POST # 18
This is starting to become a habit. Here it is again the day to write my blog and for some strange reason I wake up early (this morning it was before 5:30am)for no particular reason, and I can't get back to sleep. It's as though my mind is letting me know that it's time to get up and write, and so here I sit at the computer, trying to put together a few coherent words for this post. Maybe it's a good thing that I haven't decided to do a daily post because I'm not sure if I could cope with getting up this early every morning. At the same time it's nice to get a jump on the day every now and again.
So now I find myself in transit, back in Vancouver having arrived here last Saturday afternoon on my journey from Orcas Island. As it is now the following Tuesday, this is the longest time I have spent in Vancouver since last September and even though I called Vancouver home for 7 years, it now has become just a place to transit through on my way to my next housesit assignment.
I am very grateful indeed that my good friends Ted and Doreen have offered me a bed and their friendship for the few days that I am here and being at their place is very familiar territory and in that respect I sort of feel like I'm back "home" however, Vancouver isn't my home anymore and I can't really say that for all the years that I spent here that it ever did feel that way. It's hard to put my finger on just why I felt that way while living here, and maybe I will never figure it out. However, one thing I have come to realize as of late is that I am really not much of a fan of the city life any longer. The noise, the smog, the concrete and glass and all the cars, cars, cars don't have a very good effect upon me. If you live in a city every day, it becomes the norm and alot of the things I just mentioned just get blocked out as you go about your business I guess. I'm sure that's what I probably did during my years here. But in the past 5 months now, my life has become a more rural one and my horizons now are mostly filled with trees instead of skyscrapers. And I like it that way much better. I guess it is a bit strange considering that I grew up in a city, and over my life I have spent plenty of years in various cities, but that was then and this is now, and even though I will spend time in the future in this and other cities, I now feel most at home in the rural setting and in smaller communities.
Yesterday I had to do some running around town getting prepared for my next housesit, and so I was back on my bike and cruising around the streets of Vancouver, and what a shock it was to be riding amongst all the traffic. Vancouver is pretty good as far as bike lanes go so that helps, but one has to be extremely vigilant or otherwise you might just become another statistic. Having recently arrived back from Orcas Island where the traffic is very minimal in comparison, yesterday was a real test of my alertness and patience as well.
And speaking of Orcas I am reminded of my cat buddies there, Oscar and Felix. I received an email from my friend Cathy to say she had arrived home safely and the cats seemed to be happy and I was glad to hear that. I already miss those two, but with any luck I will get the opportunity somewhere in the future to spend time with them again. Back here in Vancouver at Ted and Doreen's place, I've had little Parker cat to keep me company. But there is certainly no rubbing of the belly with Parker, as I did on a regular basis with Oscar and Felix, unless you want a few scratch marks on your hand. I've become spoiled with the gentleness of the Orcas boys, and I now have to readjust my cat interactions accordingly.
So tomorrow I will be on the road again, this time on a bus ride to the town of Grand Forks in the interior of B.C. 2012 being a leap year makes tomorrow the 29th of February, and I was thinking about that fact the other day, and that brought to mind another February 29th in my past when I was travelling on a bus. The year was 1980 and the bus journey that time around was from India to Nepal passing through the Indian town Raxaul and crossing over the border into the town of Birganj in Nepal enroute to Kathmandu. Tomorrow's journey, even though it will be 10 hours long will seem luxurious in comparison to that ride from years gone by, so I don't think I will find myself complaining about anything while I journey through the British Columbia countryside. It will be another early start tomorrow, so I might just end up sleeping part of the trip away which will be fine by me.
Now, I've been to Grand Forks in the past and in actually wasn't that long in time after the above mentioned bus journey to Nepal for not long after that I was back in Canada after having spent almost three years circling the planet going in a westbound direction. My memories from back then are pleasant ones, as I was visiting friends there. I also remember how hot it was, and even though it's not going to be the same time of year now, as it was back then, I am hoping for at least some warmer weather than I have been experiencing in the past 4 or 5 months. Spring is just around the corner so things should be getting better soon enough.
