aestheticvoyage2018

[aestheticvoyage2018]

The Journey Continues!

2019 Picks up with intention to be powerful iconic year.  Follow the 9th year of the photo-a-day project here:

https://aestheticvoyage2019.tumblr.com/

[aestheticvoyage2018]

The Aesthetic Voyage 2018 - video yearbook.

Soundtrack:

Hans Zimmer - Journey To The Line Pearl Jam - Who You Are Covenhoven - Ghosts of Kerouac Bob Schneider - 40 Dogs (Romeo & Juliet) Tom Waits - Picture In A Frame Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika Dierks Bentley - Burning Man Foo Foo Fighters - Everlong

“Winners have the ability to step back from the canvas of their lives like an artist gaining perspective. They make their lives a work of art – an individual masterpiece.” ~ Denis Waitley

“You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” ― Ansel Adams

[aestheticvoyage2018]

2018 Superlatives

 Best Photo: Audrie in The Zion Narrows

Best Breweries  a: Wibby Brewing, Longmont, CO  b. Nottingham Road Brewing Co., Midlands, South Africa  c. Monkey Fist Brewing, Traverse City, MI

Best Sandwich:  Hot Brown, Louisville KY Best Beer: Keg of Brother Thelonious at our Wedding! Best Roadtrip: Amarillo Loop > TX, OK, KS, CO Best Adventure: Finding Zulu Uqumbothi Beer in South Africa Best Meals -  a.) Fogo de Chao, Las Vegas NV  b). Big Texan Steak, Amarillo, TX c) Scott Bowers St Pats Spread, Denver, CO  d.) Lobster Roll at Mabel’s Lobster Claw, Kennebunkport, ME  e) Sosoba Noodles, Flagstaff  Favorite Restaurant: Mod Pizza

Best Month: May Best Beach: Nordhouse Dunes Camp, MI

Best Breakfast: New Years Eve Frittata with Jane and Dave Best Sunset:  Six Sunset Streak in Ludington, MI Best Town: Sydney, Australia Best Happy Hour: Kavasutra with Cory Best Hike(s): Calf Creek, Bryce Canyon, Zion Narrows, Buckskin Gulch - UTAH!! Best Book: Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath # of Books Read/Completed: 5

Best Camp Spot: Great Sand Dunes with Mike and Garrett Best Skinny Dip:  Lees Ferry with Mike, Colorado River Best Concert: Bob Schneider in Fort Collins

Favorite Roads:  a. Back Roads Death Valley with Luke,  b. Kit Carson National Forest, NM, c. White Mountains, NH Best State: New Hampshire Best Nature Hug: Shoshone Point, Grand Canyon Best Movie:  Hostiles Best Rental Car (of the 17 rented): The White Jeep Wrangler out of Salt Lake City for Zion. Favorite Show: Survivor Best Shower/Bath: Westin, Sydney Australia Best Pool!: The Lodge On The Desert Best Coffee Shop: Logan House Coffee, Stanley Market, Denver, CO Hardest/Worst Day of the 365: July 14 - Cancelled Wedding Plan, June 28/29 - Sufferfest, Move out of Denver

Number of Flights Trips - 36 Favorite Game: Snake vs. Block   Guilty Pleasure: SimFarm

Howd you spend Valentines Day: Took AC to Snarfs and Rickoli Howd you spend your birthday:   Steak in Cheyenne, Sushi Karaoke Howd you spend AC’s birthday: Zion/Utah Ramble Howd you spend Christmas Day: Crashed AC Overnight in Ontario, CA Howd you spend New Years Eve: Private Party at Lodge of The Desert, Tucson

Closest to death: Slipping on Ice at Betsie Point Light Worst Fight:  Disagreement over the runners. Best Holiday - St Patricks Day

Biggest Regret - Didnt exercise enough.  Let my weight slip. Worst Disappointment - Havasu Falls getting flooded out for our wedding Best Luck of 2018 - Silver Recalled Recovery

# of On Campus Work Trips in 2018 - 5  # of Weddings in 2018 - 4 Something new in 2018:  Learned to smoke a cigar  & Insta Pot Ribs

Best Quote: “I love the dark hours of my being. My mind deepens into them. There I can find, as in old letters, the days of my life, already lived, and held like a legend, and understood.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke Best Song: Eric Church - Round Here Buzz

