meanwhile, back at the coffeeshop

I love those Sunday early mornings, walking over to the coffeeshop, having my usual coffee and muffin, reading a book (still Irving) while a variety of music plays -- always kind of funky.  At that hour, there are only a couple of other people there, usually including one eery-looking older woman who sits there just staring out the window.  I always am interested in what her story is, but, on the other hand, it might be better if I don't know.

On the way there, I talked to a very conversant older guy walking his dog.  He (the man, not sure about the dog) had recently moved here from Oregon, so of course I had to tell him that I had just last fall been to Oregon (my 50th of the 50 states), both in Portland and on the Oregon coast.  "Ah, where on the coast?"  Yachats, I tell him.  "Ah, my favorite spot on the coast!" he says.  Mine too.  And then we went our separate ways.

So, if you sleep in on Sunday mornings, you miss me and the other old duffers.

LAS to MSP

So ends my life in the pyramid. Everything in this hotel has an ancient-Egyptian theme (which might partly explain the WiFi situation): the central building of the complex is in the shape of a pyramid, there is a giant sphinx out front, you get the picture...And I'm sitting here having breakfast at the Pyramid Cafe, a 24-hour cafe that is the best 24-hour casino cafe of any I've been to. I've had most of my main meals here, even though there are plenty of other choices, and the staff has gotten so that they know me. I know some people think it's weird that I come to Vegas, but I admit it's just a temporary little escape from the reality I need to face when I step off that plane in Minneapolis.

trying to remember phillip's last name

Two nights ago, my sister Nancy was texting to tell me who won American Idol, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I even knew who the finalists were. If you visit my Nancy this week of May or my sister Mary, like I did this week last year, you are a captive audience. Who can stand to watch that show? (answer: Nancy and Mary). The judges are so horrible and the singers are so ordinary... And yet I found myself pulling for Josh, who ended up coming in third, right behind a giggly young girl in second place and the winner, Phillip Phillips. I mean, really, if your last name was Phillips, would you name your kid Phillip? (answer: yes, if you lived in Georgia)..

Irving

Some of you know that my blogging started with my old website, needahand.com, which went defunct three or four years ago for reasons that I won't go into. I started that site in 2001, and for most of that time it focused on the works of John Irving, my favorite living author. His new novel, In One Person, is occupying a lot of my time in my lazy-slug Luxor stay. It's nice to be back n the comfort of Irving's precise and quirky writing style. The story has a bisexual man as the main character, and, even though it's obviously written by a straight man, it's a good one, if you happen to be an Irving-phile; if you're not, you'd be thinking "What the hell kind of writing is this?"... (think: Dickens without any 19th-century restraints).... And I notice that sometime in the last 24 hours, this blog site went over 30,000 "page views", and no, I don't really know what that means either, but thanks for viewing.

stripping in daylight

Most visitors here don't know how beautiful the mornings can be, as the sun rises over the desert. On the other hand, they can probably tell you all about Vegas nightlife, which I can't. I was out doing a two-mile walk down the Strip this morning, between 6 and 7, and you'd be surprised how many joggers are running the Strip at that hour. Of course, within a couple hours of that, it's too hot to be running or doing much of anything outdoors except maybe lie by the pool. Heat stroke isn't pretty.

scruffier than usual

Usually when I'm in Las Vegas, I stay and hang out in the more upscale hotels (Mirage, Aria, Bellagio...), but this time I wanted a place something more down to earth, where I can be scruffy and unshaven and anonymous. I think about my sons Jon and Tom on their fifth or sixth two-week sprint through Ireland, and I think about my friend Pam and her husband Steve as they're on a month-long tour and hike through Peru and Bolivia, and it makes me realize what a total lazy slug I am when I vacation. I'm even re-thinking the road trip into Utah. Do I really have the energy? So I'm at the Luxor, down at the end of the Strip, and it is a step down but generally fine -- except that there is no WiFi in this hotel! How can that be in the year 2012? So I'm blogging on my iPad, and who knows how that will turn out. If I can summon the energy, I'll re-read and edit before I hit "Publish" (Apparently it doesn't do paragraphs well).

