Travel Tuesday: Avignon France

 

Moody Monday: Looking Back and Moving forward Goals for 2025

 

I could lecture about the importance of goals and how to set them in ways that are specific, achievable, and measurable, but you didn't come here for that. Either you are goal driven, or you aren't.   

I set goals for myself each year, and at the end of the year, I check against last year's goals to see how I have done.  It helps me to make a plan, and have some idea what do I want to do this year. If I fail to plan, I am planning to fail. Someday I will figure out what I want to be when I grow up. 

So my goals for 2024 as published on this blog last December 28th were;  

• Read 50 books.  I kind of blew this one out of the water, ending the reading list for the year at 96. 
• Visit my local library. Yes, and I have so much enjoyed my local library - please use yours. 
• Meet 3 or more bloggers in person. Mitchell, Sean, and Diane.  
• Hotel nights? Me guess was 40-50, I ended with a new record for me 73 nights, a couple funerals in Cleveland added to this. 
• Blog Daily. Mission accomplished.  
• A week or more of digital disconnect - It went well. I don't see a reason to repeat this one. But I have considered dropping FB. 
• 45 minutes or more of movement, 5 or more days per week.  60 minutes 6 days most weeks. 
• Check one or more items off of the bucket list.  Crossed the Atlantic on a ship, spent a couple of weeks in the south of France, rode in a Ford TriMotor. 
• Go to two or more condo events monthly (when I am home.) Probably about 50% on this one.  I will try to do better. 
• Go out to lunch at least once a week.  Missed this one by probably 1/3, though we ate out when we were traveling and that was a lot. 
• Experience one new art. Fail, I had hoped to take an art class this year. 

So there are several hits and a few misses in 2024. 

What are my goals for 2025? 

• Keep walking at least 60 minutes per day, on average 6 days per week. 
• Read 50 or more books. 
• One more bucket list item (Scotland in early May.) 
• Travel I think will be about 45 nights this year. 
• Blog daily, I missed one day in 2015, and not a day since. 
• Practice arts, painting, photography. 
• Submit for at least one arts showcase.
• Try at least one new art. 
• Ride a local bus. 
• Finish the chapter on Identity Theft.

So there are 8 things I plan to do this year. Nothing earth shattering.  All of it things that assuming my health remains good, and war does not break out, are within my ability. Some are maintenance tasks, some are growth tasks. 

Let me know if you want to read the lecture on goal setting.  

What are your plans for the New Year? 

The Sunday Five: Technology

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History has a special exhibit on smart phones - and all of the elements that go into making them. In the exhibit was this wall of out of date technologies, you know the things that were new a novel in our lifetime.  

1: Do you still own and use a CD player? 

2: Do you still have a landline phone? 

3: Do you still have a VHS video cassette player? (Extra points if you have a Betta Max machine.) 

4: Do you still have a working film camera? 

5: Do you wear a wrist watch? 

My answers: 

1: Do you still own and use a CD player? I have one, it does not get used much. 

2: Do you still have a landline phone? Yes, and I prefer to make calls on it. 

3: Do you still have a VHS video cassette player? No, and I have a few VHS tapes I should have copied to digital.

4: Do you still have a working film camera? Yes, I haven't used it in a few years, I have a Nikon 35mm. 

5: Do you wear a wrist watch? Yes,

Please share your answers in the comments. 

Saturday Morning Post: Reading List 2024

New York street photo, January 2024. 

