It has been very cold around here lately. Yesterday I saw the lowest reading I have ever seen on my front porch thermometer: -0.6F. If you’re in Minnesota, that’s not very cold, but I’m a transplanted Californian living in New England, so that’s plenty cold. The larger problem for me is [...]
Archive for the ‘travel’ Category
Yes, I Bought More Books. So Sue Me.
Posted in Books, travel on January 18, 2009 | 3 Comments »
More Naked Book Lust
Posted in Books, travel on October 27, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Yesterday we again met the Suitcases of Courage and the Sprinters della Casa for an excursion. Last week it was sheep and this week it was Edith Wharton. When Mrs SoC saw Dorothy reading an Edith Wharton book at one of the races this past summer, she mentioned that she was very interested in seeing [...]
Some Mountain Goodness
Posted in dogs, hiking, travel on September 1, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I intended posting this a couple of weeks ago, but things got in the way. So, without further delay, here is some Mountain Goodness. Clicking the thumbnails should biggify.
Here is the beginning of our epic hike. Please remember that I had cracked my rib only a few days earlier.
Muttboy taking a break before the climbing [...]
Fine Art
Posted in art, dogs, travel on July 25, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I was not expecting to be able to go with Dorothy to the museum today because I received that dreaded envelope in the mail a couple of months ago–the one that says “Jury Administration” on the return address. However, last night I called the number they provided and learned that my juror pool was canceled [...]
The Definition of Irony
Posted in travel on May 30, 2008 | 9 Comments »
On Wednesday, we went to Salem, Massachusetts, for my birthday. I have been living on the east coast for over 12 years, and I haven’t made the pilgrimage to many of the famous American literature shrines yet, so this was my chance to start. I teach The Scarlet Letter every fall in my American lit [...]
In Which I Pretend to Be a Salvadoran Cowboy
Posted in travel on March 26, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I was pretty pleased with myself for handling my driving duties so well. It was that sort of pleasure that appears after doing something difficult when you know you don’t have to do it again. But now, here I am, driving through Usulutan again, this time with three of the girls on the trip in [...]
Driving Sister Elena
Posted in travel on March 25, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The theme of my trip was pushing boundaries. So much of the experience was uncomfortable–not knowing the language, shyness around the Salvadorans, uncertainty about my role as a faculty guide–but I knew, despite my discomfort, that pushing through the hard parts would be more rewarding and allow me to come out on the other side [...]
Landscape of Conflict
Posted in travel on March 15, 2008 | 4 Comments »
As I watched the scenery from the back of the cattle truck, bouncing into the others in the truck with me as the road became rough, I thought how familiar yet strange the landscape looked. In one moment it reminded me of California, with rolling hills covered with dry, golden grass, and small groves of [...]
Still Working
Posted in travel on March 13, 2008 | 2 Comments »
When we first visited the worksites, one of the men from the community at Hacienda said that we would probably not work past 10 o’clock. I thought this was a wildly pessimistic view. Sure, most of the students have not done a lot of physical labor recently, but I have been training seriously for bike [...]
At Work in El Salvador
Posted in travel on March 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
There were three work sites for us: the chapel site at San Pedro, another chapel site at Hacienda, and the field-clearing about two blocks away. I really wanted to do something hard, for some reason, and swinging a pick around sounded nice and hard, so I volunteered to go to one of the chapel sites. [...]
