Packing Up The Jeep, And Hitting The Jersey Shore...

...going to Washington DC first, actually.  Like a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, it brings me back to my roots  - as an American, in this case - and gives me a new jolt of patriotic energy.  And hopefully will get my creative juices flowing again as well

 Then it's off to the beach, for a couple of days of staring into the sea, toes in the sand...

Nothing like being the first one one the beach...or the last off

Sunrise -  Wildwood Crest, New Jersey (2011)

I'll be back in a week.  But logging off, as I have said in the past, makes me feel somewhat forlorn. I'll leave you with this random thought, perhaps more recognizable if you're a bit older, and you remember TV or radio stations "signing off" for the night before going dark:

Thinking about signing off, the listener also could have a curious feeling, too. He/she could be listening to a human voice and feel a kind of connection back then. Announcers were supposed to talk in a relaxed, informal and friendly manner, unlike what you hear on today's radio. You felt as if you were being talked to, not being talked at.

When you heard the sign-off, there was a feeling of disconnection with that person who had been sharing something with you. At the end of sign-off, there would be a brief moment when the sound was over, but the transmitter was still on. Then the transmitter would go off, and the hiss of and open frequency would be heard along with a background scramble of distant stations still broadcasting. The connection was severed, leaving a moment or two of continuation of thought and feeling...


And then only this, throughout the lonely night...