Best Days of the 365:   1/  Vows on Mount Lemmon, July 20 2/ Completion Ceremony, July 21 Favorite/Most Notable Moments:

Seeing Breckenridge in State Final at Ford Field Burns Night processional in St Louis with Haggis Being a part of a real life Surprise Party for Cole DeathStar Nipple Moon-rise Paint Nite! Splashing at Buckskin Gulch group photo Writing my vows to Audrie (both drafts) Audrie Overdoing it at Press-Fest Violet’s Affection Meeting with Shane’s Family Suprising Audrie in Birmingham Bar Night after Mike’s Wedding Sick Day Flu in January New Years Day Mai Tai in Hawaii Jan 1 2018 Spring Training Game with Grandpa Havarti Picks a 16 seed upset for UMBC in March Madness That White Pants Suit for Bachelorette in NYC Yoga at Lake Powell Our interviews with Rhinos Going to the top of Mt Wellington, Hobart, Tasmania That amazing bridesmaid for Amy’s wedding Zion Narrow Hammock Hang / De-hang

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Midnight January 1, 2019 - “Pop The Bubbly”

A long way from the fireworks of Honolulu where 2018 started, AC and I stood in front of the fire place in Tucson AZ to ring in 2019.  After some struggle and a little delay, the champaign got popped and we had some good laughs, pulling poppers and auld lang syne.   As the curtain came down on a big year for us, it was with a light relief that we pulled a new stage up for 2019.  Over kisses we tipped our hats to each other and then called forward what we hope will be a powerful and connected year.   We both look forward to the pats on the back that we’ll earn with these next 365.

Song:  The Tenors - Auld Lang Syne

Quote: 

“Not the bee upon the blossom,In the pride o’ sunny noon;Not the little sporting fairy,All beneath the simmer moon;Not the poet, in the momentFancy lightens in his e'e,Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture,That thy presence gi'es to me.” ― Robert Burns

[aestheticvoyage2018]

December 2018

The holiday season is busy enough and December sure was a labyrinth for us to get through - the tones of this 12th chapter of 2018 included two different trips to California, a trip to Texas, and a trip back home to Michigan.  The benefit to all these miles was getting to see some really great people - hanging with Chad and meeting his daughter, seeing the Moores, meeting our buddy Shane’s whole family for a special night, a pirate party at my Mom’s House, visiting the Clan of Cunninghams, and seeing AC on Christmas.   We also spent time with Myron, Jane and Dave, and my Grandpa.   The days of December were filled with faces and people we love and that loved us, and that made the pace of play more joyful.  A good tune up for the intention for 2019.

Best Day: Christmas Day in Joshua Tree and in Orlando with AC

Best Song: Andrew Duhon - Heart of A Man

Best Quote: “But silence continued in the layers of the earth, and this density that I could feel at my shoulders continued harmonious, sustained, unaltered through eternity. I lay there pondering my situation, lost in the desert, and in danger, naked between sky and sand and stars, withdrawn by too much silence from the poles of my life.”  ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 365b: Monday December 31, 2018 - “Private Party”

For the last night of 2018 I put together a little private New Years party for AC and I by getting a casita over at the Lodge of The Desert where we spent our wedding nights back in July.   We had a beautiful fireplace that made a really nice fire for us, and I decorated the place up complete with balloons and poppers and lots of bubbly for us.  I let AC order whatever she wanted from Chars and we had a big Thai feast as we let the night slowly go by, watching the NYE pass over the country.   Both of us are so ready to let this big year go and start anew and start fresh.  A lot of reflective conversations and hope and planning and vision casting had.    From our little private place in the world tonight, we sent 2018 away and get ready to have a powerful year in 2019.

Song: Andrew Bird - Auld Lang Syne

Quote: “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”  ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 365: Monday December 31, 2018 - “End Year”

Got together with Jane and Dave for a nice brunch to end 2018 alongside each other.   Jane made this really awesome Frittata - so good, complete with Mimosa.  Maybe the best breakfast of the year??  Saving the very best for last.  We spoke our adventurous, appreciative balanced intentions with each other, setting some hope on the year ahead before settling in for a slow boring bummer of a Spartan bowl game.  Even Havarti could barely watch.  Go Green!   While the Spartans were forgettable, the company was top knotch - so blessed to have this time and ability to connect with family while here in AZ.

