July 18, 2005
n
unusually morose post, even for me. I apologize if I disturbed you, but
the mental image was strong and needed to be out of my brain. In other
news, I went to Las Vegas last weekend, to help a good friend celebrate
her 30th birthday. A good time was had by all, I would say, certainly
by me. Friday night we went to see "O", by the Cirque de Soleil.
While it wasn't an adaptation of "The Story of O", it was indeed
fascinating and enjoyable to watch. I assume that the name is a word-play
on Eau, meaning water, as a significant portion of the stage would either
be a platform, or be 20 feet or more underneath a pool of water. You never
knew when someone would be running across the stage, or diving from 30
feet above it into the water. Absolutely fascinating.
The drive up was good, although I'll admit to being a bit suprised to see the nifty temperature guage on my car tell me it was 115 degrees outside. I was quite happy to be tooling along in my Prius, getting around 50 miles per gallon, listening to my newly installed satellite radio. Of course, once we were in Vegas, and walking from sightseeing place to sightseeing place, it was a bit warm as well. It was a tad nicer when the sun went down, but the temperature was still over 90 at 10:30 PM, and the sidewalk was still warn enough that I wouldn't have wanted to go barefoot.
The fountains at the Bellagio are a true inspiration. I don't know who's idea it was to synchronize the water with music and lights, but it is spectacular. I could spend hours sitting there in the evening just watching and listening. Perhaps next time I go, I'll get dinner on the patio that looks out over it. Inspired music selections, too, including Copland's Hoedown, 'Hey, Big Spender' and some Sinatra. Just classic stuff, made all the better for the incredible work done with the fountains. Almost like watching a fireworks show, except with water!
I did find it unusual upon the drive home to look at my dash and think "Oh, it's dropped down to only 120 degrees outside". I still need to research whether my guage goes above 122, but it was pegged there for a couple of hours on the way back. And the drive back, on Sunday afternoon, was about 7 hours, instead of the 4 hours it took to get up there on Friday morning.
Finally, I'm in the process of getting ready for another trip. Work is sending me off to Germany to attend a show, and get interviewed by the press there for our upcoming expansion. I've taken about 10 days off after that, and will be driving around on my own, hopefully visiting some of the places I visited back in the 60s.