One Reason Why Washington Would Be a Good Place to Live...

for a political junkie like me. These fliers were for various upcoming speakers and symposiums at George Washington University's The Elliot School for International Affairs. They are hard to read in this picture, but included are such events as: "China's Global Activism," "Election Politics in Bangladesh and the Crisis of Democracy," "The New Indian Middle Class," and "The Yomiuri Project on War Responsibility in Japan."

Wonder why they never have these things in Columbiana?

A Day in the Life of Joseph Humadi

This is the miscreant I travel with to the Middle East twice a year. We were spending a day in Washington prepping for next month's go-round. At this point it was a good thing he didn't have a gun, because he was trying to organize all the passports and visa documents to take to the Saudi Embassy for their visa. It was pretty frustrating because many of our fellow travelers had obviously not read the instructions. One didn't even send their passport. Just a photocopy. They might as well have sent toilet paper.

By the end of the day things were calmer. For me. I left town. He was still aboil.

On a Higher Minded Note

Book junkies now (OK, "know," smart-ass) this place well. If you've ever watched CSPAN2, BookTV, on weekends, you'll recognize the "Mother Ship" of bookstores. "Politics and Prose" in Washington, DC. I managed to talk some of our group into stopping there for about 15 minutes. Just enough to get a little book-buzz going. Still cost me $60 to walk out of there. I'd probably blow Mick's inheritance ($500) if I could stay a couple hours.

"That's No Dog! That's My, er. Uh..."

So I'm riding from Dulles Airport to downtown DC. My buddy Joseph is driving. Didier is up front. I'm in the back seat. We pass this guy and I notice he has his dog in his lap. Well, I THOUGHT it was his dog. The driver seemed pretty happy. Had this big smile on his face.

I yelled to Joseph to slow down and let him catch back up.

It was snowing so I figure he was bringing wood home for some kind of fire. At least Clinton did it between the Bushes.

When It's OK to Drop an F-Bomb...

Might have been some photoshopping going on...

New Look

Blogger has come up with some new templates. Change is good (and chaos is better).
What do you think?

Truer Words Were Never Spoken (or Written)

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious
day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last
and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

- H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Two days work. Forty-five minutes in the rain dragging it out to the street.

The house is so light now it might fly away.

But, there's more to come.

I've Officially Outlived Hitler

Today is my 57th friggin' birthday. Not a fan of aging mileposts. But, better to have 'em than not I reckon. Celebrated the day by throwing out most of the memories of my lifetime as I continued prepping the house for sale. Like all my mementos from running the Boston Marathon. Certificates, pictures, newspaper clippings, official results books. No one cares but me. You can't hold onto this crap forever. Out they went.

I HAD to have pitched a ton of stuff today. Not even sure the trash men will take the whole lot this week.

Mick's stuff and things of Jan's I kept. Mick can deal with them. That's his price.

You can only cry so much.

I'm In Love...

It's CNN's Bonnie Schneider. Can't take my eyes off her. I pray for bad weather so they'll have her on longer.

I doubt she knows...

This Could Only Happen in Youngstown

Struthers to be exact. An "After Funeral Dining Facility." What'll they think of next? Talk about wringing every last dollar out of your corpse.

The Bridge Over the River Kwai

Cleaning the house this morning. Got the tube on for some accompaniment. Flipping through the channels and found "The Bridge Over the River Kwai." Great flick, but for me there's something more.

It was filmed in Sri Lanka. I don't recognize any specific places, but the general areas are pretty familiar. British Headquarters is in tea country. The commando team's route to the prison camp looks an awful lot like the area around Siguriya.

Man it makes me homesick. I hope I can sell this house and head back in July or August. I'll head back one way or another. But, I sure would like to sell this house!

People Always Tell Me I Should Write a Book...

"You've been to so many places." "You've done so many things!"
"You need to write a book."