But before the journey begins, I still have one more day to spend here in Vancouver, and the big item on today's agenda is a visit to Dr. Rosebush the dentist so that he can replace a filling that came out a few weeks ago. I am grateful for the fact that I could get an appointment with him and that I could have the time here in Vancouver in order to accomplish that. But not too many people I know like going to the dentist, and I am no different, so I will be glad when all the drilling is done and I can be on my way.
So only one more day amongst the cars and concrete and then I will be able to be back with nature and have an opportunity to meet some new folks and some new animals as well and I am very much looking forward to that. I will be spending 6 weeks in the Grand Forks area which should be ample time to have a good look around and get to know the community.
So let the journey begin I say.
Next stop, Grand Forks.
See you again in March.
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
THOUGHTFUL: showing consideration for others; occupied with or given to thought; contemplative; meditative. WANDERER: moving from place to place without a fixed plan; or having no permanent residence; nomadic.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
THE FELIX WEEK AND LAST DAYS ON ORCAS
POST # 17
I woke up this morning very early, about 4:15am and it could have been for a variety of reasons; the heavy rain on the roof, or thinking about what on earth I was going to write about this morning, or maybe, just maybe I was anxious to see how my invalid buddy Felix was doing. Sometime prior to waking, I had experienced a dream in which I was carrying a big black cat up a long set of stairs into a quiet and safe room. In fact, I had been doing that all week, as Felix couldn't climb the stairway because of his injured leg, so the dream certainly was based on recent experience, unlike many other dreams. When I had turned out the light last night, I had both Felix and Oscar curled up on each side of me, however this morning Oscar had gone walkabout, but Felix was nicely curled up beside my legs. Once he realized that I was awake he got up and moved closer to where he could reach my hand and the purring began. This was a very good sign, as purring was one of the things missing most of this last week. I think he was using all his energy to get better, so why waste it on purring? He flopped down beside me and was close enough to my face that he reached out and gently put his paw on my cheek. This was the same paw which he has been favouring all week long, so it was another positive sign that he was on the mend finally.
After multiple trips to the vet, including x-rays to see if there was anything broken, it was decided to give him an injection of antibiotics as he may have had an infection due to an abscess. In any event, he is now on the improve, so that makes me very happy, and I am sure Felix is glad that he doesn't need me to carry him up and down stairs anymore. So I will remember this past week as the Felix week, even though I tried very hard to share my affection between him and his brother Oscar.
So now it is Tuesday of week 3 here on Orcas and soon I will be leaving again. I don't depart until Saturday morning, but I already know that the days will go by fast. And even though I am probably the least busy person that I know, it always amazes me how quickly time passes now. It has been just over 3 years since I chose to stop working at a regular job, and the plan at the time was to take a year off work, and yet here I am 3 years later. So now my "work" is caring for animals. I don't really think of it as work, however it does fill up the days, and the weeks, months and now years. It has been a very simple lifestyle, one which is tailor made for me.
This time, like my last visit to Orcas, I had planned a variety of things to do and this time, just like last time, it seems that I haven't accomplished many of them. I suppose I could come up with all kinds of excuses as to why, but really it comes down to mainly one thing- this house and these two very friendly cats. Sure I have made the effort to get out every day, to go for a bike ride or a walk, even just into town to pick up some groceries, however I always look forward to getting back home with my furball buddies. And who wouldn't? Purring cats make for wonderful company when one chooses to have an afternoon nap. It's a content life here on Orcas.
Today, and Friday are my last two volunteer shifts at the senior's centre, helping out in the kitchen, and I will probably get in to the animal shelter again to see all the cats there, and before I know it, it will be Saturday morning and I'll once again be on board a ferry to Anacortes on the mainland and then onwards to Vancouver. I can't help being left with a string of good memories for my time spent on Orcas, and who knows, maybe at some future date, my friend Cathy will need to go away again and as a result, require a housesitter to care for Oscar and Felix. So I sort of feel, that this really isn't goodbye to Orcas and the cats, but more of "see you next time." But one thing I do know, is that it will be my last time housesitting at this particular place, as Cathy has now bought a house down the road and will be moving there in April.
So I will try and soak up as much as I can of this place for the remaining days, and try not to think about my goodbye to Oscar and Felix which will be happening way too soon, because Saturday, the Thoughtful Wanderer, will be back wandering again.
Felix is curled up on his favourite chair and Oscar as usual is lying on the carpet in front of the heater as I type out these last few words. It's a grey, rainy morning out there, but we three are warm and content here in our cozy home on lovely Orcas island.
Happy trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
I woke up this morning very early, about 4:15am and it could have been for a variety of reasons; the heavy rain on the roof, or thinking about what on earth I was going to write about this morning, or maybe, just maybe I was anxious to see how my invalid buddy Felix was doing. Sometime prior to waking, I had experienced a dream in which I was carrying a big black cat up a long set of stairs into a quiet and safe room. In fact, I had been doing that all week, as Felix couldn't climb the stairway because of his injured leg, so the dream certainly was based on recent experience, unlike many other dreams. When I had turned out the light last night, I had both Felix and Oscar curled up on each side of me, however this morning Oscar had gone walkabout, but Felix was nicely curled up beside my legs. Once he realized that I was awake he got up and moved closer to where he could reach my hand and the purring began. This was a very good sign, as purring was one of the things missing most of this last week. I think he was using all his energy to get better, so why waste it on purring? He flopped down beside me and was close enough to my face that he reached out and gently put his paw on my cheek. This was the same paw which he has been favouring all week long, so it was another positive sign that he was on the mend finally.
After multiple trips to the vet, including x-rays to see if there was anything broken, it was decided to give him an injection of antibiotics as he may have had an infection due to an abscess. In any event, he is now on the improve, so that makes me very happy, and I am sure Felix is glad that he doesn't need me to carry him up and down stairs anymore. So I will remember this past week as the Felix week, even though I tried very hard to share my affection between him and his brother Oscar.
So now it is Tuesday of week 3 here on Orcas and soon I will be leaving again. I don't depart until Saturday morning, but I already know that the days will go by fast. And even though I am probably the least busy person that I know, it always amazes me how quickly time passes now. It has been just over 3 years since I chose to stop working at a regular job, and the plan at the time was to take a year off work, and yet here I am 3 years later. So now my "work" is caring for animals. I don't really think of it as work, however it does fill up the days, and the weeks, months and now years. It has been a very simple lifestyle, one which is tailor made for me.
This time, like my last visit to Orcas, I had planned a variety of things to do and this time, just like last time, it seems that I haven't accomplished many of them. I suppose I could come up with all kinds of excuses as to why, but really it comes down to mainly one thing- this house and these two very friendly cats. Sure I have made the effort to get out every day, to go for a bike ride or a walk, even just into town to pick up some groceries, however I always look forward to getting back home with my furball buddies. And who wouldn't? Purring cats make for wonderful company when one chooses to have an afternoon nap. It's a content life here on Orcas.
Today, and Friday are my last two volunteer shifts at the senior's centre, helping out in the kitchen, and I will probably get in to the animal shelter again to see all the cats there, and before I know it, it will be Saturday morning and I'll once again be on board a ferry to Anacortes on the mainland and then onwards to Vancouver. I can't help being left with a string of good memories for my time spent on Orcas, and who knows, maybe at some future date, my friend Cathy will need to go away again and as a result, require a housesitter to care for Oscar and Felix. So I sort of feel, that this really isn't goodbye to Orcas and the cats, but more of "see you next time." But one thing I do know, is that it will be my last time housesitting at this particular place, as Cathy has now bought a house down the road and will be moving there in April.
So I will try and soak up as much as I can of this place for the remaining days, and try not to think about my goodbye to Oscar and Felix which will be happening way too soon, because Saturday, the Thoughtful Wanderer, will be back wandering again.
Felix is curled up on his favourite chair and Oscar as usual is lying on the carpet in front of the heater as I type out these last few words. It's a grey, rainy morning out there, but we three are warm and content here in our cozy home on lovely Orcas island.
