POST # 77
Yesterday I helped my housesitter friend Mary, transport a piano to the town of Bend in Oregon. She drove the U-haul truck with the piano, and I followed along in her car. The journey started off extremely wet along the interstate in Washington, however once we had crossed over the Columbia river into Oregon, the skies cleared and the heat arrived.
We expect to be here for a couple of days before heading south again to around the San Jose area of California to visit a friend of Mary's. From there it will be the long journey back north to Washington.
The heat here in Bend is beginning to increase and I had heard that it could reach a high of 110F over the weekend which is apparently hotter than normal for this area. How come I am not surprised anymore by news like that? There will be plenty of locals floating down the river in the next few days, trying to stay as cool as possible.
It has been an interesting journey so far and my mind continues to expand with the new sights that I see. The only uninteresting place along the way is a town we passed yesterday with the name of BORING OREGON. It must be very uninteresting with a name like that.
This week's blog will be short, as there are plenty of other things to keep me busy for now, and I imagine by the time July 7th's blog rolls around, there will be more news to talk about by then.
LIKE THE HEAT!
Happy trails,
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.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
ALBERTA FLOODING
POST # 76
In recent years, it seems that hardly any time at all goes by before there is news of some place somewhere being inundated by floodwaters. Yesterday it was my hometown of Calgary that was in the crosshairs along with the surrounding area of Canmore and Banff. I had thought that I was going to write about the first day of summer on this June 21st blog entry, but after reading and seeing some of the footage yesterday about the floods it seemed more appropriate to get this on the record.
As I write these words, I have yet to be connected to the internet so I don’t know the latest, however from some of the video clips I saw yesterday, I can only imagine what certain areas in and around Calgary are like today as well as the town of Canmore, where friends have a home very close to Cougar Creek which was running wild only 24 hours ago.
Just recently the flooding in Germany was in the news, and before that I have images in my mind of other places in Europe and elsewhere where flooding has become an issue. The floods are becoming more widespread, more frequent and certainly more intense.
Of course this begins to make sense when it is tied to the knowledge of the changes taking place on the planet due to climate change. The melting of the ice cap in the Arctic, which could in fact be ice free as early as this September, has caused the temperature difference between the pole and the mid latitudes to decrease. One major side effect of this decrease is the effect it has on the polar jet stream. The wave of the jet stream has not only become more amplified in a north/south axis, but it has also slowed as well. This change allows a particular weather pattern to persist longer than it might have in the past. So in the case of what is going on in Alberta at the moment, the wet warm air mass can be stationary for quite some time and this increases the volume of precipitation resulting in the current flooding. In addition to that, if the air mass is warm, along with the rain, the spring ice melt can exacerbate the situation, and the combination of the two appears to be getting the upper hand on the infrastructure which is in place and which was probably not designed to handle such conditions.
So this week it’s Alberta, but who knows where the next flood zone will occur? One thing appears fairly certain at this point. There will be more flood events like this and one of the primary causes appears to be this jet stream condition which only continues to show signs of change due to Arctic ice loss. Once the ice is completely gone, which looks now to be a certainty, if not this year, then very soon after, the extreme weather events which caused this flooding and other flooding around the world will become even more unpredictable as time passes.
And just this past week I read an article which was suggesting that, and I quote, “It’s time to put an end to this global warming hoax”. The article was from a Canadian news service. Of course there was no mention at all about Arctic ice melting. It would be difficult to write an article about the global warming hoax and mention the ice melting in the Arctic in the same breath. I find it almost laughable that this disinformation continues to be printed, but I guess as long as there are people to read it, or cannot make the connection between the two, the propaganda will no doubt continue. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the day when all the ice is completely gone and still there will be someone somewhere writing about “the global warming hoax”.
____________________________________________________________________
And something totally unrelated. Savanna the dog died a couple of days ago. She was a wonderful old dog, and I am grateful to have known her and spent some time with her recently. Her immediate human family will be sad because she is gone however they will have had almost 17 years of memories to carry with them from now on.
Happy trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
In recent years, it seems that hardly any time at all goes by before there is news of some place somewhere being inundated by floodwaters. Yesterday it was my hometown of Calgary that was in the crosshairs along with the surrounding area of Canmore and Banff. I had thought that I was going to write about the first day of summer on this June 21st blog entry, but after reading and seeing some of the footage yesterday about the floods it seemed more appropriate to get this on the record.
As I write these words, I have yet to be connected to the internet so I don’t know the latest, however from some of the video clips I saw yesterday, I can only imagine what certain areas in and around Calgary are like today as well as the town of Canmore, where friends have a home very close to Cougar Creek which was running wild only 24 hours ago.
Just recently the flooding in Germany was in the news, and before that I have images in my mind of other places in Europe and elsewhere where flooding has become an issue. The floods are becoming more widespread, more frequent and certainly more intense.
