Brown Motion

 I might have waxed poetic on this topic not long ago. Well I figured enough acts of insanity have since taken place on this planet that it warrants revisiting this rather important premise. That of thoughts and prayers. Those that seem inclined to open the gusher of them both and start sending them across the ether to specifically (not sure where) some general affected area around where the insanity or tragedy took place.  Actually with people's geographic sense being what it is I am not sure their target lat/ long are really accurate but we will work on that later.  While also not getting into the exact nature of the thoughts or the prayers has it occurred to anyone that maybe the version that these yokels are employing (for said thoughts et al) is the wrong kind?  I mean the disaster has already struck. Too little too late maybe? Just maybe? Thusly, how about turning a few pages in your thoughtopedia or prayer book and reading some newer edition or version, then p...

 Named for an erstwhile Governor of Florida a couple centuries ago, Jacksonville was my destination for a work trip for couple days. Situated on the north east corner of the panhandle of Florida state it is the largest city in the state with over 1M residents calling it home and also the largest city by land mass in all the United States. The trip was at the onset of spring and the temps locally were downright balmy to humid at times.  It reminded me of Hawaii with its random showers that punch down to cool the atmosphere a tad then followed by those seaside breezes. The downtown where most of the commercial hub is sits on either shore of the St John's River which has quite a wide swath and criss crossed by about six bridges that I could see.  I was able to walk over the Main Street bridge which is a bascule design that splits open to allow tall sail boats to pass without hitting the deck. The downtown is somewhat compact with increasing gentrification visible as you star...

 It rained hard past week. Which means the rivers were swollen. Which meant we could drive to see the Reedy river in Greenville in it’s bubbling glory. So we went out west on a fine spring like day - make the most of it. View didn’t disappoint.. Lunch at the bistro overlooking the water was somewhat underwhelming but that wasn’t enough to dissuade us from enjoying the wonderful walk we had.

 Welcome to Germany. When one notices the quirks of or in a region or country compared to what your recent baseline has been, it always give you pause. And so it was with Germany. I have known this about many of the large European states that I had a chance to visit in the past where bathrooms or restrooms or WC as they are called are not available for public for free. Even the ones on public transport vehicles like the ones on the local and express trains in Germany are available to paying customers. And these customers know it. This winter as I traveled on the DB system I saw many of the new set of travelers board at a stop and first make a beeline to the loo. Not having one operational (which I noticed on couple trains -  es ist geschlossen ) got people peeved when they wanted to pee and could not. German efficiency does also break down at times. Most certainly before disembarking the savvy crowd hits the loo on board a train and then leaves at their stop.  Finding a c...

 1 week trip. Helps to have a direct flight into München or Munich. Capital of state of Bavaria. In the very south of the country.  This was one of those inspired solo wanderings bereft of specific timetables but just enjoying the journey. It did help to have handy tech in the pocket in the form of a DB planner that ran on my iOS enabled phone.  This is an app that is hosted by the national railways in Germany. The railway is branded Deutsche Bundesbahn or German Railway.  A complicated network of rail that supports both passenger and goods traffic over 20,000 miles of track. DB can shuttle people all over the country from its northern fringes by the ocean to the southern borders and lands east and west. Some of its trains run right into neighbor states like Switzerland, Austria and Belgium to name a few. I happened to visit in its south and western borders for the week I spent. Below are some stunning stats to show how quick one can travel with an efficacious transi...