The flights back from Athens were fortunately uneventful. Four movies later, we were home, including Just Getting Started, The Shape of Water, Suburbicon, and Loving Vincent. Vincent Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists, although we simply didn’t have time to visit the museum in Amsterdam last week. Van Gogh is an inspiration because he created 800 works of art and only sold one during the course of his short life. Perhaps a self-proclaimed word artist like myself will someday achieve notoriety if I just keep doing what I love to do. The Starry Night painting is at the MOMA in NYC, but for some reason I never made the connection between it and the 1971 Don McLean song, “Starry, Starry, Night, or Vincent.” Guess I wasn’t a sophisticated art aficionado at that time in my life. A version by vocalist Lianne La Havas is featured in the movie Loving Vincent, so it was an ah-ha moment for me on the way back. I also finished Diary of a Young Girl, as we landed in Amsterdam, after touring the Anne Frank historical site at the beginning of our cruise.
Today is all about “home work,” a once hated activity that is now much anticipated, especially after a long road trip. A welcome day at home means that I once again have routine back in my life. I took the dogs out this morning at 6 a.m., did my 3-mile run on my regular course, and situated myself behind my desk to write. I do have a “leadership meeting” in a few hours and that will give me an opportunity to recap the two-week trip with my retired friends. It also means the end of my wife’s work week and the beginning of her weekend, extended a couple of hours because of the Easter holiday. All days to me are the same now, but they are much more special when she can be involved. We just had two enjoyable weeks together but the dogs were missing. We’ll now get to put the whole family together for a few days.
We’ll do a long walk/run with the dogs tomorrow and go out to eat on Easter Sunday. After all the mass quantities of rich food, gallons of fine wine, martinis, and lemon-cello consumed over the past two weeks, I was surprised that I gained very little weight. I thought I would come back at 205 pounds, as is the case with most trips, but instead I was under 200. We did do the stairs rather than use the elevator, but running was difficult, and two walking excursions were cancelled. I’m honestly surprised that I was able to maintain my weight, and not have to feel guilty about wings today and an Easter brunch. Despite my age, the metabolism is still youthful!
I have a couple of weeks of “home work” ahead of me before we head to Santa Monica for a long weekend to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. The home of “Muscle Beach” is also the ending point of Route 66 as I muscle my way to the beginning of my 67th year in a few months. It continues to be a great “66” for me with over 66,000 and travel miles booked, along with at least 1,000 miles of running.
Loving Vincent was a wonderful movie. It took me back to our recent trip to France and our side trip to Auvers, where Vincent Van Gogh spent the last few months of his life. Many if the paintings from the movie were done during the time he lived there.