Song: Cosmo Sheldrake - Come Along

Quote: “The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.” ― Khalil Gibran

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 364: Sunday December 30, 2018 - “Rebuke”

A tradition of the end to the year since 2011, I sat down tonight in the back corner to write my letter to self.  A time to be honest and real...to offer advice to my self from my self - a culmination of several days of reflection.   We sat out over sunset in the cold winter air, bundled up while I finished my big Christmas Cigar.   I hadnt really thought thoroughly of what i needed to say to myself for the new year but once I started writing it all spilled out.  AC burned some sage as I read it back to her and then we sat out there for the next hour talking more about it all - acknowledging, affirming, planning, vision casting.   Ready for the new year more so than ever - ready to get to work.  Owning it.   Very very very clear, as we talked it out.  I look patting my self on the back this time next year instead of the cringe of unintentionality Ive felt the past couple.    Most years, this exercise has been affirming supplications but this year - this year was a rebuke.   Not cute to be a cowboy anymore.  Focused days lay ahead.   The ease that the call flowed from me tonight makes me feel like its real and ready.

Song: Andrew Duhon - Heart Of A Man

Quote: "Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers." ~Rilke

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 363: Saturday December 29, 2018 - “Another New Year”

AC was able to get home tonight by going into PHX so I drove up there and picked her up and then we cycled over to Apache Junction to surprise Grandpa with some caroling and goodies that included a New Years Hat, some chocolate, some drinks for good cheer, and some good coffee.  He was enjoying the Polka show and we had some good laughs hanging out with him.  “You didnt let him know we were coming?!” she asked - “heck no, this will make it way more memorable” - surprise him we did.  He wore his hat, and poured out some Tequila for us before we pointed our HiYo for home.   He’s seen quite a few New Years in his day and we could be so lucky to dance and celebrate as many times as he has in his long extraordinary life.

Song:  Frankie Yankovic and his Yanks - It's Polka Night

Quote:  “I sit beside the fire and think Of all that I have seen Of meadow flowers and butterflies In summers that have been Of yellow leaves and gossamer In autumns that there were With morning mist and silver sun And wind upon my hair I sit beside the fire and think Of how the world will be When winter comes without a spring That I shall ever see For still there are so many things That I have never seen In every wood in every spring There is a different green I sit beside the fire and think Of people long ago And people that will see a world That I shall never know But all the while I sit and think Of times there were before I listen for returning feet And voices at the door” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 362: Friday December 28, 2018 - “Slideshow”

I enjoy the major project of this time of year, my video yearbook, mostly because its such a good time to reflect and remember on all of what worked and what didnt in the new year. I cant set intentions for a new year until Ive taken the time to get back through the road Ive come down.   Picking the music to go with it is fun too.  2018 sure has felt rough - we’ve come through a lot...but in the rearview mirror, it doesnt look half as bad as its felt in retrospect.   The quiet reflection of time is so important before looking ahead.  I really look forward to hitting publish on this one, and then turning my gears to a more powerful 2019.

Song: Nial Horan - Slow Hands

Quote:  "Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don't have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up." ~Amby Burfoot

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 361: Thursday December 27, 2018 - “Ramble Season”

Ramble Season complete for 2018. Retiring the green line after one last run kicking up dust on the old Route 66 yesterday.   Updated the scribble map using that green line for 2018′s new roads for the last time.  And with Christmas Ramble in the rear view mirror, its really time to start reflecting on 2018 - where Ive been, what was a highlight...and Im starting here.

Some roadtrip highlights from 2018 were mostly the surprises - the places I didnt expect or plan for but just ran into:  Kit Carson National Forest in New Mexico, a lonely forest road running the border of New Hampshire and Maine, the back roads of Death Valley at sunset with Luke, the Amarillo Loop through Jet OK, CA-2 over the Angeles Crest, snowstorm jaunt to Shorts, Rocky Top TN, and that curvy high ridge up in somewhere UTAH. Not pictured here is all the track we ran in ZSA and Swazi - equally adventurous. Always on the hunt, for the new roads.

