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 »

Life and complexity

After last semester's overdose in writing I have been enjoying not having to write at all this semester. Well that and most of my school time is spent in an Art studio....it is mentally challenging, for the first time in years I'm drawing...it's Go »

Beyond annoying...

well I'm officially retired now, sorta looking for a job but content to work in and around the house for a bit. My one task that I need to accomplish is to complete my VA claim and boy is that annoying....I have my medical record all 5 inches of it and I have to prove each issue that I am claiming and when I first had it treated....this Go »

the next grand adventure..........

as a retired sailor I really thought nothing of deploying and leaving my wife with the cats and dog at home while I went off to fight wars, fix submarines and otherwise earn a living.......now the shoe is on the other foot. I am in school fulltime taking care of the cats, the dog the house and whatever else pops up while my wife and best friend moves to DC to take her dream job. Go »

Grommet

The latest addition to my family...his name is Grommet...my GSP loves him in a strange interspecies way, however my other two cats seem offended/insulted about his existence. Go »

I guess healing requires sleep

I am exhausted...10 hours of sleep each night broken only twice for meds and yet I feel the need to sleep all day....I can barely stay awake for 2-3 hours before I fall asleep in my chair. Go »

Pain on a whole new level

good afternoon/evening folks something happened on the way to work this morning, I touched my brakes and either my tires were cold or I hit some sand, the next thing I knew I was on the ground with my bike on top of me. The end result is I broke my right ankle. It's swollen a bit today and likely needs surgery I have an ortho appointment on monday and hopefully surgery on tuesday. Go »