I had kitsune udon for dinner last night and it was incredibly delicious. It’s a type of udon (thick wheat noodles) served with broth and fried tofu (called 油揚げ=aburaage). I think I must have had it a long time ago, but I didn’t remember what it was. Now I think I will have to remember it and try making it sometime, or some creative derivative.
I keep flirting with vegetarianism, as many people know. And the last few months, especially, I’ve been feeling really negative about meat, except perhaps seafood. I’m not sure what’s driving it. Partly, it’s health – I really think eating a lot of meat must be unhealthy. The last few times I’ve had beef or pork, I’ve had an upset stomach for days afterward.
Also, there are all the articles I’ve read explaining that consuming meat (especially beef) has a carbon footprint as large as, if not larger than, driving cars, for example (under an average American’s diet, anyway).
Finally, I just seem to find a well-cooked and balanced vegetarian meal quite delicious. So maybe it’s just a matter of personal aesthetics.
I’m unlikely to take the leap to a full-blown vegetarian commitment, as it’s not really my character. I almost always eat what people suggest or put in front of me when I’m dining with others, both out of cultural deference and because I like trying new things. But I will continue to explore vegetarian and vegan cuisine when given the option.
Category: Hiking & Travel
Caveat: Mechanical Grace
I spent at least an hour yesterday watching a backhoe operator on a barge in the river. He was dredging sand off the bottom of the river, and putting into a floating receptacle of some kind. The backhoe was sitting on a floating platform, a simple barge, that also had a little hut and some anchoring devices of some kind that would sink down into the bed of the river.
It was interesting to me because he was operating the backhoe so gracefully. He would use the shovel end of the backhoe to push his barge around in the water, pushing off of another barge, off the side embankment of the river, and mostly pushing around on the bottom of the river. It was like watching a child navigating an inflatable swimming-pool-toy in a shallow pool. Or maybe like watching a guy operating one of those gondolas in Venice. But it was all scaled up to involve this large machinery.
I wish I had had my video camera with me, to capture the movements, but here’s a picture of the machine, as he uses the shovel to push his barge backwards.
Caveat: Best Crow Ever
I climbed up the ACROS building’s rooftop gardens, today. Here is a crow that lives near there.
Still, I’ve heard nothing from my new job (which is to say, I’m still waiting for my visa). Sigh. I’m so bad at waiting. I’m not even enjoying this vacation. Vacations are only fun, when you’re escaping from something, perhaps. I’ve nothing to escape from, only something to wait for. So… no fun.
Caveat: The Mall Builders
Fukuoka feels like a big city, after southern Kyushu, but it’s still pretty compact. It’s not like Seoul or Tokyo, and I walked around a major portion of the “downtown” yesterday, mostly the Tenjin and Hakata areas.
I ended up in a big, futuristic mall called Canal City. I’ll add a picture later. Funny how malls everywhere are the same. I always remember when I ended up in a mall in Temuco, Chile, and I was wandering around, thinking, “Wow, this is a mall in Temuco, Chile, but it feels just like any other mall.”
I once had a brainstorm about the nature of our global civilization – what characteristics of our cities and cultures would be most salient to an anthropologist in the far future, or from a different planet? And I decided that those hypothetical anthropologists would realize one of the unifying elements was the existence of malls.
That means their name for us would be: “The Mall Builders.” Which is a name that sounds suitably ominous and monumental for a global civilization reduced to dust by the ravages of time.
[Canal City Mall, Fukuoka]
Caveat: Under some volcano
Here are some pictures from yesterday’s long walk, in no particular order.
This is a long road, and the observation center that I was headed for.
This is some flowers along the road.
This is my shadow – a self-portrait.
This is a blossoming tree in an industrial lot.
This is a Mitsubishi van that had some plants growing inside of it.
This is some re-bar that I saw, looking very sculpturesque.
These are some boats at low tide.
This is a cat in an alleyway in Kagoshima.
Caveat: Walking / Cars and Convenience Stores
Yesterday, I took the ferry back over to the volcano island (Sakurajima) and ended up taking a rather spontaneous extremely long walk. It was about 17 km. I went up to a place that`s like an observatory, about halfway up the side of the volcano, and back down. It wasn`t really a "trail hike," since it was mostly alongside the highway going up there and a different highway coming back down. And some of the landscape, being a recently erupting volcano, was a bit desolate, although not devoid of nature, for all that. I took some pictures, which I`ll try to add later.
