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#25

01.25.10

 

Our flight from San Juan to Anchorage went off as scheduled; a real treat after the 36+ hour death-march on the way from Alaska to Puerto Rico just over a week ago.  Coming home through Chicago took a mere 21 hours from door-to-door.

We really appreciated the opportunity to travel with T's entire family in the Caribbean.  Never has tempus fugit been more real or ominous as these past 6 months.  Her mother is battling a terrible disease, and we are fortunate to have spent a week at sea with her and the family.



The cruise on Princess was amazing; T and I were discussing this yesterday, and cannot think of a way they might improve upon their services.  I hereby offer them a One Time Limited Offer* to hire me on as a full-time Princess blogger.  I'll simply move from ship to ship with my family and cruise the world indefinitely, shooting photos with a camera of their choosing.  Perhaps they'll go in "dutch" with Apple and I'll keep up the iPhone camera thing?

*One Time Limited Offer mandates Princess and/or Apple must offer me the position while I am amongst the living; though I'd consider the offer after death if, and as, able.


As much fun as the cruise was, it is always nice to come home... right?  Right.  


So this photo is of our home, nicknamed "Candle House" by T because she customized every window with electric candles that plug directly in to the windowsills.  In Philly we had a candle in every window too... but we only had about 4 windows, and there were cords running from the walls to the windowsills.  

The photo is very grainy due to the darkness and the fact that I shot it through a semi-dirty windshield.  You can see the headlights on the snowbank to the left.  Notice how much light we're now getting at around 9:15 a.m.!  What a difference from just a month ago, when it still would have been pitch black.  Our sunrise today was 9:36 a.m., and sunset will be 4:48 p.m., with a net gain of 4 minutes, 57 seconds daylight from just yesterday.



You can see there has not been much snow in Anchorage this year.  I believe we've only had around 36 inches so far this season.  When our airplane landed in Anchorage late last night Q looked out the window and said "Dad, look!  There's white sand in Alaska, too!"  I don't know if he was being sarcastic, or if one week on the likes of St. Thomas, Aruba and Bonaire in the Atlantic Standard Time Zone flipped his lid.


Home by the Engineers is a nice shoegazer of a song.  I quite like their album "Engineers", and first heard them on good ol' SomaFM's Indie Pop Rocks back around 2005.  The song seems like a comfortable fit for this blog entry.


I'm also posting the song Three Little Birds by Bob Marley.  I'm not featuring that song since it is widely known, and I'm trying to only post songs that might be "new" to readers.  I love nothing more than when someone introduces new songs / bands to me, and want to pay that forward.  

I've always loved this Marley track, and I think probably 99% of humanity having heard it would agree.  But I'll be chucky-darned if it doesn't just make more "sense" after having just floated el mar caribe...  there really is a different vibe there that I had never experienced before.  Definitely unique from the Hawaiian vibe I've also loved, but had thought would be identical.  

Now all the music from the Caribbean region makes even more sense to me.  In my  teen years I thought reggae in all it's forms was too simple and repetitive; and that ignorance persisted even after my folks returned from Barbados bearing the fine gifts of Marley and Gregory Isaac.  

While I was living in Guatemala I met a guy named Tyler H. who was an enormous influence on how I would listen to, and enjoy, music henceforth.  Sadly, I've lost touch with him more than 15 years ago (I think he went to Physical Therapy school at the University of Utah?), but his influence lingers still.  One band he introduced to me around 1990 was Steel Pulse, and Steppin' Out off "Earth Crisis" in particular.  Ever since then, I love a good reggae sound when the mood calls for it.  One of my favorite reggae albums of all time was made by a musician that might surprise the socks off you... I'll play one or two of her (big clue, there... did you catch it?) reggae songs in blogs to come, I have no doubts.


Anyhow, I thought posting Three Little Birds after Home would set the tone for those readers choosing to continue viewing the previous photos from the cruise that I had to post just today.  By choice I was "off the grid" while on the cruise ship... Princess offered WiFi for a fee.  


Until tomorrow... thank you for looking, listening and reading.  CCE