The Leave 1

 

The past two weeks, as I stated before, were a whirlwind of activity, with both good and bad points.  Broadly, I was away due to a conference I was presenting at, the Society for Developmental Biology which was the national meeting of all of embryology minded folks.  The conference was in Nevada this year.  And, it was SCORCHING.  In total, only 6 days were at the conference itself.  It was between 114 - 118 degrees Fahrenheit as a high temperature (~46 - 48 degrees Celsius) every day we were there.  Even at the "coldest" of each night, there lowest "LOW" temperature we experienced was 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius).  

Folks were walking around rather slowly to and from different areas the whole time.  One afternoon, I was able to take a break from the conference, and my wife and I were able to walk to and attend a showing at "The Sphere" which was extremely enjoyable.  We watched "The Sphere"'s version of "The Wizard of Oz" and, while it was both edited and electronically enhanced, it was a wonderful experience.  The wrap-around view, and even the electronic enhancements of the film's footage helped make it feel you were within the actual places themselves.  Both the black-and-white portions of real life and the technicolor "Land of Oz" were beautiful to experience and behold in panorama of "The Sphere".  Aspects of the film always bring tears to my eyes, and this was no exception.  The visit to "The Sphere" was definitely one of the more positive highlights.   

As you know, I enjoy wordplay quite a bit.  I am titling these posts over the next few days "The Leave" to "symbolize" a multitude of things:

a.  "Leave" as in to go away, which I did for that two week spell.

b. "Leave" as in a "leaf" blowing in the wind to symbolize the travel, and its ambiguities.

c.  "Leave" as in a "leaf" of food, in this case, an eventual discussion of arugula.  

d.  "Leave" as in a pleasantly pleasing leaf of tobacco, to which of course, I have a strong fondness for. 

The above rather ornamental image is of dried/cured tobacco leaves prior to their being converted into (hopefully) some form of pipe tobacco.

More tomorrow.

PipeTobacco