Nothing wrong with that.

ok who stole summer? It was 10º and driving rain on the way home complete with moderate headwind. I was not impressed.

Are we sure that Teo's fake girlfriend did not live in Jacksonville?

We waved to you as we flew over.

Actually, that's a lie. Machka was asleep, I was watching The Office, and we flew over China all the way down. Weird flight path from Vancouver to Hong Kong. Still ended up 25 minutes early! Which annoyed me... I had just started a new Office episode when they shut down the AV system.

Four-hour wait for the connecting flight. Long journey, this one.

So when does the Soap Oprah start?

They say the monsoons are due to arrive in Australia over the weekend. That might kiss Australia's summer goodbye as well. Then we'll be talking about massive floods cutting off communities across the north of the country.

One-third of the Australian continent is in the tropics... just before the monsoons set in, the temps go skyhigh and people in Darwin start knocking each other off -- it's called the Troppo Season for a reason.

Rowan, reading about your recent travels makes me jealous. I am a super responsible person, and do nothing impulsive. But I'm in a transitional period of my life right now and have been having daily fantasies of just dropping everything and buying a "around the world" plane ticket. I won't do it though since I'm a wuss.

9:00 EST tonight.

Rowan, it's none of my business (obviously) but I have to ask. What do you two do as far as careers go that allow you to travel so much?

they are professional layabouts

Is there a good place for online training to get into that career?

do they need an assistant?

BTW, I'll be on the trainer through the weekend looks like. We're supposed to get 12-14 inches of snow here starting this afternoon.

Clear and dry here for the next week. Back on the bike today.

The Addict is back on the road (I'm referring to my bicycle here).

Fits us to a tee.

Well, not really. We just work and save our butts off for several years, picking up jobs around the place. Machka's last one was as a data base developer for a local council, and she may be back doing that if things go well. I worked for the same council in parks and gardens, and before that in orcharding. I'm not sure what I'll do when I get back.

My kids have grown and are in professional careers of their own, Machka and I don't have kids and don't plan to, we rent and choose to live in rural areas where the cost of living is much less than the big city, and we put stuff in storage when we travel like we have just done. We don't drink (or at least very occasionally) nor smoke nor gamble, and we live quite frugally so we can pursue our interests in cycling, some water sports, Machka's photography, and travel.

We're flexible with our work... so where the jobs might be, that's where you'll find us. Agriculture is a ready source of income, and in Australia pays quite well. We may well join the "grey nomads" moving around the country for the harvests... and because Australia is one-third tropics, that means constant growing seasons in many places.

We probably won't retire for a while, but even then, Australia has a pension system in place.

Too many Irish fans in the Chicagoland area.

Well done.

Jees... and all this time I've wasted in amateur class.

PEDs helped us get into the pro ranks. ;)

Sounds like a pretty good life aside from depending on the government for retirement. That would scare the hell out of me.

Hunkered down, waiting for the cold front to come through here today. It's supposed to drop into the mid 40s tonight, and we'll be lucky if we hit 70 tomorrow. Florida winters are brutal.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HGnrMB9EcR...hat-small1.jpg

Dont worry, its not our government he's depending on.

Somebody finally made the connection.

You know, a short vacation wouldn't hurt you, probably help a bit.

Machka and Rowan; doing it right. :thumb: