Fall Into Wonderland

My service dog Eddie isn't here to enjoy his favorite season this year, Fall. I miss him as I walk on the Hollins University campus, one of his favorite places to go, too. I think it would work out much better if our animal companions lived about 30 years. What was God thinking? Maybe he knew they could only take so much of us. I mean, feeding them Purina instead of hunting deer and buffalo for them must suck, from their point of view.

My blog statistics tells me someone in Slovenia is reading my blog. Hi, Slovenia!

I am really quite crippled at the moment, having finished my monologue about Scotland. I could write about the time I went to Cairo, Egypt, but the world is not nearly as funny in another language. Besides, it was the summer after 9/11 and my hosts were worried about security. I blend in very well in Italy or Scotland, but pretty much stick out like a sore thumb in a country where everyone's skin is not pale pink and white. I did have the good sense to wear jeans. Although Cairo is the "sin city" of the Arab world--like Vegas. What happens in Cairo, stays in Cairo.


And what was really funny there was ME, although I'm sure my hosts weren't amused at the time. Right after an attack on America, and just as the fighting was picking up again in Egypt, I decide, for the first time in my life, to become regular in my habits. I wanted to eat at the same Lebanese restaurant every night at the same time, and after cruising around a bit and looking, I decided the funnest place in Cairo was the historical Old Muslim Marketplace.

NO, not where they sell old Arabic men, but the marketplace from a very long time ago, a bit like Colonial Williamsburg. And I really wanted to join the crowds in the mosques and smoke and drink coffee and flirt with all the great looking guys I saw everywhere. So the guy I was with, who worked for a government agency, decided at this point that we should stay in for a couple of nights. I think that's when his blood pressure started to bother him. 

The really exciting time I had there was crossing the street. I am assuming most of you are used to two lane roads common in Britain and America. Cairo had the same streets, but where we only try to fit two cars in a two lane street, it was up for grabs there. It did cut down on my shopping sprees. If I couldn't buy it on my side of the street, it went unbought.

I would like to tell you something exciting is happening in Roanoke, but it's only fall. Although that is quite an accomplishment, all the way around.