In case you haven’t discovered Radiolab, it’s a fascinating podcast, exploring a variety of subjects (like memory, time, or life) from different angles. Very well done, always intriguing and surprising, and one of my favorites. Highly recommended.
My all-time favorite (if the concept of “all-time” even makes sense, but that’s a different episode!) is Greatest hits of ancient garbage. Very cool!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The good news is I have a lot of very safe memories! Now what was I going to say?
On arrival at Atlanta’s airport, I was pleased to find signs telling me the walk to baggage claim was 4000 feet, or about 3/4 mile. After sitting cooped up on a plane, a brisk walk was a great way to get the blood moving. Why not start with exercise in the airport? (Don’t worry — there’s a train if you don’t feel the same!)
It was late by the time I checked in to the hotel, so I decided to have room service and get a little work done before turning in. (I admit — I adore room service! It dates back to when I used to be a room service waitress, and SO envied those people getting breakfast delivered.) Times have changed though, and it’s amazing now that one chef salad, no drink, adds up to $25 by the time all the extra charges are added! So the Atlanta diet plan = raiding the minibar in the morning, since I balk at paying another $25 for a continental breakfast.
Tip: When you’re planning a trip, it pays to check the price of add-ons too, when you’re comparing hotel prices. Adding $17 parking + $15 internet + $20 breakfast makes a big difference in the price.
For this trip, I’m here for a conference with special rates, so it makes sense to stay at this hotel. In many other circumstances, I’d look elsewhere. Lots of other hotels have free internet and breakfast included, and you’d avoid that little “ouch” I always feel when I have to pay $15 to use the internet!
My trip back from Belize took about 24 hours longer than expected, but that wasn’t such a bad thing. In fact, in a way it made me feel good about people.
The trip started out great — even ahead of schedule! For a 9am puddle-jumper from Ambergris Caye to Belize City, I showed up an hour early. (These travel habits are pretty ingrained.) So I was a bit surprised when I arrived at 8am, and they said the flight was boarding in 3 minutes! Yes, this teeny tiny plane boarded an hour ahead of time. Turns out on Easter Sunday they were running multiple planes as fast as they could get them loaded. So we were off for the 17-minute flight to Belize City. So far, so good…
The problem appeared a few hours later, when it was time for the international flight to leave for the US. That’s when we discovered there was a fuel shortage in Belize. First, they said it was just the international airport. Later they said it was the entire region, including both Belize and Guatemala.
Since there wasn’t enough fuel for them to gas up our plane, we had to make a detour on the way back, and stop in Cancun for a fill-up. What with one thing and another, we got to Charlotte so late that even though I’d planned a 2.5 hour layover, I was just clearing customs when my connecting flight pulled away from the gate.
What made me happy was how well the passengers took it. A very high percentage of people on the plane missed connections, and because of the late hour, most of them (including me) were stranded for the night. Yet, people didn’t get too upset. Nobody freaking out, getting angry, or yelling at the airline staff. Everyone took it in stride, even joking about it.
It certainly helped that US Airways provided hotels and meals for stranded passengers. It might have been a bit different if everyone was looking at sleeping on the airport floor.
But I’m wondering how much was due to the fact we were coming back from a relaxing tropical trip. Did that mellow everybody out? How different would it have been if this was a flight from New York to LA that was diverted and delayed overnight? Something tells me the stress level would have been a bit higher!
That mellow tropical feel sure was more pleasant.
And why not? Stressing over it would have done no good at all. Sometimes you’ve just got to let go, and go with the flow. They’ll get you there as soon as they can. That’s life, and it’s all part of the adventure.
Americans are now deciding whether the wife of an ex-president should become our country’s next president. Perhaps we should ask Argentina, where they have a long history of powerful presidents’ wives.
#1 - Eva Peron (Evita) was the 2nd wife of Argentine President Juan Peron. She went from rural poverty, to life as an actress in Buenos Aires, to wife of the president. As first lady, she was hugely poplar and influential. She founded the Eva Peron Foundation, that built homes for the poor and provided free health care. She was a vocal proponent of women’s rights to vote, and helped make that happen. She founded the first large female political party in Argentina, with 500,000 members. She never took the presidency herself, but she was officially named “Spiritual leader of the nation”. When Evita died of cancer in 1952, at the young age of 33, the country went into mourning, and many people around the country still remember her with love.
Power ****, Popularity = *****, Goodness = *****
#2 - Isabel Peron was Juan Peron’s 3rd wife. In between wives, he had been deposed in a coup and exiled. Isabel was a nightclub dancer (Juan was obviously a fan of the arts), who met him in Panama. They returned to Argentina in 1973, and Juan Peron was re-elected President, with Isabel as his Vice-President. When Juan died in 1974, she succeeded him, and became Argentina’s first woman president. Unlike Evita, Isabel was neither good nor popular. She invested a lot of power in an associate Lopez Riga– a fortune teller, and founder of the Triple A death squads, and the economy faltered during her time in office. Soon the military removed her in another coup, and exiled her to Spain. In 2007 she was arrested in Spain, charged with the “disappearance” of people in Argentina during her presidency. It is now believed that the Triple A alone murdered at least 600 people.
