Up Hill

This is the 3rd post of my foray into fiction, you will have to go back and start where you left off...somebody stop me? I need to come up with a proper title I guess The Sun had moved in it’s arc just enough to put the sidewalk in shadow as they paid the check. They crossed to opposite side of the street lined with island cabs and were immediately engaged by a young local man leaning on the side of a battered passenger van. “Where you going Mon?” the driver asked.   He pulled the ripped page from his shirt pocket and said “Sapphire Beach resort”, “Can you take us?”. “No Problem Mon, Carleton Jones at your service!” Carleton reached behind him slid the side door open and beckoned them into the worn bench seats and the sticky sweet smell of way too many air fresheners placed about the cabin.   It had been many years since he had been in the Islands but as the van left the small commercial street he could see that not much changes. The van creaked and suffered from a life

Some more ... I am not sure how to assemble this and I am not sure where its going, but it is kinda fun.  It will be all out of order, I guess just start on the first post and work up hill. :) Exiting the Terminal, walking out into the bright sunlight, they were met by the clamor of car horns, diesel exhaust and Rasta-rap blaring from a taxi radio.   It took them a minute to acclimate and adjust. They were on a busy commercial strip, signs beckoning for everything from Gold jewelry to Tee Shirts, it was like the entire island population was in search of those tourist dollars. He turned to her, squinting and said, we’ve got to find a place to stay, we need to get some rest…she nodded, still scanning the brightly painted pastel storefronts across the busy street, “look” she said, “take this” handing him an ISLAND LIFE booklet she had grabbed off the newsstand, “take this and get us a table over there, pointing to an open air café, I will meet you there, I have to get some things”.

Here is a little piece I have been playing with, tell me what you think. They were not ready for the blast of tropical heat that greeted them as the French speaking flight attendant opened the door of the battered old Cessna. The bright sun and the dust filtering in, they squinted, grabbed the 2 small duffle bags and filed out on the tarmac. The heat and humidity was overwhelming as they walked into the open, World War II vintage corrugated tin hangar that served as a passenger terminal and immigration office. “Wish we had remembered to get sunglasses” she whispered. “Passenger Terminal” was a loose term for this place. They threaded their way through the mass of people and he noticed pallets of neatly stacked sacks, coffee maybe? Maybe something else… There were all manner of crude wooden cages and chickens running loose. Stalls of market sellers, calling to the crowd, babies crying, dark young solders standing with soviet era rifles at the doors and the ever present overwhelmi

Looking into the future So, I have mentioned that I am looking into the future lately, not looking back anymore, not unless I get the flux capacitor anyway. Part of my interest in what is to come is retirement... It is coming, hopefully on my terms, not dictated by some event, corporate restructuring or god forbid...sickness. That is where it gets sticky, if you knew what your expiration date was, all this planning would be so much simpler. How easy it would be to plug in that date and work backward, As we know, we are never gonna know, so now what? Plan to live to 95? My grandma is 97 and still kickin...however my poor brother in law past away at age 67, he never got to enjoy one day of retirement... sucks, right? I am turning 60 this January, I have worked hard, tried to save and if I am careful with the money, don’t get sick, work till 67, I will be just fine...rats. If I could, I would step away from the job that I have had for the last 27 years and do something else, something

I was thinking that I would like to have a better camera than the one that comes with the smart phone. I take a lot of pictures and there are times when I am using the phone for navigation or communication at the time I want to take a picture. So then, that got me thinking about what type of camera would be useful for me. I think it should be small and easy to use, no little bitty buttons that are hard to see. I found a used digital Cannon ELPH on eBay and ordered it, I will see how it goes. Years ago, in the late 70’s I got “into” photography, I bought a nice 35mm SLR camera and a couple lenses. I took a photography course and learned to develop film. The cool thing that I got pretty good at was developing slide film in a black plastic garbage bag...no dark room needed. I know it was a lifetime ago but I still remember shooting film was a whole process that was made history by the advent of cheap digital cameras. Over the past couple of years I have been reading about the return of p