Of course this begins to make sense when it is tied to the knowledge of the changes taking place on the planet due to climate change. The melting of the ice cap in the Arctic, which could in fact be ice free as early as this September, has caused the temperature difference between the pole and the mid latitudes to decrease. One major side effect of this decrease is the effect it has on the polar jet stream. The wave of the jet stream has not only become more amplified in a north/south axis, but it has also slowed as well. This change allows a particular weather pattern to persist longer than it might have in the past. So in the case of what is going on in Alberta at the moment, the wet warm air mass can be stationary for quite some time and this increases the volume of precipitation resulting in the current flooding. In addition to that, if the air mass is warm, along with the rain, the spring ice melt can exacerbate the situation, and the combination of the two appears to be getting the upper hand on the infrastructure which is in place and which was probably not designed to handle such conditions.
So this week it’s Alberta, but who knows where the next flood zone will occur? One thing appears fairly certain at this point. There will be more flood events like this and one of the primary causes appears to be this jet stream condition which only continues to show signs of change due to Arctic ice loss. Once the ice is completely gone, which looks now to be a certainty, if not this year, then very soon after, the extreme weather events which caused this flooding and other flooding around the world will become even more unpredictable as time passes.
And just this past week I read an article which was suggesting that, and I quote, “It’s time to put an end to this global warming hoax”. The article was from a Canadian news service. Of course there was no mention at all about Arctic ice melting. It would be difficult to write an article about the global warming hoax and mention the ice melting in the Arctic in the same breath. I find it almost laughable that this disinformation continues to be printed, but I guess as long as there are people to read it, or cannot make the connection between the two, the propaganda will no doubt continue. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the day when all the ice is completely gone and still there will be someone somewhere writing about “the global warming hoax”.
____________________________________________________________________
And something totally unrelated. Savanna the dog died a couple of days ago. She was a wonderful old dog, and I am grateful to have known her and spent some time with her recently. Her immediate human family will be sad because she is gone however they will have had almost 17 years of memories to carry with them from now on.
Happy trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
Friday, June 14, 2013
CHANGING TACK
POST # 75
I looked up the word “tack” in the dictionary the other day and there are a variety of definitions. One relates to sailing and is “the act of changing the course of the vessel by turning the bow into and through the wind”.
A second definition is “a course of action or policy”.
Changing the course of action is the one that caught my eye.
Recently I was reminded yet again that the topic of climate change is at the very least a difficult subject, and one that many people do not want to discuss, kind of like religion and politics. I found myself bringing the topic up again recently and the reaction that I received is what I have now come to expect, so it doesn’t really surprise me any longer. People will listen only to a certain point and then it’s time to change the subject or have the subject changed for you. At least I have become better over the years at recognizing when that time has come.
So I decided on a new tack. From now on, I will refer anyone who is interested to my friend Guy Mcpherson’s website which is called “Nature Bats Last” and can be found at guymcpherson.com and let Guy do the talking. He has managed to put together a very comprehensive package of scientific facts which spell out the situation very clearly for anyone who is willing to at least hear the message. What they do with the information is entirely up to them. This reminds me of a conversation I had years ago with one of my Aquabus colleagues, and at the time she asked me why I would want to trouble myself with this topic. I remember pointing across the water to a condo and saying to her, that if I was standing at the bottom of it, and a huge chunk of concrete had let go from the top of the condo and was falling at a rapid rate towards me, I would want to know that, in order to get out of the way.
I will continue to pass this information on for as long as I am possible and the reason for doing so is encapsulated in the words of author Arundhati Roy- “The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out”.
So I will continue to speak out, even if it is only to refer people to the information so that they are aware. I understand that doing so has caused some friction over time with various people, and some friends have even fallen by the wayside. That makes me sad. In spite of that, I feel that the information regarding this topic is important and so I will try and share it with whomever wants to listen.
I suppose some would think that because of the dire subject matter, that I would be spending my days in a haze of depression. This in fact is not the case and I would go as far to say that it’s precisely because of the message, that I seem to get even more pleasure out of each day that I have to spend.
Another reason to change tack is that I understand completely that when I am telling any story (in this case the story of climate change) I tend to let my emotions get involved and at times, get quite worked up about it. Referring people simply to the facts on Guy’s website keeps the message clear and concise and takes the emotion out of it.
It’s kind of like that old line on the TV series “Dragnet” in which the main character, the detective (Joe Friday??) use to say, “Just the facts ma’am”. That’s how I view Guy’s website, it’s just the facts.
Life is truly an amazing thing and something to be appreciated even when it throws in a few curveballs now and again. And climate change is one helluva curveball.
Happy Trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer (or as I was recently referred to as “ The Happy Doomer”)
I looked up the word “tack” in the dictionary the other day and there are a variety of definitions. One relates to sailing and is “the act of changing the course of the vessel by turning the bow into and through the wind”.
