Summer's Best Eight Weeks

Sons Coleman and Chris attended a great summer camp one year -- it's title was SB2W, or Summer's Best 2 Weeks. They agreed with the title, and still talk about some of the good times and people there. So it is with our just-ended summer holiday visiting friends and family around the U.S.: An organized family reunion of Barb's maternal relatives, on the Oregon coast. Our planned reunion with families from two different countries who happened to have connections in Duluth. Our 40th high-school reunion in Beavercreek Ohio -- noting that neither Barb nor I actually graduated from there, but we attended those schools for many years and still have dear friends among our classmates [link to photos]. We attended the church that Barb's father founded in Beavercreek, now preparing their own 50th anniversary celebration.
We enjoyed time with son Christopher, more physically fit and mature than ever, working two jobs to gain Texas state residency [link to photos].
Texas is dry dry dry, with drought restrictions clearly evident. We are used to the dry climate, as we are living in Saudi Arabia. But we were continually stunned by the lush greenery in the rest of the U.S., and the profligate use of water (carefully and expensively-treated for drinking, but mostly used for washing and irrigating). We finished up our time with a restful weekend at the cabin [link to photos].

We also took the consumer pulse, in the eight large cities we visited: the house-for-sale signs are not quite as numerous as last year, but people's attitudes about a future economy are bleaker -- few jobs, little hope for improvement, and concern about political polarization. That said, the municipal infrastructure is in better shape than I have ever seen it. Your comments?

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My COVID journey, finally

11oct22 story of Covid: I flew to Des Moines for a mini-reunion of Thomas cousins; flew back on Monday the 3rd. I did not wear a mask. Evidently I should have worn a mask, as I later came down with Covid. The infection could come from anywhere, typically airborne virus shed by someone in the communicable phase of the disease. Throughout my airport and flight experience was quite calm and uneventful, so my guess is the most likely vector for the virus was the deplaning time – people are really eager to get out, they are talking, pressing close together, straining to grab bags from the overhead compartment and coordinate with their partners, thus breathing heavily. Very few people wore a mask. I do not remember anyone coughing or sniffling or breathing heavily around me, but that deplaning process is always rather hectic. I did not press to go quickly, but I did not want to delay my windowside seatmate, so I joined the crowd. As it was, when I arrived at baggage claim, my suit

Montpellier

[23mar22] Another walking day: to the A rc de Triomphe , passing through quaint quiet attractive old neighborhoods, particularly the P lace de Marché des Fleurs. Arc de Triomphe is spectacular, next to an equally impressive Palais de Justice , and the Promenade de Peyrou that has a great view of the surrounding hills and the aqueduct built by Peyrou to supply the city's fountains. The Jardin des Plantes – oldest botanical garden in Europe – opens at noon, so we walk around to the Cathedral St.Etienne, with its obscure side entrance, but huge interior space, really huge and rather stark, in keeping with its 13 th century origin – though of course several later kings and bishops added chapels, stained-glass, and organ. While there, the organ started up, providing appropriate sonic accompaniment to the surroundings (ref. My video). We return to the garden to await its opening, chatting with some Chicago tourists (go Bears!). The garden is very nice place for sauntering, and

Riding the Bus often

From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back. His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty. The air-conditioning usually works too well. I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 students

Thomas journals

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