Pre-launch Tubble-Bubble

Hubble-bubble is another name for hookah, one of those funky, elaborate long-necked water-pipe smoking devices in common use across the planet. Today, I’m more interested in my rapidly diminishing access to one of my own favorite haunts–the bathtub. Sigh. I’m getting separation anxiety already. So as a grey dawn breaks across western Massachusetts, revealing the…

Return of the birds

As planning and equipment provisioning are reaching a fevered pitch, I lulled myself to sleep last night wrapped in a cocoon of stress, with the vague sense of being not-yet properly prepared beginning to take on clearer features, the contours of the last-minute-breakdowns and clarifications of the still voluminous to-do list dancing like rancid little…

Snowfall in Leverett

Leverett, Massachusetts, USA 8p.m. Well here we go, in mad prep for launching to India and Afghanistan in less than 2 weeks. The snow just started falling and it’s a good night to be indoors and huddled ’round the propane heater.