too late for coherence

It's really about time to start bloggin' on the ol' trip again.

But now we're talking about digging into old memories, which in frigid February, in the middle of the work year, seem like a daydream. I sort of recall waiting for the Grand Geyser to erupt, and eating hot dogs while Lake Yellowstone formed white caps before our eyes. But mostly it seems like a dream...like any other dream I've been having in the past week that I can't explain, but that are vivid and detailed, and usually nightmarish. I would attribute them to my World War One readings, but I had put them aside for nearly a week until yesterday evening, and so I'm not sure they are to blame.

It's time for bed, so I'll leave it at that: that I plan to come back soon to write more on Old Faithful and the Grand Tetons.



Currently my thoughts are absorbed in trench warfare and the insane battle tactics of WWI that didn't work at all. It is horrific and terrible in a way that those words don't have enough power to express anymore. And I guess I have this morbid fascination that keeps me reading. like I can't believe it's really true (that, and i'm taking a class). But there are a few amazing things I want to share: and then I really will go sleep.

There were (an estimated) 25,000 miles of trenches from Belgium to Switz. They could have encircled the planet. One writer imagined a telephone chain going north to south, down the line. And there is a story (though maybe not true) that at one point the Germans started making a ruckus, banging tins, starting up in Belgium, and it went all the way, 400 miles to Switzerland.


They thought it would never end. the war, i mean. They joked: "How long is your stint?" "Oh, seven years." "You're lucky: I'm duration."


I'm crammin' my head full of this stuff...sure hope I can pick it up later.