After once again experiencing below-zero weather, I’ve decided that a bit of drizzle is much preferable. I’ve always said that I would have been happy with the Portland weather if I had moved here directly from Indiana. Instead, we spent many years in Texas and got comfortable with the extreme sunshine and heat. It’s not so bad here after all, especially knowing that I’m leaving for Florida tomorrow. The rest of the country is suffering from colder than normal temperatures, while Portland is not expected to get the freezing rain that made living here difficult last January.

I’ve got a lot of dental work ahead of me this first three months of the year. A couple fillings, four deep cleaning appointments, and a tooth to replace will keep me in the chair on a regular basis. I will not however, ever again battle the rush hour downtown traffic that elevated my blood pressure this morning. I’m retired and can wait in the future until everyone gets to work, but I had to take what was available before my plane flight tomorrow. I will get to spend some time with my grand kids at Disney World and get a break from dog duty. Catching up on laundry from the holiday travel coupled with a broken washer made me empathetic with those who have large families and are stuck in the laundry room all day. My bags are packed!

I am working with a travel agent on some trip plans over the next couple years, trying to determine the best times of the year to visit Thailand in 2019 and China in 2020. I bought a scratch-off map of the world, thinking that I had a lot to scratch off. Somehow the globe isn’t quite as daunting as the flat map that came in the mail. It made me realize that most of our “world” travel has been focused on North America and Europe, and that this travel has been confined to a narrow longitudinal band  extending from about 15 degrees North of the equator to 60 degrees North. This includes Mexico, the Caribbean, the States including Hawaii, Southern Canada, England, France, Italy. and Hong Kong/China. We did finally stray out of this comfort zone last year to Tahiti and Bora Bora, our first experience south of the equator. Realistically, however, we have only seen a sliver of the earth, and future trips to Athens, Thailand, and China will not much extend our range outside this narrow Northern Hemisphere strip. The cruise that we would like to take when my wife retires is primarily focused on the Southern Hemisphere, so this will definitely give us a wider perspective of the planet.

Empathy was my word of today. as a result of a difficult start to the year, especially considering that my wife’s mother is still battling a flu bug that is deadly to the elderly.  I felt sorry for those in colder climates, those confined to hospital beds, those caught in rush hour traffic, and those stuck at home doing laundry. Everyone needs a little dose of empathy. “Walk a Mile In My Shoes” is a song written by Joe South, made more popular by Elvis:

“Walk a mile in my shoes, Walk a mile in my shoes. Hey, before you abuse, criticize, and accuse. Walk a mile in my shoes.”