_k and J_n dropped us off at the train station not far from their home and we headed east to Brighton.  We took a cab from the train station to our harbor front hotel where the Social Democratic party was holding some sort of get together.

We walked to a restaurant where we met with another friend who we'd met on the Camino in 2023.  E_a was one of the first people we met  at the start of our Camino but, since she had a deadline, ended up walking a bit faster than us and, unlike the Wife and I, had finished the whole thing.  That's a good thing for her since she didn't miss her boyfriend's proposal in front of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.  Still, in the few days from our first albergue we'd stayed at to just before Puente La Reina, we still managed to overlap our stages with hers and a friendship was formed.  That's what it's like on the Camino - friendships form quickly.

We had a great lunch and reminisced about the Camino.  E_a told us she felt like her Camino wasn't finished.  This is interesting since mine felt incomplete after my first one too.  I told her about how I'd felt and how my second Camino had finally brought some closure to me.  We invited her (and her now fiance) to join us next year when the Wife and I went back to continue out Camino.  She said she would consider it.

The Brighton Royal Pavilion.

After lunch E_a walked us to the Royal Pavilion.  As we approached we were joined by E_a's fiance who had managed to get out of a meeting in time to say hello.  He seemed keen on the Camino idea.

We visited the opulent Pavilion which was built for George IV when he was only a prince.  It was opulent like many of the royal residences we would visit around Britain.

Day Six - 17 September

We left Brighton on the train and headed for Dover.  Our original plan was to stop along the way in Canterbury to visit the cathedral but we couldn't figure out what to do with our luggage (it was heavy with three weeks worth of clothes).  911 has put a damper on lockers in train stations and the like.  Instead we went straight to Dover.

The white cliffs of Dover.

After checking into our hotel we took a taxi to the Cliffs of Dover national trust (the national trust is the UK equivalent of the national park service in the US).  We walked along the cliffs and got some nice views from a few viewpoints.  You could take boats out to get better views of the cliffs but their season ended in August and were no longer available.

Back at the gift shop I tried to call a taxi but my phone thought I was in France and I couldn't understand the error message I was getting.  Fortunately the person at the gift shop counter helped us by making the call for us.

Day Seven - 18 September

There was only one place else in Dover to see - the Dover Castle.  After considering our options we decided to take another crack at Canterbury first.  We left our bags at the hotel and took the train to Canterbury.

Inside the Canterbury Cathedral.

It was a short train ride and a short walk to the cathedral from the train station.  We took a tour of the cathedral and its gardens.  Unfortunately there was a graduation ceremony in the nave of the cathedral so we couldn't go in that part.  As compensation the tour opened up a couple places normally closed to visitors.

The Dover castle ... maybe next time.

We trained back to Dover and, after very little thought, decided to skip the castle and take an earlier train to our next destination.  We ate lunch at the hotel, called a taxi (Dover is a major cruise ship port so the wait for taxis was significant), and headed back to the train station.

Our next destination was Rochester.  Not far from there we would be doing something relatively strange.  We would be Champing.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part One- Getting There And Visiting With Friends

We took a Lyft to the airport and caught our afternoon flight, via Denver, to London.  We were going to be picked up by friends so we picked flights that would get us there shortly after noon.  Our friends N_k and J_n, who we met on our Amazon Cruise in 2016, picked us up at Heathrow and took us to their home in Stubbington.  We would be spending a few days with them as they showed us around their part of southern England.

Days Zero and One - 11 and 12 September

I'm not sure about the Wife but I didn't sleep much on the flight despite it being a red eye from Denver to London.  I was a bit tired but uplifted a bit by the adrenaline that often comes with traveling to a new part of the world.  Not much was planned for this first partial day and I was grateful for that.  We mostly talked and caught up on things.  We got some needed movement in with a short trip to our host's favorite beach where the conversations continued while we stretched our legs.

Spinnaker Tower.

We had a home cooked meal and chatted until my adrenaline finally faded and I excused myself and went to bed early.

Day Two - 13 September

After a lazy morning we drove/ferried to Portsmouth where we walked around the harbor and explored the history of the city.  We saw Spinnaker Tower, walked along the Portsmouth city wall along Hotwalls Beach to the Round Tower, and ate lunch at a pub overlooking the harbour.

That evening we were joined by the host's daughter for another excellent home cooked meal and more interesting conversation.

