Ruth and I are well into our latest road trip and and look forward in the coming days to enjoy some cool Rocky Mountains weather. I’ve got plenty of site curiosities and beautiful photos to share with you about this vacations. But due to time restrictions, I will such blogging for when we return home to South Florida in early November.

In the meantime, I’ve made a few observations from places visited so far that maybe you could explain better than me.

1. U- turns for returning back to the other side of the highway are rare when you might need them in Louisiana. You might for instance need to drive across the entire length of Lake Ponchartrain or a long bayou bridge for miles and miles before getting an opportunity to turn around.

2. I know Colorado seems animal friendly, but how can it be expected to heed those frequent wild life crossing signs when you are going 80 mph+ with everyone else on crowded Interstate Highways?

3. For the same reasoning, why does West Texas post frequent historic marker signs shrowded by bushes on the side of the fast roads?

4. In Colorado Springs, certain waterfall sites are closed for two days a week.How is that possible? Do they just turn off the water?

5. Why is Bourbon Street New Orleans always so crowded when you can walk a few blocks to the safer confines of music club filled Frenchman Street nearby?

6. Why does  a landmark like Atlanta region’s Stone Mountain and Southern Colorado’s  Royal Gorge Bridge now exist as a paid Amusement Park attraction? I just want to take a few photos of the natural beauty at each site and then leave.

And finally,

7. I’ve read that the state of Florida is currently building bulletproof windows on the State Capitol building in Tallahassee Yet at the same time the Republican dominated legislature there approves “open carry” and other pro gun use laws?

My Possible Answers:

1. Police can give more speeding tickets that way to impatient drivers.

2. Colorado encourages drivers to actually go the speed limit that way.

3. It’s a way to divert one’s attention from all the ugly oil drilling and slag pile buildups throughout this area of the state.

4. This way Colorado can obtain funds from tourists who just want to look at water.

5. The tourist priority seems to be heavy drinking and unrestricted partying there.

7. The state of Florida government prioritizes allocating taxpayer for themselves  but not toward the safety needs to ensure of its citizens.

In the past two years I’ve signed up for an online Kundalini Yoga class on Sunday mornings knowing very little about what Kundalini actually means. But after taking a few classes, it did not take long for me to realize the powerful spiritual effect that Kundalini felt. I attribute this opinion primarily a result of our teacher, Marjorie Bryant, from New York City who expertly worked our body and mind through musical chanting and a set series of repetitive movement poses for one hour each week. Beyond more easily tapping into such energy of our inner soul, I’d also embraced her session introductions where she explained how Zodiac signs from Astrology combined with movement of stars, moons, and planets through time could change the future directions of our daily lives.

Thus being more aware now of my “Pisces character” through Kundalini ideals and in particular it’s meditative foundations, I feel it’s important in this blog entry to “dig deep” into my intense emotional nature. So I find it quite appropriate for me to reveal strong feelings of gratitude in remembrance of certain loved ones whose untimely demise impacted my life in the past. Thus I’ve conducted this week a quiet search in my home for some valued tokens of connection that symbolize sincere thankfulness toward each of these revered individuals who’ve produced joy, comfort, and happiness in my life. Perhaps the following video will similarly bring out that uplifting spirit of giving back somehow to those no longer alive that you cared about at some point in your life.

My wife’s brother Steve once bought me the most expensive shirt I’ve ever owned. To this day, strangers approach and compliment me for wearing such a classy garment. Thus I thank Steve for making me aware of choosing good taste in clothes to enhance my social standing and physical appearance.

Chief Wahoo, an imaginary logo figure from the long legacy of Cleveland Indians baseball vanished when the team last year renamed its ball club the Cleveland Guardians. In staring at his dining area statue in the photo below, I reject the idea that so many make that his somewhat amusing look feels offensive to the status of Native Americans in my country. So I realize I must thank Chief Wahoo wholeheartedly for inspiring me to “root” so enthusiastically for this team throughout my lifetime.

My wife’s father Ed accompanied me to Miami Dolphins games during their glory years following their 17-0 perfect season and through the exciting Dan Marino era. When Ed passed away recently, he left me some physical mementos of those enjoyable times spent cheering the Dolphins on together. So I thank him for keeping these pleasant memories of Dolphins football alive and well in this modern era.

My grandfather Eugene once allotted much of his leisure time to teach me to play a competent game of chess. Thus I thank him in remembrance of his life with me in this chess set image I found in my living room. For Eugene served me well with his patient and caring nature whom I choose to emulate in my subsequent teaching career.