I really like long walks like that. I should do them more often. Not really hiking… just walking. I always feel like some pilgrim, or an ancient tribal person making some kind of initiation journey. I watch the small changes in landscape, and observe how our civilization organizes itself around cars and convenience stores. Yes, even Japan`s version of our civilization is organized around cars and convenience stores. At least in largely rural areas.
Caveat: Who’da thunk?
I love Japan, but I really want to go back to Korea. Japan feels like a distraction. And… I'm really tired of traveling… that unsettled, where's-my-home feeling.
Who'da thunk?
Caveat: Being Still
I feel guilty not traveling around, not being a tourist.
But I have been telling myself, since I only have a few days left before my alleged visa appears and I become suddenly overwhelmingly employed in my new job in Korea, I should just relax. So today, I decided to just simply stop moving, and exist. I’ve found a ryokan that is relatively comfortable and convenient, and if not the cheapest it’s at least reasonable (well, by Japanese standards). And I like Kagoshima OK… it’s something different than Fukuoka.
I read for a while. I studied my Korean, and also put in about an hour trying re-memorize my forgotten kana. I experimented with copying the “Korean-written-in-kana” from my Korean-Japanese phrasebook. That was entertaining, and served two purposes. I drank coffee in a coffee joint in the Tenmonkan (Kagoshima`s downtown area). I ate cup ramen for dinner.
Here’s a picture of my the little alleyway where my ryokan is. And another picture I took during a long walk today (about 6 km?).
One final note, quoted verbatim from a sign I saw just now:
Keep out of new flu. Please, wipe your hands on an alcoholic towel.
Caveat: The Japanese Aesthetic
I confess that I love the Japanese aesthetic. It’s my favorite design philosophy, in architecture, in the way gardens and spaces are arranged, in the visual impact of two-dimensional images. I spent part of yesterday taking way too many pictures. I don’t normally take a lot of pictures, but I kept trying to capture “postcard” images. I’m not sure how I did, but some of the pictures below seem like I did not-too-badly.
Caveat: Kagoshima
I arrived in Kagoshima, checked into the guesthouse I`d made a reservation at, and went exploring. There`s a volcano across the bay… somewhat active. I walked around a little bit in the town that`s on the volcano island, but decided not to try to go up it – I was feeling tired, and you`re not allowed all the way to the top in any event, for safety reasons. I took some pictures, which I`ll post later, since I`m on a public computer at the moment.
Last night I slept longer than I have in a long time. I guess I was tired – I`ve been feeling like I haven`t been getting enough sleep, lately, but unlike my normal self, I haven`t been simply sleeping more. I had a lot of dreams last night. Some were like being in a Korean drama – I`m still watching those, I carry around downloaded copies on my computer that I can watch in the evening or suchlike. And the dream I woke up from was really strange…
I had several children, with me, and I was traveling in Japan. The traveling in Japan part makes sense, of course, but why were these children with me? Everything was perfectly natural, in the dream. I had the kids with me for some logical reason – were they my kids? There were 2 or 3 kids, in the dream. The youngest was maybe 4, the oldest was 9 or 10. I suppose this is an outcome of being an elementary teacher? The last scene, before waking up, was where we were trying to get on board a bus to somewhere, and the youngest child had lost her hat, not paying attention, and we were going to miss the bus. She was crying. I efficiently chased after and scooped up the hat, and attached it to her head, picked her up carefully and jumped onto the bus with the others following. It was a happy scene in the dream, not scary or unpleasant at all. It was a kind of aimless domesticity, floating across my current landscape. But weirdly vivid, the way dreams sometimes are.
Caveat: Sakurajima
Here are some pictures from my wandering around yesterday, to the volcano (Sakurajima) and around Kagoshima.
The following is a “play volcano” that I saw in a school yard only a few kilometers from the real volcano. Funny.
There is a lot of fine black ash or sand on everything. Here`s some piled on the sidewalk.
[this is a back-post, completed 2010-03-31 18:00 JST]
Caveat: Absolute must-have information
I bought a book yesterday. It’s a Japanese phrase book – for Korean speakers. I figured that would be a way to help me get around in Japan, without dropping the ball on the Korean Language thing.
Anyway, it’s pretty handy, and if I want to know how to say something, I have to first figure out what the Korean means before I can jump on the Japanese phrase I might need – although at least some of the vocabulary is provided with English glosses, too.
On page 75, I found the most important information. Namely, I need to know about オタク (otaku). ‘Cept… I already knew that word. Plus, if you’ll notice, the Korean is the same. Actually, the only time I’ve heard Koreans using that word is with reference to specifically Japanese cultural phenomenon.
