Meeting Old Friends

I enjoy meeting bloggers.  If I am passing by, I am likely to offer to stop off and say Hi.  This photo was taken in an overnight stop over on my way home from a conference, to meet the infamous Mistress Maddi for dinner. 

Meeting a blogger you have been reading for years, is meeting an old friend, you have never met.  You know them, even if you have never met them.  Trading comments develops a unique relationship. Over the years I have reached out through comments to bloggers that I knew would be nearby. I added a contact me box to my blog, a few months ago, a simple direct way to reach me if you are passing through our corner of the world.  

I am on a digital detox, without access to the internet for a couple of weeks.  Please comment, but I won't read or reply to comments until about May 12th.   

Be Creative

I leave some weird comments on blogs, often my comment is a short response to what I have seen or read.  Sometimes the comments are just a phrase, or a fragment of a sentence.  I often leave off punctuation. 

Being able to summarize what you have read is a skill that can be learned and practiced.  Reading and commenting on blogs is a great way to practice this.  

Sometimes my comments explain, or elaborate on something that is mentioned in the blog. I try to be helpful, and avoid being critical.  We perceive or understand the world in different ways. Our culture and life experience shape our perception of the world. That does not make one right and on wrong, each is correct in their own way. 

I love comments on my blog.  Every once in a while I get a comment from someone that I almost never hear from.  I average 6 or 7 comments a day, with 300-500 page views. Likely most who visit never comment.  And that is fine.  But I do love those random comments.   

I am on a digital detox, please comment, but I won't read of comment on your comments, until after May 12th.  

Travel Your Own Way

I will be honest, I think recumbent bicycles are silly looking things, but the people who ride them, seem to love them. And it is their ride, their way of traveling, not mine. 

I love to fly, there is still a moment of magic for me when the plane gains speed and lifts off, and when coming over the perimeter fence on landing. Sometimes flights are uncomfortable, sometimes those sitting around me are annoying, but I still love the experience.  It is my thing, it makes me happy.  If it is not your thing, that is fine. Go your own way. 

I have a dear friend who has been known to drive from the midwest to Portland, Oregon and back in a week.  Driving is his thing, he enjoys it, he is really good at it.  He has been driving since he was about 14 - that is okay he was flying airplanes unsupervised when he was 15. I tolerate driving in short spurts. Two or three hours, and I am ready to check into a Hilton and start again tomorrow. I like my little car, Jay's Mercedes is certainly comfy and elegant, and we can drive 800 miles in a 12 hour day, but I prefer not to.  It is not my thing. 

A dozen years ago, my boss and I were going to a conference in Boston, I rode the train up, and flew back.  He couldn't understand why I would take a 10 hour train ride, when I could fly it in little more than an hour.  It was one of the most memorable train rides of my life, north of New York City, along the coast the train moved through a coastal fog for two or three hours. It was pure magic.  The only reason I flew home was I couldn't get a train out of Boston to return home, late enough in the day.  

A Sunday five a few months ago, made it clear that most of my commenters are not interested in a cruise ship.  I understand. It has been 15 years since my last cruise, I rather enjoyed them, we will see how the next one goes. 

I am in a digital detox, without access to the internet for a couple of weeks.  Please comment, but I won't read or reply to comments until about May 12th.   

A Digital Life

I was 8 years old, when we had a phone installed in the house for the first time.  One phone, wired to the wall in the dining room, rotary dial, and a party line.  About 8 years later, when my parents bought a house to retire to in Florida, I had a phone in my bedroom, plugged into the wall. I remember phone service in my first house in Orlando in 1982, a private line and the bill including tax was $7.77 a month. That was technology, before a digital life.  

I started law school in August of 1996, and my first email address came with that.  To check mail, I had to be on campus, and go to a terminal, log in, check messages, send messages.  Shortly after that I opened my first web-mail account, a free service of a major software company.  I could check that account from anyplace that had an internet connection, and lots of patience.  Later that fall, I bought my first home computer, then a few weeks later my first cellular or mobile phone.  I was paying $30 a month, for 30 minutes of calls only, in a limited geographic service area.  Additional minutes were about 50-cents per minute, long distance was over $1 per minute.  I was traveling 164 miles a day to and from classes, having a phone in the car made me feel safer. 

A few years later we upgraded at home to a cable modem, and faster and faster computers. My first flip-phone had a basic camera, I think the file size was less than one megapixel, and it was impossible to get the photos off of the phone.  

We were planning a trip to England a couple of years later and I wanted a phone that would allow international calls.  The answer was a Blackberry, it had email, maps, a basic web search, and multi band phone service, actually good and fairly priced international phone and data service. 

