Monday, July 25, 2016

At The End Of The Day...


...You've Got To Keep It Light Enough To Travel.


I spent a good chunk of last week climbing in and out of goddamn cigar tubes.

Which I can just barely handle these days when things go well.

But when you're forced to fly steerage/TangoDoublePlusUngood (for good reason) when working for health charities and things go wrong like, say, a three hour delay at the pandemonium end of Pearson's Terminal 1 when you're trying to get home late on a Friday night...

Well,  then happens I am not a happy (or even remotely friendly) traveller.

Luckily, I had a really good mechanotransduction paper to read/figure out (to help with the discussion to a manuscript of our own that I'm working on) as well as John Irving's latest (the guy is flat-out indefatigable) to get me through it.

Still, we finally got to YVR late enough that I had to take a cab home because the last train had left already.

I really hate that given that the difference between $2.10 and $40.00 is a whole lotta daffodils.

Anyway, the next morning, Saturday, I took the Whackadoodle down to the river and noticed that there were no Helijets buzzing overhead.

Which, in my mind at least, meant the Clarklandians must have been away for the previous afternoon's big liquor announcement.

****

littler e. climbed into the cigar tube herself on Sunday morning. All carry-on, no checked-baggage for a trip to New Hampshire via Toronto and New York (three flights!) so that she can spend the week at a tap dance work/sweat-like-crazy-shop.

And this time next week we'll be on our way down the coast to Mendicino (the coastal county, not the town, although we will pass by the latter on our way to our friends' place just south of the magnificently bizarre hippie/fishing/flying burrito town of Point Arena).

Always.

Travel.

Light.

OK?


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Image at top of the post is the two E's from a California trip 12 summers ago...From the long climb up 101 south of Eureka on the way to Redway and our favourite Eel River swimming hole...Getting more and more beat-up all the time beach guitar is just visible behind them...

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

CigarTubeFrequentFlyerSonInLaw says

Something distinctly amusing about the look of panic on people's faces when they realize their rolling footlockers don't fit in the overhead of these "old" planes.
I still say checked bags should be free (or dirt cheap) and carry on should be preventatively expensive- would do wonders for the boarding process...

RossK said...

Anon-Above--

Agree 1,484%.

In fact, when in steerage I purposely sit near the back to avoid already full-of-footlocker overhead bins.

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e.a.f. said...

gave up flying the day I retired. works well. no sitting with people I don't know and most likely wouldn't like. Have more leg room and no strangers running their hands up and down my old body to check if I've got weapons.

Hope the kid has a tapping good time and you all drive safely on the California highwat

RossK said...

e.a.f.--

There are people you don't like?

Say it ain't so!

(all reports are that the kid is, indeed, having a tapping good time)


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Lenin's Ghost said...

Glad the wee e. is having fun. Unless I'm travelling for more than two weeks, it's my old backpack carry on. Chasing luggage is not my idea of a good time. Enjoy your trip.

e.a.f. said...

yes, its true, there are people and things I don't like. Its better to list what I do like: little kids, teenagers, dogs, cats, some birds, goats, moose, bears, deer, cougars, good parents, some fish, nice scenery, camping, clean water.
not keen on but find useful: spiders; slugs--they eat dog shit; ants--pick up micro garbage. Most B.C. Lieberals do not fall in either category. Its sad but true.

ah to be able to tap dance! amazing kids.

RossK said...

That's a lot of things on the plus side of the ledger e.a.f.

And, ya, those (and actually pretty much all) kids are amazing.


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