Back in NY

I seem to be spending time here, much as I was in Honduras, with a few minor changes.  Here one lives to eat.  After 2 months of Baleadas and spicy chicken wraps, a visit to Xuan foods or Lan Sheng or a taste of any of Janet's wonderful creations or of my own pizza are all very welcome.  What is missing in NY are my fellow DMTs (and other companions), and the opportunity to function comfortably on island time.

How things change.  Janet left a week ago - actually 8 days.  Zena just left.  She has been visiting since before Janet left.  Mark spent the weekend++.  A good time was had by all.  Ate, drank, visited.  Had a better time than seemed likely, which is a good thing.  I should build this with pictures but these days they go directly to facebook which makes putting them here a bit redundant.  On the other hand, on facebook I say nothing.  Haven't yet learned how to use facebook as a blog, or if you should.  So there it is, photos and words rent asunder.  At least until later.

Aliens

I have a T shirt in which space aliens abduct a sheep from its flock - and he likes it.  This is my life.  Should the sheep resist or follow the flow.  Or is should the problem, in which case,  does a question remain or is Baba Ram Das' Be Here, Now - the operative mantra.  I admit to confusion which suggests, I think, that I am not so old.  Still young enough not to know the answer.

I call Janet wondering whether it is 9:10 or 7:10, a difference which may reflect itself in my reception.  Anyway, the machine answers and its back to the blog.  I try to take a picture, but this beiing windows, cannot.

Today, I hope, I think more about being here.  I want a place to be, a bit more ccomfort-centric than the DM house.  A few pots and pans.  Taking boarders would be OK.  Weekly cleaning.  Perhaps DM++.  Must follow up.

Oh my god, just made a post on facebook  It is forever known in the electronic universe.  (and so is this)  Is this an error?

And now it is tomorrow (or the day after tomorrow) and my day off.  .  Last evening, meeting Luke's friend Peg(Meg), sitting, smoking, wondering what I'll do when I'm through with tonight.  I listen to M-Y music.  Thank god, to each his own.

I told Janet about real estate and now have an appointment today re: same.  House (2 bdrm) above sunset village  and two rental cabins near woody's.

Things are looking up: Today she said next year.

And now it is April and I'm in Manhattan (Cole Porter please).

Lots of things have happened which may appear in later segments, but for now: I am back.
I have eaten noodles beneath the Manhattan Bridge.  I am in New York.  I wear long pants and turtle necks.

Bye for now.

An evening

Began with putting on my long pants.  I am wondering now whether I can blog a story which begins with a ritual act and ends at bedtime, and means nothing without all the history which I have already omitted.This, is an evening.  So this is a different sort of blog entry.  One which might be due to the blogger or his intoxication  or is there a difference.

I've already decided that no, I can't do that.  I can't violate people's intimacies to people who don't know them.  All I can talk about is the environment which is awesome.  Raining as I left home, but still with venus and jupiter clear in the sky.  Sat on the porch waiting for my boat to come in.  Watching the sky darken.  Smoked a J on the dock under a full moon and planets.  Walked to the reggae bar, smoked, chilled, and moved on.

To encounter a mixed, inter-generational group where two wizards performed. Joined   Chatted.  one  charms young damsel; one argues with friend.  Then, back here to free myself from having forgotten it rained.

And sitting here naked in front of my laptop, 3G-blogging somewhere that never existed. The computer rings and its my wife.  What kind of world is this?  Belongs in a dylan song.  I open G-Music on my Android looking for Dylan but It's only Rock and roll is on; but undeterred I find (and hear) Highway 61 Revisited.  Call me a fossil.

Making plans for next winter.  I like good weather. Please visit.

30 Days

Is not a long time, but it's not nothing either. It's how long I've been a DMT (DiveMaster Trainee) on Roatan, how long since I've left New York's bright hole  for West End's brown one.  It has been an interesting month.  Lot's of time to look at sunsets and stars and to be sad about being alone and not wanting to be.  Also diving and carrying tanks and not killing yourself with your sausage and listening to Memphis Slim.  Traveling, or being. sure is different.  You are never off the net, never (or always) out of touch.  Local R-O-A-T-A-N radio blares where XM once ruled.  Shows local control is not always the answer.

Tonite, I've been wondering whether people see the same thing when they look at something.  I don't mean whether Jo looks mad but whether blue is blue and how many blades does the turning fan have.  I've also been wondering whether the act of retirement inevitably alters one's life.

I remember years of walking from the car to my office and saying goodbye to the day - emerging in darkness. Here I watch the sun set, I live with people who want to have fun, I visit a magical world, and I get paid too (OK - not true). Can I maintain my attitude in my usual environs. Tune in for the answer to this question.

The place is magical: beach, sun, openness, freedom. Weather amazing. The town sits around a mud track which keeps the pace safe and sociable. The plan is to pave it, thus enabling profit and commerce. After the skies of NYC, the stars are quite unreal. Perhaps not the stars of the high desert but magical in themselves as three planets divide the sky. Reminiscent of the sky above Tulum in the fall of 74 and that's the problem for it is 2012 not 1974, and I am at the other end of the reef which decorates the coast of from here to there, and perhaps at the other end of a life as well.

Angkor Wat is special

Full of life. A place where men built on enormous scale and nature, smiling, kept on.
We kept to quiet paths. Crossing rivers of ants, passing lakes of moss, avoiding other visitors. Seeking quiet.
Through a break in the outer wall: the moat. Men fishing, a family gathering seeds. A monk chanting seeks quiet.
Angkor Wat is special.

Unfortunately, to visit Angkor Wat you must stay in Siem Reap.  Siem Reap is reminiscent of Lake George on a July 4th weekend.  Been there, done that.

Visiting Vietnam

  Has been fascinating in many senses.  For any traveler, it is a remarkable place: 55 peoples with separate languages and customs, thousands of years of history, centuries of struggle against colonial overlords.  For those of my era, it is more: a place we struggled not to visit, or where we 'served' our country, or lost friends or family.

Hanoi is chaotic: no moonlit skies, no quiet hide-a-ways; people and energy everywhere.

Nothing is hidden.  Life is lived on the streets. 

The environment ('Hanoi-sy' or 'Hanoi-ing' ) can wear on the unaccustomed visitor.

We found shelter with an old friend and his family who showed us Hanoi, introduced us to Bia Hoi, and helped make our visit a joy.

After Hanoi, we visited Sapa.  A small town in the mountains, near the border with China.  Sapa is a center for hiking (the highest point in Indochina is nearby) and shopping (many different minority groups visit to socialize and sell to each other and the tourists).

China from Vietnam

SaPa was wet and beautiful.  It was cool and rainy ( a pleasure after 90+ days in Hanoi).  Mud was knee deep.  The market was interesting.  Everything from moonshine to preserved lizards was available.

Fortunately, I uploaded my pictures in SaPa.  Unfortunately, I didn't do it again before losing my camera 6 weeks later in Ho Chi Minh City.

SaPa Delivery vehicle

SaPa at night

Chicken How?

Retired IBM Scientist Invents New Theory of Life

Isaac Newton
Classical theory of gravity

The classical theory of  human life assumes that life follows a sequence of stages: infancy,  childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and finally retirement (or second childhood).  Just as Newton's classical theory of gravity was adequate until scientists developed the ability to measure the orbit of mercury to unreasonable accuracy; this theory of life served well from pre-historic times until the mid-1950s when advances in medical science began prolonging life beyond all reasonable limits.

Now, just as Einstein's theory of gravity extended Newton's classical theory (allowing accurate calculation of stellar position during total eclipses and the observed orbit of mercury),  Dr. C. Leonard Berman, retired IBM scientist, has developed a theory of life which accurately describes the developmental progression observed in 21st century humans.

Albert Einstein
Relativistic Theory of Gravity

C. Leonard Berman
IBM, retired

 As with Einstein's theory, Dr Berman's theory agrees with the classical theory of life within most ranges; however, Dr. Berman's theory extends the classical through the addition of a second adolescence and second infancia which are now frequently observed in subjects whose lifespans have been extended by modern medicine.

Just as the classical second childhood is characterized by a renewed interest in the board games and sporting events of childhood, the second adolescence is characterized by renewed interest in dangerous hobbies (fast cars, sky-diving), travel to exotic locations, 

and/or the barely clad human figure.

The second infancia is characterized by loss of bowel and bladder control, inability to eat hard food, use of strollers or other locomotive devices, and periods of sudden, unexplained napping.  (http://alturl.com/ob28t)

The