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✈Bombers & Mosquitos ✈

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Photo credit: Richard de Boer The Lancaster engine run at night without the glare of the emergency services lights! In 1999 Mom, Dad, and I hiked the Chilkoot Trail: my first summit, their second, and a shared journey of solidarity after our unfathomable start to 1999. While there are endless trail stories to tell about joining them on hikes through the years, I distinctly remember the "stuff" on this trail. The literal stuff: the decaying remains of boats, rusted out boilers, and rotting shoe soles littered the trailsides. The Canadian Park Rangers call this a linear living museum. My mom called it "junk" and literal litter. Dad and I made up stories about the people who once carried these things as their most prized possessions on their journey for gold. Either way, someday there won't be much physical evidence left along the trail. Nature has a way of reclaiming the land.  I think you have to see "stuff" in that state to really appreciate the proces...
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Insurance Nightmares Know No Borders

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The American healthcare system is broken. This isn't news to anyone that has paid into a health insurance system for years to only be declined for a legitimate claim. Maybe it was a bureaucratic "check the box" rejection. Maybe you didn't have the right rider. Maybe your doctor put a code in that was off by one digit. Maybe the insurance adjuster had deemed your medically advised procedure as "unnecessary."  I had my fair share of medical frustration state side. There was the neurologist who told me that "your headaches are in your head because you're too overweight and curling doesn't count as an exercise." (Brilliant diagnostic work there: my headaches are in my head🙄). My school district medical insurance stopped covering chiropractic care "because clearly it isn't helping and is wasting yours and our money because you keep getting migraines and going back." There's the classic, "IUD insertion doesn't hurt you...
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'A Chiena 🥵🏡🔫🪣💦 Per Molto Caldo

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On the shuttle to 'A Chiena completely unaware for what we were in for! Fa molto caldo qui. Molto molto! Soprattuto per questa ragazza dell'Alaska!! There are steps we take to combat the extreme heat: abundance of Liquid IV packs at the ready always pack a water bottle carry a sweat cloth at all times steer clear of most polyester wine and cocktails in moderation this time of year AC at night so you don't suffocate in your sleep Walk to the store early or late but not midday Now if you need to know how to winterize your car, layer your winter clothes, optimize winter heating fuel, and pick out -40 rated parkas, we've got you covered. As the saying goes, you can always put on more clothes but at some point there's only so much you can take off! Luckily, we live in the beachside area of Lucrino where less clothes is more socially acceptable than say downtown Napoli, but still, it's molto molto caldo! This notion that "August" is the dead heat of summer a...
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I SHOULD be, I COULD be...reading

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Reading outside is an option year round! Although in these summer temps nearing 100 I find respite in the shade rather quickly. Years ago we won anti gravity chairs at the International and every year that we bought prizes for the event, we included them. They've come in handy with two balconies on which to read!   During the Teaching Era of my life "free time" was rare and was really a misnomer. Teachers live in a constant state of "I should be, or could be, doing X" in regards to their job: I should be lesson planning to avoid the Sunday scaries.  I could be addressing that stack of papers that needs grading.  I should be sending home a parent email.  I could be calling parents for that "positive check in."  I should be doing a class to get credit for my next recert.  I could be investing time to learn whatever the latest buzz in teacher tech is.  I should be...  I could be... My favourite podcasters wrote a book! The work at Crooke...
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