Dear friends,
This Sunday I will be leaving on holidays for a couple of weeks. I will be camping in a mountainous area with a very slow and sporadic GSM coverage which means that I should be able to read emails and approve/reject comments made once a day or so, but that is about it. I will not be able to make normal posts here or, even less so, write anything myself.
Frankly, I welcome this as I need this break pretty badly (I am burned out and I need to recharge my “wilderness batteries”)
As usual, I encourage you to post anything you find of interest here to share it with the rest of us. Please remember the basic rule of this blog: no such thing as “off topic” – post whatever you like and if you guys can get a conversation going I would be really happy.
I should, God willing, resume the normal work on this blog after my return on August the 15th.
Kind regards and many thanks to all,
The Saker
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| I will be fishing and camping with my family along the Susquehanna river |
Very beautiful place, enjoy! I also am in need of a wilderness retreat, but now, with so many things to do, it will be impossible for a long while.
@Carlo: yes, northern Pennsylvania is really beautiful. My guess that it is not too different from the Argentinian provinces of Cordoba (or some parts of Mendoza). If you ever want to relax the mountains of Cordoba, in the town of Los Hornillos, I can recommend a good cheap and clean place owned and managed by a cousin of mine.
I hope that you do get a break in the not too distant future :-)
Kind regards and take care, my friend.
The Saker
Dear Saker,
Happy camping, enjoy the peace and quiet, away from it all!
I went to Cordoba many years ago, and i was up on top of the Champaqui
where Argentinian Air force erected a monument…
Best,
Joe
Enjoy . the place looks amazing . all the best
fatima
Thank you, Fatima, for your kind words! I drove 1000km yesterday and I hope to enter the mountains by tomorrow. Cheers!
@Everybody: made it! I am in the mountains and I have somewhat of a signal, slow, but steady. If possible, I will try to stay in touch and post here.
Kind regards to all,
The Saker
Today, I swam across the Susquehanna river. The only sounds I could hear were the quiet hum of the dragonflies were flying around me, the splashing of my arms on the water and maybe the cry of a distant bird. From the middle of the river I had a perfect view of the green forest mantle covering the steep slopes of the mountains and the meandering river downstream. High above it all, a few white clouds could be seen in the infinite blue sky.
That is nice! No wonder you are enjoying. But, you decide if you want to take my advice or not, wouldn’t it be better to forget completely about this blog and the news while you are there? At least for me it is good to disconnect completelely, not have internet or TV at all, just a cell phone if a call is really needed.
@Carlo: I understand your advice, but I want to tell you that for me this blog has become much more than a news/opinion blog, it has become for me a curious mix of a place to talk to friends (people like you and others) and even a place to talk to myself. I tried not to post anything about what is going on in Syria, even though I am quite aware of it and it turns my guts, but I decided to allow myself to post a little something here and there, when I felt like sharing and when my (absolutely horrible) connection allowed me to.
If you can imagine that, even when I am swimming in the middle of the river, I still think about what is going on in the world, and the same thing happens by the campfire. I am not sure if this is age (I will turn 50 in November), compulsion, wisdom or psychopathology, but that is how it is for me.
Finally, and I have to thank you all for that, I really really do enjoy “talking” to all of you – those who stayed and could put up with my definitely idiosyncratic ideas, values, and opinions and whom I have learned to cherish and respect too.
So having all of you “coming along” on that trip is something which I also enjoy.
Yup, I know, I am kind of a weird guy :-)
Kind regards,
The Saker