BACK IN THE USofA: I see that I last posted while in Adelaide. Since then I returned to Sydney for a few days before flying back to SFO for a week's stay with my friends, Francis and Mary Wright. As I have mentioned, we shared quite a few adventures back some 20 years or so ago, when he and I worked in a country psychiatric service network in Warrannambool in western Victoria, Australia. They live next door to their son, Gil, who in addition to being a specialist gynecologist, is also a wine maker. Amongst the several wines we drank last week was an excellent ten year old red of Gil's making. As those of you who know me well will imagine, we drank not a little wine but not to excess.
I was also out and about in sunny San Francisco going with Mary to visit the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, with Frank to the local wine country, local fleets of mothballed ships, driving to the top of Mt. Diabolo (astonished at the number of cyclists toiling their way up the 3,850 ft climb), and together, we three, to visit the ancient cemetery for Welsh miners who mined coal in the early days of California.
While sad to leave these good friends behind I was very glad to be on the final leg home on Monday night last, catching the 'red eye' to Charlotte (Carolina) then a bridging flight to Philadelphia (has to be the worst designed airport I have been to so far), and finally to Elmira, our local airport. Still bedeviled by the cold I had picked up in Adelaide and, lacking sleep on the night flight, I confess that I was mightily tired (if you can pardon this apparent oxymoron) and very glad to be home. Unsurprisingly, I slept for 12 hours that night! Since then it has been back to the routine of turning compost, mowing lawns, and catching up on six weeks of mail.
Two 'on hold' books were waiting for me at the library; one on managing energy in the home and the other by a new author (for me) James H Kunstler, titled 'The Long Emergency; surviving the converging catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century'...more of this in the next posting.
Oh...another thing: I turned 71 this week!
Roberto