January 17, 2026 – Boston to Barbados

Travel is getting crazier and crazier. As a money saving option, airlines are now permitting you to check small children.

The flight was pleasant enough. Not everyone loves Jet Blue but we’ve always had good luck. Somehow I have made it this far without seeing John Wick and that was my in-flight entertainment. We took a later flight so we didn’t have a lot of time to wander around Sandals Barbados, but click here for a few photos from the day. More tomorrow!

Just A Little Confused

I understand the idea of creating universally understandable signage, but sometimes a few extra words could help. If this truly means “don’t exit if the plane is on fire,” I don’t think I’m going to obey this sign.

Quote of the Day

You are the main character…But there in the background, faint and out of focus, are the extras. The random passersby. Each living a life as vivid and complex as your own. They carry on invisibly around you, bearing the accumulated weight of their own ambitions, friends, routines, mistakes, worries, triumphs, and inherited craziness. – John Koenig from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Oddball Nostalgia

I recognize how Gen-X it is of me to feel nostalgic upon the closing of a mall. Even this mall, which was past its prime the very first time I set foot in it a few years ago. But it harkens back to fond memories of a simpler youth. There was nothing better on the weekend than to ride bikes over to the Salisbury Mall, play free video games at Montgomery Ward, hit the bookstore, the arcade, the record store and Tony’s pizza all in one afternoon. Heck, I’d love to be able to do all of that in one place today.

But the Fox Run Mall in Newington, NH is on its last breath. I took a walk through it today out of morbid curiosity. The stores that remain (it might be at half capacity if you’re generous in counting what’s open) are moving out in January, for a planned demolition later this year. Walking the halls feels like you’re in something of a ghost town. Centralia, PA, in retail form. But for some reason they still plow the entire lot, including parking spaces that probably haven’t been used once in decades. Farewell Fox Run Mall, I wish I could have known you in better days.

Aging Somewhat Poorly

I’m well aware that the music I grew up qualifies as oldies now, and that rock is basically old people music. But I didn’t realize how bad it was until Collective Soul became part of a “look at how old and gross this feller is” commercial.

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