Pale, Rested and Ready?

Returning from Ireland

Hello you dear people out there.

Checking in before the jet-lag hits me like a wet sock full of sand. (It did, which is why this didn’t post Friday.)

We had a lovely time in Ireland. First we were in the very far northwest of the country and then we lived for a few days in Dublin in a neighborhood where we stayed long enough to think about joining the community council. (Thank you to Marlowe and Co. for all the coffee.)

We visited Ireland before we had kids. Now our oldest is 24 and we follow the kids around the city they’ve learned to know.

What I’m guessing not everyone in the family enjoys is riding in the car through the very rural parts of Ireland. I do the driving because I’m a control freak. The opposing drivers are all on the wrong side of the road as far as I am concerned and all seem to be playing a vital part in either rushing a pregnant mother to the delivery room, delivering the bomb diffuser to the train junction before the fuse shortens, or trying to exceed the pace of the administration’s changing messaging about the Iran war.

In this environment, the driver at least has the wheel in his hands. Everyone else must simply suffer as we come very close to everything-- the lorries in the middle of the road or the hedges on the passenger side. At one point we spent about 5 km on a road slightly thinner than the car with no side streets or wide places where you could let an oncoming car pass. Had another car come in the other direction I’d be writing you from that standoff.

You can see some lovely snaps of Ireland here on my Instagram page.

Meanwhile, Navel Gazing: Season Two has stumbled out of the bar and into the world. The first three episodes are live and the fourth will publish next week. Sorry for the confusion about the subscription. Here’s information on that. I’m not sure how many episodes there will be this season. Thank you for all the lovely feedback.

I also wrote Friday about the latest comments from JD Vance about the war in Iran.

Projects abound, and I look forward to continuing to share my work with you.

All best,

John

Here’s a short video of one of the wider roads: