Faith and Action December 1, 2008
Posted by Ken Newton in : Life in Panama , add a commentMaybe we will find an internet connection today and I can actually post some blogs that by now are getting somewhat stale….
We woke up this morning and the rain had stopped. Looking at the cloudy sky, it is likely this is a short reprieve. Nonetheless, the lack of sound of falling rain is sweet - we are finally hearing the different morning sounds of rushing river waters, birds and other animal life. And we can see the mountains that are ever so close, but have been hidden by the rain and clouds over the past weeks.
And, with this ephemeral change in weather, we also find ourselves processing this adventure in a more positive light. Literally, I guess. It is so interesting that one’s thoughts and perspectives can be so shallow that they are influenced for the good or bad simply by the color of the sky. Maybe that’s good, as it also allows you to come at issues from both sides of the emotional axis. Regardless, we continue to consider the reasons we find ourselves here and to what extent they are valid and genuine.
I would like to say they are without any selfish interest. How noble would that be… But one of Panama’s greatest allures apart from its beauty is its lower cost of living. Ex-pats are here because raising their families or retiring has significant economic advantages. But certainly the dramatic change from the american way of life and its untold comforts cannot rest simply on cost considerations. There has to be something more.
Lynda and I came for more than the ability to retire. We are here to experience community and to add value within community. Not that we can’t experience community of one form in america, but the bent there is self-interest first and others second. I don’t care what church or religion speaks as setting itself as the exception. It seems more a choir gown of righteous care and strategic components by which people are taught community, but in reality, the life and expression remain unaltered. Community is masses of people and activity without perpetual care and selfless behavior.
There is no question that millions of people are influenced by their faith for the benefit of those around them. Religious ideas are the foundation of many activities that go outside of the standing life american process. But I am not attributing my living in Panama to religious ideas, although I would be the first to say that my faith calls me to care for the needs of others. I say that because for the time I have spent working in different churches, the relentless effort of preparing for church each week felt like it accomplished little as reinforcing our very purpose as a church. For whatever reason churches in america are complex systems structures, as often argued to be the means by which church can accomplish change, they are competitively driven by forces apart from the church in vying for the time and financial commitment of the masses. And with that, the means pre-empts the ends, and statistics do not constitute the right measure.
I am beginning to believe that for whatever good I might bring into this new Panamanian adventure, it isn’t just about faith. To attribute self-sacrifice to faith exclusively is defective. Faith does motivate, but in itself, it is not the exclusive ingredient for goodness. Caring actions come of an inherent human bent to benefit others. The difference is what I do here I think comes from having actually taken the time to dig deep into the soul, apart from the business of the american culture, and tap into that core. And not rest solely on what religion has people understand their role, varying from reading the Bible in preparation for Sundays to making the added effort of attending a mid-week teaching session. Most times with nothing in between.
I want to vest that inherent ethical tendency in as many opportunities of care in real community, enhanced by personal faith. No distractions. No dilution of doing church. No wasted effort.
Do I Really Care… November 30, 2008
Posted by Ken Newton in : Life in Panama , add a commentSunday….
The rain does not want to quit. People we talk to say this is unprecedented, and Panama continues to experience widespread flooding and damage. Our home is high and without risk of rain or water damage, and we are thankful for that. We have been venturing out every day and always returning home in a somewhat drowned state - today we decided it would be nice to just stay home, do some reading and writing, drink some coffee, and just let the day pass slowly and uneventfully.
Uneventful only to the extent I seem to be setting up for some kidney stone activity - Scott, you know what I am talking about. So maybe I will pass on the coffee today and work on drinking lots of water. Arghhh..
I was doing a little introspection this morning. What are my initial feelings about being here in Panama. Have we done the right thing? Have we experienced enough yet that it is even remotely possible to have any sense of the rightness of the decision. Trying to relate these few experiences to our initial expectations (rain not being one of them…).
The surface stuff is easy to process. For instance, the home we are staying in is very comfortable and more than adequate for our needs; the property is incredible, with a multitude of plants and fruit trees that include grapefruit, mandarin, 3 varieties of oranges, cashew, and who knows what else should we ever be able to walk the land and not sink to our knees in mud; a lady who lives nearby in a tiny Panamanian home comes in to clean our home every other week from top to bottom, and it costs us $10; we can buy excellent food supplies and produce within a 45 minute driving range; the days can be as relaxing as one wants them to be, and there is not the same compulsion to be doing something every minute of the day as one experiences in the american culture.
