Update

OK...trying to cover a lot of ground in a short time:

Adam, Brad, and Vince, y'all would be proud...I've done some crazy hiking through and over portions of the Alpine foothills over the past few days. Things I would not have done under normal circumstances I've managed to negotiate while strapped to a 45 pound (19kg) pack. It was more like bouldering than hiking...

Any rate, am currently holed up in a regular Tirolean paradise; little town of Navis. Have been writing in ye olde travel logge for hours, but don't have time to transcribe everything onto here. In lieu of brilliant thoughts from me, here are a few of the quotes that have been on my mind for the past few daysÖ

First, for Cody Canup:
Architecture and war are not incompatible. Architecture is war. War is architecture. I am at war with mz time, with history, with all authority that resides in fixed and frightened forms. I am one of millions who do not fit in, who have no home, no family, no doctrine, no firm place to call mz own, no known beginning or end, no 'sacred and primordial sight.' I declare war on all icons and finalities, on all histories that would chain me with mz own falseness, mz own pitiful fears. I know only moments, and lifetimes that are as moments, and forms that appear with infinite strength, then 'melt into air.' I am an architect, a constructor of worlds, a sensualist who worships the flesh, the melody, a silhouette against a darkening sky. I cannot know your name, nor can you know mine. Tomorrow we begin together the construction of a city.

- Manifesto of Lebbeus Woods, Austrian educated at Purdue Universitz School of Engineering. I do not totally agree with all he says, but some of it is most certainly eloquent and right on with my own sentiments. On to the lighter blips...

One of my favourite bands is a group called Satellite Soul. They have a song called 'Love is all we own.' The second verse ends as follows: The sunsets by the barnyard, and the dark means day is done, but the night can't last much longer than it took to hide the sun. If I could just go back there, in time much more than space; to hear my mother's laughter and to touch my father's face...' Europe's fine, but it's hard to find home in a sea of constantly passing friends and strangers, in a world altogether different from what has been familiar.

Coming down off the mountain yesterday, and knowing I was desperately satisfied to be doing so, I kept singing to myself the beginning lyrics to The Band's 'Cripple Creek:' 'When I get off of this mountain, you know where I want to go: straight down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico...' I didn't want a change of scenery that drastic, but I was well prepared to get off of the rocks and out of the wind.

Then, while writing today, The Travelling Wilbury's 'End of the Line# came through my ear buds, and a few of the refrains seemed particularly pertinent: 'Even if thez say you're wrong, sometimes you got to be strong, long as you got somewhere to lay (It's allright...)... Riding around on the breeze, (It's all right) If you live the life that you please...'

And so I am. I hope you find peace, love and fulfillment where you are and when you lay your head down tonight.