Istanbul 2014
Yesterday morning I got up at 5 am as usual, and finished my packing so I could get out of the house by 7:15 and be on my way to the airport to catch my 10:30 flight to Denver. I gave Winston a bath so he'd be clean and slightly lessly doggy smelling. I hated leaving that dog. I even remembered to top off the fountain and water the plants. I forgot to take out the garbage to the street ... I was astonished to see the garbage man actually get out of his truck and take my garbage can out o the street for me! That's never happened before. All was well until I got to the airport and checked in. The plane was delayed by an hour and a half so I didn't get to Denver until just after 4 pm.
I got in the wrong seat ... I was a bit more interested in getting my carry on into the bin and not on the actual row number, so had to trade seats with another fellow, but it worked out rather well. I sat next to a rather ascetic looking fellow who turned out to be quite interesting ... he was somewhat long in the tooth, retired, and had the dual abilities of conversing on a wide range of topics as well as asking insightful questions. Jack, as he introduced himself, was a retired scientist for Dow Chemical and a Catholic convert who, late in life, had become a Benedictine oblate. His self-described mission was to be of service to other people and to listen ... he had just spent three weeks helping his daughter's young family move from DC to the Portland area.
In retrospect I think I talked too much, but as current transportation translates into people attaching headphones to themselves and retreating into their own personal bubbles, our conversation was very much an old-fashioned experience of two strangers meeting on a train, unfettered ideas bouncing around, and then going their separate ways.
The Denver airport is huge ... with a train that connects the terminals. I wasn't familiar with it, but it was easy enough to navigate. I called Clarissa as I couldn't raise Clayton. He was on his way so I went to what looked like the pick up area and that worked just fine because he called and knew exactly where I was. It was cold outside ... not freezing, but definitely chilly ... my jacket was packed.
All in all it was an uneventful flight, if slightly longer than anticipated, and easy departure from the airport. As we drove south to Logan Street, I could see the snow falling on the Rockies in the distance. I love the Rocky Mountains ... so beautiful.
We went to dinner at the Black-eyed Pea. It 's a restaurant chain but the food is really very good and fresh. I had chicken-fried chicken, a Southern tautology to be sure, but it was good with mashers and cream gravy. I like my fried chicken, mashers, and gravy better, but their rolls and cornbread were awesome. They also had very good veggies on the side ... not over done, well seasoned and fresh. The portions were generous of course and I couldn't eat it all so being cheap, will eat my leftovers for breakfast. Ron had a potato bowl which was a mixed up thing of mashed potatoes, diced chicken, and cheese ... it seemed like something Greg would like especially if bacon was included.
It was a long day even though it was spent mostly waiting and sitting. Clayton had to head back to Longmont to be at work early, so I spent the remainder of the evening with night-owl Clarissa before I wandered off to sleep.
The biggest annoyance of the day was a continuing issue with connectivity. The Portland airport had terrible Wi-Fi ... extremely slow. Denver was much better. Clayton has a network set up at Logan Street, but so far I haven't been able to make that work. The computer found the connection immediately, but there is some issue with accessing the servers ... the diagnostics don't indicate a problem. Annoying ... I woke up at 2:15 and haven't been able to get back to sleep. This is the first night in a while that I haven't taken my tincture and it seems I'm back to my insomnia.
I would love to find my voice on this trip ... and possibly rediscover my sense of humor. I had one once but it's been wrung out of me in the last couple years.
New Blog
The blog is functional though I have yet to wrestle the template completely into the shape I want. The second half of that equation is mastering the loop to get s animippit of blog content on this page so it links elegantly to the blog with appropriate links back and forth. Such is progress ... exceeding slow.
Getting organized
This is my latest attempt to pull all the threads of my varied interests together in one location.
My small business, such as it is, is Small Planet Living. We have a small planet and I favor a small footprint. I also like very small houses … hence the websites
Antique Home Style
Mid Century Home Style
Bungalow Home Style
Small House Living
Once upon a time, when I wasn’t scrambling, I was a master gardener here in Oregon. That gave rise to Garden Arts, which has morphed over time into a joint enterprise with my partner to create hanging gardens, Forest’s Hanging Gardens, to be more precise.
Then there’s Small Planet Living, which is more of a front end to keep business related information together.