So, there is a sense of freedom of time and comfort that comes with the amenities and simplicity of the culture for the area of Panama we live in. But there are new feelings I am having to process…
Here is the big one. I have quickly discovered that community here is genuine and without want of anything in return. Nothing is done with the intent of outdoing. Planning and executing connection is minimal if not non-existant. So far I have found it somewhere between uncomfortable and intimidating where people are always trying, no, wanting, to help you. If they aren’t doing something without being asked, they are asking if there is anything they can do. And if they see an opportunity to care, they don’t wait. And what troubles me is that I do not process life and relationships in such a pure and unselfish way. It is even difficult to give of self or possessions without going through some mental calculation of consequence, and I am disappointed that I should be so selfish. I have always thought myself to be generous, but I am quickly seeing that I am no match for people here.
Here is an example. Last night Lynda and I attended a local benefit to raise money for children to attend music camp. Parking is in a field, food was being cooked in big outdoor pots, and, of course, you could hardly see for the rain. As I tried to park my CRV, I quickly found myself up to the axles in mud with all four wheels spinning. So I just left it where it was and went to the concert leaving the problem of getting out of the mud to later. As it came time to leave, I mentioned to Steve that the CRV was stuck. That was all he needed to hear. Within one minute, he and Bruce were hooking up my vehicle to Steve’s big diesel Hilux. In fact, Bruce didn’t think twice to be lying in the mud under my front bumper hooking up the tow strap. If you had seen the rain and the mud, you could not even start to imagine how anyone would try to walk on the ground, let alone lie in it. (I would have been asking if anyone had something dry to kneel on while someone else would hold an umbrella). But these guys didn’t even stop to ponder consequence. They just took incredible delight in helping someone.
I know you’re thinking that there was nothing so unusual about that act of kindness, but you cannot even start to visualize the rain and the mud, nor how difficult an effort it was for Bruce especially.
And something as simple and unselfish as that makes me question my inherent capability to be as spontaneously caring as I am experiencing in this new adventure. I guess the discovery of oneself as substandard to the simple commandment to love someone else as yourself has me a bit unsettled. But the good news is that I also suspect it will be impossible to remain unchanged amongst this community who are already calling us friends.
And, if this is the only downside to our initial experiences of life here in Chiriqui, then I have to think life is going to become more meaningful and exciting.
Mincemeat Pie and New Friends November 28, 2008
Posted by Ken Newton in : Life in Panama , add a commentStill no internet at our house. Lynda talked with the MobilNet rep this morning, and as best as she could understand, the main tower in the Volcan Baru is down, and all their technical resources have been assigned to its repair. This rain is persistent, and continues to cause damage of a consequence to lives much greater than getting our wireless installed. But we are still impatient, and driving around finding wireless hotspots is becoming annoying. We will go to our usual watering holes today, but it seems it is another holiday here, and schools are closed. Keep our fingers crossed.
I spent the morning getting to know Steve Bliss better. He’s the guy I have talked about in prior blogs who does a lot of humanitarian stuff with the indigenous people in Panama. The organization he has formed is called Dead Wheat. It is interesting to talk to someone like Steve to try to understand what drives him in this fashion as a greater priority than other vocations he could pursue and be so very successful. It all comes down to caring for people at the simplest level of need, and where no one else is doing it. Something about the character of Christ….
Yesterday we were invited to attend a Thanksgiving get-together at the home of an American couple (Kathy and Tilden) who have lived here for many years. There were easily 30 people there, from different countries and backgrounds. English and Spanish all going on at once. Apart from the incredible turkey and pork dinner and every type of pie imaginable (thank you Jenni for letting me take a mincemeat pie home with me…), we made many new friends. We met one family who lives about 5 minutes from our home, and they are wanting to help us in any way they can to settle in and manage the communication obstacles we are constantly facing. Their names are Rodriquo and Magdalis, and they are about our age. We envy them a bit because they have their family together, including children and grandchildren. How wonderful would that be!
More and more we are getting settled. There is no want of things to do every day. Tonight we are having some people over as we host our first dinner here in Panama. Tomorrow we are attending a benefit concert at the CUNA (don’t think auditorium, think concrete building with a steel roof and open windows) to raise funds for a children’s music camp. Sunday is time with the Dolega fellowship, a small church community that meets in different people’s homes each week. From what I hear, everyone participates and it is not a time to hide behind any facades. Full disclosure, accountability, and loving community.
