Good morning all:

“random wanderings in the wilderness thought—why am I bringing home a new waste bin in a paper bag, only to take this paper bag and place it in the bin after I get home?” — Lily Tomlin January 6, 2009

The taste of my Kimchi and some of Marcia’s Bibimbap from last evening’s Korean dinner is slowly leaving now that my morning coffee has been poured. For those readers living in the ‘Nati, we ate a fabulous meal at Sung Korean Bistro and the place is worth a visit.

The Bibimbap is prepared in a large heavy stone bowl in which it is cooked and served and then continues to sizzle and cook tableside. This causes the bed of rice to become crispy, the meat and veggies done to perfection, and the egg on top fried just right. For those of you who are wondering, no Marcia checked underneath and there was no cat!

It was a grand beginning prior to using Adrianne and Tevita’s Christmas gift—a pair of great seats to last night’s Lily Tomlin concert. It was quite special to laugh and groan with some of my favorite characters from over the years: Ernestine, Edith Ann, Judith Beasley, Glenna the bag lady, and Sister Boogie Woman the 77-year-old revivalist. Though born in Detroit her family was from Paducah in neighboring Kentucky which meant that there was a wonderful local flavor to her accented story telling. And can she tell stories! Weaving seamlessly from one into to another, the two hour concert flew by without intermission. Afterwards, looking at the line snaking away from the ladies restroom at the conclusion of the show, two hours was about all the pressure the distaff members of the audience could take.

One small slight bit of insight for Lily, I do think that we had an election so the Bush bashing bit is quickly becoming passé. And after a few of this week’s missteps the Obamania bit probably could be tempered a tad. I guess I should park my über sensitivities. Actually, I think I did just that quite well because Marcia and I both had a great evening.

I spent part of this week at meetings in Oakbrook, Illinois, a suburb of one of my favorite cities – Chicago. Distance from here makes it one of those ‘crossover’ trips. Flying, although only 1-hour, when adding up the parking, security checks, waiting, etc makes it a 4-hour event. Driving is 5:30 hours and a couple of tanks of fuel rather than a few hundred dollars donated to the folk at Delta.

But wait, there is an alternate way, very comfortable, very Green, and very cheap (and the answer to last week’s question). Cincinnati is one of a number of cities served by the UK based Megabus.com. Seats start at $1 and go up from that point. In my case the round trip came to $23.50 (the 50 cents was the booking fee). Plenty of space, perfectly on time and exactly a 6-hour run, onboard free WiFi, and a series of movies got me to Chicago’s Union Station relaxed and fit. They’ll see me on future travel.

Have you ever wandered somewhere where you wished you hadn’t? Leaving Chicago I took the time to grab a coffee at the Union Station food court, followed by a quick pit stop. As soon as I got oriented entering the rest room I heard some guy in one of the stalls loudly, prayerfully, and painfully wailing, “Oh God”, a long pause, then another “Oh God”. Moments later, as I moved over to one of the sinks, from the same stall then came a quite joyful, “Oh thank you God, thank you”. I really didn’t need all the information conveyed in those few short phrases. Actually, in retrospect, I am surprised that no angelic choir broke out in song.

Had I only an ounce of entrepreneurial spirit I would have been on my cell phone right then and there with the good folks of Kellogg’s in Battle Creek to obtain the rights to a high-fiber cereal dispenser designed for public restrooms. Instead I moseyed out and over to my waiting bus.

I am thrilled. Today it will clear the 50 degree mark and by mid-week it will hit 58. Winter is not over by a long stretch, but I am certain that winter’s back has been broken.

Make it a great week. Jump into the newly warming sunshine and grab some of that vitamin D.

Cheers,

Dirk