Power = ***, Popularity = *, Goodness = *
#3 - Cristina Fenandez de Kirchner is the current Argentine President, elected in late 2007 to succeed her husband Nestor Kirchner. He came to power during an economic crisis in Argentina, vowing to bring “a cold wind of change”. He restructured the country’s debts, revalued the currency, and realigned their policies, rejecting Free Trade. Though many were skeptical, the country had an economic turnaround. When he decided not to run for re-election, his approval ratings were 60%. His wife Cristina won the election, and Nestor is now First Gentleman in Argentina. How will she do? It’s too early to say, but we do know that just days into her term, investigations began into a potential scandal involving a suitcase full of $800,000 in Venezuelan oil money intended for her campaign. We will be watching with interest.
We’ll be back in Argentina in early 2009 for our women’s trip to Patagonia. Hopefully their latest woman president will be doing a great job. Who knows what will be happening here in the US?
Today’s the most “coupley” day on the calendar — Valentine’s Day. So what about us single people? Here are a few thoughts the rest of us (equally applicable for men & women) can smile about.
“I’m a very committed wife. And I should be committed, too — for being married so many times.” ~ Elizabeth Taylor
“Keep in mind that no matter how cute and sexy a guy is, there’s always some woman somewhere who’s sick of him.” ~ Carol Henry
“The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing — and then marry him.” ~ Cher
“By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.” ~ Socrates
It’s wonderful to think, but it’s even more wonderful to experience life with all your senses.” ~ Oscar Wilde
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How right he is!
I’m back in the office now. The life of the mind uses a lot of my time when I’m not traveling. It’s incredibly interesting! Whether I’m researching possibilities for new trips, or working on long-range strategy plans, or writing a blog post, or learning new coding techniques for our computer system (yes, I still have some techie left in me!), it’s all quite fascinating. Like the man said, it’s wonderful to think!
But there’s so much more, isn’t there? There’s the part we don’t get in the office, sitting in front of a computer. There’s the part we (or at least most of us in this culture) tend to forget about in the stresses of jobs, family, and all the commitments we have. That’s where travel, vacations, and adventures come in. When you get away from the everyday, all of a sudden, you experience life with so many more senses!
A couple of weeks ago, I was up in Cottonwood, and took these pictures of trees in the winter. I was struck by their beauty, and this quotation fit them so well.
While I was out walking there, I was feeling the chill in the air, hearing the river running nearby, gazing astonished at these incredible trees and the blue, blue sky, and feeling the path and the leaves underfoot. I was using all these senses in a way that doesn’t happen here in the office.
Now that I’m back, looking at the pictures can bring back some of the sensations — the exhilaration of those deep, fresh breaths, or the the nip in the air that made me glad I had a hat. But the pictures couldn’t do that unless I was actually there in the first place.
Oscar Wilde was so right.
We stop in the small town of Cottonwood on our Sedona hiking tours for women. You might even see these exact same trees, but you’d never recognize them covered with green leaves.
The earliest shoes that have been found, rope sandals, date to about 10,000 BC. Most footwear erodes over time, so possible earlier examples have disintegrated.
A new study that examined toe bones, has found skeletal evidence showing that people started wearing shoes much earlier — about 40,000 years ago.
When you walk barefoot, you use your middle toes a lot to push off. When you wear shoes, you push off with your big toes instead. The difference in force on your toes is reflected in the toe bones. A 40,000 year old skeleton found in a cave in China, shows signs that person was used to being shod.
It’s an interesting article, and talks about comparing different cultures from Neanderthals to modern Puebloans and Inuits. But the part that grabbed my attention?
They also analyzed a recently found 27,500-year-old Russian skeleton… The Russian skeleton was also found with other individuals who had an abundance of ivory beads around their ankles and feet, suggesting these individuals likely wore some fairly flashy shoes.”
They don’t specify, but my bet is the flashy shoe wearers were women.
On arrival at Atlanta’s airport, I was pleased to find signs telling me the walk to baggage claim was 4000 feet, or about 3/4 mile. After sitting cooped up on a plane, a brisk walk was a great way to get the blood moving. Why not start with exercise in the airport? (Don’t worry — there’s a train if you don’t feel the same!) 
Today’s the most “coupley” day on the calendar — Valentine’s Day. So what about us single people? Here are a few thoughts the rest of us (equally applicable for men & women) can smile about.
I set my Mac to announce the time every hour on the hour, and it reminds me of the old town crier (except a lot quieter)!