Wow…. I’m nervous. I may have to frequently make my apologies for having to go to the bano at some strategic moments…
And I sure hope they don’t ask everyone what books they are reading. I may just be in trouble. Hawkins and Harris aren’t the typical read for us christians, you know. Thinking through our faith relative to any Darwinian argument isn’t the standard issue or acceptable righteous practice. We’re supposed to “just know”, right? Or even more emphatically, to know that we know that we know ad nauseam. Gag I hate that expression…. And go away should one have a better thought out point of view…..
Open Drawers November 26, 2008
Posted by Ken Newton in : Life in Panama , add a commentMy Shuffle has died. Just up and quit. And with it, all my music that I was able to play through the small Sony stereo in the house we are renting. It’s all in my iTunes library, but it isn’t the same when played through the tinny MacBook speakers. And certainly not loud enough to disturb the neighbor who has the dog that barks all night and wakens the roosters. So, for now, it’s down to listening to what Lynda has on her iPod, and she has never seen the importance of loading up her library with ABBA tunes…
We spent most of the morning at the Direccion Nacionale de Migracion y Naturalizacion getting our temporary identification cards renewed. Until such time as we obtain our pensionado visas, we must renew our Tramite card every 3 months or pay a fine of $1,000 each for any late occurrence. It is very difficult to do unless you speak Espanol, and it took us a while. At the end of the process, when they went to laminate our new cards, they realized they were out of the laminate material and asked us to drive one of the clerks to a local copier store to be laminated. Wishing to endear ourselves to these officials who held our future visa in their hands, we complied. And they still charged us 35 cents each for the lamination. Things are done so differently than what we are used to….
De-tox item #2. Closed doors and drawers. Typically, I cannot be in a room that has doors partly ajar or drawers not fully closed and leave it in such a state. I start to tremble at the very sight of anything in a state between open and closed. And closed is better. Well, I have to get over that. Here in Potrerillos, ajar is the preferred state of dressers, closets, cabinets, cupboards, doors, and anything that should be closed when not in use. Air circulation is very important because of the humidity, and because of that, having closed storage spaces is not necessarily an upgrade to any home. Our rental home does not have air conditioning, so it is quite impossible to reduce the moisture levels. So - leaving things open is my new practice - I lie in bed at night and stare at the opened drawer on my night table, and sleep does not come easily….
We ran out of time today to get to a wireless location, so we decided to sit on the front porch for a while before it got dark and do a bit of reading. I have just started into a book by Sam Harris entitled The End of Faith. I haven’t read any of his stuff before now, and his bio shows him as studying the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. I like some of his arguments on the irrationality of religious faith, and what he considers its absurdities. Don’t misunderstand my intent of reading this book. I am not about to zero-base my beliefs or my acceptance of faith. But I am trying to better argue why, and not be content with an understanding that is limited to the word “because”. And I am also trying to put a spin on my discovery that sheds more light on why I am here in Panama.
For instance… Here is a quote from The End of Faith that has opened that door of thought….
“Not only are you bound to die and leave this world; you are bound to leave it in such a precipitate fashion that the present significance of anything - your relationships, your plans for the future, your hobbies, your possessions - will appear to have been totally illusory. While all such things, when projected across an indefinite future, seem to be acquisitions of a kind, death proves that they are nothing of the sort. When the stopper on this life is pulled by an unseen hand, there will have been, in the final reckoning, no acquisition of anything at all.”
So, everything else being “anything”, is faith the exception? To what real extent does what I believe dictate what I believe about life now, and have I allowed religion a be a detriment to what I should have accomplished in life? Has faith moved me to acts of self-sacrifice for the benefit of those about me? Is that then what remains indeterminate in the life continuum? Sounds noble, but only to the extent it is for a purpose one truly believes…..
I Miss My ISP November 25, 2008
Posted by Ken Newton in : Life in Panama , add a commentTuesday, November 25th
Clothes are starting to feel like they have just come out of a washing machine and you decided to wear them before putting them into the dryer. Wow it is damp here - the shoes and clothes that got soaked in the rain yesterday haven’t dried a fraction… Guess this is something we are going to need to become accustomed to. If only the sun would come out for a couple of days. But a friend told us this morning that there were still 4-5 more days of rain ahead, so we will just have to be patient.
