Done yesterday (20090731)

( raw notes )

Pretty much the entire day was consumed by travel; fortunately it was boring. Spent the entire trip reading Wherever You Go, There You Are and jotting down occasional insights.

OK, the trip wasn't boring: I not only got a lot out of the book, but a couple of good insights and one rather strange but wonderful experience that will show up on the River soon.

Got met in the airport by my brother, picked up by my nephew (asavitzk), and spent some time with Al and my niece.

Still on West Coast time, so slept very badly. Time for breakfast. Schedule uncertain, but I'll probably have some time free on Sunday.

Travels with Rolly and Cthulhu

This the first time in over a decade that I've traveled with nothing but carryon baggage -- basically since I've been traveling with Plink. Since my brother has a guitar, though, I was able to leave Plink at home. She gave me her tuner to keep me company, and Colleen insisted that I take the little stuffed Cthulhu.

The rolly usually has a little more trouble than the backpack fitting under a seat, but it's a lot more convenient standing in lines. If I did have Plink with me, it would mean that I could sling her across my back, which is a lot easier than having her in one hand while wrangling a rolling suitcase with the other.

The rolly is stacked with a little black gym bag; together they have about the capacity of a small suitcase. I really like the small shoulder bag that I'm using these days, in part because it's too small to overload the way I do with the old Eagle Creek sidekick bag, and in part because it fits nicely in the rolly.

The thing that makes it work is not putting the laptop in a padded sleeve; it's just in the narrower of the two compartments of the rolly. The main compartment contains my CPAP, the ziplock bag of drugs, a book, Cthulhu, snacks, and my shoulder bag.

The gym bag has the toiletries kit (mostly the neti pot and salt), a spare shirt, three changes of underwear and socks, a book for the trip home, phone charger, and some assorted other stuff. A copy of the TG* songbook, unbound, down at the bottom.