Filling In Some of the Blanks

Tomorrow is my last day in Kansas and I guess I should catch you up on
what I've been up to. I think I left off with spending the day at a
café called Mokas. I have in fact just come from there. I'm presently
sitting at a picnic table I discovered in a grove of trees in Burke
Park. I spent most of my afternoons last week here or a hundred feet
or so up the river lying in the grass lisenting to music and writing
in my journal. (Both activities facilitated by my iPhone)

I may not have kept up with the blog but I am happy to report that
I've managed to journal like I was locked in a prison with nothing but
pad and paper. The distance from my daily cares, a little fresh air
and a new toy have done me wonders. I needed this badly. I wonder how
many people who live in heavy tourist areas vacation in the most
mundane places they can find. This world of Wal-Mart, Long John
Silver's, lawn space and being the only pedestrian is such a novelty
to me. I've already vowed to expand my vistas when I get home. I
haven't even bought a monthly bus pass in a year. If I couldn't walk
there, there needed to be a pretty darn good reason why. I wasn't
leaving much of a carbon footprint it's true. I wasn't leaving any
kind of mark at all. I won't go so far as to say that I've recovered
my voice but I might say that I'm starting to remember who I am.

Mokas Coffee, Salina, Kansas

Mokas

Mokas

Before I could takle the aforementioned hill I needed to refresh
myself. As luck would have it my all time favorite fast food was at
the corner at the bottom of the hill: Long John Silvers. I think that
it is criminal that I have to go from San Francisco to Kansas to get
good, cheap, fried fish but that's the way it is.

After lunch I crossed the street to Mokas Cofee which is the only Café
with wireless I could find in town. That it was so close to my mother
and sister's apartments was just pure bonus. Despite the strip mall
exterior it turned out to be a wonderfully comfortable establishment
with good strong coffee, a friendly and attractive barista and
virtually no business on a week day afternoon. I stayed for an hour
and a half writing in my journal. After avoiding my daily pages for
most of the last two months it has been gushing out, out here.

Part of what made it such a sucessful day was the presence of my
latest Apple goodie. Last Tuesday I went to the Apple store to get a
new iPod for my trip. I thought it would be easy. See if the weight an
form factor of the Nano was worth giving up the ability to back up my
entire MacBook with a classic. The problem was that while both devices
were nice they were nothing like holding and using an iPhone. Not even
in the same ballpark. So after much deliberation (and a break for
lunch) I got the iPhone. It has been my single device companion ever
since. Right now I'm sitting on a riverbank typing this. Yesterday I
was sitting in a Café cheerfully typing out a thousand words in an
hour and a half. When I wake up on the middle of the night its right
there to take down my dream notes without getting up or balancing a
five pound laptop on my chest while straining my neck all to hell. As
a person who lived his life on foot reducing my personal tech gear to
a single five ounce gadget is major. More than I wanted to spend for a
phone? Yea, it was. I was hoping when I bought it I wouldn't have any
regrets about the expense. After a week of use I can honestly say it
exceeded my already high expectations.

Hills, Nudges, and the Salina High Country

Hills, Nudges, and the Salina High Country

Yesterday was my first day on my own here in Salina. I slept in for
the first time in recent memory. In fact I think I had a full nights
sleep and I can't begin to tell you how rare that is for me. My mother
goes to my sister's for lunch every day to walk Sadie the dog. I met
her there. I played with the dog while my mother ate her lunch. Then I
caught a ride down "The Hill" the fish and chips shop and what appears
to be the only Café with wi-fi in town.

Now I must comment on this alleged hill. I live on a hill. A sharp
change in elevation from whose crest you are afforded a view of the
surrounding area. My hill happens to be a little famous but that is
not the issue here. What is the issue is the use of the term to
describe a geographical reference point and a set of neighborhoods.
This is not a hill. This a nudge in the earth. My mother actually
expressed concern on my walking back home up "The Hil". Yea, okay. I
took a little snapshot of this alleged high country.

The High Country

Kites on Vacation

I flew into Wichita on Friday afternoon where I was picked up by my mother with whom I made the 96 mile drive north on I-195. Friday was a bit of a blur as I had had to get up at three in the morning to catch a shuttle to the airport at a quarter to four for a six AM flight. By the time I got to my mother's apartment I was pretty beat. My sister and niece came over and hung out for awhile. Then we went back to her apartment and watched Madagascar and played with the dog. My sister fell asleep (despite the fact that I was the one that got two hours of sleep the night before). I went back to my mother's and crashed.

Saturday was a more active day including the obligatory trip to Wal-Mart. You know, I live in one of the finest shopping districts in the country, but I can hardly afford anything. It's more of a finding that cool item you want and saying, how deeply in debt do I want to go or how long do I want to wait for this. In Wal-Mart I was struck by the fact that I could actually afford all this stuff. In the grocery section I had to resist the impulse to smuggle groceries back to San Francisco in my luggage because of the fact that they cost a third less than my corner store. I only got one thing though. Dirt cheap vacation shoes. Six dollar canvas shoes. Shoes that cost less than a shoe-shine. They made me smile.

Saturday afternoon we took my new shoes my Bella's butterfly kite and my mother's mermaid kite (actually it looks more like a carp) out to the edge of town for a little wind therapy. Here are some pictures from that afternoon.

On vacation

Aw, Poor Dumpster

In response to my poking fun at Kansas my mother redirected my attention to the fact that their town has been flooding this month. She sent me to the Salina Journal for some video and I found this one on YouTube. It's long but I just love the concern shown for the flooded dumpster about one minute in.

A Little Dig at My Kansas Readers

I came across this tonight from the reDiscovery Institute. I think it was more timely last year before the right wing school board got kicked out. These guys lay the sarcasm on pretty thick but then again some of these anti-education types have got it coming. Simplify, simplify, simplify. A universe with only 4 elements just seems so much more streamlined. I wonder what else we could simplify? One political party maybe. Surely one religion. And one all powerful commander in chief.

Kansas has been getting some help in other quarters on this topic. Listen to how biologist P.Z. Myers reacts to a South Carolina science fair winner. Still the grand prize has to go to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. Just what we need, a 27 million dollar investment in making our kids worse in science. Like we needed any help doing that.