jimsjournal
Yes, I've been busy.
I hadn't given up on this website, just was so busy and there never seemed to be time to write an entry and get it posted online and update my index page and my journal entry list page (and send email to my notify list) and for sure I'll have time to do it tomorrow... or maybe on the weekend... or... well, you get the idea.
It's not that I've gone away -- well, actually there has been some travel -- a trip to South Carolina for a nephew's wedding (which I talked about in an entry that didn't get posted until now) -- and a trip to New York City and a trip to North Carolina -- and, of course, that delightful annual struggle with income taxes, but I've been attempting to keep up with email (sometimes falling two or three days behind) and with reading journals (again, sometimes a bit behind schedule), I've just been running short of time to work on this site. I had written that aforementioned entry about our AmTrak trip to South Carolina and I thought I had posted it but discovered just a few minutes ago that it's been sitting on my laptop all this while. (And in the course of moving this stuff up to Geocities I managed to trash an entry that had been here for March 3rd, gone, poof, off to that big bit bucket in the sky.)
Anyway, my apologies for this protracted silence.
I've written any number of entries in my head while driving to work in the morning, etc.... entries that never made their way to the keyboard. Taxes, for instance. Now that's a topic! Ah well, best for blood pressure just to leave that subject alone.
- The hostage crisis with China. Our crew was flying in international airspace when a Chinese jet, being flown in a dangerous and reckless manner, struck our aircraft. It was totally China's fault. Our crew was being held hostage just as much as if they had been hijacked. China not only should return our plane immediately, they should also apologize to us for their outrageous actions and offer to pay for the cost of the damages to our airplane.
- Farewell to Mir. It was sad to see it end
- Anniversary of Yuri Gargarin's flight.
- Joey Ramone. Yes, I know, I'm the wrong generation and I'm not actually a Ramones fan, but I know Ramones fans. I was struck by how widespread the reaction to his death was. People talked about it at work, people talked about it on their websites... Adam and Leah have an egroup set up for news and discussion about their wedding and recent postings have dealt with thoughts of first Ramones albums owned and first Ramones concerts attended. The Providence Journal ran an editorial about Joey Ramone.
- A kitchen full of teenagers (high school and college students) coloring Easter eggs. They had fun.
Yeah, so last week I was down in the Raleigh-Durham area -- Research Triangle Park -- that area is amazing, so many companies, so many thousands and thousands of commuters. It seemed as if almost every road was having new lanes added to accommodate the people who would be working in all of the new office parks that were under construction. When I was in South Carolina a month and a half ago it was already full green spring down there. North Carolina looked like lush full summer -- everything green -- but although the week before I was there temperatures had been in the eighties and a day or two after I left they returned to the eighties, while I was there highs were in the fifties (which made it feel just like Rhode Island had been) except that it snowed -- yeah, genuine snow. It didn't stick but it was chilly and it was snow. The combination of all that green with the chilly weather made it seem more like autumn, a chilly early autumn day before the leaves have changed. While I was down there, Nancy (spring break is for teachers too!) and Jennifer went over to the Catskills area for four days of tennis camp. I was worried that the weather might spoil their time but there were lots of indoor courts and Nancy told me that the outdoor courts were fine when the sun was out. They had such a good time that Jennifer is asking when could they go there again.
Nancy and her mother and I went to Providence on Saturday to see Fiddler on the Roof with Theodore Bikel as Tevye. It was very nicely done, one of those Broadway touring company productions. Bikel was very good... He played the role on Broadway in the late sixties (I think he took it over after Zero Mostel) and has revived it a number of times. He was 43 when he first played the part and is now in his late seventies and is still strong.... He's been in 1700 performances of Fiddler and yet still seemed fresh, still seemed to be enjoying the part. At least half of the music in the show is generic Broadway stuff, quite forgettable, but I like "Tradition" and "Anatevka" and (most of all) "Sunrise, Sunset". The Providence Performing Arts Center is a gorgeous venue, one of those 1920's movie palaces, glittering gold leaf designs, restored and converted to a performing arts theatere, absolutely awesome to think that it cost two and a half million dollars to build this place three quarters of a century ago.
Okay, so I've written an entry.... now I have to move it up to Geocities, etc., etc.
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