And the devastation of lives and homes in Panama continues…
Still no internet. We are going to head a different direction today with hopes of finding another wireless location. If you are reading this and today is still the 25th of November, then we have been successful in finding a zone. I guess not having constant access to the internet is one of the big de-tox items for me. As I reflect on how I spent time while in the US, I remember that there was never a moment in between moments. What I mean is, the internet filled every gap in the day. To be able to walk by the computer between the bathroom and the kitchen without checking for emails or seeing how much the Dow Jones index had moved since checking 5 minutes ago, was impossible. It was more important to see what had happened during the night before having a first relaxing coffee. Certainly one would not ever turn off one’s computer because it would take a whole minute to load up (except a Mac, of course..), and who knows what could go wrong in the world during that 60 seconds!
I do miss the internet. I look forward to when we finally have it installed, and I can check in every once in a while on things - particularly updates on family and friends. To iChat or Skype and (optimistically), take whatever poor quality of video will show us how our grand-daughters have changed over the months since we last saw them. To know what is happening in the world that is significant for our well-being and the future of our children and grand-children. To post thoughts and in doing so, believe that something can change by words. And to read the thoughts and concepts other wise people share for the same purpose of impacting my life…
But I do not want to go back to the obsession that consumed productive time and thought. I will not. That consumed my time with need for minutia and information serving no useful purpose, mostly to the extent I could do nothing with it. Nor did it generally stir positive emotions, nor comfort. It diminished creativity. It shortchanged relationships. I am confident we will eventually have constant access to the internet, and no doubt the pull will be to the same behavior as before. But I am not going back. Life is full of far more exciting and meaningful things to do than surf, and worry. And it has something to do with those around us - their needs, their value, their importance as human beings…..
And who knows - maybe I will actually have some time to discover God. Not in an institution, not through the media, but within the glimpses of his creation. If only I would look up from my computer and glance once in a while….
Out of Touch with the Rest of the World… November 25, 2008
Posted by Ken Newton in : Life in Panama , add a commentOr so it feels.
It is Monday evening, November 24th. We have spent the better part of the day trying to access internet service, but without success. Lynda and I had written blogs/emails for the past couple of days, hoping to upload them this morning. Even more important was to be able to receive correspondence from family and friends.
We will try again tomorrow. For now, we will write some more, save the docs to our computers, and hopefully paste things online once we find wireless internet that is operating.
This part of Panama is in quite a crisis - the rains continue to have a devastating impact on the area and its people. While we do not have TV, we have heard sufficiently from people around here that there is widespread flooding and loss of homes and life. Bocas del Toro has been hit very hard, and closer to where we live, so has Boquete. The relief effort continues, to care for so many people who have been displaced. The rain is relentless. We venture out, but do not like to drive in it - coming from David today, we passed through a very unsettling accident involving several cars, and we realized how important it is to be cautious while driving with such limited visibility and poor roads.
In a way we had some fun with the rain situation while in David today while looking for internet service. We had parked the CRV and while walking in the shopping district , decided to look for some salt and pepper shakers, as we have none in the home we are renting. While in a small store, the rains increased to an incredible downpour that was so heavy and sustained, the streets became ankle-deep and rushing rapids of water. Being about half a kilometer from our car, we had no choice but to set out with pants rolled to our knees. But what seemed so ridiculous was seeing the two of us walking in rivers of water while holding an umbrella trying to stay dry! At one point, Lynda could go no further and I left her to go on to save myself.
Really - she was in no danger, and my effort was that of unselfish gallantry.
I have been thinking of so many things I would like to write about, but the seriousness of the flooding is such that I believe it important to focus on this topic and save the other thoughts until things are settled.
What an incredible beginning to our lives in Panama!
Many Have Lost Everything November 25, 2008
Posted by Ken Newton in : Life in Panama , add a commentWe were told to expect rain when in Panama during their winter season. Basically half of the year is wet and the other half is dry. The temperature where we live remains the same through the year. What we were not prepared for was the devastating impact of too much rain. Sunday became our first experience with catastrophe.
We live in a town called Potrerillos Abajo. It is situated partly up the mountain, partway between the city of David (near the Pacific coast) and Boquete, a town furthest up the mountain. Boquete is a thriving town, with beautiful foliage and wonderfully moderate temperatures. People live and enjoy life along the river.
On Saturday night, following persistent and heavy rainfall, a flash flood raced through Boquete taking homes and lives with its rage. This type of calamity has only occured twice since 1970. The only bridge in the town was destroyed. People were instantly homeless, without any possessions, some without any clothes to wear.
We received a call early Sunday morning asking if we would be willing to help with the relief effort. While the government had despatched a team prepared especially for such a condition, their first role was that of housing the homeless people. With that, the urgent requirements became clothes, food, blankets, and other basic life needs. With a few other members of the Dolega fellowship, we set out to buy all the mattresses we could find, blankets, clothes, and chickens. None of us thought of our ability to pay for these supplies. We pooled our cash and simply did it.
With our trucks and SUV’s loaded to their maximum, we headed from David to Boquete to where the people were being housed. The majority were in a school (very unlike an American school), and a local church. Once at these locations, we stayed to help in any way possible. It is almost meaningless to say that our hearts were touched by what we experienced. One cannot even start to know how lost these people felt. Locals and families from the interior. More children than adults. Absolutely nothing left.
Yet they smiled at us, were gracious in their response to our inability to communicate in espanol, and maintained a quiet dignity as they settled into an unknown future, starting with a few new clothes, a temporary roof, and some food. Nothing more.
And we feel absolutely helpless….
Lynda and I knew that life would be different in coming to Panama. We knew that the culture in which we would integrate would be unlike anything we had experienced. We knew our surroundings would be simpler and our stuff minimal. But we didn’t know how the stark contrast of a selfless approach as different than status, career and surplus would become so immediately challenging. We have so much to learn, and so much to forfeit to become more humble and caring as we believe God requires of us in this season of our lives.
That they have lost everything while we still have so much has already set us up to trust God in a whole new way.
Dead Wheat November 25, 2008
Posted by Ken Newton in : Life in Panama , add a commentThursday was pretty uneventful - we woke up several times commencing 2:00 a.m. with roosters having a serious misunderstanding of the universal definition of dawn. Where we had imagined a peaceful awakening to each day with the cheerful voices of tropical birds, our expectations were annihilated by the guttural crowing of neighboring roosters. But the day was busy unpacking our total earthly possessions and the accompanying excitement of finding something that you had already forgotten you owned…. We did some re-arranging of furniture to our liking, then ventured out to the local town of David to stock up on some basic food supplies.
Friday night was better for sleep - we turned a fan on high speed to create some white noise, closed the window slats, and managed to render the rooster calamity to its own purposes. But nor did we get to hear the morning birds, so I guess we really never won the war.
A few families coordinated a welcome for us Friday evening. Pot luck, cheap wine, and sincere expression of warmth and encouragement for our arrival in Panama. We had a comfortable time around the dinner table, talking for hours and connecting like we had been friends for a long time. Impressively intelligent people, their lives seriously organized about a common purpose of bringing life and health and good change for so many people of Panama. I talked with three guys who have merged their respective skill sets and experience within a passion of a long-term fix of life and death conditions of the indigenous native communities. Steve Bliss is the visionary, and as he talked with me about his recent experiences and his future commitment, I was drawn deep into his way of thinking and his devoted humanitarian efforts. Steve is humble, genuine, and brilliant. He has integrated his acumen of urban development, pastoring, and engineering into a charitable form labeled Dead Wheat. As this operation is gaining publicity, so is the commitment to it of people and outside organizations.
Paul and Bruce are the other two players in the developing strategies of Dead Wheat. They bring some extreme skills of psychology, pastoring, and legal into the mix.
I am already in awe of these people. They have so much to teach, and I want so much to learn. I even doubt that I can add value for whatever I have thought my skills to be to this point in my life. And that makes me a bit insecure of my worth within a collaboration. But I will learn and listen, and hopefully find that somewhere out of my 30 years in a business systems vocation there may be some gem to lay on Dead Wheat’s table of planning and execution. And my brain started spinning, and my understanding was challenged and stretched.
Friday was good.
What Soothes the Troubled Soul…. November 22, 2008
Posted by Ken Newton in : Life in Panama , 2comments…Andrea Bocelli
After a very busy 2 days in Panama City arranging the transfer of title to the car we purchased, obtaining insurance, meeting with investment specialists, making new contacts, and crawling into bed for 3 nights at the Residencial la Cantora (hotel not for gringos), we finally drove for 6 hours to our final destination in Chiriqui. By evening, today (Wednesday), we are now officially resident at:
Calle del Mauro
Potrerillos Abajo
Dolega Chiriqui Panama
And, oh yes, just before we arrived at our home, there was an earthquake registering 6.1 - right in our town! No damage and life simply resumed….
