RAMBLINGS PLUS A BONUS PODCAST AS WELL

POST # 236

The above photo could be an example of what happens to very old bike riding pet sitters and their canine friends.  I really can't be sure, but this scene which I captured on my daily bike ride, makes me chuckle every day when I pass by.  It's that time of year again and I'm reminded of when I  last went out "trick or treating" in my old home town of Calgary. My guess is that it would have been 1965.  Accompanied by my best friend, Victor, we decided to try just one more city block of houses,  in order to add to our already abundant hall of goodies in our pillow cases.  In order to accomplish this, we took a short cut down a dark alley. As we walked down the alley, a large (compared to us) shadowy figure approached us, slowly at first.  He then began to run towards us.  We both froze, not knowing what to expect next.  Moments later he ran past us, but not before reaching out his arm and grabbing my pillow case and disappearing into the darkness.  It all happened so fast, we couldn't believe it.  Victor still had all of his goodies,  and I lost all of mine.  He tried his best to console me, as I cried all the way home.  Of course I couldn't know this at the time, but by wanting to get even more goodies of which we already had more than enough, perhaps I had just learned a lesson about being too greedy? 

Moving right along to another adventure, or at least a date that reminds me of the beginnings of another one.   Today is one of those dates.  The year was 2002, and I was living up in the Yukon at the time.  I decided to call my friend, David Jones in Melbourne, Australia to wish him a happy birthday, and during the conversation, I asked, "What's new?'  He told me that he was having a sailboat built in Durban, South Africa, and by early in the new year, he wanted to sail it back to Australia.   He asked me right then and there if I would like to come along as part of the crew?  I accepted his offer, and in 2003, David, myself and one other friend, Anthony sailed from Durban to Perth.  The journey lasted 43 days, from March 6th to April 17th and it had a bit of everything thrown in.  More than once on that trip, I thought that it would be my last day on the planet, and yet here I am over 13 years later, still kicking around.  Amazing.  And seeing as it is that date yet again, I'd better make sure to contact David today to wish him a happy birthday.  

In addition to my daily bike ride, I have taken to doing a brisk afternoon walk as well around a small lake nearby.  It's certainly not to the scale of the Lake Louise that I remember from back in Alberta, however it's an enjoyable way to spend about 40 minutes, doing a lap around it.

Some days I even meet a few canines along the way, and thankfully they all still have a covering on their bones, unlike the one in the photo at the start of this post.

On one of my walks I happened to come across these magnificent specimens.  

MAGICAL??? MUSHROOMS

And now, on to the podcast which I mentioned in the title of this blog.  Through my extremely good fortune,  I had the opportunity to be the guest on a podcast recently, courtesy of Deb Ozarko and Deb Gleason.  For those who can spare some of their precious time, the podcast is linked below.

http://www.debozarko.com/113-2/

The entire podcast runs for 1 hour and 40 minutes, so if you feel so inclined, sit back, grab your favourite beverage and listen in.

Finally, for this last post of the month, I've managed to dig up an old photo from the year 2000.  A comment from someone named Steve Tober  from last week's blog inspired me to add this.  I had a look at his blog, and there were many photos from the mountains around Calgary.  So Steve, if you happen to be reading this, here's a picture from way back when.  Enjoy.

L-R  Don, Me, Daryl

Tim took the photo and on the back, he wrote:

"July 22, 2000  The three (of 4) wise guys-having just summited 3 (of 4).

Paul hoisting his dad's 5lb. silver flask on Mt. Cornwall (9800') a mere two minutes before the lightning strike and Don and Daryl disappear but Tim offers Paul the lightning rod and all turns out well in the end.  Didn't even leave anything on the summit."

I'm quite sure that the lightning strike mentioned above was the closest that I've ever been to getting "vapourized" by mother nature.  What a way to go.  At least it would have been quick.  The funny part was that after the lightning struck, we all wanted to get flatter to the ground than the other three, just in case another bolt was on the way.  Like Tim said, it all worked out well in the end, but we all had to check our underwear later. :-)

Wait.  Just one more thing. I took a stroll up a small mountain near here the other day.  It was a beautiful day for an autumn walk, as I crunched my way to the top.

OK, I think I'm almost done, except to say that I heard through the grapevine that something ?? could happen over the next few days in this country that might be quite disruptive, to put it mildly.  Who knows? But with the craziness over the upcoming election here, anything is possible.  All the more reason to enjoy each moment.

living a life of profound acceptance,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

THE THOUGHTFUL WANDERER TURNS FIVE TODAY

POST # 235

A MAGNIFICENT APPROACH TO MY CURRENT HOUSESIT

Today, The Thoughtful Wanderer turns five which means that I have been doing this house/pet sitting gig full time now for just over five years.  I departed Vancouver on October 1st, 2011 and wandered off to Orcas Island in Washington state and I've been wandering ever since then.  What a life.  And what fun it has been.  Along the way I have been extremely fortunate to get to know some wonderful two-legged as well as four-legged animals.