1.  Law in American History Volume III, G. Edward White (massive 881 pages.) (P)
2. The Practice, Seth Godin (short essays on creativity.) (E) 
3. Radical Curiosity, Ken Dychtwald (E)
4. Why I Write, George Orwell (political commentary at the start of WWII. (P)
5. True Tales of Alexandria, Ted Pulliam (mostly military history.) (P)
6. The World Central Kitchen Cookbook, Jose Andres (very good, nice text sections.) (P)
7. At Large and At Small, Anne Fadiman (P) collection of essays 
8. Burn This Book, edited by Toni Morrison (P) collection of essays on writing 
9. The Blood of Emmett Till, Timothy Tyson (P) a must read for all Americans 
10. Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric, (E)
11. Encore Provence, Peter Mayle, (P) a re-read from 1999
12. The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum (E) I had seen the film and not read the book before. 
13. The Way of the Fearless Writer, Beth  Kempton (P) 
14. The Four Sacred Gifts, Dr. Anita Samchez (P) 
15. The New China Playbook, Keyu Jin (P)
16. The Curious Mind Expanded, Brian Grazer (P) 
17. Poverty in America, Matthew Desmond (P) - parts are good, parts are stupid. 
18. The Garden of Eden, Ernest Hemingway (P) 
19. Illogical, Emmanuel Acho (P) 
20. More Glimpses, Hugh W. Robert (P) 
21. Young China, Zak Dychtwald (E) 
22. Brave New Home, Iana Lind (P) parts of it are good, but parts of it have logical flaws. 
23. Write for Your Life, Anna Quindlen (P)
24. About Us, Pete Catapano et al (P) A collection of essays on living with disabilities from the New York Times - should be required reading for high school students. 
25. The Secret Life of Cows, Rosamund Young (P) 
26. Fine Just The Way It Is, Annie Proulx (P) 
27. Cannery Row, John Steinbeck (P)
28. 100 Places To See After You Die, Ken Jennings (P)
29. Across The River and Into The Trees, Ernest Hemingway (P)
30. Lessons from An American Stoic, Mark Matousek (P)
31. The Upstairs Delicatessen, Dwight Garner (E)(Excellent book) 
32. Soldier Boy, Cynthia Reimer (E)
33. The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart (E)(terrible, don't waste your time)
34. Boomer, Zoomer, and other Ommers, Marcel Strigberger (E)(very good, funny, sarcastic view of aging.) 
35. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis ((P)a great re-read)
36. Let's Talk About Aging Parents, Laura Tamblyn Watts. (P)(A keeper of a book about communicating on complex issues in aging.) 
37. my Island Odyssey, Evelyn Kalcas (P) 
38. The Wisdom of Sheep & Other Animals, Rosamund Young (P)
39. Retiring the Generation Gap, Jennifer Deal (P) - well researched
40. Tip of the Iceberg, Mark Adams (P) 
41. Unstill Life, Gabrielle Selz (P) 
42. Remembrance of Things Paris, ed Ruth Reichl (P)
43. The Three-Martini Playdate, Christie Mellor (P) 
44. The Art of Flaneuring, Erika Owen (P) wanders far from the topic 
45. The Art of Looking, Lance Esplund (P) meh! 
46. About Time, David Rooney (P) very good history based on time keeping 
47. 32 Yolks, Eric Ripert (P) biography, I had read this before. 
48. The Ideas That Made America, Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen (P) I learned something from reading this one. 
49. Down and Out in Paradise, The Life of Anthony Bourdain, Charles Leerhsen (P) insightful biography 
50. Dusted to Death, Barbara Colley (P) murder mystery. 
51. A Paradise of Small Houses, Max Podemski (P), fails to deliver on premise. 
52. Life Is Filled With Swift Transitions, Karren Jo Pope-Onwukwe (e-page proofs) by a friend read to write a review.
53. The Passenger, Chaney Kwak (P) 
54. What We Talk About When We Talk About Books, Leah Price (P) good read
55. Decline and Fall, Evelyn Waugh (E) (F)
56. Lord Edgeware Dies, Agatha Christy (P) novel 
57. Reading the Room, Paul Yamazaki (P) 
58. America and Other Myths, Photographs by Robert Frank and Todd Webb (P) 
59. Inventing the Victorians, Matthew Sweet (P) mehh! 
60. Dusty Booze, Aaron Goldfarb (P) 
61. Photography - A Queer History, Flora Dunster and Theo Gordon (P) 
62. American Gothic, Steven Biel (P) 
63. Creative Change, Jennifer Mueller (P) 
64. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens (P) novel 
65. Statistics, David Hand (P) an overview for math phobics. 
66. The Curse of Braeburn Castle, Karen Baugh Menuhin (P) novel 
67. Dawn Light, Diane Ackerman (P) 
68. Find Your Landing Zone, Kevin McGoff (P)
69. How to Die, Seneca edited by James Romm (P) 
70. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald (P) 
71. Its Great to Suck At Something, Karen Rinaldi (P) 
72.  Gmorning Gnight, Lin-Manuel Miranda (P) 
73. Why We Read, Shannon Reed (P) 
74. A Walk Around the Block, Spike Carlsen (P) 
75. Religious Influences on Economic Thinking, Benjamin Friedman (E) 
76. The Book of Scams, Rodney Hobson (P)
77. Identity Theft Alert, Steve Weisman (P) 
78. In My Time of Dying, Sebastian Junger (P) 
79. Reader Come Home, Maryanne Wolf (P) 
80. For You When I Am Gone, Steve Leder (P) 
81. The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester (P) 
82. Be Ready When Luck Happens, Ina Garten (P) 
83. Sunshine State Essays, Sarah Gerhard (P) Not very good. 
84. Unexpected Love, David Edmonds (P) novel 
85. The most they ever had, Rick Bragg (P) The plight of mill workers in the American south. 
86. No Cure For Being Human, Kate Bowler (P) insight into life with a potentially fatal illness. 
87. Idiot Brain, Dean Burnett (P) Why we do some of the things we do. 
88. Old Age, A Beginner's Guide, Michael Kinsley (P) 
89. Brave New Words, How AI Will Revolutionise Education, Salman Khan (P) A quotable book, though a little math heavy. 
90. Taste My Life Through Food, Stanley Tucci (P) Great book. 
91. Six Walks In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, Ben Shattuck (P) Interesting book. 
92. Pig Years, Ellyn Gaydos (P) life on a small farm
93. Seaweed Chronicles, Susan Hand Shetterly (P) The complex life of coastal waters and the challenge of harvesting the seas. 
94. Backstage with Julia, Nancy Verde Barr (P) a fun inside look at Julia Child
95. Mind the Science, Jonathan N. Stea PhD, (P) Well written book about medical care and quacks. 
96. Visually Speaking, Ted Forbes (P) 

(P) = Print book

(E) = Electronic Book, mostly Kindle

Friday: Blogging for 2025

Once again in 2024 I have not missed a day of blogging, actually not missed a day on two blogs, The Adventures of Travel Penguin, and Selfie Daily.  I tried a photography blog, and ran out of ideas.  I will likely continue the selfie daily effort. 

