Abigail had her Third Birthday

Abigail turned three and is very happy to have done so. Click on the link to see pictures of the party.

A Johannesburg blog

This blog shows photographs of the side of Johannesburg that is not usually presented in the travel pages, or seen by tourists. Note that these images are not taken in the bad slums - they are images of what used to be middle class living areas. I lived in Yeoville for several years as a child, and our first apartments after we married were in the same area.

Zen Thoughts to live by

• Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.
• The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky tire.
• It’s always darkest before dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbors’ newspaper, that’s the time to do it.
• Don’t be irreplaceable. If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.
• Always remember that you’re unique. Just like everyone else.
• Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
• If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
• Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.
• If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
• Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
• If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
• If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
• Some days you’re the bug; some days you’re the windshield.
• Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.
• The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
• A closed mouth gathers no foot.
• Duct tape is like ‘The Force’. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
• There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.
• Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much when your lips are moving.
• Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
• Never miss a good chance to shut up.
• Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

Mr and Mrs Magoo drive to Boston

So, on the last Tuesday in June we set off for Boston by car for a family Batmitzvah. We had planned to sleep in downtown Chicago overnight to avoid the morning rush-hour traffic. As we left our driveway at about 3 pm, both Mr and Mrs M. Simultaneously realized that we could get a head start on the trip by driving right though Chicago and sleeping somewhere in Ohio. This we did, after struggling though the evening rush hour traffic out of Chicago.

The next morning we set off bright and early. We stopped for an awful breakfast/lunch in some nameless and characterless decaying industrial city. This was unusual - we almost always can identify great little places to eat. It may have been an omen.
I do most of the driving, keeping Mrs. M in reserve for my drowsy time. I was getting tired, so she took over shortly after lunch.

We were tootling (its a word - look it up) along the New York State Thruway (sic) listening to a set of lectures on tape about ancient Greek History when suddenly traffic came to an almost screeching halt near Syracuse, New York. It took about 30 minutes to get to the off ramp to discover what was the problem. The Thruway was closed from Syracuse to Schenectady (about 120 miles) due to flooding. An inquiry at the toll booth confirmed that US 20 which runs almost parallel to the Thruway was also impassable. "Go South" we were advised, so we set off down I-81. Soon we came upon a sign that said that I-81 was closed from Exit 4 to the Pennsylvania border, and closed in Pennsylvania all the way to Wilkes-Barre (pronounced very oddly as Wilksbury).

No problem. Mr and Mrs M. headed up I-88 in the hope that we could get to rejoin the Thruway near Albany. About 32 miles in, near a town called Sidney, we came to yet another closure. The local gendarme directing traffic was not very helpful about where we should head. "Find a motel and sleep until its over" was his best advice. "The road ahead is washed away and two truckers died trying to get through".
Hmmm. Sidney - we have friends there - oops, that's in Australia, and its spelled differently. We were not that lost. A quick consult with a map gave us hope that we could go back down I-88 and take New York State Route 17 to I-84. SR-17 had to be open because it went though the mountains past Catskill State Park, where we used to camp in the summer. Nothing to flood there. I-84 became a magnet - we had used it many times before.

It was about this time that Mrs. M. called our oldest daughter and was given the comforting thought that we sounded like Mr and Mrs Magoo bumbling around the USA. This sympathetic comment came from a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who specialized in Geriatric Care.
Anyhow, we retreated back down I-88 to SR-17, and found that it too was closed, with no passable bypasses around the closure.
Undeterred, we headed back down I-81 trying to get to I-84. We found that the previously closed section was now open and we took I-84 to Newburgh and tried to find a hotel. More hmmm -- hotels were a tad full - 200,000 people had been evacuated from Wilkes-Barre and Port Jervis, and some of them had opted for hotels rather than the public spaces that the authorities suggested.

We finally ended up in Fishkill, New York at 11pm.
All in all, our trip was only about 200 miles and 5 hours longer than it should have been - but time passes slowly for the Magoos.

Cell Phones Make Drivers as Bad as Drunks

LiveScience.com - Cell Phones Make Drivers as Bad as Drunks

Hands-free or not, drinking is less dangeraous than talking while driving.

As Abe Lincoln said: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt"