Happy New Year …
On MY summer vacation I will be… sailing through the Arctic Ocean, immersed in the majestic polar landscape with wind in the sails and the sleepy sounds of a creaking wooden ship? Just around the corner from the North Pole lies the special gathering of Arctic islands – the Svalbard Archipelago. The only way to move around these icy islands in summer is by sea – just like the ancient explorers did. (Base Camp Explorer)
MEANWHILE…
Time and Pace is finally prepared to welcome (tolerate) 2018. Sleazy-T (alias Spanky) has not gone away and manages to add new levels of humiliation, angst, and actual damage to our lives on a daily basis but, so far, life goes on.
Since returning from SE Asia, India, and Nepal at the end of November, I have sustained a bad case of writer’s block, including my book, journals, facebook, emails, cards, and blogging. I attribute this to some of the following facts: I haven’t been traveling, making it hard to write clever pieces about the world’s wonders or that latest bumpy ride in whatever to wherever. Also, I clearly commit too much of my time to mildly intriguing pastimes and projects that keep me from writing…when writing is what usually makes me happiest. And last, but most definitely not least, I (along with countless of my fellow concerned human beings) am suffering what might be called a low-grade, but nevertheless too-real, depression stemming from a sense that the world is in serious trouble at every economic/political/environmental/ humanitarian level. ‘Big surprise,’ you say, ‘we’ve been heading in this direction for such a long time’. Yes, but you see I never, at the bottom of my heart or the top of my brain, believed it…and now I do.
NEVER MIND ALL THAT…These first three months of 2018 have flown by (albeit with a sprained wing), mostly occupied with family, work, and stories that come to me the easy way via books, films and streaming—now I must write some of my own again.
And, today, because I’ve convinced myself that ‘new years’ need not officially begin until my birthday, commences my very good year. California, South Dakota and Norway. Doesn’t get any better than that….
Happy New Year.
Here’s a small photo album of three months with my wonderful Albuquerque family; Robert and Marsha get to be included because they became New Mexicans for five months, escaping the Minnesota winter:
Sara and mom Michele.
Bro Rob, once an NRA member (although never a rabid right-wing christian one) on his first march.
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- The Marj and Marsha Nesets. Marsha’s first march also.
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- Well don’tcha know that’s the truth…as we say back in the Minnesota woods..
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- Patricia and Luna.
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- Sara and Kalia.
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- Saturday with dogs.
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- Easter Sunday with dogs.
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- Dessert and yet another dog.
Schooner photo from Basecamp Explorer website.
Happy New Year and a Happy Birthday. Thanks for the photos…We even had a protest in Dover! I especially like the sign “the only things easier to buy than a gun is a republican”.