Adventures in Onionism

I accepted a job in DC starting mid-September. Gf accepted a job starting late June in Williamsburg, VA. Our stuff is in two Uhaul boxes, making its way across the country, where it will sit in storage for a few months. Our lease is up Sunday. That night gf flies to Virginia. George is scheduled to fly to Richmond via Atlanta, but it looks like Atlanta is going to be too hot (>85*), in which case pets can't fly. So maybe I'll drive to SLC to put him on a flight to Dulles, or there's a redeye through Atlanta to Reagan that may be cool enough, or I could drive to LA and get him on a direct flight to Dulles. Do you want to pick him up in DC and watch him until Amy can come get him on a weekend? Somehow I also need to sell my truck. Do you want it? Please buy it . It won't do me any good in DC. Once that is all taken care of, I'm going hiking! I was hoping to fly from Oakland to Missoula, Montana and walk from there into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I didn't ...

I went to India on a quick work trip. In addition to lots of Georges all over the place, there is also bad air pollution, honking cars, brightly dressed people, trains, and excellent food. Agra Fort Fatehpur Sikri The Goats of Fatehpur Sikri Favorite Things India Gate View from the Workshop Straight-razor Shave       [ More photos ] 

I went to India. There are Georges all over the place. [ Link to photo album ]   A very George-y young George at Fatehpur Sikri At the Taj Mahal On the street On the (unused) train tracks George, a bit bedraggled Georgette On top of stuff

I went to a conference in Budapest, and spent a day in the mountains in Slovakia. Slovakia was cloudy, but I stumbled across a fun English speaking wine tasting. The conference in Budapest was disappointing, but the city itself is beautiful. Slovakia photos Budapest photos I went from Budapest to a conference at Mohonk Mountain House in the 'Gunks, and afterwards spent a day at NYU. The service at the high end hotel was absurdly bad, but it is one of the most beautiful natural hotel settings in the world, especially during peak leaf season. Mohonk photos Then I took a train to Florida and tried to preserve democracy. We'll see how that goes. Florida photos I'll leave you with this Brooklyn racoon.

I've been on the road for the last few weeks. In telling you about it, I think the most important thing is that I deactivated my Facebook account and deleted Twitter, Slack, and Instagram from my phone. As a result, I read a book. ( Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.) I'd tell you how long it's been since I read a book, but that would require that I log in to Facebook since my Goodreads account is linked to Fb. So let's just say it's been a while, and that  I hate the Internet and want my old brain back. I visited six places on my trip: Nevada, Southwest Oregon, Portland, Chicago, Ann Arbor, and the Oregon Coast. First, I drove to Nevada (with a brief detour to Royal Gorge on the American River in the Sierras) and ran the very nice Ruby Crest trail with Brian. We also tried to do the East Humboldt range the next day, but it didn't work out because the trail doesn't exist anymore. Second, I drove to remote Powers, OR, where I locked myself in a ...

I'm signed up for Plain 100 in Washington one weekend in September, and IMTUF in Idaho the weekend after. There's a very small but non-zero probability that I'll want to do Mogollon Monster outside Phoenix the following weekend. What's the most fun way to do this? I could take the time off work, or even do a little work remotely, so how should I do this? Thinking of just the first two races, driving would be about 2,000 miles, or about 32 hours. Given my gas-hog truck that's about $450 (16 mpg, gas $3.50/gallon). Or I could fly OAK->SEA, run a race, fly SEA->BOI, run a race, and fly BOI->OAK. Three one-ways on Southwest, Alaska, and Southwest would be $360, total.  With two rental cars, and gas for them, the total would be around $725. I suppose I could also just fly to Seattle and drive the 666 miles to both races and fly home from Boise, but that's over $1,000 just for the one-way car rental. Or I could fly to Seattle and drive to Idaho and back. Or...