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foreign land beckons Despite having been woken up a little early this afternoon by a woman looking for people that I didn't know, this was probably the best Sunday that I have had in a while. To sum it up, the day wasn't wasted and at the same time I was able to relax. Somehow I managed to achieve the correct balance between being productive and still having a weekend. Sadly that doesn't happen often enough for me. My final night at work was stress free and once again I took advantage of that time to plan my trip to New Zealand. By the time that I left I had priced three different itineraries and had a fairly good idea of what I wanted to see and do while I was there. It probably doesn't come as a surprise that I am expecting some different than what I got from Australia and I see that as a good thing. It isn't as though I didn't like Australia. I did. I just don't like to repeat myself. Thankfully going to a country that is essentially two islands will be a first for me. Obviously New Zealand is a place with an incredible landscape that most of the world probably now thinks is Middle Earth. On the north island there are hot springs and caves. Then on south island there are mountains and glaciers. I want to see and experience all of those things when I go there. ... After work this morning I sat through the Joan Crawford film Mildred Pierce. I liked the film, but I couldn't shake the image of Sean Young from Bladerunner out of my head. Sean must have modeled her look for that film on Crawford. It was almost the exact same look of arched eyebrows and shoulder pads. Now I realize that that was the standard image of the 1940's American woman, but it still jarring to see it in its original form so to speak. ... Last week Sunday a sad looking vehicle appeared in front of where I live. At the time I thought that someone was just visiting, but I soon learned that that wasn't the case. The broken down rust encrusted truck belonged to a teenage boy that lives on the other side of where I live. Sigh. Looking out my patio window and seeing that wreck did not make me happy. The word eyesore does not begin to cover what it meant to me. Now maybe I am getting old, but why would he choose to leave it there? Doesn't he realize that to most people it looks like a white trash symbol if not nothing else? Why aren't his parents saying something to him? I so wanted to have it towed, but my neighbor said that he would speak with them first and encourage them to move it somewhere else. Thankfully they moved it out of my line of sight, but part of me still wishes that I had had it towed. Yes. Some might say that I have become the old man who won't return a ball once it lands in my backyard, but I see it a little differently. Keeping a child's toy and being a tax paying homeowner who is concerned about the appearance of his neighborhood aren't quite the same thing. |