Dan Antion

On the List – #1linerWeds

The river has finally receded into the normal channel.

The other day, Jill over at J-Dubs Grin and Bear It, offered a plea of a post, complaining about having to pack for a business trip. I can’t say that I was much help. I informed/reminded her that packing for a short trip is one of the things that’s just easier for guys. Despite that fact, I do start my trips with a packing list. I could run through a copy of it, or, I can offer my wife’s comment when she looked at it:

“Do you realize that most of your list is electronics?”

It’s true. In fact, with the addition last year of the noise-cancelling headphones, the list expanded to a second column. The list includes multiple devices and each device includes a charger. Some include a connecting cable. I don’t always take every device, but they’re all on the list. When I mix business and pleasure, the work devices and the personal devices all get together and go for a ride. Are they all necessary? I think I’ll save that discussion for another day.

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s fun weekly series One-Liner Wednesday. If you have a one-liner, I’d encourage you to join in on the fun. You can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants.

Some of the damage from the recent flooding. That drain line should be much longer.
Not sure what the police were doing here, but I didn’t wander around much this day.
Hartford on a bright sunny day.
About a dozen baby ducks following an adult (just out of the frame).
“Nothing to eat on this side of the dock, Let’s try the other side.”
The baby ducks are learning to fish for bugs.
Aw, no nuisance :(
Up river, from the dock.
Looking south off the boat dock.
No, that’s not the sea monster, A log is trapped under the dock,
I think the dock is accessible. The river is down quite a bit.
Is that Brother Love? It doesn’t look like a very big tent.
Maddie is feeling a little better.

72 comments

  1. And it was for this reason, the bag of electronics, that my then husband was detained at Heathrow when coming from Ireland, and this was 20 years ago (before 9/11)! :) Fortunately for him the rather involved searching of his luggage and person did not go as far as a cavity check. He kept trying to explain “American engineer, nerd.” His ponytail didn’t help. As it was, he had to take all of the lithium batteries out of his stuff and give them to the captain of the plane! No one gave me a second look. :)

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    • You would think “engineer nerd” would explain a lot. I’ve only had things reviewed one time. They asked me to turn on each device and explain why I was carrying it. I was stopped in Boston, on my way to Heathrow. I was asked what I did for a living. When I told them I worked for a company that insures nuclear power plants. They laughed. I offered to dig out a business card and the agent said – “if you were going to lie, I doubt you go with that story.”

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  2. I’m glad Maddie is feeling better, and I’m guessing that ‘nuisance’ is you trying to get a good photo. Just kidding. :-) I know I don’t carry probably what you carry, but when my husband and I go somewhere, there are two laptops, two tablets for reading, two cell phones, plus one battery pack. I have one bag that holds the electronics, and a second bag to hold all the charges, cords, and powerstrip needed to hold all of them. It really is ridiculous. :-)

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  3. We are all tied to electronics it seems and it sure makes travel a hassle at times! I loved the photos of Hartford in the sunlight, and I especially loved seeing that Maddie is feeling better. Hope you have a marvelous day.

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    • Thanks Gwen. Travel can be a hassle, but I have a nice little system, and I rarely forget things (although I did have to buy underwear from the hotel gift shop once). We’re hoping Maddie continues to improve. She’s still on medication, but that ends soon.

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    • I’m sorry, Joanne. The electronics portion of my list is getting pretty long. It’s mostly the chargers and cables. All of these things die pretty quickly without those lifelines, and buying them while traveling is often very expensive.

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  7. There must have been a killer squirrel in the park…or maybe a peanut thief hiding out?

    I’m lucking if I remember to take my phone charger when I travel. And more concerned about remembering some of the toiletries and make-up so that I don’t smell or look like I woke up from a hard day’s night.

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    • Make up??? Again, easier being a guy. We never look as good as the women around us, but we slept later. It could be the squirrel that’s been robbing the trash bins. Still, they only sent one officer – he’ll never catch Sammy’s cousin.

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  8. Packing for a short trip is stressful. I always feel as though my suitcase should be smaller than the one I am using, or that I should throw extra stuff in my suitcase because I have extra room. Maybe I should just fill it up with electronics?

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    • I almost always go for the larger bag. If nothing else, it’s easier to pack. It should be easier, and I sued to carry much less stuff, but I carried way more paper, and that’s also heavy.

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  11. I feel like a bump on a log. I don’t travel and the only “electronics” I carry with me to the store or doctors appointments is a cell phone …..in case of an emergency!! Talk about being a dinosaur !

    Hooray that Maddie is feeling better. Hope the same is true for MiMi.

    How disappointing …..no nuisance allowed in the park! Bummer. Love the sunny photo in Hartford and glad to see water seems to have finally receded to where it belongs.