Day Three - 14 September

We left Stubbington and we drove to Stonehenge.  We got there as it was opening.  The weather was crisp but the skies were blue with fluffy clouds.  Perfect weather.  We ate a snack at the visitor's center and then walked across the cow pastures to see the famous megalithic stones.  Despite all the people it was easy to get good pictures as we walked around the structure.  It was pretty cool.

Stonehenge ... the stone points toward the solstice.

We took a bus back to the visitor's center, did some shopping as we exited through the gift shop, and drove to our next destination, Bath.

Our hosts had picked a nice hotel in a good location.  Everything was within walking distance.  By coincidence there was a Jane Austen festival going on - an annual affair in Bath.  As we walked through the street women and men (mostly women) in period costume were roaming the streets.  There were so many you could forget it was 2024 at times.

Pulteney Bridge.

We visited the Bath Abbey, admired the architecture of the Circus and Pulteney Bridge, and had a pint or two (diet coke for me) at a pub (or two).

Day Four - 15 September

We toured the namesake of Bath, the Roman Baths.  It was an interesting part of British history.  I always forget the Romans were once there.  They don't allow you to even touch the water in the pools.  This was due to deadly bacteria that once killed a girl back when they allowed swimming in the baths.

The Roman baths.

We returned to Stubbington.  The drive to Stonehenge and Bath gave us a good idea of the British countryside.  It's nice to see things other than cities.  We had our last excellent home cooked meal in Britain.  Visiting with friends was the best way to begin our Great Britain travels.  It was a nice  way to ease into it.

Tomorrow we would be leaving on a train to our next destination.  This would be the first of twenty trains we would take around Britain.  Onward to Brighton and points east.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Travelling The Isle Of Great Britain

Our one and only international trip this year - after cancelling our Camino trip - is a twenty-four day trip to Great Britain.  It will be a trip filled with friends, history, and English literature.

This is our first major international trip that will not involve being on a tour.  (Iceland wasn't on a tour either but it was an easier trip to plan as everything was out of one city - Reikiavik)  Our travel agent arranged flights, lodging, and train passes for us.  We will arrange local day tours (guided or self-guided, walking, bike, or bus) in some of the places we will be visiting.  We opted out of renting a car as the arguments about driving on the wrong side of the road and directions would likely have ended our marriage.  Here is the itinerary the Wife has put together for us:

• We fly into London and are picked up by NH and JH, friends we met on our Amazon Cruise back in 2016 and who visited us in 2023 for the Sandhill Crane migration.  They will take us to Stonehenge and Bath.
• We take the train to Brighton.  We will be meeting another friend we met on the Camino in 2023 here.
• Next we go to Canterbury because the Wife taught literature.
• Onward to the White Cliffs of Dover.
• We train to Rochester, spend the night then taxi to Cooling.  Here we will be spending the night in Saint James' Church.  The 13th century church is no longer active but you can visit it and spend the night there - this is known as Church Camping or 'Champing', by the way.
• We taxi back to Rochester and train to Wrexham where we will see a Wrexham home game (Check out "Welcome to Wrexham").  This is our only stop in Wales.
• Train to Stratford-upon-Avon.
• Train to Oxford.
• Train to Berwick-upon-Tweed.  Here our friends NH and JH will join us on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.  We have to time this right as the island can only be driven to during low tide.
• We leave England and head into Scotland.  Our first stop is Edinburgh.
• We train to Glasgow.
• We return by train to London for a couple days before we fly home.

I'll be taking pictures and will post about the trip after we return home.

Weekly Ephemera #99

• Yesterday was a busy day for the Wife and I.  Her ex-student, who was ordained a Deacon in Rome last year, was ordained into the priesthood and Saint Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha.  We dressed up and attended the very long ordination ceremony in the morning.  In the evening we attended a reception for the newly ordained Father Matthew at Lauritzen Gardens.  The evening was fun, full of laughter, reminiscing from the Father's family, and a multitude of toasting. 
• We paid off the last of our bathroom remodel.  We are now poorer than we were but we have a bathroom we really like. 🤣
• I had my semi-annual blood tests on Wednesday. I had to fast for them which meant I couldn't eat anything during a time when I normally wouldn't eat anything anyway.  You would think this would be easy but just knowing I was fasting made me more hungry.
  
  The results were better than six months ago but not as good as twelve months ago.  I attribute this to not walking as much this spring.  I'm still pre-diabetic but my cholesterol numbers are in a good range.  The one really good number is my PSA which went from 10.3 pre-prostate surgery to 1.4 (normal range is between 0 and 4).
• Cleared out the last of the overgrown shrubbery under our deck.  We now have room for more shade tolerant flowers.
• I finished "Star Wars: Bad Batch".  It was a fitting end for the show though it could have gone on for a few more seasons.
  