Well, I have been to a few places and I have done a couple things that might be mildly interesting. From time to time I come up with a pithy observation. With a lot of effort I most likely could whip out some kind of novel.

But, I read a good deal and am constantly amazed at how good some of these guys are. Just finished another collection of Charles Bukowski last night. "What matters most is how well you walk through the fire," he wrote. How could I have the nerve to think I could write something worthwhile in light of that?

And of course there's Cavafy's "Ithaca" which I posted some time back. Whole lives are guided by that poem including mine. I could write for the next bazillion years and not come up with words as meaningful as his.

On the other hand I read "Honeymoon With My Brother," by Franz Wisner. That I could have written. But I didn't. He did.

So there is a possibility albeit slim. It could be done. If I had the creativity. And therein lies the rub. I am just about the least creative guy I know. I can tell when someone has a good idea. But, to come up with my own is a tough call.

For example a few months back I posted a screed here about limiting people to driving no faster than their age. If you are 17 that's your speed limit. If you are 70 you HAVE to drive 70. I thought it was pretty clever. Then one night I'm watching a Seinfeld rerun and Jerry was doing a bit about that very thing! Here I was thinking I'm original and I was just writing about something I had subconsciously adapted from Seinfeld.

I do have a basic plan. Thanks to the internet and access to information a person can publish a book based upon their blog. I heard of some lady who published a book based upon her recipe blog. I KNOW I could write something THAT boring!

So for now that is my plan. I intend to continue this blog for at least a total of five years. After that I'll cherry pick my best posts (with the help of some of my loyal readers. Hani). Then I'll publish that. The title will be "The Best of The Best of What's Left."

This blog is almost two years old now. So only three years to go. I should be able to put a book's worth together by then. Insh'Allah!

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night thinking of this stuff.

It ain't easy being me.

The Die is Cast

I signed the papers with the Realtor yesterday. They put this sign up within about an hour.

Oddly enough, there has been some interest already. As I was walking the dog this morning I met a guy coming down my driveway. Kind of surprised me. He lives in a condo nearby and just wanted to see what the joint looked like.

I have a separate lot I'm going to sell on my own.

This is new territory. I'll be glad to have it done.

2006 in Review: By The Numbers

After 2005 this past year more or less established the nature of how my life will be lived at least in the foreseeable future. More traveling. More sights. More friends.
Here is the breakdown of 2007 by the numbers:

7 trips outside the US (OK, three were to Canada, but that one to British Columbia was pretty long)
New Countries visited: 8 (Lifetime total-36)
UNESCO World Heritage Sites: 12 (Lifetime total-38)

Blog posts: 205 (not bad!)
Nights on the road: 143 (Not an estimate this year)
Airplane Flights (As opposed to flights of fancy): 67 (Takeoffs and landings. Although it only requires a take off to qualify as a flight. Could count a parachute jump, if I had one, although I didn't. None since 1975.)
307 New friends. (Still an estimate.)

Miles run: 2525 (Pretty good I'd say. Ten more than last year and I basically ran zero in Sri Lanka and Central America, a total of almost two full months.)
Lifetime total: 95,194 (On schedule to reach 100,000 by age 60.)

New category-Books Read: 56
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But, old age looks back and youth looks forward. Forward is really all we have, so that's where I'm headed. I want to head back to Sri Lanka for the Kandy Esala Perahera and a reunion with my friends, elephant and human, in August. One of my amigos and I plan on following Wellington's Peninsular Campaign trail in Spain and Portugal. I would love to go back to British Columbia to visit the Orcas again.
AND there are a couple more Middle East trips in the hopper. Morocco calls.

And one other big thing. I was walking the dog about a month ago when I distinctly felt the winds of change. I just sensed something big in the air. I have decided to sell my house. With luck this time next year I will have sold the ranch and moved on to new digs. Where that will be I don't know. But, I have some ideas. Read Horace Greeley.

I scratched alot of itches this past year. But, I still have loads of itches left.

See you out there...