Starbucks - Cincinnati Airport

It was seriously busy at this store today. Probably the busiest travel day of the year and they were feeling it big-time. To their credit, they got my order exactly right - amazing consider the number and variety of orders coming through.

They sure have a terrific view to the taxiways and runways...and a lot of light with which to work. I'd have loved to talk to the baristas and ask them about what it's like working there if there weren't so many people in line!

The pumpkin spice creme I had was not as needed as the last one, but it made for a comforting pre-flight breakfast.

Starbucks - Lexington, KY

This was a seriously welcome respite after a very long morning and afternoon. They still have pumpkin spice syrup on the menu, thank goodness.

This store had super-comfy chairs (tucked into a perfect little cove) which I sank into upon completion of my order. The perfect Starbucks experience! Sometimes I wish the stores were a little more cozy....

40 years

Forty years

Forty days (and forty nights)

Forty winks

Forty lashes

Forty acres and a mule

Form 1040

WD-40

Europe on $40.00 a Day

For T's a jolly good fellow

Happy Birthday, self.

Stellar Reverie

As I was leaving the house the other morning, I saw the constellation Orion - remarkably bright - gracing the southern sky. Winter is icumen in, eh?

Seeing the constellations always puts me in a bit of a thoughtful or dreaming state; I think about seeing them in their current form - as groupings of stars that are not equidistant from Earth. I think about traveling closer to the Orion Nebula - to see it as a visitor rather than as an observer. And I think about distant planets circling those stars. I still get a little thrill thinking about the word "planet" - it evokes memories of wonder as I watched "Star Trek" as a child, imagining what it might be like to stand on the surface of a world with a different color sky.

Aurora Borealis is the true stellar reverie - the storms of the sun creating an ethereal presence here on Earth. Someday I'd like to see them from further north - like Greenland.

Next time there's a heavy meteor shower, go outside and watch the sky light up as we pass through the heavens. Took me a long time to understand that those rocks hurtling through the atmosphere are more stationary than our world. "Just passing through," said the Earth....

Artist's Space!

Hey, I can do more than just write! I painted this yesterday afternoon in a park overlooking the St. Croix River. Let me know what you think : )

Weekend Adventure Ideas

mini golf
IMAX film
go-cart racing
climbing at REI
art crawl/treasure hunt at MIA

A Man of Many Interests

I hear Garrison Keillor in the morning and I'm a poet
Weaving through traffic I'm a race car driver
Walking in the snowdrifts I'm an arctic explorer
Stepping back to pass I'm a star quarterback

Strolling through the museum, an artist
Breathing underwater, a scuba diver
Talking to a vendor, a crack negotiator
Making home movies, a noted director

Look out, Walter Mitty.