Heres to the backroads, those backbones, that lead us back - back to the important places; the outposts and outliers of the backcountry where the big boxes dont dare roam, and where ramblers like me call "home" 

Collected some beautiful “road shots” along the way too.  As I start to get through the photos from these 365, I’ll come across so many random one offs where I stopped to take the photo.  I suppose thats what its all about on this aesthetic voyage - to get out there and see it with my own eyes.  From the blueberry sky out on route 66 last night, to the fall colors in NH, to that lost road to Pagosa.   Its a map with colored scribbles on it - but to me it represents the window down, heading west on some quiet road with the sun on my arm and cheek, sorting out the next turn, the next landmark, the next the next the next.  To sip a beer in a new town, to meet a new friend, to ponder a new peak.  Someday maybe a next of kin will wonder if I was ever here.  Birmingham, Biddeford, Bakersfield, and no name places all along the way that stop you in the track to say “whoa” with contemplative gratitude; and the answer wont be known for sure, probably, but they’ll know that whatever it is they’re looking at, thats what I was after.

In 2019, my ramble intentions include more on the eastern seaboard in the Carolinas and also Mississippi and that river delta.   I’ll have to pick out a new color for the new year quick!  I’ll have two opportunities in Iowa and Reno right off that bat in January - keep the roads running.  Nothing exhilarates me more than the spirit of Go. So many more places to see.

Song: Our Lady Peace - Ballad Of A Poet

Quote:  “Nothing whets the intelligence more than a passionate suspicion, nothing develops all the faculties of an immature mind more than a trail running away into the dark.” ― Stefan Zweig

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 360: Wednesday December 26, 2018 - “Christmas Ramble”

Had a day to burn on the open road, kicking dust on the old Route 66 and filling in new track through Southern Cal and the southwest deserts looping in towns like Victorville, Barstow, Goffs, Laughlin, Bullhead City, Needles, and Lake Havasu City.   

Pulled off of the I-40 as the sun started to go out of the sky and found a stretch of the old Mother Road, 66, that was now mostly dirt, sometimes almost completely washed out.  Quiet and cold out there with a majestic mountain ridge lined up to the west.  At the end of the dirt road, an old outpost with a single sign next to six mailboxes declaring its spot on the map - Goffs. A long way from those jammed expressways between LA and Las Vegas - everyone in a hurry to sit in a traffic jam - but not me!  Taking the long way around.

Wound up in Laughlin, that mini-Vegas along the Colorado River down at the bottom tip of Nevada with lights flashing - the track led me down the strip and past the old Colorado Belle and got excited about the idea of getaway back here sometime.  Seems really fun.  If only I had more time, but as night laid in, I was still a solid 5+ hours from home.   Id find dinner down the road in Lake Havasu City, at the popular brewery, Hangar 24 - which despite being a little gimmicky with a plane hanging and community tables, they had great burgers and an Oktoberfest on tap, and so I was satisfied.  I’ll have to consider them here in the next week when thinking about the top breweries of the year - added fun was I wasnt sure the nav was right leading me right into the city airport but yea, no joke - its in a hangar there.   Next stop, last stop on the road from Ontario to Tucson, was to see that old historic London Bridge.  Id heard about this landmark - as unbelievable as it is - and so now I had to detour to see it, cross it, photograph it.   The old London Bridge was moved to connect an island to the mainland when the dammed Colorado created Lake Havasu.  How they moved it and put it back together?  Who knows.  I should take some time to look it up.  But for today, it was enough to enjoy the Christmas Village that lined the walkway below and the english telephone booth.  Historic and curious.

I turned Silver for home and mounted my HiYo to go.   Got pulled over finally for that bad headlight somewhere outside Parker...I knew that was coming eventually, and found it ironic that the reds and blues came on for me on the last stretch of the last run for the green line of 2018.  Crawled into bed sometime after 1am.  Made a long full day out of this ramble.  Filled in some new roads.   The highlight of the road was that lonely quiet road around Goffs - Blue-berry Highways.  The town I enjoyed the most was Lake Havasu City and that great brewery and fun bridge - I’ll have to come back here some time in the summer when I can skinny dip.

Song: The Wallflowers - One Headlight

Quote: "What is the blue road anyways but an opportunity to poke into the unknown and a hoping the unknown will poke back?" ~William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 359.2:  Tuesday December 25, 2018 - “Christmas Bells”

With 30 minutes left on this Christmas day, AC came through the door of the hotel room in Ontario, CA as if arriving down a chimney with a sack full of goodies (or her full office pack).   I was refreshed and de-fazzled from the long drive but she still spun up from working her two legs across from Raleigh was ready for her free hot meal with her crew (she got the big steak) and then some nice red wine from our First Collection - the First Christmas bottle, that encouraged us to be naughty!  I was just happy that in the nick of time my Christmas present arrived.  We sat up until about 3am re-connecting and having some heady conversation together - we definitely need way more of that in the new year and so we’ll engineer it.  It went by fast - by Noon the next day she was back in the van and diving out into a 5 leg monster day that would land her in Austin but I was grateful that for Christmas, we laid down our arms and had a sweet peaceful connected night together - hundreds of miles from “home” - but whats that mean to us anyway these days?  Add Ontario Christmas to the list of overnight crashers.

