The spread of services offered in motels must follow a pattern, it only makes sense that once one motel offered free color television, that all the others had to as well in order to compete. Overnight it seems that every motel (and hotel) started pointing the ends of the toilet paper roll.
The spread of WiFi or Internet connectivity is following a similar pattern. Business travelers who want to stay connected are most likely driving the WiFi spread, consequently you always find it along the Interstate highway corridors. However, venture off the beaten path and connectivity becomes scarcer. Both of the motels I’ve been in this past week “offer” WiFi, but getting it the comfort of your room is not guaranteed.
In Gold Beach I could only get connected in the motel lobby, and then sporadically. I think the motel got the base equipment, set it up once, added the “WiFi” letters to their signboard and called it done. Largely WiFi in name only. Tonight, in Bandon, at least they don’t claim to offer WiFi in the rooms. They are quite upfront about saying there is dial-up in the rooms and WiFi in the lobby. I guess when there is an ocean across the road most people aren’t going to quibble about Internet access.
However, I am a nerd, and as such I’ll explode without semi-frequent Internet transfusions. Access to my email has been the primary need for me this week; and while I have been able to accomplish that in the two lobbies, I have learned more about motel operations through background conversations than I really ever wanted to know.
This week I am on vacation in Oregon with my father. He is attending a photography seminar and I am along to just have fun. The coastline here is rugged and beautiful. The defining feature is outcroppings of rock known as “haystacks.” And when miles of rugged, unspoiled coastline start to wain, it is only an hour’s drive to the nearest Redwood grove in northern California.
Spending time with my father has been good. We haven’t traveled together for perhaps fifteen years, maybe more. Our time together has been relaxed and easy going. After years of not always seeing eye-to-eye we are getting along better , and it feels good to share this time with him.
Earlier this week I discovered the Airport Wireless Internet Access Guide, which lists the availability of WiFi at all the major US airports. As luck would have it I am getting ready to fly this weekend and next for my vacation, so the list is timely.
Of course, only the two starting point airports offer free WiFi; both Kansas City International and Portland International are free. The two layover airports, Minneapolis and Houston, both charge for access; $6.95 and $9.95 respectively.
Obviously this is a conspiracy.
Sigh.
Those Who Hunt The Night is one of the best vampire stories I’ve read. It would make a fantastic movie, perhaps with Antonio Banderas in the lead role as Don Simon Ysidro and Kevin Spacey as Asher.
Rating: Excellent on all accounts
I’m getting ready to take a week’s vacation with my father in Oregon, and I am finding myself somewhat down. Normally in the days before a trip I’d be up and excited, but this trip is different on many levels and for many reasons.
Except for a brief three-day jaunt last January, this will be the first trip I’ve had without Michele. Since we were unable to take trips the last couple years of her life, largely due to circumstances beyond our control, I am discovering some quilt at taking a trip now. I keep telling myself that I deserve some time off, but that doesn’t completely ease my guilt.
This will be the first trip I’ve taken with my father in a number of years. He and I have take a couple of vacations together before, always with good results. My relationship with my father has undergone some major shifts in the intervening years. We have found ourselves at odds more than a few times, but we have also found new connections, most recently through shared loss. Like me, he is venturing back out into the real world following the loss of his wife.
Recently my life has taken a wonderful turn for the better. Without going into the details, I find myself in a quandary. Going to Oregon is a good thing, and I am grateful for the opportunity, but it means being separated from someone very special and important to me. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, anticipation of absence makes it grow pensive and anxious.
So the feelings I’m having tonight looking ahead to my trip are mixed: a combination of happy and sad, grateful and guilty, pleased and pensive. I think the balance is on the side of good; moreover I think it is perhaps more evolved to recognize the full spectrum of emotions around an event and not just the ones we want to feel.
After a three week hiatus to allow a pulled groin muscle to heal I returned to the gym today. I don’t think the original pull was really all that bad, but I managed to aggravate it on several occasions by continuing my kendo workouts. As kendo is primarily a right-leg forward activity any movement primarily involves the adductor muscles in the left leg. I sat out for a couple of practices and made heavy use of Aleve for a week or so to get over the worst of it.
This morning I was slow and cautious, especially on the leg machines, and had no pain or soreness during the workout. I’ll keep close tabs on it throughout the day to see if it becomes sore. Since I am on vacation next week I am thinking that a couple mild workouts this week to ease back into the routine, followed by some time off, will insure that I don’t make this a chronic injury.
Somehow I missed seeing Last of the Dogmen when it was originally released. It turns out to be a pretty good movie, if for nothing else than the beautiful settings and cinematography.
Rating: Good rental fare
My current car, a 2001 Lexus LS 430, just crossed the hundred thousand mile mark. Purchased used three years ago last month, it had a mere twenty-seven thousand miles when I started driving it. That’s an average of nineteen hundred miles a month, give or take.
At this rate I should see two hundred thousand in about four years.
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(Yes. The pictures were taken while driving.)
Eldest is the second book of Christopher Paolini Inheritance trilogy. It’s a good story, one that I am enjoying, even if it is aimed at a young(er) audience.
Rating: Hurry up with the third book already
I have passed the thirty pounds lost milestone. To celebrate I went out this past weekend and bought new pants for work. The current set are not only starting to show their age, they are baggy enough to draw comments from friends at work. On several occasions now I have seen people who haven’t seen me since I started my weight loss and they have all commented on the change in my appearance. It feels very good to have the weight loss recognized by others.
So far I’ve been averaging about ten pounds of loss per month. Provided this rate of loss keeps up I should see my initial goal of two hundred pounds by Halloween, and be in the one-ninety range for Christmas. That would be amazing.