world traveler
by Tony Peters on October 7, 2006
Well I'm finally home after 2 1/2 weeks of wandering the earth...Diego Garcia is the definition of tropical paradise...granted the only things to do are exercise or drink and I'm not a drinker...long walks on the flour soft white beaches in the morning and evening. I found a turtle nest one evening, watched a bunch of sunsets and sunrises, snorkled almost daily in the lagoon and hiked some great jungle trails. An hour or two of work a day just to say that we accomplished something...it truely made up for the week spent in Bahrain which is about the furthest thing from paradise that one can get. I did my best impression of either a mad dog or and Englishman as I walked to a local mall under the noonday sun...I think it was 100degrees (or more) of as they say "dry heat" sorta like hell...I lost 7lbs in 2 hours...not one of my smartest actions that's for sure. I now understand why the locals don't do anything in the middle of the day...night time was a much better time to explore the markets (called souqs)...I bought a bunch of saffron for my whole family (xmas shopping early) and a couple of rugs...Rug shopping is very fun...I had a budget and a particular country of origin (Pakistan) of the rugs I wanted. Pakistani rugs are simpler, bigger patterned, and of lower quality than say Persian/Iranian rugs but of better quality than say Indian...I would love to buy an Iranian rug but they are waaaaaay beyond my budget (like 5-10 times what i want to spend) and in truth too fine a rug for my household (cats and dogs) but handling them while shopping sure is nice. I think I looked at 70-80 rugs narrowing it down to about 6-7 before walking on the rugs to figure out which one I wanted...then came the bargining...a good half hour of bargining from about $400 down to to what I actualtly paid which was $220...it was definatly worth it though and the carpet looks great in our bedroom. I also added to my collecting of prayer rugs. Sadly my trip home all 27 hours of it was not fun at all, topped off by KLM/Northwest losing our luggage (all 11 pieces) someplace between Bahrain and Detroit...Made going through Customs easy though. Oh yes and once I got home I realized that I left my cell phone in the room in Diego Garcia...thankfully they found it but it'll be two weeks before I have it again. Never thought I would be jonesing for my cellphone
vagabond-punk
The musings of Tony Peters, a perpetual child, no matter where I am I will find a way to climb something or go skateboarding Read more »
Yet another funeral
one of the nice things about coming home after nearly 20 years away is that I get to see family the bad part is that the most common place to see family is at a funeral. Unlike last summer the weather was glorious so we have a couple of hundred people come to lay my Uncle Donny to rest. Everything was pretty straight until one of the grandchildren laid a Hot Wheels car of a 68 Chevelle, exactly like the one Donny drove for nearly 40 years, in the grave. Go »problems within problems
I read Daily Beast for mush of my news because I like the tone and because there aren't many conservatives left who don't deal exclusively in hate (Hannity Rush etc) I actually used to consider myself a conservative but I can't reconcile their embrace of ignorance nor their dismissal of a changing word. Anyway Meghan McCain wrote an interesting piece on the old guard's disregard for the internet Go »I call him Sushi........
My wife and I have a thing for Amberjack......this is my final sculpture (required anyway) for the semester I shot these before I finished welding the rest of the chain on (5-6 hours today) right now he's covered in salt getting rained on in hope of promoting a patina which I can clear coat. The plan is to add numbers and hang him on the front porch in place of the numbers now there...I'll Go »sticky nasty weekend
Ok this is new england it's not supposed to be this hot...I'm sure Amy actually feels at home but it's been too long since I lived in Guam this is hot. I had plans for this weekend but instead other than a dump run I tried to stay in and stay cool. Go »Change 3
a 07:30 phone call saying ooppsss uimmmm well it turns out that you are gonna have to go after all and we are gonna have to send 2 teams is not that way I wanted to start the day. Neither is sweet talking the travel clerk who's day we ruined yesterday to redo all the work she did yesterday....however other than cancelling my New Years plans, a ride with my dad and a climb with my brother, this on again off again travel thing isn't too much of a burden. Go »
