This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This blog headline refers to the fact that, here in Santorini, Greece, I am toying with going on a donkey ride today.

DONKEYS:  Those animals – call them assess – take riders up and down the steep steps in Santorini high above the Mediterranean Sea.

Poor things.

But, I have been told they love it.

Even if I don’t manage to find time “to get my ass in gear today,” our next to the last in Santorini, I couldn’t resist using the headline.

Plus, my friends back home in Salem, Oregon will like the fact that I wanted “to get my ass in gear.”  They have wanted that for some time.

Well, what may prompt to avoid the donkey – ass – is this quote from a brochure in our room:

“You can pay to ride up on a donkey, but the stench and the bumpy ride make this far less romantic than it sounds.”

Pass.

VISITING A WINERY:   An actual highlight worth commenting on today – the day of our 50^th wedding anniversary —  was a trip to a winery, The Sigalas Santorini.

We had tasting of eight – yes, eight – wines from the region, along with cheese and bread.

The brochure on Sigalas says this:

“The vineyards of Santorini form one of the oldest viticultural regions of the world still active today, being part of the global historic wine legacy with more than 3,000 years of consecutive wine-making tradition.  Santorini’s volcanic soil is naturally immune to phylloxera, forming on entirely self-rooted vineyard of grape types older than time.  Assyrtiko, Aidani, Mavrotragano, and the rest of the 24 varietals recorded as indigenous to Santorini literally originate in prehistoric times.”

With all that, we enjoyed the wine, even as we sat only feet from vineyard that already had been picked, and were of the type that grow without water, given limitations on water on Santorini, though it is surrounded by oceans.

JOBS I DON’T WANT:  I have come across at least three jobs I don’t want during this trip.

• Cleaning Airplanes:  As we waited for a flight from Athens to Santorini, we were delayed by folks cleaning our airplane.  Who would want that job anyway?

• More Donkeys:  It’s one thing, I guess, to ride a donkey.  It’s another to pick up after them – and you know what I mean by picking up after them!

• Lugging Suitcases:  Here in Santorini, various folks make their living suitcases up and down numerous steep steps.  If that were me, I would do more falling than walking.

Enough for Day 2.