Wednesdayish evening – baking in Beijing

August 29, 2012 johncohn 1 Comment

Greetings from one of the biggest cities in the world. I’m here in Beijing doing a mix of technical vitality and customer meetings. It’ll be a short trip, but i don’t mind.. I love coming here.. And the of shift hours and long flights are conducive to getting lots of working and thinking .. and even thinking about working done . In fact.. I got on the flight around noon and with the exception of one break to stand up, 2 quick meals and about 30 min of sleep, i worked the entire time.. almost 13 solid hours.. and it felt good.. I didn’t really feel like id’ left home at 4AM.. but here’s proof (see the clock and beautiful wife ? )

I had some nice and nerdy seat mates. one of whom had even brought a compass to see if he could figure out when we’d crossed over the pole..

I arrived a little sleepy, but refreshed., or as refreshed as someone can be when it’s 95 degrees and humid.You could even see that it was hot an humid as we landed

Peter met me at the airport and took me to my hotel.. (an hours drive through tough traffic).. I spent a few more hours working..

Then I took a run on some of the side streets.

It had cooled down to about 90 and humid, lots of cars and wicked bad smog… the sun looked like fall the air was so red .. .

but as soon as I ducked down the side streets, the mood changed

These streets held all the embassies. I saw nigeria, camaroon, Switzerland, sweden, denmark, madagasgar, cpmgo, libya, iran, arentina

even got a picture of the libyan embassy before I was shoed away by the guard..

and this trick shot of the iranian embassy

this part of the city ir really pretty !

no sure he’s supposed to be swimming.. but it looked nice with the heat !

and this guy was fishing !!! what kind of stuff would be in that river ?

the run back home took me by some curious stores..

now I’m meeting my firend JY for a quick dinner.. then I’m coming back for soem much needed sleep.more rom here tomorrow.nite all, nite samme

Tuesday morning – en route

August 28, 2012 johncohn Leave a comment

The alarm rang at 3:30 this morning.. I’d gone to bed early and woke surprisingly rested… My plan was to drive,yield to the airport and have Diane and gabe comes teal the carjack…but Diane popped out of bed and offered to drive me. Much nicer to have that time together anyway.
We got to the airport around 4:30 .. The place was full of bleary eyed travelers….. I love watching people in airports. Everyone has a story.. Going somewhere or going home. I make up stories for the people I can’t figure out..
Got on the plane and passed out… Woke up in Newark, at noon I’m on a plane to china. Blogging now because ill be offline tonight . It’ll be a short trip with lots of stuff packed in. I’ll share what I see over there.
As I sit here in the airport the tvs are full of stories about the hurricane heading for Florida… Hoping folks will be ok. It takes me back to last year.. It was one year ago today that we got slammed by Irene. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. I remember our house being completely isolated by the water. All roads out were flooded.. I remember hearing horses whinnying at 3am as they were lead to higher ground… When I woke up I remember thinking all the water was pretty cool.. But that was before I saw the destruction in town. Several friends homes were badly damaged.
I’ll see if I can find som pictures …

Gotta go now.. More from the road..
G’day all, g’day Sam
-Jc

the road by our house .. 1 year ago today

our next door neighbors one year ago

route 2 by our house 1 year ago today

the river.. one year ago

The bressors house.. 1 year ago today

the bakery one year ago..

Richmond bridge st one year ago today

– Posted using BlogPress from my iP

Monday night – change of season

August 27, 2012 johncohn Leave a comment

I’ve spent the last several days very wound up and not completely sure why. It’s funny.. most of the past N years I’ve had a tidal wave of things come due just about now.. It’s human nature I think to have projects all complete on a seasonal change.. The funny thing is this year, I’ve been somewhat more careful.. I managed to lower my commitments so I could focus on work.. As such.. i don’t have a huge number of things all clambering for my attention. Instead this year I have 4 things for work.. and I’m really trying to focus just on them.They’re big things.. but manageable and most of it is actually going OK. So why the agro ?

On our run this morning Diane made the observation that it just might be the change of seasons.. The change of light, the cold mornings (though not tonight.. it’s sweltering right now.. still near 80 at 8:30 !) .. the change in scheudle with school coming up. Maybe we even have evolved to dread the end of summer and the coming f school.. even though that was 30 years ago.. I don’t know why it is..I wish I did have the key to unlock the pattern and give me some ease right now.. bu t i just know that patterns like this are deep and hard to break..

Maybe if I write it here.. it will break the spell..

just maybe..

nite all, nite sam

-me

Sunday evening – Lake Mansfield trail

August 26, 2012 johncohn 1 Comment

Great day after a tough night. It was in the 70’s and humid last night and I just couldn’t slee.. I was having razy dreams about work.. so I got out of bed and spent a few peaceful hours programming. I got my arduino processor speaking thought its new GSM modem.. so I can send SMS msgs from it. It’s kind of a crossover project between hobby interests and work. Gotta love that.

Around 3:30 i was able to go back to sleep and managed to sleep pretty late.. so i woke up moderately rested, but restless.. the best thing to do for that is exercise.. I was in luck, Diane was up for a hike.. so we called Betsy, Fritz and Martha, loaded them and the dogs in the car and headed up to Moscow. Our goal was to do the Lake Mansfield trail up to Taylor lodge.. where we spent our first night backpacking a few weeks back. .

I say it was our goal.. but we managed to loose the trail about a mile and a half in.. we found some signs pointing us towards the ‘D.E. Trail (sounds like a work career path)… and the ‘Kingsford trail’.. but never found the taylor lodge..trail.. has anyone been up there and found the way ?