A second definition is “a course of action or policy”.
Changing the course of action is the one that caught my eye.
Recently I was reminded yet again that the topic of climate change is at the very least a difficult subject, and one that many people do not want to discuss, kind of like religion and politics. I found myself bringing the topic up again recently and the reaction that I received is what I have now come to expect, so it doesn’t really surprise me any longer. People will listen only to a certain point and then it’s time to change the subject or have the subject changed for you. At least I have become better over the years at recognizing when that time has come.
So I decided on a new tack. From now on, I will refer anyone who is interested to my friend Guy Mcpherson’s website which is called “Nature Bats Last” and can be found at guymcpherson.com and let Guy do the talking. He has managed to put together a very comprehensive package of scientific facts which spell out the situation very clearly for anyone who is willing to at least hear the message. What they do with the information is entirely up to them. This reminds me of a conversation I had years ago with one of my Aquabus colleagues, and at the time she asked me why I would want to trouble myself with this topic. I remember pointing across the water to a condo and saying to her, that if I was standing at the bottom of it, and a huge chunk of concrete had let go from the top of the condo and was falling at a rapid rate towards me, I would want to know that, in order to get out of the way.
I will continue to pass this information on for as long as I am possible and the reason for doing so is encapsulated in the words of author Arundhati Roy- “The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out”.
So I will continue to speak out, even if it is only to refer people to the information so that they are aware. I understand that doing so has caused some friction over time with various people, and some friends have even fallen by the wayside. That makes me sad. In spite of that, I feel that the information regarding this topic is important and so I will try and share it with whomever wants to listen.
I suppose some would think that because of the dire subject matter, that I would be spending my days in a haze of depression. This in fact is not the case and I would go as far to say that it’s precisely because of the message, that I seem to get even more pleasure out of each day that I have to spend.
Another reason to change tack is that I understand completely that when I am telling any story (in this case the story of climate change) I tend to let my emotions get involved and at times, get quite worked up about it. Referring people simply to the facts on Guy’s website keeps the message clear and concise and takes the emotion out of it.
It’s kind of like that old line on the TV series “Dragnet” in which the main character, the detective (Joe Friday??) use to say, “Just the facts ma’am”. That’s how I view Guy’s website, it’s just the facts.
Life is truly an amazing thing and something to be appreciated even when it throws in a few curveballs now and again. And climate change is one helluva curveball.
Happy Trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer (or as I was recently referred to as “ The Happy Doomer”)
Friday, June 7, 2013
LIMBO LAND
POST # 74
According to the dictionary I am referencing, two of the four definitions for the word limbo are:
1- a region on the border of hell or heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants.
2- an intermediate, transitional or midway state of place.
The first reference is from Roman Catholic theology, a doctrine that I let settle into the dustbin of my history a very very long time ago.
The second definition is much more appropriate in my case, as this is what happens to a house/pet sitter when a housesit that was booked, had to cancel due to illness. So my limbo is the space between the last housesit and the next one, whenever and wherever that may be.
It is a holiday from pet responsibilities, and even though I love the animals that I have had the opportunity to care for, it is nice every once and a while to be pet free. In the land of petsitter limbo I am free to roam around at will and explore new opportunities for places to rest my bones at the end of the day. Some places are more comfortable than others, but I take it all in stride, and just let the journey unfold as it will.
This limbo land allows me to ponder life, even more than I usually do. How long this particular period will last is still up for debate, however I know that at some point, it will end, and that I will be back in the petsitting seat again, ready to take on the next critter or critters that are in my future.
By the time my next blog post rolls around, the landscape which surrounds me could be completely different.
The adventure continues.
Happy Trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
According to the dictionary I am referencing, two of the four definitions for the word limbo are:
1- a region on the border of hell or heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants.
2- an intermediate, transitional or midway state of place.
The first reference is from Roman Catholic theology, a doctrine that I let settle into the dustbin of my history a very very long time ago.
The second definition is much more appropriate in my case, as this is what happens to a house/pet sitter when a housesit that was booked, had to cancel due to illness. So my limbo is the space between the last housesit and the next one, whenever and wherever that may be.
It is a holiday from pet responsibilities, and even though I love the animals that I have had the opportunity to care for, it is nice every once and a while to be pet free. In the land of petsitter limbo I am free to roam around at will and explore new opportunities for places to rest my bones at the end of the day. Some places are more comfortable than others, but I take it all in stride, and just let the journey unfold as it will.
This limbo land allows me to ponder life, even more than I usually do. How long this particular period will last is still up for debate, however I know that at some point, it will end, and that I will be back in the petsitting seat again, ready to take on the next critter or critters that are in my future.
By the time my next blog post rolls around, the landscape which surrounds me could be completely different.
The adventure continues.
Happy Trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
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