b.rox

It’s inevitable when visiting some other place to compare it to home, especially if that other place is your former home. I lived in Bloomington for thirteen years, and I’ve now lived in New Orleans for thirteen years, so I can’t resist a few elementary observations.

Probably the biggest surprise for me on this vacation was just how prosperous Bloomington seemed. (More on that later.) If I had any doubts on this front, they were laid to rest by my visit to The Rail. Contemporary craft cocktails and tapas — in Bloomington? I was impressed. And I was even more impressed [...]

We took a break from Bloomington and made a side trip to visit my family. When we arrived at my parents’ house, I was alarmed to discover my father lying on the floor in the kitchen. My folks aren’t getting any younger. Was this a medical emergency?

Since I don’t get back to Bloomington often, I made a point of getting together with folks.

The first thing I did when I got to Bloomington was to ride the B-Line. Lucky me, I have generous friends who let me borrow a bicycle. The B-Line is the local greenway, a recently constructed urban rail-trail, 3.1 miles in length, running alongside an active rail line for its final stretch. Does this sound [...]

We went way up to the mountains of northern Alabama, to Monte Sano State Park. No elaborate rituals. No goat sacrifice. Just hanging out in the woods. Well, we did make those solstice stones earlier. But mostly we just hung out in the woods. I don’t think we’ve ever done that, as a family. It [...]

I got Persephone up at dawn to see the sunrise on our last morning at Vero. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite as dramatic as on the morning of the solstice. But it was still beautiful. Unfortunately I neglected to tell Xy I was getting our daughter up so early. I also neglected to inform her that [...]

Technically, the city of Vero includes plenty of beachfront. In fact the city officially changed its name to Vero Beach back in 1925 but old-timers like me still prefer to call it Vero. Anyway, my point is that I don’t feel like I’m in “town” when I’m standing in the surf staring out at the [...]

I took a lot of photos on this vacation. Around 400, I think, the best of which are slowly finding their way into a set on Flickr. I’m using them to reconstruct the trip in my mind, to jog my memory as to what happened when. And yet there’s a gap. I didn’t take any [...]

Let’s see. My last post got us most of the way through Saturday. We arrived in Vero mid-afternoon and checked in at the Driftwood. Longtime readers may recall that Xy and I took a vacation here back in June of 2007, a week of lovebugs and lovemaking. We suspect our daughter was conceived in Vero. [...]

When my in-laws asked what time we should leave, I said 7AM, and they laughed, and my father-in-law suggested 9AM. Then it was my turn to laugh, quietly, to myself. In my mind I thought 10AM, but I didn’t take that too seriously either. When facing up to a long journey, I like to get [...]

Posting has been a little thin here lately, for good reason: I’ve been on vacation. My plan now is to back up in time and recreate these ten days in excruciating detail. So here we go. My in-laws rolled into town on Wednesday, June 15, but my vacation officially began the next day, when I [...]

Many months ago, we booked a condo in Panama City Beach, Florida. (I should say, my mother-in-law booked the place. We consulted, but it was my in-laws’ dime.) This was well before the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, long before oil started gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico. Needless to say of all the [...]

I wrote most of the following last week when I was up north, but wasn’t able to finish it until now. I’ve spent the last week or so in a timeshare condo in Sevierville, Tennessee. It’s a curious place. Or perhaps I should say it’s a curious non-place, in a strangely transmogrified town, surrounded by [...]

I took a vacation last week. Nope, didn’t leave the Greater New Orleans area. I’m afraid this was another vacation in the head, and as usual it was a soul-shattering experience. I mean that in a good way. I’m back at work now, trying to reassemble my personality into something vaguely recognizable. My parents are [...]

I’m taking Wednesdays off this month to work on the house. One of my co-workers was mildly astonished. He’d much prefer to take a vacation day on a Monday or Friday, thus extending his weekend. I like taking Wednesday off because it breaks the work week nicely. Two days on, one day off, two days [...]

I’m taking some vacation days. Combined with the Thanksgiving holiday, it’s a whole week off work. That gives me time to do this: I’m staining a bunch of trim, six windows and a staircase. Even though I’m cutting every corner I can imagine, this is still a big job. Rising early, working late, I just [...]

I ran a screen of partially pre-written posts last week because Xy and I were on vacation. Herewith, a brief memoir of our week in Vero Beach, Florida. We arrived (after driving thru Tropical Storm Barry) at the tail end of a love bug swarm. Supposedly these insects are prolific all along the Gulf Coast, [...]

I took two weeks off. During that time I barely left Orleans Parish, except for a couple errands. I rode my bike into Metairie via Veteran’s Boulevard. Don’t ever try that; you’re taking your life into your own hands with the traffic and the lack of any provision for bicycles. Mostly, I spent most of [...]

Starting today, I’m on vacation. But I’m not going anywhere. Or perhaps I should say that any trips I take will be inside my own head. The point is I won’t be going to the office for a couple weeks or so. I haven’t had a vacation since campus reopened in January, and frankly I [...]