Happy trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
POOR FELIX-INDIFFERENT OSCAR-AND LOPEZ ISLAND
POST#16
Last Saturday, I made the decision to head across the water to Lopez island which is only a short ferry ride from here on Orcas. During my last visit to Orcas back in October, this journey had been one of the things on my "to do" list but I ended up enjoying Orcas so much I never made the time to go to Lopez. After a few rainy days, the forecast was telling me that Saturday, would be the only day in the next while that was going to be a sunny one, so the cats and I were up early, so that I could catch an early ferry.
After feeding Oscar and Felix, it was time to put them outside for the day, which for Felix at least wasn't his normal procedure. Usually after breakfast, he's ready for another nap, so he was a bit shocked when I carried him down the stairs and placed him out on the porch along with Oscar.
With the cats taken care of, my lunch packed and the bike in the back of the truck, I headed south for the short drive to the ferry terminal, with plenty of time to spare.
Soon after, the ferry arrived at Lopez, and my bike journey began. The guide book I had, stated "once you get beyond the steep initial climb from the ferry dock" that the journey on Lopez would be fairly easy. Well all I can say is that whoever wrote the book probably hadn't done much cycling, because the "steep initial climb" seemed to me like a walk in the park, so I figured then, that the rest of the journey should be quite easy, which proved to be correct. The only issue was one of a fairly stiff breeze out of the south, which meant a headwind for me. Anyone who has done a fair bit of biking knows, that it isn't so much the hills that are a problem, but the damn headwinds that can make an easy ride, more of an endurance test. (I remember a day many years ago in northern California, when the headwind was so severe, that I had to put my bike in the lowest gear and stand on the pedals just to go DOWNHILL. I'll let the reader imagine what thoughts were going through my head that day.) By comparison, the wind here on Lopez, was insignificant.
After about a half hour I arrived in Lopez village, however due to the early hour, there wasn't much going on, so I continued on south. My objective was to find a farm on which was located a small house that is owned by the lady I am currently housesitting for. My journey was a success and I had the opportunity to go inside and have a look. It's a house on wheels, and it would certainly live up to my standards as far as size goes, being only slightly bigger than my old cabin, Snug, back in the Yukon. She calls the place "Raven house", and if you go to google images type in raven house and scroll down to the bottom of pg 4, you can see a picture of it being towed by a pick up truck.
The sunny day never did materialize and with my objective complete, I headed back north, now enjoying the tailwind that pushed me gently towards my destination. I had some time to spend, before the ferry arrived, and found a wonderful little coffee shop with a cast of local characters, and I spent an hour or so just enjoying the local chit chat. The impression I was left with, is that Lopez is a very friendly place, and I could see why the people living there probably think that it is the best place in the world. Now I don't know about putting it at the very top of the list of the best place in the world to live, but it certainly has a very relaxed charm about it.
I continued on my journey north to the ferry and before long I was back on Orcas and eventually home. No cats were around when I arrived which certainly wasn't out of the ordinary, and finally around cat dinner time I checked outside and sure enough, Oscar and Felix's internal food clock had not let them down, and they were wanting to come in.
Unfortunately, Felix, was favouring his front right paw, so after feeding them I spent a long time with a magnifying glass and a light, examining his paw. Everything appeared to be very normal, and he even let me touch his paw without pulling away, so I couldn't really diagnose the problem. This is where the cat/human interface breaks down somewhat. "Tell me what's wrong Felix?" I asked, half expecting him to form his meows into something resembling english so that he could explain his problem to me. But who was I kidding?
So now it's Tuesday, and for the last 3 days or so POOR OLD FELIX is still limping around. Aside from the front paw, he seems perfectly ok, with a good appetite etc. I have been spending extra time with him, and have gotten into the routine of carrying him from one sleeping place to the next, or up and down the stairs so that he can go outside and do his business. I even bring his food dish to him, to save him the trouble. I have had numerous people including the vet's office yesterday suggest that he may have just injured it jumping down from somewhere, and the suggestion is to give it a couple more days to see if there is any improvement. So in the meantime I continue to fret about my buddy Felix, while Oscar on the other hand doesn't seem to care one way or the other, that his brother isn't feeling 100 per cent.
