Well, my three-hour tour turned out less eventful than Gilligan’s. Some pix for ya. Eat your heart out, girls That’s David (Da-VEED), my tour guide. I had him all to myself, since I was the only passenger on the boat. Sort of a waste for the tour company, but good for me. He was a really good kid, and ambitious enough to end up owning the tour company (if not a whole string of them) someday. He was the middle child of a farm family who learned English by taking lessons from a neighbor (over the objections of his father…
Category: Travels
Observations while wandering near and far.
… the challenge of translating Dr. Suess into Spanish? —– I just got taken by a street vendor. Totally my own fault. I bargained him down. Then (because I didn’t properly calculate the local currency in my head, gave him the amount he originally asked for). Only a couple of bucks, but it’s the principle of the thing. He’s probably chortling right now about the gringa estupida. —– Tomorrow I go on a boat tour. Feeding monkeys is involved. The tour guide recommended Oreos, but that sounds like simian abuse to me. It is, BTW, a “three-hour tour.” Does that…
Not up for a big post today. Just thought I’d introduce you to my neighbors here at the B&B: They’re from New Orleans. They flew down here one day after being part of the Skull & Bones Gang that wakes people up early for Mardi Gras. Um … that’s when the photo was taken. They’re dressing considerably more casually here. 🙂 This was what we all did together yesterday.
“Your bathroom has an electric shower head,” my host explained.
“Huh?” I observed wittily.
“They’re very big down here. Don’t touch it.”
I took one look and knew I’d be taking that advice very, very seriously. Yes, that’s an electrical outlet — a non-GFI electrical outlet — there above the shower head, poised to commit shocking mayhem to the unwary. (I don’t know what that sticky-outy thing is on the right. Don’t ask me; all I know is I’m not touching it, either.)
Furrydoc emailed after reading yesterday’s post and asked if the B&B where I’m staying has a “suicide shower.” I’d never heard the term, but I knew instantly that, yes, that’s exactly what it has. It’s a small, wildly unsafe, on-demand water heater.
Besides being a threat to life, it heats water only to the temperature of tepid tea.
—–
This post is titled in honor of LarryA’s observation that one thing worse than a rambunctious toddler is a “grownup” tourist who goes to furrin parts, then grouses the whole time that, “This isn’t the way we do things back home.”
I’m not grousing. What, me grouse? But one of the things you certainly notice in furrin parts is that they do things in furrin ways.
Yes, Americans are famously and notoriously surprised at this. One reason I travel even though (have I mentioned?) that I hate traveling is to reality-check myself on how the other — and really much larger — half lives.
Anyhow, since the U.S. is slowly headed for third-world-dom, the knowledge might come in handy at home someday.
Cheers and thanks to Texans, Wyoming Mamas, and all who extended invites to stop by while “on the road.” But I now confess that “road” was a slight misnomer. I am in furrin parts. The only “road” portions of the trip were the three-hour drive to the airport in the dark in a storm (have I mentioned before that I hate to travel?) and the hair-raising drive from the airport to a B&B with a driver to whom my language was as furrin as his was to me. (“Donde you?” “Vengo Washington state, USA.” “Ah, Barack Obama, El Presidente!” “No,…
I’m going to be on the road for the next week. I’ll have my computer with me and rumor is that I should have a good wifi connection at least part of the time. We’ll see how that rumor pans out. Just in case, I’ve asked Webmaster Oliver to check in on Living Freedom periodically to approve pending comments and put out any fires. You should still be hearing from me soon, assuming those rumors about wifi are true. But if I get quiet, don’t worry. P.S. That’s also why I blogged about Brink of Freedom yesterday. If I can’t…
Day 2 of my beach getaway. Random thoughts. —– Sometimes just being away is enough. I could almost have checked into a motel across town from my house and gotten the same benefit of “away-ness.” Of course dramatic surf, art galleries, and amazing restaurants are a plus, but not really necessary. The perspective is what matters. —– Being warm is good, too. My house is very cold and hard to heat. Being chilly all the time makes me feel as pathetic as Oliver Twist. This, too, shall be remedied in time, but right now, it’s fantastic to remedy it simply…
It has been. Since last spring. A crazy, crazy, hectic, maddening, stressed-out year. Not necessarily a bad year, understand. But … difficult. A modest sum of money (long awaited, overdue) finally landed in my vicinity a couple of weeks ago. Glory hallelujah! But I immediately put it to work creating more chaos. Which got more chaotic as it went along. My head. Was about. To explode. So yesterday I went online and found the lowest-cost vacation rental in an Oregon beach town, booked it, and dropped the poor, pathetic, protesting pooches at furrydoc’s kennel (thanks, furrydoc!). Today … here I…
Oops. TSA accidentally reveals that even they don’t believe terrorists are likely to attack planes these days. The solution? make pre-flight security-theater checks even longer and more intensive. Of course! Another example of how reallly, reallly, reallly good the fedgov’s “security” people are at … um security. Medical pricing. How it should work. How it does work at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma. Not everybody, Harry. Speak for your own darn self. Tam knocks one out of the park. “How to build a happier brain.” (Seems our wiring is pre-set for emphasizing the negative.) Dems starting to want to push…
The links in this first batch were meant to go in Friday’s “Waves of History” post, but I was running out of time. So here they are — perhaps for some inspiration? Kevin D. Williamson on citizens pushing back. There’s now an online whistleblower support system. Originally written by Aaron Swartz. Maybe in death he’ll be able to prevent someone else from being hounded into suicide by vicious prosecutors. Borepatch: “Obama Agonistes.” Justin Raimondo: “American Apocalypse.” “13 nutrition lies that made the world fat and sick.” It may not be instantly apparent what this one has to do with resistance…