Sojourner - Traveling with the “Canman”

29th floor Looking at Tokyo Tower and Covid Screening at Narita Airport On last day of a 14 day quarantine on the 29th floor of a nice very silent Tokyo hotel.  The odyssey starts in Dallas on an empty jumbo jet.  Again less than 15 passengers! And when you land at Narita, its a 2 hours COVID testing screening process right at the airport before taking a shuttle directly to quarantine.   This means one does not come out of one's room, food is placed outside the door and the only person one sees is a temperature taker twice a day.  So how did I feel going in?  Excited to have some "me time"!  I brought my guitar, books, and a Wi-Fi speaker. Time to catch up with my Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning course (of which I'm still only halfway through after 6 months), time to read and reflect (including many books I have started, Churchill's Trials, The 5th Discipline, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Name of the Wind).  Time to reach out to al...

I was giving my children some long term investment advice, but caveated it with my growing unease that it could be moot.. I am reading a book my son gave me titled, "Churchill's Trials" In the book, I learned Winston Churchill nearly 100 years ago wrote some things, that I believe may unfortunately be quite prescient. In his 1924 essay, “Shall We Commit Suicide?” Churchill states, “the story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes, there has never been peace in the world... From his propensity to slaughter man has been saved so far only by his incompetence"...As the years passed, Churchill hoped science might be an antidote that elevated mankind, over time lost that hope.” Churchill over many decades observed technical superiority rather than virtue or social virtue was the determinator of which society ultimately triumphed in war and that science could also lead to moral degeneration. In 1931 Churchill wrote, “Science and organi...

 Flying an empty jumbo Boeing 787 airliners to the Amsterdam was a reminder that COVID is still weighing heavily on the world's economy.  What does it mean when only 15 of the 300 seats are filled?  Certainly great service, but a day of reckoning is coming.  For some of the airline staff unfortunately sooner than later... Because Italy will only let us stay for 5 days until we satisfy a 14 day quarantine, we must spend the weekends in Amsterdam.  Darn the bad luck :)  The food and people don't disappoint.  The hotel's are virtually empty, but the staff is so appreciative.  My favorite new bartender Andrea taught be all the tricks for making a marvelous cucumber muddled gin cocktail (e.g. peel the cucumber and use an egg white) and I discovered a delectable new citrus liquor from Spain '43'! Ah, but I digress, not far from Amsterdam's Schiphol's airport is a marvelous French restaurant,  Bij Qunis .  It occupies what for a 100 years was t...

The milestone in life has come when ones children are parents.  Two daughter's each new mothers in May in the span of just 3 weeks.  COVID babies born in a secure hospital with virtual family support.  An amazing new paradigm.  Brave new world.  After appropriate quarantine isolation, the opportunity to visit my new granddaughter Adeline, right in FW -albeit with masks and social distancing.  But in order to visit grand-son Grady Hank it required going to Nashville Tennessee.   The parental prerequisites for visiting was no airline flight.  So a 10.5 hour drive it was!  But what an opportunity to try out the semi-autonomous features of my Honda CRV.  Lane-keeping and auto-speed handling made the trip SO much more relaxing and seemingly short.   The driving-assist technology is only at a stage that allows for 16 seconds hands off at a time keeping the (for the most part) the appropriate distance, speed and lane on long most...

Jetting back in June after 3 weeks working in Europe to a U.S. that seems “on fire” across two juxtaposed fronts. The contrast between the two continents is stark. COVID-19 infections in Lombardi region , the Italian infection epicenter when I left in February are  minuscule  now.  Italians, normally an independent lot rallied together, not in small part because of extensive lock-down enforced by police checkpoints that issued fines for leaving one’s home without a permission slip.  We were sequestered in a compound near Cameri, Italy to ensure "our safety".   Gave me an opportunity to create a song I titled Cameri Prison Blues  (inspired by Johnny Cash). You can  listen  here        And safe we stayed validated by weekly testing and a quarantine upon returning to Texas.   In contrast to my European experience, Texas Covid cases are skyrocketing.  American 's independent streak combined with arrogance and ig...

In June I took part in an amazing and surreal odyssey to complete a high priority mission in Italy.  With the fear of Covid rampant my small team was given the experience of flying over and around Europe VIP style (i.e., can you say Gulfstream 650 !) OMG.  This is a spectacular way to travel!   But as the old saying goes, "there is no such thing as a free lunch", there was the "piper to pay".  We were sequestered in spartan  "cell block" with no chance to enjoy the perks of the locale. On weekends shuttling (VIP air) to the Netherlands from Italy to comply with EU COVID public health decrees.  It was as they say, the " best of times and the worst of times ".  When on the "ground" we were in essence VIP prisoners if not at work.  Isolated from the world and recipients of weekly COVID nasal tests the first kind that go well into the sinus cavity.     Staging "prison escapes". Long nights of poker and meaningful talks about life,...