Save the Last Dance for Me

What started as an adventure in web-site design at 5 a.m. on the morning of our departure morphed into an hourly check on how many visitors has been to the site!  It was a stroke of genius for Garret to suggest establishing a blog, which (as he pointed out) allowed us to reconnect with all our friends around the world.  Each of us managed to compromise the normally grossly overestimated monthly data roaminig charges on our iPhones as we endeavored to outdo each other with contacts in unusual places.  We still do not know who was responsible for the Ghana and Bahrain views of the site.  We eventually stimulated views from 38 different countries.  The final count will be provided in our epilogue. Astonishingly, given our European roots, Japan is running second to the US in numbers of visitors to our blogs.

Fortunately, the heavy diet of U2 was ameliorated by Dire Straits, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and Sinead O’Conner.  Perhaps our defining moment was my four loudly spoken and well-chosen words “This lane is ending”, which brought Garret back from a U2-induced reverie and avoided us being crushed by a very large truck.

A truly memorable moment was when member of Moore’s campaign staff in Alabama reminded us about the 3,000-years of Christianity shortly after Garret played me “Jesus the missing years” by John Prine.  In an even greater display of ignorance the man from Alabama assured us that a Muslim could not enter the Congress because he would not be able to swear allegiance on the Bible.  I was further struck by this ability to hold such strong and incorrect convictions with the headline in Fox News today, which stated that “the media” are finally describing the positive effects of Donald Trump.  A sample of the “positive” headlines from today in the media:

1. Trump will personally save up to $15m under tax bill, analysis finds
2. America’s homeless population rises for the first time since the Great Recession
3. Trump is politicizing the courts – and our judiciary is under threat
4. UN votes resoundingly to reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as capital
5. Trump’s bullying and bluster on Jerusalem is bad news for the UN
6. Devastating climate change could lead to 1m migrants a year entering EU by 2100
7. Memphis citizens cheer overnight removal of two Confederate statues

Perhaps the media under discussion by Fox News is in fact Fox News itself.

So, it’s all over and I am going back to my day job of trying to cure Friedreichs’ ataxia and develop cancer biomarkers.  This brief sabbatical in a Panamera with Garret has reinvigorated my desire to bring these studies to fruition.  In addition, our lengthy political discussions will resonate for many years to come and might inspire a return “Trip” to Philadelphia by the Northern route in August.  Thanks Garret for this amazing experience. I hope my sweetie is as pleased at my return as she was with our departure!