Walking around, I saw more cherry blossoms. I guess I picked the right time to come hang out in Kyushu. Here’s a view at the intersection half a block north from the little guesthouse I’m staying at.
Caveat: Easy Japan
I won’t say that I like Japan more than Korea. But in a lot of ways, I find Japan easier to like than Korea. I spent a long time yesterday trying to figure out why that is. It might be something as simple as the fact that the Japanese character includes a level of cultural self-confidence that is comforting after constantly coping with the myriad minor insecurities embedded in contemporary South Korean cultural discourse: the petty nationalisms, the linguistic deference … these things are mostly absent in my interactions with random Japanese and in my observations of cultural output, here.
Maybe if I spent more time in Japan, these perceptions would become more nuanced. But superficial impressions count for a lot. Still, there remain many reasons why I’m sticking with Korea, despite my fascination with (and liking for) Japan.
A picture.
Caveat: Public Art
I love public art. Probably, that’s one reason I like walking around Ilsan. And Fukuoka was interesting, this morning, too. Here are some pictures of public art (and/or interesting architecture).
Walking around Ilsan, near Baekma area:
Here is something tucked next to a building walking out the east end of the mall called “WesternDom” in Ilsan, on the way to Madu Station:
Here is a picture I took this morning, here in Fukuoka, Japan. It’s a digital clock that changes to show the time. But the pixels are made of little fountain spouts. So it’s an altogether new take on the “water clock” idea:
Here is a weird frog-creature-arch-thing in the Tenjin area (downtown) of Fukuoka:
Here is the somewhat famous ACROS cultural center in Fukuoka, with its rooftop gardens:
For contrast, some blossoming cherry trees along the river:
Lastly, some palm trees in the median of a major street near Hakata Station:
Caveat: Japanese? No hablo…
Somehow, since I was here last September, I forgot what little Japanese I used to know. I think it's part of having been so deeply immersed in learning Korean over the last several months. So in that sense, it's a good sign. But it's frustrating to be in Japan and functioning at an even lower level than I was 6 months ago.
Ah well. Win some, lose some. I'll go exploring in Fukuoka again tomorrow.
More later.
Caveat: (re-)making history
Korea has a lot of history. And contemporary Korea loves exploring, studying and re-enacting their history. Just take a look at the sorts of dramas popular on TV, for example – there’re always several historical dramas running. Those aren’t the sort I enjoy, mostly because the language is stilted and harder to understand (which makes sense, since they’re trying to capture the more formal Korean of centuries past). Also, I don’t always think those sorts of dramas are particularly faithful to the historical “facts.” But anyway…
Yesterday I went with some of my Suwon friends to see some re-enactors at the Hwaseong palace. These were guys with swords and pikes and other things, doing martial arts displays of various kinds. Half choreography, half hapkido / geondo (= japanese kendo), etc. Here are some pictures.
In the first two, the guy was using a big pikelike-thing to hack up some bundles of straw. The last picture is me with some re-enactors, along with two kids I’ve gotten to know, who are the Chinese tea-maker’s children: a brother and sister named Dong-jun and Dong-hui (it’s very common for siblings to share a syllable that way, in their name).
Caveat: Pop Architecture
Modern Korean pop architecture is fun to look at sometimes. I think any country where there is a strong capitalist, advertising-driven culture, you will find architecture that is kitschy, often tasteless, over-the-top, etc. Some of the more interesting buildings tend to be the ubiquitous “wedding halls” as well as churches. Here are some pictures I’ve taken recently.
Caveat: Have you ever peed in a soccer ball?
I know that’s a strange title to a blog post, but I couldn’t resist. I was taking a long walk the other day, and saw Suwon’s “World Cup Stadium” out on the east side of town. There’s a park around the stadium, and in the park, there are soccer-ball-themed public restrooms. I just had to make use of the facilities, just to be able to say I’d done it.
Here are pictures – you can see the boy-girl icon on the giant soccer ball, that tells you there are public restrooms inside.
Here’s a view of the stadium from a pedestrian overpass.
Below is a picture of the northeast gate of the Suwon city walls – where they’ve punched a hole under the wall for (or reconstructed it over) a major street.
Caveat: 금산사…
I went on a “templestay” tour to Geumsansa over the weekend. Here are some pictures.
