Funky Friday: Slow Down You Move To Fast

 https://youtu.be/z1Reuyu9e_o?si=tnzAGwry4hFylMdz  

I follow several travel forums on the book of faces, about the only thing worth seeing on that forum these days.  Every week, more like every day, someone posts their planned itinerary for comments, and I can't help but think, SLOW DOWN, you move to fast. People overplan, filling every hour with movement. They plan driving itineraries based on Google Maps saying it will take 2 hours and 14 minute to drive from point A to point B, and they have to get there or they won't finish their plan. Google Maps estimates that you are going to drive close to the speed limit for the route. In a lot of places you won't, or you certainly won't want to. My advice for driving in places like Iceland and Great Britain, is double the estimated driving time. That likely means you are not going to see it all. But you will really have time to see what you do see. 

When traveling, I like to plan at least one day a week with no plans. I may just want to spend the day not moving, or there may be something I want to go see that was not on my plan. I need time for that. I need time to slow down and enjoy where I am. Even business travel should not be hurried. About 20 years ago I did a consulting project in Alaska. The travel planner for the organization I was working with wanted me to fly in, about 10 hours of travel time from where I was living, get in late at night, work all day the next day, then there was a flight that left after midnight that would be the next day, for me to fly home.  I said, NO! I flew out a day early, spent an extra day having a little time to explore, then did the training day. What I remember about the trip home was that the plane I was on backed into another plane in Charlotte and getting home ended up taking almost 24 hours of travel. 

Overcome the fear of missing out. Plan half as much, plan unplanned days, relax, enjoy and truly enjoy the ride.  

The Thursday Ramble: Another Trip Around the Sun

I was born a long-long time ago early in the morning on August 27th, with a thunderstorm raging through the night. My mother complained that I had kept her awake all night. The doctor had found an empty bed in the hospital and gone to sleep.  It was my Grandfather's birthday. 

I was about 7 months old when this photo was taken, it was probably my sister's birthday, she is about 19 months older than I am. On the left is my brother Gary, he is retired from Disney and lives in Orlando. In the middle at the back is my oldest brother Dale, he retired from computer systems stuff and lives near the Space Center in Florida. If all goes to plan, I will visit the two of them early next year. My sister Karen, is on mom's knee, she lives in Ft Wayne, Indiana, I went to see her last month. My parents died in 2017 about 5 months apart. (I had to check my blog to find the year.) 

I have struggled a bit to find something to say this year. 

It has been another year of evading the assassins. Another year without committing a felony. Another year without a major health crisis. A year that reminded me of the swift passage of time. Of our short time on earth. 

Another year of writing, posting to this blog, taking photographs, painting, cooking, traveling and loving. Another year with my Sweet Bear. Another year of good friends being kind to one another. A year filled with much more Joy, than sorrow.

My wishes for the coming year, I look forward to reading your blogs. Trying to entertain you on my blog. To a fair amount of travel, I already know of five trips in the works for next year. To exploring the arts. To reading and learning. I have more things than I need. My wish is for experiences and joy.  

My World of Wonders: August 26, 2026

 

What have I been up to in the kitchen this week?  Baked chicken with butter and white wine, roast salmon, potato salad, local fresh greens with home made vinaigrette, peach tart, sloppy Joes, a tomato salad, a ham and cheese omelet. A very hearty beef and veggie soup. 

Where have I been this week? The treadmill, the pool, the grocery store and Trader Joe's. The Farmers Market. 

How is my reading this week? Not everyday, but when I get started about 100 pages in an evening. 

What has been consuming my time? A couple of sets of continuing education materials that are due the end of the month, the policy resolution. A cluster of conference calls. Oh and an interview with a Pro-Bono attorney who saved a man's life. 

What disappointed me this week? Pastry Boy was not at the market on Saturday morning. 

What have I been watching? Amazon Prime Video, Great Canal Journeys with Timothy West and Prunnela Scales - she was Sybil on Faulty Towers and Mary Berry's cooking videos. If you pay for Amazon Prime, you have access to their streaming video service. These two have proven a wonderful way to nod off to sleep. There is a slight sadness, Prunnela had mild dementia when the series was filmed, she lived on for almost another decade, and out lived her husband by about a year. 

What is on the easel? The big chicken, he is red at the moment. 

Travel Tuesday: A Week At Sea

A week at sea, crossing the Atlantic is either heaven or hell.  I have done it three times, and I truly enjoy it. Quiet days, that develop a rhythm of their own. For others the idle time is boring and frustrating. Despite a million square feet to explore, they feel confined. 