My first web postings were on Virtual Tourist, and the Mirror Project.  Then I guest blogged for Stephen one summer and started blogging. Facebook came as a favor to a blogger, who was recruiting people to play Farmville. And slowly a digital life was built.  Reading blogs, posting on my blog, checking email, text messages, news, YouTube, and FB are a constant from the first thing in the morning, until I am in bed at night.  I have a bed computer, a small laptop that lives in the side of my bed, always within reach.  

It is time for a digital detox.  A couple of weeks without reading, and commenting, a couple of weeks without looking at digital content.  I know I can do it.  I have planned for it.  There are blog posts scheduled to post, please comment, but I won't read and respond to comments for a couple of weeks.  

Part of the digital detox is to prove that I can do it (I hope) and part of it is necessity, I will be offline, because I will be traveling and not have access for several days. The ship has internet service available for a sizable fee and a warning that it will remind you of AoL dial-up in 1995.  

I should be back online around the 12th of May.   

So where am I going? 

Miami,

A transAtlantic Cruise

Port calls in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa

Port calls in Spain, (hopefully lunch with Mitchell) 

A couple of days in Barcelona, 

Southeastern France - taking time to explore without a forced march,

Train to Paris, 

Fly Paris to London, and London to Washington Dulles in an A-380 (I have never been in one.)

Special thanks to Susan and Ana for house sitting for us while we are away.  

Take her to sea, Mr Mudock

The Sunday Five: Quiet Times in Grand Spaces

The next time I am in a grand space, I need to pause, put down the camera, have a seat, and absorb the wonders of the place.  The thought that went into designing the space. The dedicated craftsmen who brought the architects design to life. The details in the finish, the art within the space.  And the way people pass through it.  Do they notice any of it? Do they notice me noticing them. 

1: When was the last time you sat on a bench for five minutes in a grand space and just absorbed what was around you? 

2: Do you check your phone when you pause for a few minutes? 

3: Do you take walks without a phone or camera? 

4: Has your phone rang in a quiet space? 

5: Do you find this space pleasing? 

My Answers: 

1: When was the last time you sat on a bench for five minutes in a grand space and just absorbed what was around you? Probably a month ago when I took this photo. 

2: Do you check your phone when you pause for a few minutes?  All too often yes. 

3: Do you take walks without a phone or camera? I have a couple of times recently, it is hard to leave the phone behind. 

4: Has your phone rang in a quiet space? My most embarrassing was my phone started ringing on final approach on an airline flight, I had forgotten to put it on airplane mode. 

5: Do you find this space pleasing? Yes, very relaxing. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

I will be taking a break from the Sunday Five in May, it will return in June if not before. 

Where is the art

 This was taken a few weeks ago, when the trees were blooming.  I was looking at the art in the gallery, and then I noticed the view out the window.  Is the prettier picture inside or outside. 

I will depart from my regularly scheduled posts for a month or so, to make way for a grand adventure.  There are posts, but not on the usual themes.  The wifi at the first stop on this adventure stinks. My digital detox is starting ahead of schedule by a couple of days. 

100 Ways to Slightly Improve Your Travel Experience: #3 Speeding Through Check in and Security

Recently three of us were dropped off at the Cincinnati airport at the same time.  We agreed that we would meet up just after the security checkpoint, and go to lunch together, we had a couple of hours before flight time. In other words we were on time for our flights.  

K. had checked in online and was carrying baggage on board only, B had not checked in needed to check a bag, and I had checked in online and was checking a bag.  I was the only one of the three with TSA Pre-Check. I was the first one through security.  K was about 15 minutes behind me, and was pulled for secondary inspection because of a bottle of water in her bag.  It took B about 20 minutes to check in, check a bag, and wait in the security line.  None of us are inexperienced travelers, K has flown around the world. 

So what are the tips?

1: Check in online, if you can PRINT your boarding pass before you get to the airport. 

2: If you are checking bags, use the automated machines to print the bag tag (and boarding pass if needed.) 

3: Enroll in TSA Pre-check or what ever express lane option is available in your country.  I pay for Global Entry, (in other countries this system goes by other names) giving me the express lane at customs and immigration and the express lane for airport security. Yes I pay for that, about $20 a year, but the screening is easier and the wait much shorter.  

4: Be prepared for security screening.  Before I enter security I empty my pockets into my messenger bag, keys, wallets, phone.  If I am wearing a belt that will set off security it goes in.  With Pre-Check I can keep my shoes on unless the shoes have a lot of metal in them (and I won't wear something like a heavy pair of boots to travel in for that reason, the hiking boots or waterproof shoes go into the checked bag.) Toss the oversized liquids before you get there.  If I am wearing the larger mechanical watch it has to go in the bag (it will set off the metal detector.)