I decided to look back through some of the blog posts and include them here.  There are five in total, all with the same date as today, with only the year changing each time.

LAKE OSWEGO, OREGON

The very first post was written when I was in Lake Oswego, Oregon.  I fell into this housesit as a result of my housesit on Orcas Island.  Cathy, whom I was housesitting for on Orcas was renting at the time.  The landlords came up to visit from Lake Oswego, and when they arrived, I happened to be out in the garden, weeding.  No doubt I scored a few points with them, so they offered me a housesit at their place later in the month, and they even covered the cost of my transport.


http://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2011/10/thoughtful-wanderer-begins.html



ORCAS ISLAND, WASHINGTON STATE

Fast forward exactly one year, and I found myself settled in back on Orcas Island.  Something that I wrote back then, still holds true, and I've included it below.

"This year of housesitting has also allowed me to live the simple life that I find so attractive and stress free. If I have said this once I have said it a thousand times,
"as long as I have a roof over my head and a full belly, I really don't have anything to complain about." I still feel that way, maybe even more so in light of the events of the past year. Now, I am simply happy to just have another day to spend, and so it is extremely easy for me to wake up every day with a smile, knowing that I am alive and that I have another opportunity with the day ahead to just breathe the air and enjoy my life for as long as it will last."

For those who want to read the entire entry it is included here, and the comment above "in light of the events of the past year" refers to my potentially fatal fall down a mountainside on March 4th, 2012.

http://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2012/10/happy-blogiversary-paul.html



THE BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII

I do get around.  Even though I had been to Hawaii a few times, this was my first and so far only visit to the big island.  I was a guest of my friend, Mary and I was only meant to be here for a couple of weeks, but my follow up housesit which was going to be back in British Columbia, fell through, so I stayed here for about six weeks total.  The blog entry is short, and I included in it a link to an article about the ocean.  Back then, I didn't know how to attach a link properly, so I have put it here as well.

The blog post:

http://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2013/10/two-years-on-and-pacific-ocean.html


The link to the article about the Pacific Ocean, and it describes a solo sailor's voyage.  Being a sailor, I can highly recommend reading it,  in spite of the fact that the author explains the sad state of the oceans, in this case, the Pacific.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1848433/the-ocean-is-broken/?cs=12



BEND, OREGON

The blog anniversary for 2014 was spent with my friend Mary (mentioned above) at her new location in Bend Oregon.  I was in between housesits,  which provided me with the opportunity to spend time with her.

http://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2014/10/nepal-blizzard-and-genoa-floods.html



DUNCAN, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Well to be exact,  I was just west of the town of Duncan out on a small acreage.  This was a wonderful place to be.  It was election time in Canada and I think I wrote some pretty good words about how useless elections are.  That's my humble opinion of course.  Now here we are a year later, and in the USA where I am currently sitting, it's all about the Presidential election.  I could just change the names of the politicians, and copy and paste the words from last year's blog and it would fit quite well.

http://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2015/10/another-pointless-election-that-avoids.html

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Naturally I think that it's worthwhile to re-read all of the above posts, however I am biased in that regard.  I leave it up to the reader to decide.  I suspect that the content of some of my blogs has turned away some of my readers, but that's ok, and it is of course their choice.  After all, there are only so many hours in the day, and others may find that they have more important things to do.


So now what?  Another 5 more years of blogging in front of me?  I rather doubt it, but I can't be sure.  It's not that I don't enjoy doing this four times/month, but I do wonder whether or not I'll be around to complete the task.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love to believe that this blog will be going for many years into the future, and that I will be happily typing away at the keyboard until I'm very old and very gray or bald, whichever comes first.  However, I can think of a few things that might interrupt this little blog ritual of mine.  Let's see:
-habitat loss due to abrupt climate change
-chaos resulting from energy depletion, therefore no food at the grocery store
-WW111 (and this one would be nuclear) because of the crazies in Washington DC.
-heart attack
-unexpected accident

No doubt the list could be made much longer, but the length of it doesn't matter all that much.  Death can come at any time, which is all the more reason to try and squeeze as much life as one can out of each moment.  It's actually a good thing to think about one's own death because it makes life all that much sweeter, and what could be wrong with that?  So these days I appreciate everything even that much more than I ever used to.  And I mean appreciate everything.  The fresh air to breathe, watching a hummingbird in flight, the light shining on a tree leaf, clean water to drink, everything.  So it's a conundrum.  The more one contemplates death, the more alive one feels, and for me at least, the happier I feel as each day arrives.  Try it sometime.