My father Arthur worked long hours each week at various soft drink bottling companies when I was growing up to maintain our family’s economic survival. So I thankfully dedicate these vintage Cola bottles found in my souvenir chest to this hard working and responsible man who I similarly modeled in work “like father like son.”

Our Maine Coon cat Maxie lived in pet friendly comfort with us to a ripe old age exceeding over twenty years. Searching for some object reminders of his family friendly presence then, I discovered that these cat needlepoints made by mother on my bookshelf invoke a feeling of thankfulness for those relaxed times when we sat contentedly in the living room together.

Looking back to my inner city teaching days in Miami, I feel honored to mention a pair of running shoes stored away in my closet. For I most likely wore them on those morning occasions when I ran with my FBI agent friend Steve around our neighborhood. For during those relaxing jogs, Steve and I shared plenty of positive conversations that helped each of us escape from reality as we dealt with some very stressful times in our respective occupations.

I’ve never envisioned that staying with friends in their homes during our road trip vacations would be a comfortable experience. For let’s face it. I’d be infringing on the “ups and downs” of their daily lives under such confined housing conditions. Compounding that issue would be the likelihood that I might be obligated to sedentarily “hang out” with them and thus miss out on visiting what sights I might really want to see in the areas they reside in.

But I must remember why these chosen few I’ve visited became friends of my wife and me in the first place. Most likely, common interests played a huge role in our initial attraction to them via live entertainment, healthful living, as well as the joyful spirit of travel. As we also attempted to deal with more limited income in retirement mode, we increasingly felt that allotting more stays with friends would enable us to reduce our lodging expenditure budget on those long vacations.

Looking beyond these practical considerations of distant friendships, I might add that most recently we’d become more cognizant that such sustained friendships in travel seemed to offer strategies for emotionally handling some ongoing life challenges. In particular, I felt an obligation, to reach out to friends more cross country for better dealing with elderly parent issues and times of social isolation at home. Listen to the song in the link below. Consider then how your upcoming travel experiences might rekindle a beautiful friendship in such a passionate way?

So as our busy travel agenda winds down for 2023, I’m actually looking forward to the prospect of sustaining our enduring friendships with guest appearances in distant homes. Check out the following captioned photo section below as I recognize some memorable home stay settings with friends that have taken place in our wandering lives in recent years.

I am proud of my Hungarian ethnic heritage on my mother’s side. So I am highly motivated to engage in candid conversation with  Hungarian families at our local synagogue whose descendants suffered so severely during those Anti – Semitic times of Nazi occupation in their home country during World War II. Given those many years of  Russian occupation after the crushed Hungarian revolution of 1956, I am also interested in how cultural matters in this  country today help retain the people’s well earned freedom path and further resist Communist rule. Sadly, modern day Hungary again suffers further repressions during the current regime of Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. For his autocratic leadership to date closely aligns with that of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

 I might also clarify that Hungary’s latest fight for freedom of speech, press, and the right of assembly appears to be manifested in the form of a new cultural revolution. Know then I regret that our upcoming travels will not include a Hungary visit whereby I might personally observe such elements of cultural protest. Yet I will pay savvy attention to Hungarian music, art, and theatrical performance  on “You Tube” and other forms of media in the coming months in hope that such systematic change does occur. I invite you to take look for yourself at Hungary’s current cultural crisis with respect to the suppression of artistic freedoms in the video below.            

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Have you taken time lately to observe the pleasing sounds of wild nature? Consider then how mastering the art of stillness outdoors can help us perform this task more effectively? Know that the famed explorer John Muir certainly understood this vital need to listen to remote surroundings during his extensive of the American West. Hear his powerful words on this subject in the following video.

As for me, I’ve also savored those rare times of “Mother Earth’s” comparative quiet in travel as a healthful remedy from  my bustling city life in South Florida. Know however, I’m not the kind of person to stay for very long in one spot and just ponder my surroundings. So it takes some adjustment on my part to slow down my mind and stay in the present observational moment. Thus I might sit cross legged in classic yoga pose a few minutes to better prepare myself to experience the natural world in such enhanced sensory mode. At first, my eyes and ears often focus on one spot at a time for any signs of movement. If can I do this long enough, I then feel more focused and relaxed while oftentimes immersing myself more deeply into random sounds that surround me. A whistling breeze, crackling branch, or a hungry call of a bird; that’s all it might take to to enter that self meditative state. Consider for example some memorable place fixations below from our past travels that I recall feeling inwardly “drawn” in this way.

