ROADSIDE RUBBISH

POST # 224

If you spend enough time riding a bike along a highway, as I have over the years, you get to see all sorts of flotsam and jetsam in the ditch as you ride on by.  Coffee cups, water bottles, cardboard, bits and pieces of plastic, broken glass, smashed up car parts, old tires,  and of course the ubiquitous beer can.  Most of these items have been jettisoned out of car windows.  I guess people just can't wait to find a garbage/trash/rubbish bin to fling away their used items.

However, the other day as I was on my morning ride, something different appeared in the ditch, a couple of miles from home. In spite of its mangled condition, I recognized it as a smart phone.  I decided to stop, and go back and pick it up. Why?  My first thought was to take it home and open it up to see what it looked like on the inside.  As can been seen by the following images, I don't think it is repairable. :-)

Back in the days when I flew airplanes, one of the first items on the check list after sitting in the cockpit was to look at the maintenance card to see what work may have been done on the aircraft and also to see if there were any unserviceable items, and if there were, these were marked U/S which denoted unserviceable.  From the appearance of this smart phone I would definitely have to say that in my professional opinion,  it is well and truly U/S.

Then, a couple of days later as I was on my homeward bound journey, I saw this item in the ditch.

Again, I rode on by, but then my curiosity got the better of me, and I turned around and stopped to pick it up.  It was obviously a battery of some sort.  I got back on my bike and had only peddled a few more feet along the road when I saw this.

Both items were manufactured by Samsung. Hmmmm, I wonder if they fit together? Sure enough, I popped the battery into the back of the cell phone and voila, it powered up nicely, and I now have myself a working phone.  But now what to do?  I guess I could keep it, but I don't want a cell phone.  I doubt if I could ever find the owner.  That would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.  And besides, why would someone throw a cell phone out of their car window?  In fact, it appears that two separate individuals threw two separate phones out of windows on two separate days.  What are the odds?

How ironic that the man who choses to live life without a cell phone, now has two of them.  The smart phone will be heading for the garbage, but I am not quite sure what to do with the Samsung phone.  Perhaps the owner will call, and I can drop it off somewhere for them.  Who knows?  Seeing as we live in a world where people seem to have their entire life wrapped up in their cell phone, I imagine that there is someone out there who would like to get their phone back.  I guess I'll wait and see if it rings, and take it from there.

On a totally unrelated matter, July 25th was an anniversary of sorts for The Thoughtful Wanderer.  Back on that day in 1991, at the Brighton Town Hall in Melbourne Australia, I became an Australian citizen.  The town hall was packed with a number of people like myself all becoming newly minted Aussie citizens, and there was a gallery of friends and family members in attendance to witness the proceedings.  Although celebratory, the mood was also very serious, serious that is until my friend Jacqueline while watching me accept my citizenship certificate from the Mayor, yelled out, "Good on ya mate."  That brought the house down in fits of laughter, and I think it was appreciated by all in attendance.  The ceremony was followed up by a party back at my place, with plenty of friends, plenty of drinks, and plenty of Aussie foods.  It certainly was a memorable evening.  Wow, an entire quarter of a century ago.  You know you're getting older when...

Time now to head back out to the garden to continue working on my latest project.

living a life of profound acceptance, 

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

MY DAILY BIKE RIDE

POST # 223

There's nothing like my daily morning bike ride here in Port Townsend, and I find I am at my happiest when I am riding.  My friend Dahr was kind enough to leave me with a wonderful bike to ride, and I've taken full advantage of it during my time here.

The weather has cooperated as well.  On most days there is a slight overcast which is great because it keeps the temperature cooler for riding, however this morning it was all sunshine and blue sky.

I roll out of the driveway usually around 9:30am and peddle down the gravel road to the highway.

On some mornings,  the neighbour's dog,  "Tank" is out in the yard so I say good morning to him as I ride on by. But today, Tank was returning from a walk with his owner, as I was coming in from my ride, so I had the opportunity to take a photo.

I enter on to the highway (Hastings Ave) just before mile marker post 4, and I'm on my way.

Soon after my entrance on to Hastings Ave, I pass by a horse boarding farm on my left.

  After I pass the horses and say hello to them, I come to a slight uphill grade, which is a good opportunity to get in the groove, and concentrate on some deep breathing to help power me to the crest of the hill.   This is followed by a coast down to Cape George Road at which point I start heading in an easterly direction towards the beach.

 A little less than two miles along this road and it's time to veer off onto the Larry Scott trail.  I stay on this magnificent tree lined trail all the way to the beach.  Here is a video of part of the trail.

https://vimeo.com/72697552  (the bench I rest at is shown at 2:53 of the video)

Somewhere along the trail, I have made friends with a local furball that comes out to greet me occasionally.  I never know when he's going to be there, but if he shows up, I always take the time to stop.  I appreciate spending a bit of time with him, and I think that he enjoys it as well.  Today, he was a no show.

Continuing on, the trail crosses underneath highway 20, and then it slowly descends the remainder of the way to the seaside.  I have my favourite bench to sit at, and it is here that I take a break, open up a book, and spend about a half hour or so, reading.

