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Reminiscing
We were so incredibly fortunate. We were stationed overseas for thirteen consecutive years -- my wife says fourteen -- it's just that Turkey seemed longer than it really was -- LOL.
I'm re-reading parts of Nicholas Boyle's two-volume biography of Goethe: The Poet and The Age, c. 1991.
I was curious to re-read that chapter on Goethe's trip to Italy, 1786.
Prior to the trip he was depressed and suicidal. After he returned, he was a different person. Little is known about that trip. Much conjecture.
During our first USAF military assignment to Germany, we took a car trip to Venice. Unknown to us at the time, we traced Goethe's footsteps almost exactly. His journey started a bit east of ours, but by the time he got to Regensburg, Germany, our paths were pretty much the same:
- the Brenner Pass;
- we took the side trip to Innsbruck; Goethe did not;
- Vicenza; see Mignon;
- the last stopping point before Venice
- at the time of our trip, a huge US Army post
- Venice;
Nicholas Boyle then spends a full page or two describing the "Palladian" architecture Goethe found in Vicenza. I know nothing about architecture but in another life, long ago and far way, I had a woman friend who was very, very much into architecture. I was never able to accompany her, but I pined over that lost opportunity when she took an architectural tour of southern England. Wow, those were the days.
This is why I worry not about "spoiling" my grandchildren. I don't care what they study in college. I care not where their passions may lead them. I want them to live their lives to the fullest. Things will work out. They generally do.
For me:
- several cross-country hitchhiking trips during my college years
- one trip to Europe on my own, and hitchhiking all the way,
- from Williston, ND, and back, via NYC, Luxembourg, Koblenz, Germany;
- Basel, Switzerland; Rome; Marseilles; Lisbon; Frankfurt; and back
- thirteen years overseas with the US Air Force
- every summer during college, a different job, geographically challenging
On another note, the autumn evenings in Texas are in incredible for star-gazing. I cannot believe how bright Jupiter, and to some extent, Saturn are. I thought Jupiter was Venus, but my iPhone sky-app sorted that out for me.
So, every night, I see the moon, and down to the "right," maybe a hand width away, Jupiter and than Saturn; Venus much farther to the right (I guess that would be to the southwest -- I could be wrong there). In the morning, Sirius is chasing the moon: Sirius is high above me, the moon is heading toward the horizon.
One year ago:
- Billy Joe Shaver, August 16, 1939 - October 28, 2020
- Jerry Jeff Walker, March 16, 1942 - October 23, 2020
- Eddie Van Halen, January 26, 1955 - October 6, 2020
Billy Joe Shaver and Jerry Jeff Walker, the early days.
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