In my childhood, I vividly recall the strong influence of my grandfather in helping me find future success in my life. Imagine this curious child watching this scrawny looking Hungarian immigrant defeating me slowly and methodically at chess with mere flicks of his wrist, time after time. So it seemed firmly planted in my mind at a young age that “brains over brawn” best provided a competitive edge over one’s opponent in life.

I would then go on to test my acquired mental strengths learned in chess as I faced challenging school and work situations where so many I encountered appeared bigger, stronger, faster, or more naturally talented than I was. In chess terminology, you might say I envisioned the king chess-piece who stood strong yet relatively cautious on defense in the face of most antagonistic situations. In less threatening instances, I often found the will to simulate the more offensive queen player and take bold chances to move actively ahead with extra effort. Somewhere in between both of these most important chess decision extremes, my symbolic understanding of the interplay involving bishop, knight, pawn, and castle moves in chess likely provided more open minded awareness of cooperative team efforts to expedite complex decisions.

To illustrate further, during my teaching career, one of my learning innovations employed with a highly gifted class I taught in Elementary School involved “Human Chess”, where selected students moved around as the various pieces do in a real game set up on on a life size chessboard outdoors. To begin each of these contests, I’d first require each pupil to dress up and imagine acting in accordance with their assigned chess piece character to get a better feel for the strategic thinking of the game. As the game ensued, they began to walk around the board, move by move, in slow competitive battle knowing each step they took accomplished a specific purpose. In some cases, the student bishops and knights, with queens help would team-up then to synchronize their forward movements to surround the opposing king. Conversely, on other occasions, rooks and pawns would stack up in their best defensive position in support of their king. To win the checkmate title, there’d likely be no throwing, yelling, hitting, or fighting by these normally rambunctious kids to win the game, yet plenty of critical thinking.

These vital life lessons about the quietly contemplative game of chess seem to matter in my country’s money driven culture. Consider the popularity of NFL and college football games for example as they relate to the glorification of player violence. Perhaps you’ve seen the explosive collisions of bodies in those recent games which resulted in the tragic loss of star players Aaron Rodgers and Nick Chubb to season ending leg injury as shown on prime time TV. Given the choice then, would you rather win games with strategic mental preparation combined with naturally gifted skill or by beating down one’s opponent with risk of injury? Take a brief look yourselves then at a video sample of brutal “hits” below. How do they make you feel?

I’m currently reading a provocative book entitled “The Coddling of the American Mind” authored by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haida. As you you can tell by the title, there’s plenty of concern about the decline of our current educational system. In light of this issue, I thus present the following story of one aspiring educator who would be tested severely to pursue his dream to teach. See if you can spot those rookie teacher mistakes yourself that places this novice teacher “under fire.” Click on the following link to more fully understand the main thrust of this issue.

Rookie Teacher “Under Fire”

On the night before his first day as an instructor, Jacob felt fully ready to teach. For his professors had always praised him for mastering those challenging tenets of educational psychology in his undergraduate university classes while his teaching internship at the familiar high school of his youth once provided a comforting setting he could thrive in. Know however that this novice teacher would tomorrow face his first real test of his resolve to teach as he wanted to yet there would be no assurances that his work contract would last more than one year.

So with considerable relief, real teaching seemed at first a “breeze” for Jacob. For as he met each of his 11th grade American History classes with his typical smile and optimistic tone that first day, he felt comfortable as his students routinely introduced themselves individually. Yet on each of these friendly occasions, there seemed to be minimal conversation about those parameters of expected behavior to be followed by these aspiring, college bound juniors in class. So with his students notably quiet on this matter, during this latter part of each class orientation, Jacob instead decided to open channels of communication more. So he designated four or five group teams be formed throughout the first day , each with the freedom to select their own unique group name. In addition, he made clear that team leaders elected by each group would be provided opportunities to teach the entire class at various times of the semester.

In the ensuing months, Jacob undertook a consistent routine of starting each class with a short lecture about the assigned textbook content with the bulk of the classwork to follow being accomplished in these small group sessions. At some point before the end of each class, he would then allot time for each team to report back to the entire class about ideas they discussed. But he noticed at times that some groups seemed unwilling to do so. In so declining to speak, he heard frequent complaints from team leaders that the ideas discussed were either too unpleasant to deal with or it was not politically correct for them to talk in front of the entire class. So being the “kind soul” that he envisioned himself, Jacob on these occasions “gave in” to these student concerns and allowed them to reconvene on their own time in a more private setting and submit their answers online.