Maybe Felix is getting use to all this special treatment and has decided to milk this situation for as long as possible so that his human servant treats him with extra special care. I don't really think this is the case, but at times I wonder. But it makes me feel sad and helpless really, and I wish I could make him better. At least if you had a sick child, you might be able to find out what the problem was. And even after all the advice I've received, and in this age, where all we have to do is "google" some topic to get information about it, here am I still pretty helpless when it comes to a sore cat's paw. How pathetic is that? So I'll continue to give Felix any special care that I can, monitor his progress, and if things don't improve soon, then it's off to see Ron the vet, in order to get to the bottom of this. For the past 3 days it's all I can think about, so I do hope that Felix gets well soon.
This morning after breakfast I carried him downstairs and outside so that he could pee, and now he's gone for a bit of a wander (just to stress me out even more), but maybe he needs some time outside to breath the fresh air and commune with nature for a while. Oscar, on the other hand is curled up in front of the heater, looking quite content, without a care in the world. Where's the brotherly love, Oscar?
So now it's time to finish this blog entry, so that I can head on out to my twice weekly visit to the senior's centre down the road, to help out in the kitchen for lunch. I'm sure this will be a good distraction from fretting about Felix, as I can put my concern towards other humans for a few hours at least, and during that time if any of them come up to me with a sore paw, at least they will be able to tell me what the problem is.
That's all for now from lovely Orcas island.
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
Last Saturday, I made the decision to head across the water to Lopez island which is only a short ferry ride from here on Orcas. During my last visit to Orcas back in October, this journey had been one of the things on my "to do" list but I ended up enjoying Orcas so much I never made the time to go to Lopez. After a few rainy days, the forecast was telling me that Saturday, would be the only day in the next while that was going to be a sunny one, so the cats and I were up early, so that I could catch an early ferry.
After feeding Oscar and Felix, it was time to put them outside for the day, which for Felix at least wasn't his normal procedure. Usually after breakfast, he's ready for another nap, so he was a bit shocked when I carried him down the stairs and placed him out on the porch along with Oscar.
With the cats taken care of, my lunch packed and the bike in the back of the truck, I headed south for the short drive to the ferry terminal, with plenty of time to spare.
Soon after, the ferry arrived at Lopez, and my bike journey began. The guide book I had, stated "once you get beyond the steep initial climb from the ferry dock" that the journey on Lopez would be fairly easy. Well all I can say is that whoever wrote the book probably hadn't done much cycling, because the "steep initial climb" seemed to me like a walk in the park, so I figured then, that the rest of the journey should be quite easy, which proved to be correct. The only issue was one of a fairly stiff breeze out of the south, which meant a headwind for me. Anyone who has done a fair bit of biking knows, that it isn't so much the hills that are a problem, but the damn headwinds that can make an easy ride, more of an endurance test. (I remember a day many years ago in northern California, when the headwind was so severe, that I had to put my bike in the lowest gear and stand on the pedals just to go DOWNHILL. I'll let the reader imagine what thoughts were going through my head that day.) By comparison, the wind here on Lopez, was insignificant.
After about a half hour I arrived in Lopez village, however due to the early hour, there wasn't much going on, so I continued on south. My objective was to find a farm on which was located a small house that is owned by the lady I am currently housesitting for. My journey was a success and I had the opportunity to go inside and have a look. It's a house on wheels, and it would certainly live up to my standards as far as size goes, being only slightly bigger than my old cabin, Snug, back in the Yukon. She calls the place "Raven house", and if you go to google images type in raven house and scroll down to the bottom of pg 4, you can see a picture of it being towed by a pick up truck.
The sunny day never did materialize and with my objective complete, I headed back north, now enjoying the tailwind that pushed me gently towards my destination. I had some time to spend, before the ferry arrived, and found a wonderful little coffee shop with a cast of local characters, and I spent an hour or so just enjoying the local chit chat. The impression I was left with, is that Lopez is a very friendly place, and I could see why the people living there probably think that it is the best place in the world. Now I don't know about putting it at the very top of the list of the best place in the world to live, but it certainly has a very relaxed charm about it.
