Airborne

I’m en route on the first leg of my trip to Chicago. Next stop Atlanta. The in-flight movie doesn’t look particularly interesting, so time to write.

Our flight got a late start apparently because of computer malfunction. I arrived at the airport early (as usual) and got my boarding pass. Shortly afterwards, a problem arose and the Delta personnel had to write out boarding passes by hand. Now there’s a time-consuming project. Then, of course, after boarding they had additional problems getting the head count to match the ticket count. The problem was eventually resolved (or maybe it was “close enough”) and we took off about a half hour late. Fortunately, if things continue on this schedule I’ll have plenty of time to make my connection to Chicago. Scheduled arrival is 8:16 this evening.

Kim will arrive in Chicago on Friday. She leaves Bermuda tomorrow morning and spends a day and a half in New York on business.

Since we’ll both be away from Bermuda for over three weeks, we elected to use a house sitter during out absence. Not so much for security, although it’s nice to know that someone will be watching the house, but for humidity control. Bermuda weather is starting to get warm and humid (as opposed to cold and humid), and mold and mildew will thrive if we don’t keep the house aired out and the ceiling fans going. The other option is to leave the air conditioning running for the duration – an expensive alternative, and it’s really not yet hot enough to do that.

Anyway, our house sitter is a policeman. The guy’s from Jamaica and has been working in Bermuda for the last four years. Apparently there aren’t enough Bermudians either trained or interested in police work, so they have to import workers. He lives on the far end of the island, but works very close to our house, so the plus for him is that he won’t have to travel far to get to work and he can get away from his roommates for a few weeks. Not to mention he gets to lives in a pretty nice house that has a nice pool. Many people make arrangements such as this, and there’s no cost for us.

Another plus for us, of course, is that we had to get our guest room reasonably presentable for his use. Forced us to look at all the stuff accumulated there and decide what to do with it. And that resulted in an unscheduled trip to the Bermuda dump.

I think I’ve mentioned www.e-moo.com in the past. That’s Bermuda’s answer to eBay. We’ve spent a fair amount of time trying to sell things on that web site, but lately it hasn’t been too successful. I think what’s happened is that, because of the economy, some of the downsizing has resulted in ex-pats leaving the island. So there’s a flood of stuff being sold, but not a lot of new people coming in to buy. In the last go-around of ads, I had six items advertised (at prices that we thought were pretty reasonable – and with the stipulation that we’d consider any offers). I had just one inquiry. It was for a wool rug that we had advertised by $250. Someone wrote and asked if we’d take $100 for it. I wrote back and said $150. I never heard from him again. So now the rug’s rolled up and under the guest room bed.

OK, I’ve rambled enough. I obviously have too much time on my hands. Half way to Atlanta and the ride’s getting bumpy.

The Thrill of Victory

And the agony of the feet.

Kim and I agreed to join Bermuda’s End-to-End charity event, held last Saturday. It’s an annual fund raiser whose recipients are mostly, but not entirely, youth- and education-oriented. The way they raise funds is to get people to pledge money to anyone willing to run, bike, walk, swim, or row from one end of the island to the other --- OR --- fortunately, some portion of that distance.

In practice there were several divisions, from an elite bike ride (end-to-end-to-end) which, since the island is about 22 miles long, would be about 66 miles. There were runners/walkers/bikers who did the end-to-end, some who did the middle to end (about 14 miles – and Kim and I walked that distance), and some who did a fun walk of about three miles. Swimmers and rowers had several options, too. Obviously nothing too rigid. The whole idea, of course, was to have fun and raise money.

I was totally impressed with the involvement of people that live on this island. If they didn’t actively participate, they lined the route cheering people on. Absolutely amazing spirit. Especially towards the end, when Kim and I were really dragging our buns, people were shouting encouragement. And at the finish there were sponsor tents with food and drinks and a general party atmosphere. Ferries and buses were there to take us back to where we started.

A few pictures. The one of Kim and me was at about the three-quarter point. It was the last picture taken. After that I was concentrating on just putting one foot in front of the other.













You can bet that we had no plans for Saturday night or Sunday. Recovery was in order. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day and we spent it poolside. The water has warmed up enough to be enjoyable.

Now that we're fully recovered we agreed that we’ll probably do it again next year.