The Way We Were Wednesday - Longing for the Good Old Days

It has been about 23 months since we returned from Ireland, to a vastly changed world, with no idea how long the changes would last. My most traveled year, I boarded a little over 30 airline flights, 4 last year. A couple of times I have gone to Europe twice in a 12 month period, it has been a couple of years since the last trip, and I am longing for the good old days.

I am maxed out on accrued vacation and paid personal days at the office, and struggling to find reasons to take a day here and there to minimize the loss of paid time off that I will never get. In the past this was never a real issue, only when I was distracted or careless did I run afoul of the rules. But without travel, both business and personal, I find it hard to take the time I have earned. I often add a few days to work travel, staying over at my own expense to see people or places. I have had one work trip in 28 months. And nothing seems to be coming up.

I recently had a thought, oh get on with life, I should just book tickets and go. The response was, is it time? Is it safe? Be careful.

We are going to New York in April, train up and back, and a hotel. NYC long ago instituted needing proof of full vaccination for indoor anything, and masks. It makes it a bit safer. I look forward to it.

I long to hop the pond, I long to see familiar places and faces, and to explore places and experience adventures unknown. Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are all on the bucket list. I read the online news in Iceland, an island nation that has done well at isolation in the pandemic, yet 1,400 positive tests and one death of a young person in the week before my latest read. Maybe this is a longing I need to experience just a little longer.

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The Way We Wednesday - Self-Timer Selfies

My oldest brother had a low draft lottery number, so he enlisted in the Navy the year he finished high school. After basic training, he was assigned to the Aircraft Carrier Enterprise (now decommissioned and the last I knew it was being dismantled.) Someplace in southeast Asia he bought a Canon Ftb, a nice 35MM SLR. There was also a tripod, the gray zippered case above their arms is the case for the tripod. Looking at this it was taken with the camera on the tripod, and either a cable release or the self timer, I suspect the self timer as Dale is almost blurred from having tripped the timer and rushed back to be in the picture. This would have been taken in one of the crew living areas on the ship. I think Dale only took a couple of rolls of film on the camera, this roll of slides ended up with dad's meaning it was probably in the camera when Dale came home on leave, and somehow Dad ended up keeping the camera. Dad gave it to me a few years b...

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The Way We Were Wednesday - Rollo

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