Lists, Lists, Lists

Well, the timeclock at the bottom of the blog is clicking downward to departure day for Bali and it is time to start thinking about "the Lists" those inevitable scraps of paper that start to form in my head and then have to be reduced to writing. When you are 8,000 miles away from home, there is no guarantee that you will be able to find what you need and the wrong place for your battery charger is on the shelf at home. Therefore, the lists. I wind up with camera lists, computer lists, clothing lists, manual lists, hardware lists, and lists of lists.

When I first traveled to France in 1967 with my Minolta ALs, all I really worried about on my camera list was did I have enough film to last the whole summer. Even if my planning had been off, there was film to be had for a price. What I found at the Eastern end of Bhutan was that there wasn't even electricity to be had for a price!

Today, with the advent of digital photography and the world of electronic gadgetry, the lists have gotten a little more complicated. I have traded rolls of film for compact flash cards, card readers, multiple chargers, an Apple MacBook Pro, an Epson P-2000, a laCie ruggedized hard drive, blank DVDs, a cell phone, and on and on and on. If I don't write everything down long before the trip, I will forget something.

So the lists have begun. After all, the clock says that I only have 2 months, 13 days, 2 hours, 2 minutes and 45 seconds until I leave.