revjim.net

June 27th, 2007:

beavers: 1, daniel: 0

Jun 27th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
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Back in March, Jess and I went hiking in Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse. I couldn’t help but notice all of the fallen cottonwoods boarding the lake, the tell tale signs of beaver incisors indicating their demise. While we never actually saw any of the living creatures, I knew that heading there at the right time of day might solve that.

So yesterday after work I went to my hotel, prepared myself for the adventure, stopped by for a quick salad for dinner and then headed out to the park. I got there at about 8:00pm, just enough time to get in place around sunset, when I’m most likely to see them. I quickly realized that, in my efforts to lighten my camera bag, I left out one critical piece of equipment: my flash card wallet. By the time I got back to the hotel to retrieve it I wasn’t willing to consider going back out.

So, I’m trying again tonight. I’ll pack up my stuff, stop by the store for something to drink, and head back out there again. I’m hoping to arrive just around 7:45. That’ll give me an hour before the sun sets.

Someone remind me grab my flash cards, will ya?

how small can you make these seats?

Jun 27th, 2007
by Jim Reverend.
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I don’t know what I did to deserve it, but I’m usually plagued with pretty terrible neighbors on airplanes.

Like the guy who took up at least a seat and a half forcing me to spill out into the aisle therefore getting jabbed in the elbows by every passing person and beverage cart. And then he drops his cheese knife and can’t quite reach so he asks me to retrieve it.

Or the guy who has some strange body odor that isn’t exactly terrible but when combined with his halitosis and a fart every thirty seconds or so becomes nearly unbearable.

And countless numbers of older men who fall asleep almost immediately and then no matter how many jabs, pokes, prods, and coughs you give them, insist on sleeping and drooling on my shoulder.

But something must have turned in my favor. For the second leg of my last flight I sat against the window with no one occupying the seat next to me. It was heaven.

On the first leg I sat in the aisle seat. In the middle sat a blue eyed, dark haired “au pair” from Germany traveling from her last job in Dallas to her new job in Manhattan. She spent the majority of the flight reading some celebrity magazine and doing what she could to avoid the snoring, bobbing head, shoulder sleeping tendencies of the older guy against the window. I guess the fact that I always sit down in my seat and immediately pull out a book is a bit put-offish. As soon as I put it away she became quite talkative. We discussed the finer points of the pronunciation of the names of the horoscope signs in English and German (that was the conversation starter; “how do you say this word?”), being a nanny from overseas, her travels, and her proclivity for shopping. If I have to have someone sitting next to me that I don’t know then this is the way to go.

Even considering the 2.5 hour layover I had in Charlotte, the 1.5 hour additional delay that I had when the Charlotte plane was late, and the whole “your bag is overweight so you’ll have to rearrange it or pay a fee” thing, it was the best flight I’ve had in a long time.