C

What and where is this? You don't often see us in a parking lot. We took another picture at this site but it didn't seem to flatter us as much as this one.

There is a certain amount of randomness to or flexibility about the date assigned for a new Front Page. We work on it on and off, choosing a "working" date for when we expect to have our additions done. You won't be surprised to know that we usually don't meet the expected date. So we choose another one, which involves editing about half a dozen files. (If you are translating this to Spanish, you'll have to say about 5-6 files.) That still doesn't guarantee that the date is right because we still have to post, i.e., upload our efforts. While on the road, that is a major effort, since our whole site is more than 150 MB now. Since your are reading this you know that we did manage it.

So now it is again time for some reflection: If we had completed this update when originally planned in late June, we could have announced the five year anniversary of our travels. We quit our jobs in April and May, 1999 and started to pack up. On June 22 we arrived in Paris, the City of Light. It truly was, as that was the longest day of the year and we were very surprised to find it was 10:00 p.m. as the sun was just setting: we had been fooled by the very long days.

Missing our intended date, and with great confidence, we re-dated this Front Page as July 4, the anniversay of America's Declaration of Independence. Where, we asked ourselves, were we each of the last five years? Before then is pretty easy to answer: we were at home in Middletown. For about ten years we hosted a backyard barbecue where we had a dozen or two neighbors and friends over. Wow. Those days are past. Happily, we think, the relay has been taken up: our close friends and others now stage a block party.

Back to our question: where were we each of the past five Fourth of Julys? Answer: In 1999 we were just getting settled in on Rue de la Mare, Paris. The next year we were in China, where Gerry was teaching a course in Software Development Methodolgy. In 2001 we were in northern Thailand, on our way to Laos. We just missed going to the party at the American Consulate. Getting closer to the recent past, the last day of June, 2002 we left Ukraine for Poland and thus celebrated the 4th in Krakow. And, finally, in 2003 we actually had a real 4th! We were camping at Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, and had a view of fireworks from our tent. Oh, you say. What about 2004? For that, see the nextpage.

You've probably already checked the date on this file and realized that we slipped by a month. If you look at the "new" section you can findout what was going on. But at last, after four months, there is new stuff.

Last March we wrote a bit about how the car and camera were doing. We'll keep it brief here. The good news is that old Escort is still going, still getting 35-40 miles per gallon, which we consider pretty good. We've now put about 26,500 miles on it, adding 3,500 since March. Recently we have had very few hills to climb so we have had very little problems with overheating. But, we did climb two 1000m plus hills and both times we had to stop for a "cool-off" periods. The bad news about the car is that we may have to give it up soon. For the reason why you will have to see the next page.

The bad news is about Gerry's Sony Camcorder+Still picture camera. He bought it in Texas in November, 2003. Since there he has taken about 17,000 pictures, using the camera to record the worthwhile and rubish. Maybe one-quarter of the pictures are of labels and other documentary matter that helps identify the other three-quarters of the pictures. For a month now there has been an internal short (the camera is all electronic) so that more than half of the time an attempt to take a picture results in something else happening, e.g. turning on or off the autofocus mechanism. We'll try to get it repaired soon.

Fishy Thoughts