On Assignment Until August 12
Toons for tomorrow are set up and scheduled. Apologies, I did not have time to do my usual scouring so it is a short and sweet Friday. It was another crazy week of highs and lows. My excuses are pretty extensive. Since last Friday’s post, I have done two marimba gigs with my bandmates, taken a red eye to Boston via Seattle, spent several days visiting my ailing 97 year old mother, taken an almost redeye back to Portland last night/this morning, and am preparing to return to the airport hotel tonight for an early morning flight to Berlin via Chicago and Frankfurt. I’d better buy some carbon offsets for my travel this summer, I still have a trip back east for a nephew’s wedding in late August.
Back in an earlier life, I was a fisheries biologist with NOAA/NMFS at the Northeast Fisheries Center lab in Narragansett, RI. In those days, we did lots of cooperative research on Georges Band/Gulf of Maine with Poland, Russia, Germany and France. I spent a lot of time on the Polish RV Wieczno, and in the summer of 1977, visited many of my Polish shipmates in their home country. It was a memorable 25th birthday trip, believe me! I am excited to travel with my friend KW of Polish descent who worked in Berlin and Poland for the German Marshall Fund in the 90s. We’ve talked about doing this since we met 9 years ago, and it’s finally happening. I will even get to reunite with Marianna, my Polish counterpart from the research cruise days, for 3 days in Gdansk. It will be a very different Poland than I visited 47 years ago.
We will also spend time in the Tatras, Zakopane and Krakow for 3 nights each, and will meet up with a friend of KW who is coming to Krakow from Ukraine. I am excited to hear what the people in Berlin, Poland and Ukraine are thinking about our crazy election season, and will post when I get back. I did not want to drag a computer along, and you know how cell phones are…
So, no Toons from me until August 16th. Maybe Half Empty can put up a few, he’s really good at feeding them to me!!!!
Na Zdrowie!!!
Safe travels Fran!
1Happy Trails: Safe Harbors. Have fun.
2Have fun and maybe some relaxation after probably some jet lag.
3Safe travels and Happy Trails to you, Fran!
4May your trip be even more wonderful than you are imagining.
5Have a wonderful trip, Fran! A report upon your return wouldn’t be unwelcome here at the Salon. My Dad was POW during WWII held be the Germans in Poland. He died before the USSR fell apart and Poland rejoined Europe and NATO, so never wanted to go back. It’s hard to wrap my head around those changes.
Just from the comments from the folks I follow on Youtube and Twitter, there seems to be a lot of confusion about our elections. They all deal with the Parliamentary system and we have something different. One British woman told me years ago that she was envious of the fact that we get to choose our party’s leaders in primaries; whereas they were just named by the mucky mucks in the UK. It still astonishes me that, in the UK at least, members of Parliament don’t even have to live in their constiuencies. What’s up with that???
6Fran, you should try to stay busier.
7Fran, you deserve a medal. A great point of view and an adventurous spirit. Kudos.
8Dear Fran, (please forgive the time zone issue, just had to comment),
Tak! A long story of your exploits (or serialized) would be great.
I’ll never forget Dr and Mr Czacza, of Tunis. They were polish version of Peace Corps in North Africa in the ’60’s. Her life was caring for children and his life was caring for her. Good, good people. God rest them both. I’ll visit Polska one day for them.
9Powodzenia!