Words

1971. Mom and I moved to Panama City Beach to live with my future stepfather, Pat Sweeney. It must have been summer, because along with the move came two new friends: Kim and Alex. Children about my age, from Pat's first marriage. My future step-siblings who, I'd learn soon enough, came down from Birmingham to spend summers with their father. And so, lucky timing: summer! And good times , that summer was. The three of us tumbling through the sugar-white sand, playing Cowboys and Indians, Cops & Robbers, shrieking up and down the dunes, you name it. Fun fun fun! Pat—and I would call him that until he and Mom had been married for a couple years—was in a band. That was his job. I remember one of his band mates was also named Philip. To a five-year old named Philip, that was something . Kim, Alex, Mom, and Me, ca 1972 I don't think I ever knew what Mr. Philip played (or if he sang), but I do remember that he was balding, and I remember having a vague sense that it'd hav...

Sicilia! 3 - 13 March 2014 West and South Once again, the job took me to a southern European locale for a 2-week training event.  I know , sucks to be me .  For my first outing, I decided to visit Enna .  In 1994 I'd taken the A19 right by Enna, and saw the hilltop town from half a mile away.  This was a few months after moving to Europe my first time, and I recall thinking that has to be one of the coolest-looking towns in all of Europe!   So it was priority #1 this time around. Funny how twenty years' time has modulated my estimation of "coolest-looking towns in all of Europe." Don't get me wrong—Enna is a neat town, and I'm certainly glad to have made it up there.  But this continent is riddled with really neat hilltop towns, many of which are cooler than Enna.  I guess nothing underscores the extent to which experience modulates exaggerated value judgments like sitting on, and then revisiting, the perspective of a 20-year-younger self. Since I h...