I continued on my journey north to the ferry and before long I was back on Orcas and eventually home. No cats were around when I arrived which certainly wasn't out of the ordinary, and finally around cat dinner time I checked outside and sure enough, Oscar and Felix's internal food clock had not let them down, and they were wanting to come in.
Unfortunately, Felix, was favouring his front right paw, so after feeding them I spent a long time with a magnifying glass and a light, examining his paw. Everything appeared to be very normal, and he even let me touch his paw without pulling away, so I couldn't really diagnose the problem. This is where the cat/human interface breaks down somewhat. "Tell me what's wrong Felix?" I asked, half expecting him to form his meows into something resembling english so that he could explain his problem to me. But who was I kidding?
So now it's Tuesday, and for the last 3 days or so POOR OLD FELIX is still limping around. Aside from the front paw, he seems perfectly ok, with a good appetite etc. I have been spending extra time with him, and have gotten into the routine of carrying him from one sleeping place to the next, or up and down the stairs so that he can go outside and do his business. I even bring his food dish to him, to save him the trouble. I have had numerous people including the vet's office yesterday suggest that he may have just injured it jumping down from somewhere, and the suggestion is to give it a couple more days to see if there is any improvement. So in the meantime I continue to fret about my buddy Felix, while Oscar on the other hand doesn't seem to care one way or the other, that his brother isn't feeling 100 per cent.
Maybe Felix is getting use to all this special treatment and has decided to milk this situation for as long as possible so that his human servant treats him with extra special care. I don't really think this is the case, but at times I wonder. But it makes me feel sad and helpless really, and I wish I could make him better. At least if you had a sick child, you might be able to find out what the problem was. And even after all the advice I've received, and in this age, where all we have to do is "google" some topic to get information about it, here am I still pretty helpless when it comes to a sore cat's paw. How pathetic is that? So I'll continue to give Felix any special care that I can, monitor his progress, and if things don't improve soon, then it's off to see Ron the vet, in order to get to the bottom of this. For the past 3 days it's all I can think about, so I do hope that Felix gets well soon.
This morning after breakfast I carried him downstairs and outside so that he could pee, and now he's gone for a bit of a wander (just to stress me out even more), but maybe he needs some time outside to breath the fresh air and commune with nature for a while. Oscar, on the other hand is curled up in front of the heater, looking quite content, without a care in the world. Where's the brotherly love, Oscar?
So now it's time to finish this blog entry, so that I can head on out to my twice weekly visit to the senior's centre down the road, to help out in the kitchen for lunch. I'm sure this will be a good distraction from fretting about Felix, as I can put my concern towards other humans for a few hours at least, and during that time if any of them come up to me with a sore paw, at least they will be able to tell me what the problem is.
That's all for now from lovely Orcas island.
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
THE FULL MOON AND GREEN REPLACES WHITE
POST #15
If I had gone into a deep deep sleep since the last time I saw the full moon prior to today, I would most certainly have thought that something very odd had happened in the universe. Because this morning as I watched the moon sink over the horizon, I was actually looking slightly to the north of my current location. Last month I was looking way south. People living here hundreds of years ago would have expected to see a moon that set in a regular location each and every month of the year, but we in the modern society have the advantage (at least for the moment) of jet travel which enables us to cover vast distances in a short amount of time. So much distance in fact, that a moon can set in a very different location from one day to the next. I wonder what the people back then would have thought of the idea that they could cover over 600 miles in about an hour? And I also wonder how in the future some people may ponder the fact that humans of the past (ie us) had these things called jet aircraft that zipped us around the world to wherever we chose to go and in a matter of hours we could go from one side of the world to the other, and not only see the moon in a different place, but see a whole other constellation of stars in the night sky. Now that really is amazing when one thinks about it. But we DON'T think about it that much I suspect. Well some of us who have been studying the energy conundrum that we are facing think about it all the time. But most people don't take the time to do that. Instead, we live in a world where we look at long distance travel as NORMAL and I expect that there would be more than a few souls who look at it as their RIGHT. In this high tech complex world we currently live in, people just book airline tickets as easily as they pour themselves a morning cup of coffee, without much thought into just how amazing it is to be able to do that. Just go online, book the ticket you want, slap down the old credit card number (so you can get those airmiles don't forget) and then sit back and daydream about your upcoming vacation in Hawaii, or Thailand or Australia, or wherever you decide. It's all so simple really. Well, if I use to think that way, I certainly don't anymore, and so in the past few days it seems almost like something akin to a miracle that I could have been way up north in the Yukon on one day, and within a couple of hours, I would be back in Vancouver. Airline travel for me now has become a special event and as a result I now appreciate it much more than I ever did in the past. And a great part of that appreciation for me comes from the fact that I really wonder how many more airline flights I will have the opportunity to take? The way things are going, it seems to be only a matter of time before there will be less airlines, hence less flights, which means the cost of each seat will have to go up. That won't have much of an effect on a small portion of the population, but I think that the masses of people who now take for granted that they can just fly wherever they want, whenever they want, will have to adjust to the new normal, which might mean more ground travel and less air travel.
