The reason I get up and draw breath every day…
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I remember the Lisa
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
I remember having a conversation with a guy in a bar in Nashville, TN about the Lisa and whether or not he should buy one for his office. The Mac had also just been released and Apple was promoting the whole “mac office” idea with a Lisa as the server (and it’s whopping big 10 megabyte hard drive).
For years I used to dial in to a BBS system called the Jack-Mac-Attack that ran on a Lisa. It was pretty cool stuff back then….
Extra points if you recognize the actor in the above commercial.
Three more nights in Spain
Friday, June 1, 2007
The year is coming to an end. Today I shipped the last two boxes of things home and it looks like I’ll have one large box and one large suitcase, plus my backpack for the plane.
Leaving a place always generates ambivalent emotions. I am happy to be going home (even though I won’t be able to get into our house until the first of August. I’m looking forward to summer in Vermont, to getting back to work at the Inn and to mowing the lawn of my house (even if I can’t really get back inside). I am definitely looking forward to getting back to work at Fair Haven in the fall.
Of course I’m also sad to leave Spain. I love Spain (though as I’ve written before, I’m not crazy about Pamplona). Navarra is a beautiful province–similar geographically to Vermont. I love the history of this place. I love the small villages. I do wish people in Pamplona would smile once in a while at strangers. It’s easy to tell the immigrants–they’re the ones who smile back when I pass them on the street. Native Pamplonans only smile at people they already know–they frown at everyone else. It feels very cold to me.
I will miss the inexpensive, excellent wine. I will miss the pinchos. I will definitely miss excellent coffee in virtually every bar. I will miss bicycling to work (though I hope I never ever have to teach English again). I will miss all my Irish friends from ESIC–and Etienne as well, even though he’s from Gibralter… ;-)
I’m definitely looking forward to my night in Madrid on Sunday–my favorite city. I hope to make it to the Prado for the afternoon, and then I have tickets to the rejoneo (a type of bullfight on horseback–a beautiful thing). Un día guiri!