Don’t ask me how, but I ended up with four tickets to the NASCAR race at Bristol in August. I’ve put them on E-Bay, and you can bid on them here.
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Aspen solitude
Business travel normally sucks, but last week we held a retreat in Utah, not far from Park City. It was a great trip and gave me a chance to tromp around in the mountains a bit. I’d forgotten how completely, utterly sublime a stand of swaying aspens can be. I tried to capture them with my camera but had only limited success. I uploaded photos of the aspens and our pontoon excursion at Jordanelle State Park here on my Flickr account..
We could smell forest fires that are raging in central Utah while we were there. The smoke and ash added drama to the sky at sunset, but we didn’t see any flames firsthand.
As a perfect close to the trip, I managed to snag first-class upgrades on my flights home. Both flew on time. Sometimes the travel gods smile upon me …
Since I returned from Peru, I’ve been corresponding via e-mail with “Dennis of Cusco,” one of the street kids we met there. I received the following note from Dennis yesterday. I have no idea if it’s true. These kids can be pretty crafty, and in the same note about Bill Gates, Dennis makes an appeal for financial help with his education. But with that caveat, here’s his account:
“I was selling postcards June 24 at about 8:00 p.m. I was at the Plaza de Armas, and I went to the ” Hotel Monastery ” to sell postcards for a moment, and four people went out of the hotel. I did not offer them anything, but I decided to discreetly follow them, and they walked first along a few places that are not very touristy and went away later to the ” Plaza de Armas.”
And in the Plaza de Armas, I tried to sell them, I recognized one of them because I read a bit of his life on the Internet, and he was Bill Gates. I tied to sell them, and I told a few jokes, as when you and your friend Jackson were in the Cusco, but only three persons laughed, two women and man. But Bill Gates did not, and later for a joke I bought myself two postcards for 10 Soles, but I wanted to try to sell Bill Gates, but I was treated like he did not seem me, he was very quiet, but I wanted to speak to him, and I spoke to him.
“But he was not saying anything, and later the woman said I could take a photo with him (but I did not have camera). The woman was very nice, and later I said to her that he was a good person, and I went away, and when I went away, there were two persons who him who were continuing for a long time, because when I was in the Hotel Monastery, it should try to sell first two persons, were one of the UNITED STATES and I believe one was from Peru, but they were very discreet, and when I went away, the Peruvian said to me ” molestoso you are “, and I went away.
“I think, I am a very lucky person because not even the press could find Bill Gates in thePlaza de Armas of Cusco, and I was the only one trying to sell postcards to the famous Bill Gates.
“You can believe that Bill Gates walked along the ” Plaza de Armas ” of Cusco, and I was the only person who recognized him.
“Until another day dear friend Bob.
“Your friend dennis del Cusco.”
(This translation is pretty mangled, since it was run through an online translator. I tried to smooth it out some, but my Spanish is very elementary. Here’s the original:)