So where has all this travel talk taken me to? Well, I have returned to the lovely little place on Orcas Island in Washington with my two feline friends, Oscar and Felix. I was here in October at the beginning of my "homeless housesitter" journey, and it's wonderful to be back. The cats seem to be happy that I am back, but how can you really know for sure. "Look Paul, just feed us twice a day and let us sleep alot and we won't give you any hassle." What with doing all these different housesits, one after the other, I am mixing up my pet names, so when I arrived here I was calling one of the cats, Otto, which not only isn't Felix's name, Otto is a dog. You would think that I could at least get the species correct.
Arriving back here after 6 weeks in the Yukon, the most striking thing for me is the colour green everywhere, as opposed to the whiteness I've just come from. (That's one more thing about jet travel, your climate can change in just a matter of hours. But even that, we take for granted). So yes, it's green, green, green, and many degrees warmer for sure. My first night back I walked to the beach and the smell of the ocean was almost overwhelming. I sucked in large breaths, and I had almost forgotten how wonderfully fresh the sea air is.
Now that the snow has been left behind I can now get back out on the bike and spend some time doing the slow travel that a bikeride provides. And this time around I plan to get to some of the other islands near Orcas and take the bike along to explore new places close by.
One other thing before I finish this entry. I was reading a book the other day which has information on all the San Juan islands, so naturally I went straight to the section on Orcas to read up on some history. So let me just quote from the book-
"the 1897 discovery of gold in the Klondike transformed Seattle. Thousands of gold crazed men flooded the town, intent on getting north as quickly as possible. Ships were needed to haul them there and Moran Brothers began building sternwheelers at a furious pace. Eighteen of these-each 175 feet long- were completed in 1898, and Robert Moran himself led the flotilla, starting at Roche harbor on San Juan island and sailing all the way to St. Michael at the mouth of the Yukon river, a distance of 4000 treacherous miles." Robert Moran ran a shipbuilding business in Seattle, until he retired to Orcas island and lived out the remainder of his years.
So a funny coincidence, that having just come back from the Klondike, I find myself in a place that has a link to the Klondike from the past.
The journey back then would have been much more of an arduous one, and certainly taken a lot longer than the one I have just experienced in the past week. The adventurers of old would have seen just a gradual change in the location of the moon, and by the time they reached their destination in the Klondike, it would have seemed to be in the right place to them.
Back here on Orcas, I will have the opportunity to get comfortable with the location of the moon, the rhythm of the ocean tides and the purring of the cats. Life is good.
