Author: Vic Socotra

A Malthusian Ride

(Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus, RFC. 1798. Image wiki). It was a chaotic staff meeting on Tuesday. Monday had been marred by placement of the Chairman’s detritus works of arts on walls not designed to accommodate them. So, discussion was wide-ranging on the information streams and the various interests behind them. Quite a ride. The Atlanta […]

Life & Island Times: Alternate Detour Opening

Author’s Note: Ten years ago, I briefly considered resurrecting my 12-year-old, scrapbooked, Detour Version 1.0 journal notes in a series of email postings. I dashed the attached off the narrative below and then let it sit unshared until my recent 2001 scrapbook’s unearthing in Jan/Feb 2023. I then started recasting it as a possible opening […]

Arrias: No Sense of Urgency

“Zero Dark Thirty” or “The Pentagon Wars”? Movies about the US military generally fall into just two categories: one is loaded with superheroes and amazing technology, the other packed with corrupt generals, politicians and defense contractors. Unfortunately, both have elements of truth in them. How is it that the same national security community that produces […]

Moving Status

Thankfully, both Arrias and Marlow contributed pieces that included actual thought this bright Monday morning. We are still amazed at transformation, from Big Pink’s plush Second Deck down to the more formal First, with external departues over The Patio. The dawn comes on clear days around nine-thirty, as you can see from the bright line […]

Life & Island Times: Motor Cyclists

Author’s Note: Detour Version 1.0 Series tale tail end #2 of 2 Here’s a brighter note on this series on . . . if you will . . . our dare-to-be-different sentiment-sprinkled memories — no weeping, wealth, or glory — will keep us alive in the hearts and souls of those who we love and […]

Night Train to Nairobi, 1979

Editor’s Note: This element of travel tales has lingered for a while. The date on it may be a notional one- it reads “10 June 1979,” which must have been an ancient date scrawled later to signify celebrating a 28th birthday in a place far away. The claimed copyright is dated in the year of […]

Life & Island Times: Detour: Random Postcripts

Socotra House Note: The formal re-telling of Marlow’s Detour 1.0 was complete yesterday with a ride back home in Fairfax, VA on the Couty Parkway. The rigors of nearly 10,000 miles on two wheels, coast-to-coast is a prelude to an epic “Four Corners” ride around the corners of the continuous States. It was written in […]

Morning Has Broken

(Julie demonstrates an eventual Sound of Music in the Alps once the remotes were sorted out!) The morning actually got unbroke, which was a relief. That is not to disparage the fine installation work conducted by FIOS installation technician Antoinne last Thursday. The thin white cable required for fiberoptic connectivity appeared to be routed correctly, […]

Life & Island Times: Detour, Day 23

Waffle House for breakfast — carb loading for the long day ahead. We retraced our steps from Day 1. Opening 30 minutes riding was in rain close to the intensity of that which we experienced in Kansas two days ago. Thankfully it abated. Even light rain made West Virginia toll booth stops a dangerous slip […]

Moving Downslope

It was a nearly successful move downslope yesterday. You can see there are a few things left to be moved around in the new unit. There are plenty of boxes, many of them full, and the Latinx crew who arrived in a timely manner to ask us not to use the “x” thing at the […]