Here on Travel Penguin my core theme days for 2024 were:

• Sunday Five
• Moody Monday 
• Tuesday Travel 
• Wednesday Ws 
• Thursday Ramble 
• Friday has morphed through the year, from food, to funky, to funny, travel tips. 
• The Saturday Morning Post - morphed in great adventures in travel 

My plan for 2025:

• The Sunday Five - a crowd favorite - 
• Monday Moods - my weekly mental health check in 
• Travel Tuesdays - I will have to keep traveling to keep feeding this
• My World of Wonders the Wednesday Ws - a weekly check in on my activities 
• The Thursday Ramble - my weekly editorial rant
• Freestyle Fridays - whatever strikes my fancy
• The Saturday Morning Post - 50 states in 52 weeks. This will be a description of my visit(s) to each of the 50 United States, plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico to fill out the year.  I already have several of these written. There is one state I know I have no photos from, I was last there when I was 6.   

The travel tips will appear from time to time, as I think of something worth writing about, on Thursdays or Fridays. The Sunday five requires me to dig for inspiration from time to time.  For Travel Tuesdays I will try to include in depth explorations of local sites, and I will dig back in the photo archive for travels since going digital. Planned travel in April and May will fill a few weeks of Tuesdays. 

I love reading and responding to your comments.  Please keep the comments, even if you only say "hi I was here." 

 

The Thursday Ramble: A Riverside Stroll

A couple of days in last week, it was warm enough to walk outside without bundling up like an arctic explorer. On one of them I parked down along the Potomac River and walked a circle through the troll park (a park under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.) 

As I was walking along the river I could hear it before I could see it.  An aircraft that makes a very unique sound, a weird hybrid of a helicopter and a propeller driven plane, and very loud. The Osprey must be deafening to be close to, or to ride in.  Can you imagine driving across that bridge as it crossed overhead at about 500 feet? 

The area where the bridge crosses the river has a deep history. There was a shipyard there from World War I through World War II. Liberty ships were assembled there during WWII. There are a few artifacts left behind, cleats in the seawall that the ships were tied to during final fit out, parts of a slipway running back through the trees. Buried deep in the wetlands and trees is the site of a Civil War Fort from the 1860's. 

There are huge parking lots under the bridge, part of the original design, that for security reasons are closed to the public. A great place for basketball, skateboards and bikes. 

Along the water is the Jones Point Lighthouse (the official name of the National Park Site.) We were married in front of the lighthouse, with a special permit from the National Parks Service. 

The flightpath for Reagan National Airport (it will always be National Airport to the locals, airport code DCA) follows the river, with landing or departing aircraft flying the course of the river for 5-10 miles. There is also a military heliport on the east side of the river, the destination of the Osprey that afternoon. 

The tall building is the MGM Hotel at the MGM National Harbor Casino, just across the bridge from us. 

My World of Wonders, aka The Wednesday Ws December 25, 2024

My Wish to all of you and yours

is a 

Very Merry Christmas 

Thank you for being a part of my World of Wonders

May the coming year be filled with great adventures 

Travel Tuesday: Christmas Eve Edition 2024

For this post I went back through the photo archive for the year. The idea was one photo for each month, but some months merited more than one.  

My little car in what was about the only snow of winter last January.

Increasingly rare, Ice on the Potomac River. 

The Wilkes Street Tunnel 

A Museum of Bourbon in Louisville in February 

The rare book collection at Yale, in February 

A sunny day in March

A pedestrian tunnel under Duke Street in Alexandria 

In the parking lot at Mt Vernon, someone drove it in there that way. 

Unter the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Alexandria, with a fisheye lens. 

Roman Aqueduct in France 

Leaving the Port of Miami in late April. 

Sunset Mid Atlantic in May

A penguin in the canary islands in May.

Yes he was napping. 

Lunch memories in a square in France. 

My camera ran out of memory space just after I took this one. 

June

A dear neighbor on the 4th of July. She is retiring from NASA in January. 

Chicago in August 

Flying that engages all of the senses. 

The Air Force Museum in September 

Time Square in October - our second visit to NYC in 2024 

Huntley Meadows in October 

The National Mall in Washington DC in early November 

200 block of King Street in Alexandria, Virginia December 2024