- The beach where hound dogs bay at ships with tattooed sails heading for the gates of Eden... Bid adieu to the kids and the co-workers and bright and early tomorrow morning I set sail for Belize. Leave all these ugly electric people for a bank of sand and a row of breakers. I mean, it's no vacation- I'll be working full through it, but there'll be time to digest the scenery, should the sand flies allow it.
I had a sudden realization of something potentially important the other night while I was walking the dog, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Dogs are funny that way.
Now I'm going to read 'Moby Dick' like I ought to have years ago, and 'Kon-Tiki' and some Joseph Conrad I still haven't gotten to. Maybe I should have brought a fat Russian novel, or some Chuck Palahniuk like I always said I would and never have yet, but I'm not. These are my books, on account of this is an expedition I'm undertaking as much to see what it turns me inside-out to be as for the job experience and the scenery. I'll worry about seeming open-minded and impressive when I get back. Now, I go to the atoll. I'm reading 'The Drowned World' on the way out, if that makes any more sense of it. The sun hasn't set on this boy yet...




"I'm leavin' my fam'ly
Leavin' all my friends
My body's at home
But my heart's in the wind
Where the clouds are like headlines
On a new front page sky
My tears are salt water
And the moon's full and high

And I know Martin Eden's
Gonna be proud of me
And many before me
Who've been called by the sea
To be up in the crow's nest
Singin' my say
Shiver me Timbers
'Cause I'm a-sailin' away

And the fog's liftin'
And the sand's shiftin'
I'm driftin' on out
Ol' Captain Ahab
He ain't got nothin' on me, now.
So swallow me, don't follow me
I'm trav'lin' alone
Blue water's my daughter
'n I'm gonna skip like a stone

So please call my missus
Gotta tell her not to cry
'Cause my goodbye is written
By the moon in the sky
Hey and nobody knows me
I can't fathom my stayin'
Shiver me timbers
'Cause I'm a-sailin' away

And the fog's liftin'
And the sand's shiftin'
I'm driftin' on out
Ol' Captain Ahab
He ain't got nothin' on me
So come and swallow me, follow me
I'm trav'lin' alone
Blue water's my daughter
'n I'm gonna skip like a stone

And I'm leavin' my family
Leavin' all my friends
My body's at home
But my heart's in the wind
Where the clouds are like headlines
Upon a new front page sky
And shiver me timbers
'Cause I'm a-sailin' away." - Tom Waits



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