 I'm always entertained by the seagulls plucking shellfish from the shore, then flying upwards in a steep trajectory, letting go of their catch, so that it falls back to the earth, and hopefully cracks open, so that they can have a feed.  Sometimes it takes more than one try.  Once they've accomplished their task, they are immediately surrounded by a group of crows, looking for a free lunch.  The typical m/o for the crows is to surround the seagull, with one crow sneaking up from behind to nip at the seagull's tail feathers, which may or may not allow one of his buddies to then jump in and get some of the seafood.  It's always fun to watch, but I don't imagine that the seagull enjoys being ganged up on.  Aside from these feathered friends, there are always plenty of swallows around which nest in the cliff side.  They are wonderful flyers, and it is a pure joy to watch their skill as the dart and weave through the air.

After I've had a snack to eat, and a bit of a read, it's time to once again mount the trusty treadly* and begin my journey home.  The gentle outward bound downhill run to the beach is now reversed, so I get a better work out going home.

A sign by the side of the road on my journey home reminds me that there are still people out there  that think that voting actually makes any difference.

In total,  the round trip journey takes me about an hour on average,  25 minutes outbound and 35 minutes inbound.   A quick stop at the mail box which is located on the highway to check for any mail, then it's back on to the gravel road and home.

The round trip distance is 12 miles, just over 19 kilometers which is 133 kilometers/week.  It's not much but it is every day, so there's something to be said for that. When I road down the west coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles, I averaged about 100 kilometers per day.  However, that was 29 years ago.  The body seems to endure more at the age of 32 than at 61.  I guess the only way to find out if I could ride 100 kilometers/day again, is to give it a try.  I'll have to really think about that.

  Time to cool off now and have a well deserved breakfast, before I continue on with my day, which at the moment still includes some major weeding projects.

*treadly: Australian slang for bicycle


living a life of profound acceptance,

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

MASTER WEEDER AND A BABY DEER

POST # 222

Two two two.  There's a number with symmetry. And a palindrome as well. I wonder if this blog will still be going at the number 333? That would be approximately two years and three months from now, give or take.  Only time will tell.

Enough of that.  A postcard arrived in the mail today, from my friend who is in Alaska at the moment, while I housesit for him.

It's a photo that includes an albino seal pup. As a funny coincidence, the photo was taken on St. Paul Island in Alaska, as shown on the postmark below.

While my friend spends his time galavanting in Alaska, I have been busy working on becoming a master weeder back here in Port Townsend.  It's now a part of my daily routine, and surprisingly I am beginning to enjoy it.  As there seems to be no end to this task, it's good that I am having fun digging in the dirt.  Here is just one of the projects currently underway, on the east side of the house.

Slowly but surely, the task is coming to completion.

It's looking better by the day.  Time to get back out there and get my hands dirty once again.
But to finish off this blog, here's another video with one of the deer babies, which I took just a few hours ago.  I get plenty of laughs from these wonderful creatures.

Happy Trails,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

MURDER WITNESS IN PORT TOWNSEND

POST # 221

Let me say this first, just to clarify the title of this blog.  The murder that I witnessed wasn't actually in the town of Port Townsend, but here on the property that I am currently housesitting.

One day last week, I was at home minding my own business, when I heard an almighty racket outside in the back yard. I went out to explore what was going on.  Up in the sky there was a flock of about a dozen crows, cawing up a storm.  Now to any ornithologist worth his salt, he would recognize this flock by its most common name, a murder of crows.  In fact, there are other terms used as well, as can be seen in the following link from "The Crow Society".
http://crow.bz/main/murder.htm

Crows are just one of the many species of birds that are here, and it is always so pleasant to spend time outside, just listening to them all day long, but especially in the morning.
A new type of bird which I hadn't seen before showed up the other day. As far as I can tell, it was a Western Tanger, with a primarily yellow body, black wings and an orange head.
Of course there are plenty of robins, and sparrows, as well as my hummingbird friends, and one of my favourites, the swallow.  I guess that one of the advantages of doing a house sit without any pets, is that I am much more aware of the critters in the yard.  We humans like to think of ourselves as being very different from the bird kingdom, however, when I look at the sketch below, it seems like there are more similarities than differences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithology#/media/File:BelonBirdSkel.jpg

We're all part of the web of life.  What a shame it is, that as a result of industrial civilization, we seem to be doing everything we can to help as many species as possible go extinct.  One day it will be our turn.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/17/un-environment-programme-_n_684562.html

Aside from the many birds here, I'm always amused by the antics of my dear, deer friends. Just this morning, I managed to get this short video.  This is my assistant gardener, helping me to keep the weeds at bay.

And finally, here is one more video to round out today's blog.  There is no picture because it was shot outside at night, but I did it in order to capture the sound of an owl in a tree.  It was quite possibly the same owl that I photographed, and added to my June 28th blog.  Turn up the volume on your computer and have a listen. It makes a sound at both the beginning, and the end of the video.  Enjoy.  I certainly did.

Happy trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer