Evanston: Monday Night Football
Evanston: Monday Night Football
I am watching the Pittsburg Steelers play the Denver Broncos. So far it’s a good game. Yesterday I had to search the Internet to discover how the All Blacks did against Wales. They won. Not news in America. Australia also beat England. Even less news.
There are many changes in being back here. Sensational news coverage is a problem easily solved by changing channels or turning off the television. That I am now surrounded by two to three times more people than in all of New Zealand. No hills. And, most noticeably that the days are short instead of long. Dawn is late and sunset several hours early. Unexpectedly the temperature is the same here as in New Zealand. Highs in the low 60sF. This will change by the end of the week.
Despite the relative warmth, fall is over. Most of the trees are bare; leaves have been swept from the streets. The geese have already flown south from the cemetery.
As always I am struck by how easy life is ashore. Refrigeration, showers down the hall instead of a quarter mile row away, hot water. But I have lost the moon, which was only three steps away in THE HAWKE OF TUONELA’s cabin.
The biggest change, of course, is being with Carol. I was tired of being alone.
I am still in transition.
Although the flight across the Pacific was largely empty and I had a row of three seats to myself and could sort of lie down to sleep, I am not yet sleeping normally here. Last night I managed about five hours.
I spent much of today sorting out electronics.
Carol restored Internet, telephone and television service a week or so ago, and the Comcast technician did the bare minimum. It has taken several hours to sort out his mess.
I hurt my back just before I left THE HAWKE OF TUONELA last Friday and it is still troubling me, so I have yet to walk down to the lake, much less ride my bicycle.
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Sometime this week I will post several articles that have recently been published.
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The photograph was taken Friday in the Departure Lounge of Auckland’s International Terminal, looking across at the bar, where earlier I had a $6 glass of Glenfiddich and a $12 glass of Pinot Noir. Neither was worth it, but I adapt.
I was attracted by an interesting arrangement of beer mugs, but people walked in front of me and by the time they had passed, the mugs were empty.
Monday, November 9, 2009