Here is the main entrance to the provincial park that hosts the temple, down by the parking lot:
This is a turtle statue near the entrance to the temple complex:
Here is a view of the main stupa (left, over a 1000 years old, though repeatedly rebuilt) and big old main temple (right, 400 years old, currently being restored due to arson by some right-wing Christian group):
Architectural detail on the structure housing the old drum, bell, and gong:
A cool painting on the side of a side-building:
The entranceway to a small temple dedicated to Chijang Boddhisattva (I think), with the statues visible inside (this is where I did my 108 prostrations, see farther down):
A view of the main temple courtyard looking back toward the entrance building (a modern building but in the traditional style), and the gong structure off to the right:
The ancient stupa that is the core of the temple site (i.e. the oldest part, dating in one form or another to at least the 500’s AD):
A cool statue I saw (well-armed, indeed):
The men’s dorm where I slept Saturday night (bathrooms are around back – this is a modern building built to look traditional, but women’s dorm out of sight to the right is quite old and traditional, with a fire-burning ondol heating system) :
Walking from the dorm area across the stream to the side gate into the main temple courtyard:
A waterfall that I found while wandering around a ways up the stream beyond the dorm area:
These beads below represent my 108 bows (or prostrations) to the Chijang Boddhisattva. I really did this – it was quite tiring, and yet an old woman came into the temple, about the time I was working on bow number 50 or so, and she did 108 of her own, and finished and had left when I had gotten to my own number 70! I will keep these beads as a souvenir, because each one represents a bow that I actually did:
This is the charismatic monk who led the templestay guests around and led us in meditation, etc. He was very friendly, positive, and interesting (despite having an incoherent interpreter):
Caveat: 연주대
어제 나는 친구와 같이 관악산에서 등산을 했어요. 연주암과 연주대를 봤어요. 연주대가 재미있었어요. 우리 많이 사진을 찍었어요:
Caveat: Circumperambulation
My friend Peter came down from Ilsan today and we took a long walk around Suwon, which is where I’m staying for now – just be somewhere interesting and different, if not terribly well-located vis-a-vis the Seoul metropolitan area.
Suwon has old city walls around about 80% of it’s old-city perimeter, but it’s otherwise a rather stark, industrial city. Together the old fortress elements combined with its proletarian character make it seem vaguely European.
Peter and I walked a full circle along the top of the wall. Here is a view of the weird, gothic-industrial church to be found just southeast of the old city wall.
Here is a picture of a bird.
Here is a picture of Buddha, perched against the mountainside in the western part of the walled-in old city.
Caveat: It’s OK
I was having dinner with my friend Peter out in Ilsan last night. We went to the Hoa Binh (Vietnamese Pho seen through a Korean lens, roughly) at La Festa. Talking about various things, I was feeling very patient with my current limbo.
After eating I showed Peter the convenient 하이마트 (Hi-Mart) supermarket that's almost literaly across from his building, that he didn't know was there. I used to shop there when walking back home from work, because it was right on the way and not out of the way like the other supermarkets I knew about.
Peter and I parted ways, and I was walking to Juyeop station to take the subway back into Mapo-gu when I spontaneously decided to ride a bus instead. I stood on the bus-stop island and waited for a bus to go by that had in its destination list a location not too far from where my guesthouse is (near Hapjeong). I ended up hopping on a Number 72 bound for Sinchon. Not super close, but I knew how to get from Sinchon to Hapjeong easily — it's only 2 stops away on the circle line and I've walked it before, too.
I felt very pleased and competent to be able to just get on a bus, at 9 pm on bitterly cold winter night (-13 C), in this vast, alien metropolis. Meaning… it's not so alien to me. I know my way around.
It was a local route, and zigzagged through Ilsan, then Hwajeong, then Susaek. It was about 50 minutes. I listened to my mp3 player and gazed out the window. Life is good.
Sinchon is Seoul's Greenwich Village, basically. Trendy, tons of shopping and nightclubs, a bohemian and university neighborhood. I like walking through there, although it's so "youth oriented" that I sometimes get melancholy.
I took the circle line (green line #2) back to Hapjeong. I'm craving tteokbokki really bad – it's great comfort food when it's cold — but I didn't see any places selling it on the walk back to the guesthouse. Hmm, maybe tomorrow.
Caveat: Jetlag Zombie Fun
Of course, it always happens. But sometimes it's worse than others… I think it has to do with time of day at departure and arrival, as well as number of time zones, etc. When I went back to the US, it didn't seem so bad. It's really bad, this time. But… at least this time, I don't have to be working or doing anything… I deliberately gave myself a wide open schedule for this return. So basically yesterday I tried my best to stay awake and do stuff, but by 6 pm I was out. And that meant that at 2 am, I was up. But not really doing anything productive. Hmm… we'll see how this goes.