As we sat on our front porch without any sense of what lay about us in the extreme darkness and pouring rain; while we considered our total possessions as no more than what was in the suitcases yet to be unpacked; as we looked at the house we will be living in for the next 18 months and experienced absolutely no attachment to furnishings that would have been the last items we would have ever purchased for our own home; as we suddenly missed more than we could have ever imagined our family and our beautiful grand-daughters, we engaged that dialogue that we never anticipated having. It wasn’t even a conversation. It was a simple, despondent expression that sounded like… “What the hell have we done and how can we undo it…”
And then, we started thinking of ideas by which we could redeem the situation and begin the trek back to our comfort zone of American life and stuff and convenience. And we became further upset that we should be even considering the alternative…
Then Lynda had the idea to plug in her iPod to the little Sony cassette player that represented the entire media capability of the home we are renting. Of course there weren’t any typical stereo inputs, but I found a mic-over connection, and managed to get a reasonable sound out of the system. All Lynda had on her iPod was an Andrea Bocelli album. So, we sat on the patio in the darkness, and simply listened. And, in only moments, we were settled in our spirits with no further need for self-pity and confusion. And tomorrow would be a new and better day….
We have since found it ironic that we should be English speaking in a Spanish speaking country listening to Italian lyrics. But it was the music that spoke, and soothed our troubled souls.
Tomorrow more rain, so we had better find some different music that has us dancing…
First day, and the adventure has begun….
A Passport Journey August 30, 2007
Posted by Ken Newton in : GSTQ , comments closedI have been out of the country for a few days. My schedule and other diversions kept me away from writing. I missed it, I thought about it several times a day, and I even felt guilty about not doing it. So, I guess for the amount of time I spent processing what I wasn’t doing, I might just as well have done it.
But I’m back in my standing “routine”, and that includes taking a few moments each day to write something profound. Or not. Probably depends who’s reading. Today is not going to be profound - more like a bit of non-descript noise. But it will get me back into the groove and discipline.
I had to drive to Canada and back to get my new passport. I had tried in the past by submitting all the required documents and photos, only to have the application fall into a 4-month queue, after which it then fell into the 47% denial stats. Seems my jaw line was classified as a shadow. (That’s what you get for having strong, confident features….). Anyway - there was insufficient time to put a new application into play along with a 50/50 chance of success, so I drove to the closest Canada Passport office and got my new passport in 3 days. Plus 26 hours of driving, and about $500 in total costs.
And get this - Canada Passport accepted the picture that had been rejected in my first application as a “reasonable likeness” of me to validate a new photo.
While I’m on the topic of my run to the border, unlike my last jaunt, I stayed within a reasonable tolerance of the speed limit. And my position on truck drivers has not mellowed one bit from the last time I wrote about these 18-wheeler specialists (9-wheelers on hard curves). I had thought of writing two articles, one on bottom feeders and one on highway transport drivers, but then I realized that there would be no need for two separate blogs. I cannot bring myself to say anything good about someone who is defined by the urban dictionary as one who has zero and thinks he has one. I’m sorry - I have absolutely no respect for people driving big machines who would kill someone just to get from one side of the continent to the other and save 15 minutes in the process.
And on the other topic of highway construction…. I have it all figured. It is a conspiracy (by whom, I don’t really know) to reduce all major interstates to one lane. At 10 mile intervals, bright orange pilons are laid out bringing all traffic into a single file (after a 30 minute wait 2 miles before the first pilon). At some point several miles distant, the pilons run out and everyone scrambles to get back into the passing lane - only to have it happen all over again just a few miles later. Add a few manequins dressed in hard hats, leaning on shovels and with some unmanned cruisers with lights flashing, you have the whole look and feel of your highway dollars at work…
But it’s now just a memory. I’m back. Freshly stressed out of mind. Suffering from too many chips and Arby’s 5-for-5 sandwiches. Oh yes - and I actually got to “hear” the first season of Lost while Lynda watched it on the DVD player as I drove. I was too busy avoiding killer trucks to even cast a sideways glance at the screen. But thirteen hours can easily get you through an entire season. I can’t wait to actually “see” the characters as we move to watching season two.
Great to be back.
GSTQ