Journeys

 Good day today... OC duty -- I slept in a bit but arrived in time to set up and all.  We had an average crowd (91) but we were a bit short handed in front, so I did a lot of the work there... not many people want to handle the computer or deal with the clients (not that I blame them).  But I did have a lot of running and carrying to do.  The day went mostly fine; the usual pains in the rear were there, but we ran out of produce (the order was not so large) and all of the extra crap we put out (6 boxes of kid stuff, other garage items that arrive) went, which is good.  We also gave away a lot of clothes -- the racks were light -- and this is fine, as we will be having clothing drives in the fall.  One more week, thank God.  

Then it was down to Akron to meet a friend for coffee... mainly to commiserate about the idiots in our lives (who are legion).  I then came home and caught up on stuff, made dinner, and then went to the gym; I was surprised.  Not a lot of people there at 6 on Saturday, which was nice, as I did a full workout -- no cardio, though, again, due to blood sugar being a bit low.  Oi.  Came home just in time to beat the rain, which, I guessed, worked.

Up to 27 on books for the year; read two smaller volumes (about 200 pages each); the most recent one was about the invention of the train changed travel, and it was fascinating.  For instance -- in Europe, they adopted a system of first and second class cars, with private cabins, and then third class, which were communal spaces.  In the US, we had no private cars; the author felt that this was because of the fact that we had steamboats first, which had large, open, luxurious spaces.  Similarly, we invented sleeper cars, mainly because the railroad had to cross such large distances here (many of which were frontier/unpopulated).  Not so in Europe -- they adopted them later.  Also good stuff about the psychological response to train wrecks -- no mass casualty travel events in the era of the horse -- and how people just couldn't comprehend how fast travel was.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/17/biden-afghanistan-withdrawal-anniversary-00052268

Maybe because we remembered the fall of Saigon, and this was that?