I tried really hard to go back to sleep, just figuring the extra sleep couldn't hurt in trying to reset the internal clock, but I almost immediately awoke from a terrible, vivid nightmare. I haven't had a scary dream in a long time, and this one was interesting in one respect: I was having a car accident on a snowy road, while driving my truck. Interesting because the dream activated some anxieties that are always there, in winter driving, but apparently they chose not to manifest until I'd safely abandoned my truck in the US and returned to Korea. I was driving down a steep hill, like the Ramsey Street one in St Paul, maybe. Lot's of snow and ice. The car in front of me started spinning, and I stepped on the brakes only to realize I had zero traction, too. I went over a cliff in my little truck.
Anyway, that was the end of trying to sleep more.
I'm not in the mood to write. I'm trying to get into the mode of studying my Korean again… but that's feeling desperate and difficult, at the moment.
More later.
Caveat: All that snow, just for me?
Probably not. But I have spent 3 winters in greater Seoul over my lifetime, and I've never seen it covered in beautiful snow like it is now. I'm so glad I came back to this. And… it's still at least marginally warmer than Minnesota, although a difficult adjustment after running the vehicle's airconditioner yesterday while driving on the 605 in LA.
Which to say, I have safely arrived in Seoul. Uneventful flight, Korean Airlines is predictably fabulous to fly with. I don't have a phone yet, but I'm going to look into that, today.
So, here I am! What's next? Uh… better start working on that job-thing, eh?
Caveat: Chupe de Pescado
I went to Costa Mesa and ate lunch at Inka Grill restaurant today. I met an old friend Mary there, since she lives in Orange County, that was convenient.
I have been craving chupe de pescado a lot. I used to eat it there when I was working in Newport Beach (an office park near the Costa Mesa city line). I was glad it was still there.
And I spent a lot of time driving around LA freeways. They're so familiar. A strange sort of frustration/comfort sets in.
Now I'm at LAX. I'm going back to Korea. I will experience no January 6, 2010, because of the date line. Maybe I should post something very strange and otherworldly for that date, because of this?
Caveat: 80 degrees of separation
I left Minneapolis, it was minus 20 F.
I arrived in L.A., it's 60 F.
That's an 80 degree difference.
Caveat: United Airlines Is Still the Worst Airline in the Known Universe
So, I missed my flight, this morning. Why? Because I arrived at the airport only 1 hour and 20 minutes before my flight. This was a mistake. And, I admit my mistake.
I made the mistake because on 12/28, when I flew from LA to MSP, was to all appearances an equally busy travel day, and I had zero problems and everything went very smoothly and very quickly. I made the erroneous assumption that I'd see the same situation today, since the security situation should have, if anything, improved (given the additional time lapsed since the Christmas mess). So I didn't check the news to see if the airport was going to clogged up, I didn't worry too much about it… I just gave myself about an hour and a half, and showed up. I've been traveling so much, and it's all gone so smoothly, that I've become a bit cavalier. I admit that. I share some of the blame, yes…
But the Minneapolis airport seems profoundly mismanaged. And United Airlines, specifically, continues to be the most horribly sucky airline I have ever dealt with. So, I will also blame United.
I got in line to check in and check my bags at 4:45. I waited in line for 45 minutes. None of the other airlines at the airport had such long, slow-moving lines, as far as I could tell. There was a long line at American Airlines, but US Airways seemed almost lineless, and Northwest (AKA Delta) has so many counters that it all seemed very much under control.
Anyway, the time shown on when they actually issued my boarding pass was 5:29. And that was after they let me cut in line because of my departure time. But this still ended up meaning that the 45 minute wait at TSA (security check) left me too late at the gate for my 6:00 flight.
Actually, United always seems understaffed at their check-in counters, relative to my experience with other airlines (my flight out from Burbank to Minneapolis was with US Airways, and despite it being 12/28, three days after the horrible almost-disaster on Christmas day, everything went very quickly and very smoothly).
In fact, I can state unequivocally that I have NEVER had a pleasant travel experience with United Airlines, in nearly 3 decades of fairly extensive air travel, whereas my experiences with other airlines is at least 50/50 (good/bad), and there are some real winners, such that I have almost never had a bad experience with, e.g., US Airways and Korean Airlines.
