by Pa Rock
Traveling Fool
I'm back in the Kansas City area today for a doctor's appointment this afternoon. The heat is so cruel that I left my traveling buddy, Rosie, at home. She is no doubt snoozing in the air-conditioning while I am bouncing around town running errands and having flashbacks to a previous life in Phoenix.
Tim O'Brien, one of my favorite authors, wrote a couple of books dealing with his time as a young soldier in Vietnam, with the best among them being, IMHO, a series of related short stories entitled "The Things They Carried." The title story describes a squad of young American's on patrol in terms of the things they took along with them, from necessities like guns, ammo, multiple canteens of water, c-rations, salt tablets, and the military's famous industrial-strength mosquito repellant, to cigarette lighters, chewing gum, plastic-wrapped letters and photos from sweethearts back home, and other small items to help them cling to sanity as they trudged through jungles and swamps in a very strange and dangerous land. As the author recounted what was in each man's rucksack and strapped to their bodies, very intimate portraits of the fighting men, who were little more than scared adolescents, emerged.
The thing that brought my focus to Tim O'Brien this morning was a random thought that I could throw some illumination on my life by writing about the things I forget to bring along when I travel - and the older I get, the more I tend to forget. (Mr. O'Brien is a year-and-a-half older than me, so he, no doubt, knows that of which I speak!) Every time I hit the road, something important gets left at home.
Two trips ago, sometime last spring, when I came up this way, I forgot my laptop computer, which caused all kinds of issues. I was able to borrow a loaner to get the blog up, but couldn't connect to my Wordle account and my long string of consecutive wins got wiped out. (The older one gets, the more serious their minor issues become.)
The next trip, which was four or five weeks ago, I made a point of remembering my computer, but forgot to bring along deodorant, a staple for functioning in polite society, which necessitated a quick run to the local CVS. This trip I remembered to bring the laptop, but again forgot the deodorant as well as my ubiquitous "bucket" hat which keeps the skin cancer on my big head in check. (My hat size is "8," which most stores don't carry, so I purchased a sock cap at Lowe's that advertises "Coors" - which will no doubt impress my new doctor, and in a few minutes I will head back to CVS to buy yet another two-pack of deodorant.
At one time I had a very clever mnemonic device for remembering what to pack - at least I think I did - but I must have left it someplace. I guess if I am defined by the things I forgot, this trip I am a beer advertisement that smells bad!
