Another blue water, blue sky, white boat kind of day as seen from the 14th floor. Runners, bikers, and beach goers are being slowed and detoured because of preparation for the Air and Water Show this weekend. The Streeterville Weather Service tells us that it is 84 degrees under clear skies, and you may have already missed the best of the Perseid Meteor Shower for this year. There's always next year. As my old friend Pogo would have said, "Looks like Friday the 13th comes on a Thursday this month.
Life in this city is really amazing. As a part of any ordinary day you meet so many people and have so many incredible conversations. I went out to an Italian barber shop this morning and had my hair cut by a Ukrainian woman. She really wasn't clear on the American holidays and was wondering when Memorial Day was because she was planning a trip to Door County to do touristy stuff and attend a fish boil.
I quickly ascertained that what she meant was Labor Day and let her know that it was late this year on account of being the first Monday in September and the first Monday in September being not until the 7th of the month. Well long weekends being what they are, never quite long enough that is, the Ukrainian lady marked her calendar so she could ask for a 4th day that weekend. It's a long drive up to Door County.
Somehow it came out that said Ukrainian lady is also taking some time later in September to go to Scotland and visit Edinburgh, Glasgow, and some of the Scottish Highlands. In passing I let her know that my ancestors were Scottish. She then replied, "You've been to Scotland then?" Sadly I have not. I have been to England, France, Belgium, and even Iceland, but never Scotland. I had to tell her that my family have been in the U.S. for some 200 years and nobody has really felt like a Scot for a long time. Never worn a kilt or a tam. Don't know one end of a bagpipe from another. Don't even really like Scotch whiskey.
Turns out the Ukrainian hair cutter's life is one long boat ride after another. Ferries from Milwaukee to Mackinac Island. Cruise ships along the Alaskan coast. Big cruise ships in the Caribbean. Who knew Ukrainian immigrants who cut hair for a living could afford the Life of Riley?
Of course, I then had to explain that I do not ride boats very often. It seems that my wife, the lovely Babs, gets motion sickness and throws up. Ukrainian hair-cutting lady then explained in graphic detail about seasick passengers on the Alaskan cruise puking over the side of the boat. I felt empowered to share my poor wife's seasickness tales. The rainy, stormy ferry ride across the English Channel when I spent half the trip trying to find crackers and ginger ale, or some substitute to calm poor Babs's stomach. The ferry ride from Phuket, Thailand to Ko Phi Phi when we stayed above deck and were bathed in sea spray rather than go below and endure the motion sickness. Our abbreviated ride on a friend's sailboat in Lake Michigan with ginger snaps to help the nausea.
All in all it was a pleasant enough haircut, but I didn't get to share the good boat experiences, or the 170 mph train ride from Paris to Brussels, or the Northern Lights in Reykjavik, but perhaps another time. Today the Ukraine came to my neighborhood for an hour, and we shared a few experiences and chatted for a while. Who knows who I'll meet tomorrow?
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