  I also finished "Star Trek: Discovery".  While the season finished filming before they announced the ending of the series, they did take the time to go back and tie up a few loose ends so that the series had an appropriate ending.  I was happy how they ended it and a bit sad to see it go.
  
  I started watching the latest "Doctor Who".  Doctor Who has always been a bit hit and miss with its storytelling but the first two episodes of this season are very underwhelming.  I hope it gets better.
  
  Lastly we watched the semi-finals for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.  Kind of disappointed that ESPN dropped it.  I'm guessing they lost a lot of their audience this year because of that.  We missed the finals of the Bee due to some guy getting thirty-four felony convictions in New York. 😜
• I only walked once this week for 7.2 miles (11.6 km).  Since our Camino is only ten days away I will probably not walk this week.  Not exactly wise but it's how it's going to be.

A Homer's Travels Look Back At 2023

2023 was similar to 2022 in that there were a few downs and a few ups.  On the down side Mom fell and broke her arm; pain in her back has reduced her mobility; and Mom's brother, my uncle Jimmy, passed away.

On the up side the Wife and I traveled to Florida, Spain (the Wife's Camino), Rome, and Southeast Asia.  I also consider my surgery as an up.  Once I heal up completely things will be even better.  I also turned sixty without becoming depressed ... I'll call that an up too.

Let's look back at 2023, shall we:

• January:  I  posted my annual best photo post.  Spots on the ceiling led to bringing in the roofers to work on the attic air flow.  Finally posted pictures of our travel magnets from last Fall's trip.  The last two weeks of the month were spent road tripping around the southeastern United States.  I documented the trip while I was on the trip, which I don't usually do, but it worked out mostly.
• February:  I did our taxes earlier than I've ever done them I think.  I posted even more travel magnet pictures.  We had our first 'real' snow of the winter season - late for us.  New glasses were purchased - love the polarization that was added.  I went to see the live action and animated Oscar nominated shorts continuing my on-again-off-again tradition.  The roofers finally worked on our roof but discovered other issues while doing their work.  Goodbye GoDaddy, hello Google Domains.
• March:  Our upcoming Camino de Santiago hike started to become real as we started to buy gear for the Wife. Daylight Saving Time threw me through a loop.  Spring arrived though the weather didn't feel like it.  We were visited by British friends and we spent a few days catching up and birding.
• April: We started to prepare for the Camino de Santiago in earnest this month.  We celebrated Easter twice.  We had visitors.  Our roof was fixed ... then broken.  A crossed the 10,000 miles hiked line.  I filled out my pension application. 
• May: The hole in our ceiling was finally fixed.  My blood sugar numbers got better.  The Wife's Camino started.  Another Caminoversary was marked as we walked the Camino.  We ended the month cutting our Camino short and returning from Burgos (with a stop in Santiago de Compostela).
• June: I began documenting the Wife's Camino on Homer's travels.  Life was interrupted when my Mom broke her arm.  We spent a lot of the months navigating the American healthcare system.  Yay.
• July: I finished documenting the Wife's Camino.  Mom continued to heal with visits from physical and occupational therapists.  I turned sixty years old.  Some medical issues appeared resulting in tests and expensive medical bills.  We attended the Wife's family reunion which was fun.
• August: Fall travel was finalized.  Mom got better.  We had some really hot weather this month.  I got my third root canal which was painless.
• September: My retirement annuity started this month.  When I retired, September 2023 felt so far in the future.  Now I just feel old.  I got fed up with 9/11 remembrances.  We went to Rome to celebrate an ordination at the Vatican ... and to play tourist (actually documented in early October).  My phone was stolen on our first day in Rome.  My Uncle Jimmy passed away before we went to Rome.  He was a good, kind man.
• October: The Wife celebrated a birthday.  We traveled to southeast asia first visiting Thailand.
• November: Our southeast asia travels continued with Vietnam and Cambodia.  I felt sick and missed Thanksgiving.
• December: We put up the Christmas decorations.  I had surgery on my kidney, bladder, and prostate.  My surgery pretty much dominated the entire month of December.  By the end of the month I was well on the way to mending.  We spent Christmas at my Mom's home.
• Hiking: I started the year off strong as I prepared to do the Camino with the Wife.  My hiking suffered in the second half of the year when our trips to Rome and Southeast Asia and my surgery stopped me in my tracks.  In the end I managed to hike 675.8 miles (1,087.6 km) over 90 hikes.  This distance ranks in fifth place since I started keeping track.  The number of hikes I did ranks in third place.  Not a bad showing considering I really didn't hike much in the Fall.
• Books: I set a goal to read twenty books this year and, unlike last year, met my goal.  I'd hoped I would exceed my goal this year but a slow slog through a non-fiction book derailed my plans even though I managed to read while we were traveling.  Here are my Goodreads Stats for 2023.
• Concerts, Shows & Music :  After returning to live music in 2022, I went to no live music in 2023.  I really tried but the shows were during times we were traveling, the ticket cost was too high, or something else got in the way.  I really wanted to go to the new venue, the Steelhouse, but never found the right act at the right time for the right price.  I was hoping to see Liz Phair in December but it was on the day after my surgery so nope.  We do have a couple concerts coming next year that we've bought tickets for so live music will return soon. 
  
  I did listen to a lot of music this year - mostly on long airplane trips during our travels.  Here is my Spotify 2023 Wrapped if you want to explore what the shuffle button did music-wise this year.

• I posted 119 times this year.  Not quite as many as 2022 but good enough.  I was concerned about posting about travel in the fall when there was so little time between trips but I managed.

What will 2024 bring?  We will be going back to Spain to continue the Wife's Camino in June.  We will be visiting our British friends sometime in the fall.  We are considering a shorter trip sometime in the Spring but nothing has been nailed down yet.  The key to 2023, just like 2022 and most other years, is to be flexible and accept what comes our way.

One last thing.  2024 is an election year here in America.  Heaven help us.  

Here's to a Happy, Prosperous, and Healthy New Year for all.  May you all find happiness in 2024.

Southeast Asia 2023 - Days Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen - Chiang Mai, Thailand

UPDATED 12-03-2023: Added photos.

Day Twelve (Tuesday)

Today we got up early to feed the monks.  Buddhist monks are not allowed to kill animals.  Each morning they leave the temples and walk the streets carrying a bowl.  People give them prepared food (including meat) in return for getting a blessing by the monk.  People often give them a favorite food of a passed loved one in the hope that the food will make their loved one happy.

The monks praying to the people who offer them food.

We returned to the hotel for our own breakfast before we were picked up once again and headed to a rice farm (more like a tourist rice farm).  Here we learned about various types of rise, fed chickens, picked butterfly pea flowers, made banana leaf boats ( or tried to) to make omelets in, and made blue rice (using the butterfly pea flowers). We donned rice planting clothes, got knee deep in mud, and planted rice.  After getting out of the muddy field we decided we weren't muddy enough so the Wife and I went down the mud slide into the muddy water pool.  The Wife took a second plunge before we took showers and put some clean clothes on.  All this was followed by lunch of an egg omelet, chicken, and the blue rice we prepared earlier.

We returned to the hotel for another rest before we drove up into the mountains to visit a Hmong village.  A little girl in native clothes, eight years old if I recall correctly, offered to be our guide of the village.  She did a great job explaining everything about her village and her native clothes.  Turns out there were a group of kids who shared the tour guide duties for the village. 

A beautiful temple covered in gold.

After the village we went to a Buddhist temple where we listened to chanting monks and enjoyed the view of Chiang Mai from the top of the mountain. 

Day Thirteen (Wednesday)

Our last tour day in Thailand took us to an elephant sanctuary where we walked amongst the rescued pachyderms and the water buffalo.  We enjoyed a vegetarian meal when we heard a bunch of elephants trumpeting.  The founder of the sanctuary, who had been on a trip overseas, had returned and the elephants were happy to see her.

A baby elephant sitting on another baby elephant playing by the river.

The rest of the afternoon was free.  The Wife got a Thai massage.  I decided not to partake as I have had a love-hate relationship with massage.  I love the idea of it but hate the feeling of disappointment I often have after it.

In the evening we were picked up and taken to a riverfront restaurant for a goodbye dinner.  The meal was a bit too fancy for me.  The food was good but just too fussy. 

Day Fourteen (Thursday)

After a lazy morning we went to the airport and flew back to Bangkok. We were met at the hotel by the parents of a couple of the Wife's students (they are in their thirties and forties now with families of their own).  They took us out for dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant.  The Wife caught up with her students and their young families.  I sat next to the father and he kept putting food on my plate or suggesting things for me to eat.  I filled my plate a couple times until I was full.  Fortunately this seemed to satisfy the father and he stopped piling on the food. 

