Requiem for the Shades

I went down to my car on Wednesday morning to find both doors cracked open and the contents of their side compartments strewn on the gravel. Obviously, Tuesday night was a bad time to forget to lock up.

The only thing the crooks made off with (apart from a tray full of quarters--damn!) was my sunglasses. My PRESCRIPTION aviator-style sunglasses! Now, honestly, I wouldn't mind giving a pair of shades to some homeless guy who might have an aversion to sunny days. But unless this fellow is as blind as I am, I'm sure my glasses ended up in a ditch somewhere, no good to anybody.

Yes, it could have been much worse. They ransacked the glove box but left the registration and insurance documents. They overlooked the case full of burned CDs. They very well could have trashed the car, but they didn't. I'm grateful.

But my poor sunglasses! I bought them in Seoul for use on my Southeast Asia bike trip, and they were definitely a good purchase. Ah...how many sights we saw together.

What follows is a visual requiem of sorts. I recommend humming the song "Memories" as you scroll down.

Here were are...


...chillin' with the tomb guards near Hue, Vietnam...


...crossing the Mekong on a wooden pallet in Laos...


...swarmed by grade-schoolers near Siem Reap, Cambodia...


...keeping our distance from Thai elephants...


...crashing the island of the The Man with the Golden Gun...


...admiring the spires of Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers...


...and posing with Mom on the coast of Oahu.

So long, shades. You shall be missed!