CLT to ATL to LAS

Heading out of North Carolina, flying from Charlotte, changing planes in Atlanta (my least favorite airport), then to Las Vegas. It's been fun here with Nancy, and I'll miss her. Another loss in the music world, the second during my short stay here -- this time Robin Gibb of the BeeGees. He lost his battle with cancer yesterday. Very sad. Three of the four Brothers Gibb are gone already, much too soon.

what to think about north carolina

It's a big state, there are plenty of people and diversity exists, so there is no way to generalize...  It's a state that went for Obama in 2008 but probably won't this year.  It's a state that overwhelmingly voted last week to put prejudice against same-sex and unmarried couples into the state constitution (I have a lot more to say about that topic, but it will be in a future post since I am still formulating in my mind how to say it).  What I'm saying is that this is a state that has moments of being more enlightened than it was in its racist, right-wing past but is cautious about getting too enlightened.

I lived in North Carolina for two months in 1968, not voluntarily:  I had Army basic training at Fort Bragg.  I didn't see much of the state then, but I can tell you that I like it way more now than I did then.

a night in the freak capital

I was here in Asheville, North Carolina one other time before today, one Saturday night in 1965, and maybe I'll tell you over drinks sometime why I was here back then.

It's changed since then.

It's become sort of a hippie mecca, artsy, liberal, offbeat.. (think:  a smaller version of Portland, Oregon [which has an unofficial motto of "Keep Portland Weird"]).  Rolling Stone magazine has named Asheville "The New Freak Capital of the U.S."  --  So, of course I kind of like it.

somewhere near dollywood

Greetings from eastern Tennessee, very close to Knoxville and just south of Pigeon Forge (and no, we're not going to Dollywood),,, My sister Nancy and I are road-tripping through interesting, sometimes beautiful but always politically hopeless southern states for a couple days. Today was mostly a South Carolina day, making a stop at a place that might surprise some of you and about which I will tell others of you... Tomorrow we'll spend in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and probably ending for the night tomorrow in Asheville, NC. I'm enjoying my time with Nancy, wherever the heck we are..

we'll never have that recipe again

Donna Summer, the queen of 1970s disco, born December 31, 1948, died today, May 17, 2012.  Thanks for everything, Donna......

MSP to CLT

The general itinerary --
Today I fly to Charlotte, North Carolina to spend some quality time with my sister Nancy.  We hope to take a day trip or an overnight trip somewhere, destination unknown -- South Carolina, Tennessee or western North Carolina?.. Then next Monday I fly from Charlotte to Las Vegas, where I will stay for several days and road-trip from there to the national parks of southern Utah (if I don't lose my ambition).  Back home on Saturday the 26th.

My sons Jon and Tom have a much more ambitious schedule than that.  They leave tomorrow for two weeks in Ireland.  Jon was telling me this morning that this is his fifth trip to Ireland, and, knowing Jon as I do, I'm sure that he knows Ireland much better than most Irish people do.  He and Tom will take thousands of pictures.  I won't take many.

pack my suitcase??

I just realized that it's late and I hadn't blogged yet today, and my niece Ruthie would kill me if I missed a day.  As it happens, she's sitting across the room from me, working with James on some computer thing as they wait to watch the season finale of Glee.  I thought about asking her what I should blog about tonight, and then it hit me -- how about posting a photo of her kids?..  Her husband tends to be the photographer in their family, but these kids are super-photogenic, even in silhouette... So here they are.

Mostly, I'm procrastinating packing my suitcase.  I leave tomorrow, flying to Charlotte, NC, to hang out with my sister for a few days.  But the blog will continue...

even crazier

Paul Simon (of Simon & Garfunkel) singing "Still Crazy After All These Years"...