Albuquerque - Last minute

Hopefully the email posting issue with the weird spaces, word orphaning and
general mayhem has been fixed. If not, excuse the choppy text until I can
fix it - - if I find time!

Four days!

Four days and I leave for Nepal. I am still spedning a lot of time at
school working on this paper for publication and am beginning to feel a
little pressured!

I have quite a list of things that need to be done before I leave
Albuquerque, like . . .

. . . changing the oil in my truck and getting a large tarp so I can park
it in a friends backyard for the time I'm gone.

. . . voting! (New Mexico, like many states, offers early, in person
voting)

. . . writing down all the addresses and phone numbers of friends in one of
my books.

. . . buying film.

. . . buying a chain and several locks to secure my bag where ever and when
ever I desire.

. . . getting cash from the bank.

. . . waxing my boots.

. . . and so on!

The list feels endless, but like so many of the other journeys I have taken
that require distilling your posessions to "that which you really need," it
always does come together and whatever you forget was probably not needed
anyways. The important and critical things like passports, visas,
insurance, and so on are taken care of, so everything else is just a bonus.

I got my copy of the scanned pictures from the summer back from the
super-cool office staff at the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, so now I
have digital images of the summer. I am going to have them hosted at an
online photo service soon and then make a nice post detailing the summer
with pictures.

Also upcoming is that list of items I intend to take and itineraries, both
the flights and my tentative one on the ground in Nepal and India - - it
looks like I will probably stay in the Himalayas as much as possible, with
a slight chance I will go further south in India.

Back to the paper . . .