Mikes Writing

Friday means a coffee

Of course still being very attentive to space in yaml. But also this morning will be meeting Bill for a coffee out downtown. I had an interesting evening after my beer out. It really made me realize I do not want to have that old maxim,

may you live in interesting times.

Definitely do not want them. Or arguments and yelling and screaming which will drive me away from the house yet again today. Today though its toward a little time to talk with someone. Another American as luck would have it. Someone more in my age range but with different life experiences and a different take on things here. My friend Russell is usually the recipient of talks but he’s gone to Vietnam so the chances of some long talk at Time Coffee where we unravel the mysteries and add to some are not gonna happen. There is really no other barang person I would care to spend words with. Bill would meet me sometimes at Viva and we would talk about life, our strange histories, how they did something to our present circumstances, and what really we want from the days to come. His needs are more complex because of the differences in his life here. My little things are mostly involving I would guess a single country. I don’t know why but when I have troubling times or feel this sense of misery or angst or want a change, I mostly think of escaping to Vietnam. Its like a safety valve for me. A place where I don’t have to understand things to love them. A bowl of Pho. A coffee amongst the thousands that subscribe. I also could sit in a park in Saigon and not have any idea what it was that made my life. I did not need to know.

Now I sit in the house with music going. That feeling I need that escape valve again. Instead I will gladly take Kampot in a few weeks. To simply go on a bus with no one held responsible and no needs or desires to meet besides mine. Kampot is an excellent escape. Its not close. It takes time to just go. And I go slowly.

There’s the river and the city and the charming coffee places to go find. Food. I do know a few people there Khmer and barang. I don’t go to seek them out. They hold nothing for me. What I seek they cannot provide. I want the feeling of going with no one to go see or talk to be had.

Meanwhile there’s this morning until 10am to contend with. Being here is optional this morning. Its easy to just go. There’s places aplenty that will take an old retired guy and give up some coffee and space to just sit. And yeah. Write all this crap out somewhere else this morning. Oh... Another little thing I noticed this morning checking email. I had six emails from headhunters offering me some wonderful infrastructure program manager position. Each one sounded glorious. Wonderful to the taste and smell.

Just submit your resume or respond for consideration and we will schedule a followup.

I almost went back once after I left. Or maybe twice. My last full-time employer offered a contract to me to do some data center theatrics. It would not work with timezones and they wanted me back for a kickoff meeting. Another was with this linux company. Another glorious open source company. I had my way with them in my own way back machine. Back in those gloriously fuzzy .com days that had their own heaven and hell baked in.

I happily deleted the email. Work sounds too hard. Now I can save this thing and let my iPhone decide what to do with it next. See you down my little road of steps and stops.

Another stop and start. Have to leave house so decide a coffee at Coffee Bean seems likely. The people here are used to my needs. Iced americano comes quickly and with a wonderful smile from the Khmer waitress. And yeah. She’s very cute. From here I will do PassApp to where Bill and I meet. Then I’ll walk downtown and consider what it is I want to do. The house feels optional but that’s not new. The skies kinda gloomy and it’s the tail end of rainy season so I think the weather gods are making up for giving us some really beautiful days earlier.

Finishing up and had this nice talk with my friend. About life here. Things here. How we all see things differently and that's good. If all of us thought the same we would get no critical and dissenting view.

So now I feel done with this detritus. This strange day in the life. GitHub demands its due. Netlify will wait in line.

I won't. I'll take steps. See you after.