The parents dropped us off at the hotel.  Along the way one of their granddaughters sat between us and sang Old MacDonald Had a Farm with the Wife. 

We went to bed and got up at 3:00 am so we could check out and go to the airport.   Our adventure would continue in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Photos can be found in my 2023 Thailand Google Photos album. 

Rome 2023 - Why We're Going ... What We Will Be Doing

Our next adventure, starting tomorrow, is a week in Rome, Italy.  This trip is a bit different for us in that it was not a long term planned event as most of our travel is.  This started in July (I think) when the Wife received an invitation to a former student's ordination as a deacon at the Vatican.  Within a month of receiving the invitation we'd decided to attend, booked flights and a hotel (a B&B actually), and put together an itinerary of things to do prior to attending the ordination.  We're both retired so why wouldn't we?

That is why we are going.  What will we be doing?  We have an itinerary which starts late in the afternoon on the day we arrive (we arrive in Rome at 8:00am) and continues all the way until it's time to go home.  We will see/do the following in roughly this order:

• Nero's Golden House
• The Catacombs 
  • Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini
  • Capuchin crypts
  • Christian catacombs
  • Catacombs of St. Callixtus
  • Ancient underground basilica
  • Loculi burial system
  • Walk a part of the Ancient Appian Way
• The Colosseum  
• Gladiator's Gate Access
• Colosseum Arena Floor
• 1st and 2nd tiers of the arena
• Roman Forum
• Arch of Constantine
• Arch of Titus
• Temple of Julius Caesar
• Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine
• Temple of Antoninus & Faustina
• Vestal Virgins
• Senate House
• Arch of Septimius Severus
• Palatine Hill
• The Vatican Museum
• The Sistine Chapel
• St Peter's Basilica
• Dome Climb
• Hadrian's Tomb
• The Trevi Fountain
• Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore
• The Piazza Navona
• The Pantheon
• Attend an Audience with the Pope (along with a thousand other people most likely)
• The Scavi (Saint Peter's Tomb)

The last two days will be ordination events, Mass, and dinner with the family.

We will be getting around on foot or mass transit (bus or train).  Our hotel is a block from the Vatican Museum, half a mile from the entrance of Saint Peter's Square, and a couple of blocks from train and bus stops.  Our hotel will provide travel to and from the airport.  This is the first time we are travelling internationally just for one city.  Hopefully navigating the rather compact area of central Rome will not be too difficult.

I'm not sure when I will post about this trip.  When we get back it will be less than two weeks before we go to southeast asia.  I will have everything I'll need to post while in Rome but experience has shown this to be a hard thing to do.  I hope I get something posted before November rolls around.

On an aside, I was hoping to meet with one of my gamer friends who lives in Italy but, unfortunately, real life got in the way and our meeting will have to be on some future trip.

Weekly Ephemera #52

• The MoH and BM visited this week.  We really didn't have anything planned to do with them but we filled the time with conversation that touched on family, AI, politics, religion, movies, TV, books, history, and, of course, travel.   We don't always see eye to eye on things but that just makes our talks more interesting.  We always have a good time when we visit.

• 

  That hole should not be there.

  The roofers came on Thursday to finish the work started a month or so ago.  Parts of the roof were torn off, baffles were installed, insulation was added in places it was missing, and attic ventilation was improved to prevent the condensation issues we have been fighting.
  
  Unfortunately, it was a windy day and a piece of plywood got away from the workers and it punched a hole in our living room ceiling. *sigh* A drywall/painting company came on Friday to see the damage and they should be here this coming week to do the repairs and paint the ceilings.
• Last week gave us a taste of summer with temperatures in the 80s (above 26℃).  I switched on the AC for a few days before rain and colder temperatures returned and the Heat was turned back on.   A typical midwest spring.
  
  The rain we got (around 2 inches  or 5 cm) was enough to get all the green things to pop.  The wife mowed the lawn for the first time this year.  I spread 'weed n feed' today.  Later this week I will turn on the sprinkler system though I may wait until the next week since we have more rain in the forecast. 
• The Wife and I watched "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once"  This was my second viewing (the first was the less than ideal viewing on an airplane) and it was much better the second time.  Mind bending and uplifting.
  
  I finished watching "Twin Peaks: The Return" often described as season three of Twin Peaks.  I think some of my brain cells melted. 
• Due to our guests and the work that was done I didn't go walking last week.  I hope to resume this week depending on when the painters plan to come in and do their stuff.