Plans for the next few months remain up in the air. I met with the financial planner, a very pleasant woman who failed to laugh out loud at the state of my records, and we're scheduled to get together to go over her recommendations when I get back from Arizona. It was a bit like going to confession: "Forgive me, advisor, for I have savings in a low-yield account and have not put enough thought into the profile of my retirement investments." But she didn't snicker at any of it (divil thank her, as my mother would say) and she said that she felt that it would be fairly straightforward, so I look forward to our next meeting.
In the days preceding our meeting, I was looking around online to see what the options for travel will be and what looks appealing. I've been fascinated by Mongolia for years, ever since finding out that you can ride from one side of the country to the other without encountering a fence, and more so lately, so for giggles I looked up Boojum Expeditions, an outfitter that caters to crazy-ass ferengi interested in wearing out their butts on tiny Mongolian ponies. But now I know that I shouldn't go until 2008, because if you're going to spend 23 hours on a Korean Air flight, there should be a total solar eclipse waiting at the end. And so there will be. I can't adequately convey how amazing I think that it would be to see an eclipse, period, and especially in an area as beautifully open as Mongolia. This may be a truly fiendish bit of planning on the part of the Beijing Olympics committee, scheduling their festivities AND a major astronomical event, but regardless of the merchandising possibilities (the Five Friendlies sacrificing one of their own to bring back the sun!), it sounds like barrels of fantastic.
In the meantime, the woman who invited me to Arizona for the weekend of playing ranch hand now informs me that the manager wants us there at 8 AM on Saturday and 6 AM on Sunday. This raised important questions about the coffee supplies in Nogales, lest the cattle will end up not just punched or poked but also beaten to a bloody pulp. I am mighty peevish without my caffeine fix.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Heh, looks like everyone's heading over for the eclipse. My own plan is to try and see it from Novosibirsk and avoid that Olympics crush. And remember there's a good one in in the US in 2017 if you need a fallback.
Hm, I should check the area that will be covered. Ulan Bator will doubtless be aswarm with people; with any luck the Boojum group would get out far enough to avoid the crush, but staying in Russia to avoid the Chinese crowd is savvy. Also, reading that the local ponies have a gait known among travelers as the "Mongolian death trot" is a little nervous-making. Fajas and tylenol for the masses!
Post a Comment