If I could go anywhere in the world...

...I don't know where it would be.

Hmmm...I've often said, 'Jamaica, mon...' but I'm a white, aging, hippy freak and feel I would be out of place there, out of my league, a novelty item sure to draw attention which is what I'd like to escape, for my own peace of mind. Hmmm...

No blinding white-light, gleaming sandy beach-type places shimmering in the heat either, nor any place cold...ah me, where can I go where I will be comfortable? Hmmm...West? I've lived in all three Pacific coast states; plus Colorado, Wyoming, Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York...

South? Well I didn't stay in Florida very long because there's nothing meaner than a Dade County Deputy Sheriff, so anything South of Baltimore is out - and so is Baltimore too, too hot! The coolest spot I found in Baltimore was The Pennsylvania Station - 102 degrees outside, air-conditioned in the terminal, anyway Baltimore too hot, and the Southwest too. Lord y'all how could I, a Yankee from Vermont, settle into Houston with all them RCA cowpokes pokin' fun at dweeb-y me all duded up in my 5-Star Resistol hat and Tony Lama boots? I suffered through that in Lander.

Out of country maybe? Hmmm...

Where? To newly smogged-in Prague, there to choke on Eastern Europe's effluence? I can get the same stuff in Newark. To The Mediterranean? I've sailed the Med from Gibraltar to Beirut and then through the Dardanelles to the Sea of Marmara and on to Istanbul; in none of these places would the likes of me be welcomed.

A pot smoking vagabond with no visible means of support would (does) attract cops like magnets draw iron...

"Papers, please..."
"Huh? You talkin' to me? Papers, papers? Zig-Zags all I got..."

If you should suddenly find yourself riding in the back seat of a police car in Athens, being driven around by two plain-clothed policemen in no mood to listen to your goofy transcendentalist's theory, it can get very lonely, you could find yourself in an alley getting your ass stomped by two spartan Athenian pigs.
So OK, I'll stay home already, count my blessings, one, two, three, ah they are endless really...four, five, six...home, yes home! Seven, eight, nine...on and on these blessings go as long as there is a home.

Home is where the heart is, yes, but it is also where The Heat isn't.