    Happy Hump Day!
    🐾Ginger🐾

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    • Thanks Ginger. Maddie is still on the mend, but we’re hoping the meds get her past the problem. I guess we’ll see when she finishes them. MiMi is under good home care, but she’s a delicate little thing – we always worry about MiMi.

      The ‘no nuisance’ sign seemed more obvious this year. I think they installed several new ones.

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    • I wouldn’t feel like a bump on a log. Sometimes, the devices aren’t worth the effort. I carry the stuff for work, because, if there’s a problem, I have to be able to deal with it. When there’s no problem, I think “that’s five or six pound I didn’t need to carry.”

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  12. When I first started driving from Maine to Virginia, driving through Hartford used to stress me out. When my daughter took the trip years later, she wondered why. She just remembers me telling the kids to be quiet ‘because we are driving into Hartford’. Funny to remember. I was not a very experienced driver outside of small town places.

    I am down to just my iPad, noise cancelling headphones, and my phone now on short trips. I no longer lug my laptop around since I do not worry about averting any crisis my clients may have gotten themselves into.

    So glad Maddie is feeling better.

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    • I have made shorter trips with just my iPad, headphones and phone, but 3 or more days and I’m dragging a laptop.

      Depending on when you were driving through Hartford, it would have been a mess. They only added a ramp from 84e to 91n in the 90s. Before then, you had to exist and drive through the city. 84-91 is still one of the worst interchanges on the list, although 84w to 91s is much better now, as you can avoid the city entirely.

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  15. A mostly electronics list is awesome. Way better than my packing list. Loving the gallery today. The sign is too funny. Exactly how do they define nuisance? Inquiring minds want to know. 😂

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    • Given that I only ever have to pack one pair of shoes (sometimes, I just take the ones I’m wearing), I can imagine your list is more complicated. I don’t plan on doing any research as to where the nuisance line is. I’ll pay attention to the police blotters for a few weeks and see what they arrest.

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  21. I want to know who determines what qualify as nuisances so they can be prohibited. :-) When I travel, I have my phone, my iPad, and my Kindle for electronics and all those cords fit into a small cosmetic bag that my s-i-l gave me once. I have a packing list on my laptop and that makes life a bit easier.

    I like the shot of Hartford on a sunny day. Isn’t it nice to have one? Sunny day, that is. :-)

    janet

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    • Thanks for the comment, Janet. After weeks of mostly rain, to arrive at the park and be blinded by the reflection of bright sunshine was amazing.

      I don’t know what constitutes a nuisance. I imagine it’s somewhat subjective, but with the ban on alcohol, I’m guessing there isn’t much in the way of nuisance.

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  22. It depends what the purpose of the trip is, right? On a long trip my phone and computer. It gets more complicated with clothes -casual and official. With painting, am taking a gazillion things (but I use 90% of the stuff).

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    • It does depend and it gets complicated when mixing business with pleasure. I’m sure after traveling a few times, you figured out what you will and won’t use.

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  23. I prefer to travel light. I never carry my laptop outdoors. So basically my laptop is a desktop. When I travel I normally have my phone and battery bank. We both use the same phone and phone number. If we are planning to take pictures, we have our camera and the monopod (if necessary). However, we both cut down on clothes. I believe the maximum weight of our backpack (for 9-10 day trip) would be around 20-25 kilos including our clothes, gear and the additional shopping we do. For short trips, we keep the bag load to 10 kilos and less.

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    • My checked bag when I flew to Minneapolis and Iowa (business and personal) weighed in at 47 lb (21.3 kg). My carry-on backpack probably had another 10-12 lbs of stuff in it, including my laptop. I can work for a few days off of my iPad, but there are some things that are so much easier on my laptop, that I will often take it, even for shorter trips.

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      • I don’t like to type when I travel. So, whatever I see and experience I take mental notes of it. I return home and I replay the entire experience in my mind. I can replay minute by minute moments of certain events in my mind dating back to 1990s. If I’m travelling alone I generally pack one t-shirt and a boxer shorts for me and that’s it. I don’t carry more than 3 kilos. I have two sets of clothes at my sister’s place so when I visit her place I don’t carry anything except my mobile phone and accessories.

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  24. Ha, alcohol and “nuisance” DO kind of go hand in hand, don’t they? xD More good pics, Dan! I guess it’s true what they say — if you’re not feeling well, go to the doc(k). #Rimshot

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  25. Dan, you may be a true Renaissance Man. For all your keen understanding of math, electronics, technology, and the place they hold in business and society, you have the same passion for art, history, architecture, and the lives of people who made that happen. I tip my hat to you.

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  26. Hah! Fair enough! Since I see the parallels between you and my son, Yes, I believe that completely. Mine — mostly hair items. Asking my son not to unpack 3 monitors, 2 game systems, a tablet, a tabletop microphone, and a tower the size of Moo would be like asking me not to unpack my bar shampoo, my dry shampoo, my conditioning cream, my anti-frizz goo, my spritz…

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