albania--coldest place on earth

Albania—coldest and wettest country on the planet. The actual degrees are not so terrible; it's inside the houses where your bones are freezing. Understand that the builders and architects of the homes here must have been, and are, stubborn. They refuse to admit that they need to insulate their homes or have central heating. The walls are about a foot thick with solid concrete with an R value of negative 6.

Lake Ohrid and Greece

oskarmaxim.blogspot.com is a website that has some pictures from this trip.

It was like waking up faced with another day of work, but then realizing it was Saturday. Sure, I had brought my swimming suit, but that was just because I am stubborn and try to go swimming everywhere possible. I must admit that I was looking forward to the shower's hot water enveloping my numb extremities more than the swim. I had already seen that rather than the hand held shower head that we have in Tirana, the hotel on shore in Pogradeci had a shower curtain.

Two Donkeys and a Moped

Two Donkeys and a Moped

A bus with spare jet engines strapped to the top, another with a living room set of furniture, another with a live goat, mountains spiking skyward from the water’s edge, the boat heading directly into a wall of rock, a wedding party, and a dozen calves. Highlights from our 2-hour ferry ride in northern Albania last week.
We had left Tirana at 5:30 am for a three-hour drive to the ferry launch

maggots and chicken

The guy at the closest market totals up our purchases with a pencil and paper, the nearest restaurant is called, "The Chicken Shack," and right across the road nearest major road is a huge park that is stuffed with every manner of walker or jogger from the national soccer team to elderly ladies with canes walking around a track;

RAGBRAI

RAGBRAI— I love this quintessentially Iowa biking tradition—it's a week of no work encased in physical exercise wrapped in togetherness inspired by common struggle. We went to Truro, Iowa to meet up with the bike route

I had double vision

Our eyes are a deceptively valuable and complex organism. As with many things, it seems that we don't understand its value until its not there. Last fall, I spent 8 days with double vision. Never before, and not since, have I heard of such an illness befalling on someone who hadn't received a knock in the head.

eye glasses over 40

About the time I turned 40, my eye troubles became serious. I was checked out at a fancy eye clinic and I was fitted with one pair of glasses for $350. Ouch. I was pleased though, because for the first time in several years, I saw things that had been hidden from me.