There had been a time, about half a decade ago, when I was very conscientiously boycotting United because of past bad experiences, but I guess my commitment to that boycott recently wavered in the light of my last-minute need for a cheap ticket on this current trip. But the fact of my need to boycott United Airlines has been confirmed by this morning's experience, although obviously I need to concede that my current unpleasant experience has been exacerbated by both the Minneapolis airport's apparent gross mismanagement of the holiday crowds, compared to the other airports I've been in recently, as well as the current security mess surrounding the recent terrorist attempt at Detroit.
Regardless, I am convinced that had my return flight also been with US Airways (whose check-in line was moving in a relatively breezy fashion as I gazed at it longingly this morning from my spot stuck in the United line), I would have made my flight easily this morning. And thus, I must conclude, United Airlines is the still the worst airline in the known universe.
OK, enough of my rant.
I calmed down by sitting crosslegged on the floor, shutting my eyes, and practicing my recently acquired anapana skill. Then I broke down, paid Boingo (another sucky company) their $7.95, and came online. I'm on standby, now, waiting for a flight. Who knows when I'll get to L.A. Ah, the risks of last-minute cheap tickets.
In other news… today is a palindrome: 01022010 (or, depending how you like to write your dates, 20100102). Cool, huh?
More later.
Caveat: Korean Food in Eagan
I went out to lunch at a Korean restaurant in a strip mall along highway 13 in Eagan, with a bunch of friends: Bob and Sarah and Henry, and Mark and Amy and Charlie and Martin, and Tayo (Bob’s nephew) was along too.
Our expectations were low. And… I’ve not eaten Korean since coming back from Korea. Surprising? A little, maybe, but I figure I’ll be getting plenty of Korean soon enough, when I go back. Still, we decided to try it out — it’s basically across the highway from where my storage unit is, so it’s conveniently located.
It turned out to be very good. Authentic feeling, and excellent food. I highly recommend Hoban Restaurant to anyone living in or passing through Minnesota and craving a “real” Korean dining experience. I had some kimchi dolsotbap which was excellent.
With Bob and Mark both there, it’s been a bit of an “1808 Portland” reunion — 1808 Portland Avenue in St Paul is the duplex house that Bob, Mark and I shared as housemates (along with some others) back in the 1980’s, at the time I was attending the University of Minnesota. I drove by that place the other day, and took a picture, for old-time’s sake — I have such fond memories of my time living there (over 2 years, I think):
Caveat: Minneapolis
After driving from Denver to L.A. over the weekend, I left my truck there (where I’m selling it to my dad) and flew back to Minneapolis, to take care of the last-minute things that I need to do before returning to Korea. Landing in Minneapolis, getting my rental car and driving out into the bright sunshine: 23 F (-5 C), piles of dirty snow… I really do love it here. Of my many homes, this is my “truest” home, I suppose.
Caveat: The end of driving
Since landing in Minneapolis upon my return from Korea on September 24, I have put over 14,000 miles (that's around 22,500 km) on my little truck. I have visited 26 states (and 1 Canadian province). And now I'm tired of driving. I'm selling my truck. I'm in Los Angeles.
I'll fly back to Minneapolis tomorrow, where I'll rent a car for around-town type errands. But I'm done with road-trips. At least, for the time being. And I return to Los Angeles next weekend, and I'm going back to Korea soon after that. This vast crazy North American tour is almost over. I'm looking forward to being back in Korea, although my job situation is more up-in-the-air than I'd been intending. But it will work out… and even if it doesn't, I'm confident things will be fine.
Caveat: Utah, Unedited. [The Herbaliser – The Next Spot]
I drove across Utah. It was covered in snow. Here is the most boring video imaginable: driving, real-time, no editing. This is part of one of the longest stretches of interstate with no gas station that I know of: I-70 west of the Green River crossing.
So… it's a 7 mile snapshot of my 14,000 mile cross-country experience, second-by-second. Unedited. Mostly, it was an excuse to post a cool soundtrack: The Herbaliser – The Next Spot.
Caveat: Fun in snow
So I saw my 3 nephews and niece today, all together. There was a lot of playing. It snowed all day.
Here are James and Jamison having a snowball fight.
Here is Sarah making snow angels.
Caveat: A heavy fog embraced the brown fields and trailer parks of Kansas
It made the drive very monotonous, to see only the mist and the vague outlines of billboards swishing past. 400 miles.
Now I am in Denver. Tomorrow, I must do some Christmas shopping, I think.