Legacy Fund Deposit -- October, 2021

Legacy Fund.

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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

I'm Just An Old Chunk Of Coal, Billy Joe Shaver
Billy Joe Shaver and Jerry Jeff Walker, the early days.