Song:  The Royal Guardsmen - Christmas Bells (Snoopy vs Red Baron)

Quote: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.” ― Jalal Ad-Din Rumi

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 359: Tuesday December 25, 2018 - “Christmas Joshua Trees”

I got what I wanted for Christmas - a lonely wide open desert-blue-Highway on a nowhere spot on the map with the windows down and Ryan Bingham Live piping into Silver like a Christmas classic.  Run Run Rudolph!  I was on my way via the backroads to Joshua Tree, before it got cold and dark.   It took me through some small towns like Parker, Earp, Salome, Twentynine Palms, Bouse, and Hope.... on the way out of the one corner town of Hope the sign read “Good Luck - youre beyond Hope!”  cute.   It was a nice sunny Christmas Day - 60 degrees the whole way - just enough to feel like I was getting a tan on my face as I drove West.  That direction always feels like it has a special charm. Crossed the Colorado River there in Parker, barely a trickle it seemed - we use it all up before it can get to Mexico.  I enjoyed the rollercoaster dips and the shoe trees, and the long stretches to my self.  All the things Heat Moon ever put in a book, amplified due to it being Christmas. 

Made it into Joshua Tree and was happy to find that they’d left the gates open.  A sign reminded me that it was closed due to “lack of appropriations” (government shutdown) - but with no barrier to block the road it all felt like a “wink wink” and so I hit out to enjoy some special Christmas Trees.   Its cold up here between the Coachella Valley and Mojave Desert - only 3000 feet, but you feel way up in it, and for whatever reason, here, a strange foreign mix between a cactus and a tree grows - the Joshua Tree.   I scrambled around the park, looking for a great spot to find some sunset shots.  Way way way to cold to dream about putting up my hammock as planned as the temps dropped into the low 40s.   I got a few shots that I was happy with and then followed the snake of cars down and out towards LA.

AC has an overnight this Christmas Days Eve in Ontario, this side of LA and so the endgame was to get there before she did.  Mission accomplished, no small task, as the circuit through Riverside felt more like Mexican racetrack this Christmas.   I survived and was happy to enjoy a beautiful hot tub at the crew hotel to relax my traffic-frayed nerves.  Why did I think the roads would be wide open on Christmas??!  HA!  That was one wild trip.  I threw down some new track though that I was happy with, and ended the day, eventually, spending time with my partner.   Tired and pushed, its not like its a totally warm sentimental kind of visit - but its the effor that counts and in that effort, we were together on Christmas this year; eventually.

Song: Chuck Berry - Run Run Rudolph

Quote: “The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature. If some of our great decorated trees had been grown in a remote forest area with lights that came on every evening as it grew dark, the whole world would come to look at them and marvel at the mystery of their great beauty.” ― Andy Rooney

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 358: Monday December 24, 2018 - “Holiday Tradition”

Hard to pin down the birth of this odd little tradition...I suppose it started in a storage bin made bar in Ensenada over Thanksgiving 2015 where we ate oyster and drank the mezcal...and then again the following Thanksgiving in Vancouver with all you can eat, and grill yourself Sushi....  Then Christmas 2016, alone with AC off at work, I wondered what would be open and found myself at Sushi Bay.  Last Christmas, the tradition ironically stuck and continued, with some fresh Poke, where we could find it in Haleiwa and how we both forever fell in love with Poke that week.    And so now I guess, the cadence of it - on holidays like this to go out and search for some fresh fish.  And its fairly easy to find.   At Sushi Bay I filled myself on All You Can Eat goodness.   Nigiri Shrimp, Scallops, Albacore, Yellowtail, Octopus, and Eel, to name a few.  Enjoying the good stuff - the best stuff.  And then - the Christmas Nap.   If AC is going to be working, jetting around the country with Christmas Travellers, then I am going to do things that bring me joy.

