Evanston: commutes
Evanston: commutes
The sailing obstetrician, David MacFarlane, is back working in a hospital in Motta, Ethiopia. David leads an extraordinarily diverse life. In Motta he is about 38º East longitude. SAPPHIRE, his boat, is in Fiji, waiting out the cyclone season at 177º East.
For a view of a very different world, read his excellent recent posts.
David writes of the grueling thirty-six hour transit to Ethiopia. Thirty-six hours was about what it took me from condo to THE HAWKE OF TUONELA. I miss Opua, but I don’t miss the long flights. San Diego is four hours and at present only a $300 round trip ticket away. Cab to the airport, read a book, listen to some music, perhaps watch a movie, and I’m there.
I know of another New Zealander who can beat David for distance to boat. Zane lives in Auckland, 175º East, and has just bought a Contessa 26 in Plymouth, England, 4º West, for 179º of longitude, not to mention 87º of latitude.
Zane can’t go much farther without being on his way back.
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An Indian saying quoted in SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER:
What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself at sunset.
Thursday, December 13, 2012