How to have something exciting happen in your hometown!
Kim and I visit Columbia, S.C. in 2002: On the one day we visit, the Confederate flag is removed from the top State Capitol; hundreds protest. Kim and I rubberneck outside the building (and get thrown out after trying to go inside, but never you mind that).
Kim and I visit Toronto, On. in 2003: SARS returns on day two of a long weekend there, after more than a month of no new cases and just a couple days after the U.S. CDC declares the city "SARS-free." Kim and I wash our hands incessantly.
Kim and I visit San Francisco, Ca. in 2004: On the day we arrive, gay marriages are allowed in the city -- the first time such unions are allowed anywhere in America. (How legally that allowation is is another question, but never you mind that.) Hundreds line up around City Hall. Kim and I rubberneck outside the building.
I believe induction shows the lesson quite clearly.
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What I like least about long-distance trips. Going eastward, be it starting the trip (London) or ending the trip (San Francisco), because one of two things happens: I have a red-eye flight -- in which case I have to sleep on the plane, and I in my two red-eye sleeping attempts I've a combined two hours of sleep -- or I get in during the early evening, but because of the time difference I can't get to sleep until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning local time, which means the next day I either have to get up terribly late (local time) or run on very little sleep, and if it's the former than I have the exact same problem the next night.
So. I have come up with a solution. For this summer vacation1, Kim and I will only fly westward -- ideally about three-to-five time zones at a time, spending three days in each city, with one day in-between for travelling. I am thinking:
Washington, D.C. to Honolulu (five hours)
Honolulu to Sydney (four hours)
Sydney to Bombay (four-and-a-half hours)
Bombay to Cairo (three-and-a-half hours)
Cairo to Dublin (two hours)
Dublin to Washington, D.C. (five hours)
All destinations English-speaking except for Cairo, and if I were smart, I'd throw in a South American country just so I could hit all of the non-icicle continents.
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1 This is not a serious summer vacation plan. It would be very cool if it were, however.
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