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
If I had gone into a deep deep sleep since the last time I saw the full moon prior to today, I would most certainly have thought that something very odd had happened in the universe. Because this morning as I watched the moon sink over the horizon, I was actually looking slightly to the north of my current location. Last month I was looking way south. People living here hundreds of years ago would have expected to see a moon that set in a regular location each and every month of the year, but we in the modern society have the advantage (at least for the moment) of jet travel which enables us to cover vast distances in a short amount of time. So much distance in fact, that a moon can set in a very different location from one day to the next. I wonder what the people back then would have thought of the idea that they could cover over 600 miles in about an hour? And I also wonder how in the future some people may ponder the fact that humans of the past (ie us) had these things called jet aircraft that zipped us around the world to wherever we chose to go and in a matter of hours we could go from one side of the world to the other, and not only see the moon in a different place, but see a whole other constellation of stars in the night sky. Now that really is amazing when one thinks about it. But we DON'T think about it that much I suspect. Well some of us who have been studying the energy conundrum that we are facing think about it all the time. But most people don't take the time to do that. Instead, we live in a world where we look at long distance travel as NORMAL and I expect that there would be more than a few souls who look at it as their RIGHT. In this high tech complex world we currently live in, people just book airline tickets as easily as they pour themselves a morning cup of coffee, without much thought into just how amazing it is to be able to do that. Just go online, book the ticket you want, slap down the old credit card number (so you can get those airmiles don't forget) and then sit back and daydream about your upcoming vacation in Hawaii, or Thailand or Australia, or wherever you decide. It's all so simple really. Well, if I use to think that way, I certainly don't anymore, and so in the past few days it seems almost like something akin to a miracle that I could have been way up north in the Yukon on one day, and within a couple of hours, I would be back in Vancouver. Airline travel for me now has become a special event and as a result I now appreciate it much more than I ever did in the past. And a great part of that appreciation for me comes from the fact that I really wonder how many more airline flights I will have the opportunity to take? The way things are going, it seems to be only a matter of time before there will be less airlines, hence less flights, which means the cost of each seat will have to go up. That won't have much of an effect on a small portion of the population, but I think that the masses of people who now take for granted that they can just fly wherever they want, whenever they want, will have to adjust to the new normal, which might mean more ground travel and less air travel.
So where has all this travel talk taken me to? Well, I have returned to the lovely little place on Orcas Island in Washington with my two feline friends, Oscar and Felix. I was here in October at the beginning of my "homeless housesitter" journey, and it's wonderful to be back. The cats seem to be happy that I am back, but how can you really know for sure. "Look Paul, just feed us twice a day and let us sleep alot and we won't give you any hassle." What with doing all these different housesits, one after the other, I am mixing up my pet names, so when I arrived here I was calling one of the cats, Otto, which not only isn't Felix's name, Otto is a dog. You would think that I could at least get the species correct.
Arriving back here after 6 weeks in the Yukon, the most striking thing for me is the colour green everywhere, as opposed to the whiteness I've just come from. (That's one more thing about jet travel, your climate can change in just a matter of hours. But even that, we take for granted). So yes, it's green, green, green, and many degrees warmer for sure. My first night back I walked to the beach and the smell of the ocean was almost overwhelming. I sucked in large breaths, and I had almost forgotten how wonderfully fresh the sea air is.
Now that the snow has been left behind I can now get back out on the bike and spend some time doing the slow travel that a bikeride provides. And this time around I plan to get to some of the other islands near Orcas and take the bike along to explore new places close by.
One other thing before I finish this entry. I was reading a book the other day which has information on all the San Juan islands, so naturally I went straight to the section on Orcas to read up on some history. So let me just quote from the book-
"the 1897 discovery of gold in the Klondike transformed Seattle. Thousands of gold crazed men flooded the town, intent on getting north as quickly as possible. Ships were needed to haul them there and Moran Brothers began building sternwheelers at a furious pace. Eighteen of these-each 175 feet long- were completed in 1898, and Robert Moran himself led the flotilla, starting at Roche harbor on San Juan island and sailing all the way to St. Michael at the mouth of the Yukon river, a distance of 4000 treacherous miles." Robert Moran ran a shipbuilding business in Seattle, until he retired to Orcas island and lived out the remainder of his years.
So a funny coincidence, that having just come back from the Klondike, I find myself in a place that has a link to the Klondike from the past.
The journey back then would have been much more of an arduous one, and certainly taken a lot longer than the one I have just experienced in the past week. The adventurers of old would have seen just a gradual change in the location of the moon, and by the time they reached their destination in the Klondike, it would have seemed to be in the right place to them.
Back here on Orcas, I will have the opportunity to get comfortable with the location of the moon, the rhythm of the ocean tides and the purring of the cats. Life is good.
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
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