I Have Returned

 So, I am not dead; rather, I was in New Mexico for work, and while I had planned on blogging and keeping everyone informed, a series of unfortunate events (access issues) intervened and I decided NOT to risk it.  Alas.  As for the trip...it was good.  Finally got to see nearly everyone in the flesh, which was nice, and even interacted with a bunch of them.  The flights were 98% smooth, thank God, and while I do not fly well, it was a little better.  New Mexico was nice -- beautiful scenery, roads a bit bumpy, lots of Native American casinos.  Everything seemed far -- Los Alamos (where work and the hotel was) is about 25 minutes from Santa Fe, the next largest city, and then 50 miles to Albuquerque (airport, large city).  Didn't have time to hit Santa Fe but did see the museums of Los Alamos -- lots of stuff about the bomb.  They seemed to dodge slightly the role of the morality of it and concentrated on the perspective of the workers... which was fine. 

The altitude really fucked me over; they told me it would but I didn't get the full sense... I upped my water game and all, but the first day, I was completely out of sorts, and my sleep patterns were a bit off the whole time.  I did rest some on the plane, FWIW.  But I am still feeling a little bit of it now.  In better news, I managed to read three books (45!) and am almost finished with a 46th, so there is an outside chance of my getting to 50 by the end of the year.

Now of course I have to catch up on everything...the mail, email, stuff to handle, to say nothing of Xmas shopping and decorations.  (In some ways, the timing of this trip was a bit inopportune.)  Slowly wending my way now through the email chain...

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/1990s-gave-birth-present/?utm_campaign=wp_the_daily_202&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_daily202

Interesting; not sure I agree with all of these, but...

Sad news about Mike Leach...I always thought he was hilarious...