Sadly, this yearly “grind” for Jacob of teaching his students in this more student trustful way eventually took its toll on his psyche when their exam scores began to plummet. But with no turning back from spreading a more student empowered atmosphere as his current teaching preference, he pressed on to make his approach to teaching work. Yet would next year be better if Jacob’s given the chance to learn from his mistakes to teach full time there again?

I am “all in” for seeking happy times as anyone I suppose. Yet it’s not like life’s been “wasted away in “Margaritaville” as Jimmy Buffett once lyricized in this legendary singalong song. To clarify further, I am definitely moving on in my life from expecting external gratification by way of “booze”, babes”, and “beaches” as Mr. Buffett so vividly bombarded his fans with throughout his long musical career. Have a listen for yourself about Jimmy’s thoughts of such self indulgence in the link below.

I further reason that Jimmy’s “easy” life” theme seems to fit in well with those compulsive narcissists who feel entitled to do whatever they want on a grandiose scale. Yet I also wonder what point it really makes for a society that glorifies simply “hanging out” along a sunny beach clad in a Buffett like Hawaiian shirt and baseball hat to “kill time”? For I’ve recently found such mindfully “yin” experiences as yoga, meditation, and calming “New Age” music” as much better ways to please myself in lieu of such “yang” materialistic pleasures.

Perhaps I’m merely a victim of being “out of touch” with Jimmy Buffett’s “cool” mystique which definitely thrives throughout my home region of South Florida. In this regard, I think of those “snowbird” tourist hordes who flock to his ritzy” Margaritaville Resort complex so prominently situated along the Hollywood Beach shoreline. I also wonder why so many of them I observe seem so frantically willing to book there perhaps an overpriced charter boat ride, a risky jet ski glide or a buggy beach canopy shade. Yet I choose instead more sedate options at little or no cost by taking time to just silently observe my beautiful Atlantic Ocean surroundings along this city’s famous boardwalk corridor. Furthermore, would it make good sense for this restlessly curious traveler to bother cruising out of Fort Lauderdale as so many of these Northerners do to just sit for long periods of idle time in Buffett “beach bum” style along the ship’s top deck to merely “soak up” a tan?

In spite of our differences, I sincerely hope Jimmy Buffett finds his fantasy utopia in the sky. For I envision him happily strumming his guitar somewhere above amid the heavenly hereafter. Such wishes definitely inspire optimism that there’s plenty of time for me as well some day in the afterlife to find enhanced happiness on my own terms. So enjoy your next “cheeseburger in paradise” Jimmy and sleep well.

Hurricane season’s heating up again in South Florida  during its rainy season where I reside. So such frequently low pressure weather conditions there dictate it’s of vital importance that I furiously track online the latest hurricane data about Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico tropical disturbances. In fact, I’ve  been doing so ever since I moved to Hollywood, Florida in my youth when the only hurricane information available to me in the 1970s happened to be those annually distributed newspaper insets from the Miami Herald published to plot the exact latitude and longitude of the latest storm on a print map.

In contrast to such simplistic weather search efforts in paper and pencil times, I now feel more like a meteorologist with such a wide range of detail available for me to digest online about hurricanes in motion. For one, there’s the simple tracking map available on several of my apps like the Weather Channel which predict cone of probability locations where and when a storm will strike.Then there’s the satellite  look of a hurricane from the depths of space above reported by “N.OA.A.”,  whereby I notice the rain and cloud density bands spread out around the “eye” for me to discern the so called “dirty” (more intense) side of a storm. For a more specialized analysis of a hurricane, of course I can also go through those color coded isobars of varying wind, rain, air pressure and tidal surge variations reported regularly by local weather media affiliates. While for observing the latest “3D” sightings  of impacted hurricane locations, I can rely on those “Earth Cam” maps, as well, to pinpoint places that reveal live impact looks of inflicted hurricane damage.

For greater depth analysis, there’s also my most recent addition to this online hurricane entourage which goes by the amusing website database name called “Wobble Tracker”, where I can actually view the unpredictable patterns of hurricane movement that veer off and on the projected track. Such specialized data these days can even reveal that a hurricane might even do a 360 degrees circle back to a previous point of land impact for a second time strike.

As you can tell then from my photo collection below regarding Hurricane Idalia, I’m just a bit “O.C.D.” when it comes to the onset of hurricane season. But as you and I both know, one cannot ever control the weather. So as hurricanes come and go as they please, does it make good sense as well for us as humans to become “control freaks” and strive to do the same?