I have done the three major routes, the southern route from Florida to the coast of Africa, the northern route - the route of the Titanic, and the middle shipping lanes. If your idea of a cruise is spending endless days in the hot sun, the closest to that will be the southern route to the Canary Islands and even that is not tropical. The northern route is the fastest, and also the most likely to be overcast and cool. Perfect weather for an afternoon of reading and napping.  

The days are quiet. Leisurely - with nothing demanding your time or attention. There are things to do, shows, movies, lectures, time by the pool, time to walk or go to the gym. And certainly plenty of food options. While you may have a fixed dining room time, you can always skip that and go to the buffet that is open for hours everyday. 

In the three crossings there have been a couple of lifetime memorable moments for me. 

We have passed through the straits of Gibraltar twice. The first time was in the dark, in high winds, and foul weather, I slept through it. The second time was in the late afternoon early evening, in good weather. I could see Spain on one side, and north Africa on the other side, and dolphins running along the side of the ship escorting us into the Mediterranean. The experience moved me in a way I didn't expect. 

The other was passing over the wreck site of the Titanic, on the anniversary of the sinking. The ship had planned to stop to lay a wreath, but the weather was foggy and rainy, and in the interest of safety we kept moving. This was on a Holland America Line ship. Something I didn't know before that trip, a son of one of the founders of the line, was a passenger on the Titanic and went down with the ship. 

A transAtlantic passage is not for you, if you fear time. Time alone. Time that is unscheduled. If you have a strong fear of missing out, the quiet schedule may not be for you. If you savor quiet days to do whatever you want to do, time to explore, time to think, time to not have to think, a transAtlantic passage may be the perfect trip. 

A dolphin escort through the straits of Gibraltar 

 

Passing over the wreck of the Titanic

Monday Moods: Onward

I stumbled across the reminder to focus on today and the future. Really today. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. 

So what can/should I do today? 

• Find Joy! 
• Be nice to others.
• Learning something.
• Be creative.
• Solve a puzzle.
• Breathe. 
• Be tolerant. 
• Be thankful. 

A post this last week, got me to thinking. I am so lucky that I have never felt the need to flee the country that I live in, risk my life in a leaky boat to arrive in another country where I may not be welcome. 

Where I have been able to identify why my ancestors left the "old country" it was mostly economic. And they arrived in a place that they were welcomed. Most people in the world, never leave the country they are born in, many never travel more than 100 miles from home. Things must be pretty terrible for people to flee home. 

What we need to focus on, is helping places where people feel compelled to leave, to become places where people want to stay, places, where people want to live to, not places people want to flee.

Today, I can do something to make other people's lives just a little bit better. 

The Sunday Five: Travel Quest

1: What is your favorite part of flying? 

2: Where would you go if you owned the boat in this photo? 

3: What is your "go-to" hotel brand?

4: If you kept a travel journal, how many pages would you have filled in the past decade? 

5: What is the longest distance you have traveled alone? 

My Answers: 

1: What is your favorite part of flying? When the plane turns into the active runway and powers up to take off. 

2: Where would you go if you owned the boat in this photo? I would turn it around and slowly explore the shoreline of Lake Michigan, the journey would take weeks, maybe months. 

3: What is your "go-to" hotel brand? I have become a big Hilton fan. Hilton has several brands from economy to luxury, Hampton and Home2Suites are a couple of my favorites. 

4: If you kept a travel journal, how many pages would you have filled in the past decade? At least a couple hundred pages. 

5: What is the longest distance you have traveled alone? About 17-18 years ago we went to Greece.  I was flying on frequent flyer miles, Sweet Bear was flying on a ticket the University paid for, so we flew separately.  So I flew from Lexington Kentucky to Athens solo, with changes of planes in Cincinnati and New York. 

Please share your answers in the comments.

 

The Saturday Morning Post: Look for inspiration

 

Last month at the zoo in Ft Wayne we stopped in the petting zoo, my great-nephew's favorite part of the zoo. I snapped this photo of a large roster. And I thought about some of my recent works with major outlines and deep colors. This was not the right image to work from. The cock needs to be more in profile, to have more distinctive feather patterns. A quick search in Google Photos brought up every photo with a chicken in it that I have taken in the past 15 or 20 years. Yes, Google looks at your stored photos, categorizes them. If you use blogger, odds are many of your photos are in a google photo file. If you are an IPhone user odds are your photos are in IPhoto, and searchable the same way.  

I selected an image, and used it to sketch on canvass and now I am working on colors and patterns.  Where did the inspiration come from? A cock in a petting zoo. And yes, I know the way I have written this will inspire creative comments from a few of you. I hope you have as much fun writing comments, as I am painting this big chicken.