Love Canal

This will be my last blog post until around August 3 . . . so enjoy it. But please return at that time, as I will be starting a new blog series about my LOVE BOAT experiences, and you wouldn't want to miss that, would you? (Rated PG)

I did finally complete my reading of David McCullough's mammoth book (all 660 pages): The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal. This was a great book to read before my own virgin voyage. (Wait a minute, did I use the word "virgin". Becky's not a virgin and neither am I. My children, on the other hand, are both virgins . . . or say they tell me.) IS THIS STILL PG?

Anyway, McCullough's book won the National Book Award and I can see why. What a story. Thousands of workers dying of malaria and yellow fever. A failed French attempt to build the canal. The rise of U.S. industrialization and globalization after the Civil War. And a forty year digging that resulted in the creation of the canal.

It is difficult for anyone, however, to imagine the human dramas at play here . . . and how incredible the creation of the canal truly was, especially given the technology at the turn of the century. I'm hooked.

And, although our cruise ship leaving out of Puerto Rico won't go anywhere near the Panama Canal, I do hope I can be creative on my bon voyage. I've got my love letter written and stashed away inside the suitcase. I have written five love poems, one for each night at sea. I have my puke pills and an assortment of other drugs (all legal). And I've got my bedroom plans, diagrams even, with illustrations.

Now, I can only hope Becky will go along with them. See you again here on August 3. Mark it on your calendar. This next blog series will be nuttier than usual. And I shall return if the plane doesn't crash or the boat doesn't sink.