After a long nap where I woke up to a dark room, rubbing my eyes open, trying to remember where I was and why - I remembered it was Christmas Eve.  And now what should I do with myself?   I flipped through the channels, and found Its A Wonderful Life had just started.  And wouldnt you know - Ive never seen it?  Honest.  Maybe parts here and there - the iconic scenes.  But I couldnt tell you the storyline.  And so I restarted it and settled in, and now maybe a new Christmas tradition starting.  I loved it.  It helped break my fever.  I loved it.  I wonder if it will be on again tomorrow.  I went and smoked my Christmas cigar and thought about some more and thought about what it all might look like a year from now...the best I could hope for is that I can peacefully find some more sushi to eat, find this movie on the TV, pour some great rum, and smoke an awesome cigar, and call it a night.   Far from the christmas eve’s of my childhood...not even a tree around here.  But it is what we all make it, for wherever we are, whenever we are at it - and this is where we are right now, for now.

Song: Alabama - Tonight Is Christmas

Quote: You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass... —Warren Buffett

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 357: Sunday December 23, 2018 - “Xmas Club”

Quite blessed over Christmas this year with all the simple pleasures that are easy to enjoy.   I poured myself a special drink off the Cuban rum and read through the Christmas Cards we’ve gotten - a beautiful saguaro from the Porembas, a painting from Shane from his Mom, a letter from the Nemecheck’s and a photo card from the Van Fossen clan in Montana.  Overall a great set.  Thanks to all that thought of us and sent us something from all corners of the country.  Nice so many had our address and could find us this Christmas due to wedding mailings!   But theres one guy that always seems to find me around Christmas and send the best gifts  - my guy Chad sent me a “6 pack” - but not the kind you drink, the kind that improves my baths!  Perfect, dude!   I’ll enjoy those for sure.  But the best part, and the most convenient part about being married is being able to call my shot.  “I would like this for Christmas” - sends link.   And supposing that maybe I should deserve it, the hope would be it would magically appear.  And sure as shit,as a result of a years effort to be helpful and good, what I asked Santa for arrived - a new Osprey branded computer travel bag.  I cant wait to put it to work, which should be coming quickly!  

I further spoiled my self - lounging around, going slow, enjoying the feeling of not having to go to work tomorrow...though AC did and I slept out on the couch to try to positively impact her own needed sleep.   Already working on earning that Christmas present next year!!   Hopefully she comes to the end of 2019 and decides I deserve whatever I ask for again!  One could hope.   I’ll give it my best efforts and hope that next year all our troubles will be miles away.   I also decided, for sure, we’re definitely doing Christmas Cards next year.   That will be fun - and I hope to get a card as cool as the Porembas!!  That one was nice.

Over the Cuban rum I heard Judy Garland sing softly a wish to have a merry little christmas and I melted.  Up there with Elvis’ Blue Christmas.   Straight to the heart of Christmas, but especially resonate this year as maybe it was for her when she recorded it in 1944 for Meet Me In St Louis.  Timeless.

Song: Judy Garland - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Quote: “Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on. I hope you never have to think about anything as much as I think about you.” ― jonathan safran foer

[aestheticvoyage2018]

Day 356: Saturday December 22, 2018 - “San Cristobal”

Rather than spending money on some pints this Christmas weekend, I went and visited the emporium and picked out a few cigars.   I took my time in the walk-in humidor and scoped out all the different varieties and price points.  I picked out three and the guy that cashed me out was very excited about my choices.  I asked what I should expect from the big one Id picked, San Cristobal Revelation Leviathan... he said, simply, “awesomeness” - thatd work, Id save that one for Christmas Eve.  Got myself a smoking chair out in the back corner under the mesquite tree, and there is a full moon out this weekend which makes it nice and bright out in the cool desert air.  Im a rookie when it comes to Cigar Smoking.  Only the second time out to buy a cigar (Cuba aside)...I got a lot to learn but I plan to hone in my favorites in the coming year.  There was a group of dudes sitting around smoking together in the shop - not sure I’ll ever graduate to that but I smirked thinking Papa would find it awfully fun to think so. I also picked out a Wise Man and Rocky Patel.  Just feels a bit more worldly and refined that picking out a growler.

Song:  trulla express - parranda navideña

Quote: "Smoking has a sedative effect upon the nerves, and enables a man to bear the sorrows of his life (of which everyone has his share) not only decently, but dignifiedly." George Burrow