I was reminded recently of the fifth item on the list above, that being an unexpected accident.  In this case it was a plane crash which caught my attention.  It made the news primarily because one of the occupants of the aircraft was the former Premier of Alberta.  However, one of the other occupants was a person by the name of Sheldon Reid.  A very long time ago I played ice hockey with a Sheldon Reid in Calgary, my home town.  Of course I don't know for sure if this was the same person, but his age was about the same, so it is possible.  The point of the story is that all four people on this aircraft wouldn't have thought that October 13th, 2016 was going to be their last day.  One never knows, really.

Now I suspect that some of my readers might think that I am being morbid, but I don't happen to subscribe to that point of view.  Life guarantees death.  That's all you really need to understand, and if you can come to grips with that fact, then appreciating the precious moments that we all have, whether they last only until I finish typing this sentence, or for decades into the future, seem all that much more precious indeed.

As far as today goes, well, so far so good.  I have a little mental check list that I go through, and if I can put a √ by each of the seven items on the list, then the odds are pretty good that I will get through today.
Here is the list:
1-clean air to breath
2-clean water to drink
3-food to eat
4-body temperature not too hot
5-body temperature not too cold
6-not critically injured
7-not critically ill

Of the seven items, it's really only the last one on the list which is somewhat of a wildcard.  Your heart could stop beating at any moment, and that's not something that you can anticipate.  I do what I can to minimize this by doing regular exercise and trying to eat properly, but hey, there's no guarantee that doing those two things is going to extend how many heart beats that are left.  However, my current resting heart rate is around 47bpm so that's pretty healthy.

Well, I've rambled on a bit on this blog, so it's time to wind things up.  I think I'll finish off, the way I began, with a nice photo.  This was taken a couple of days ago down at the lakefront near where I am currently housesitting.  This was the first I had seen the sun for many, many days and I was happy to be there at that moment to enjoy the scene.

LAKE WHATCOM

living a life of profound acceptance,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

RAIN BOMBS, WIND GUSTS and a POWER OUTAGE AS WELL

POST # 234

Keeping my finger on the pulse.

It's now just past 9pm on the west coast, and after more than six hours without power, I am finally getting a chance to write my blog for today.  Better late than never.  

Everything turned off just after one o'clock this afternoon, but I have a good book to read so it wasn't really a big deal.  No doubt there were many in the neighbourhood who might have been somewhat more agitated with the situation, but after living for almost 5 years in my little shack in the Yukon without power OR running water, this little drama was a non event to me.  Just go with the flow, and count my blessings.  

A major storm system has arrived and things are expected to be windy and wet for the next day or two. I did manage to get out for my daily bike ride today but it had it's own little bit of excitement thrown in.  A HUGE gust of wind swept across the road at one point, and in addition to knocking numerous garbage bins over,  it almost took me out as well.  I had to really lean into the wind in order to not get blown over.   Fun stuff.  It pays to be living in the moment.  

The link below talks about the storm moving through, and there is a possibility of  up to 2 FEET  of rain in some areas.  Welcome to the new normal.  It's called a rain bomb.  The atmosphere is so warm now, that it holds plenty of moisture, and when that moisture descends to the ground, look out.

http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2016/10/extreme-weather-in-pacific-nw.html

All in all, it's been an interesting day, and it's shaping up to be a wet and windy weekend.  I'm not sure if there will be any  more power outages, but if there are, I'll just accept them as they come.   At least I have a gas fireplace to keep me warm. 

And speaking of fireplaces, here is an old video of when I was housesitting in Grand Forks, which had a nice wood stove, and some extremely relaxed looking critters as well.

Now I better go and check to see if the ice cream in the freezer melted.

living a life of profound acceptance,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

DOLLARS VRS SECONDS and A COUPLE OF VIDEOS

POST # 233

You walk into your local convenience store to pick up a few items, and while there, you decide to have the clerk check the lottery ticket that you purchased a while ago.  You know that the odds of you winning are infinitesimal.  You also know that people do win every now and again.  With your shopping complete, you amble up to the counter, pay for your items and have the cashier run your ticket through the lotto machine.

YOU CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

She tells you that you have won.  Not first prize, but one of the smaller prizes.  The amount is $86,400.  What luck!!!  And what a fantastic start to your day.  You thank her, grab your ticket and groceries and go bounding out of the store, extremely happy, even happier than you remember being decades ago when you finally completed your last day of school.  It's shaping up to be a great day, and you start making all sorts of plans on how to get the most out of it, and enjoy your new found wealth.

Here is a second scenario.  Same convenience store, same day, and the same amount of prize money, but this time, in order to collect, you have to make a big decision.  You can only have the money if you agree to give up your life at midnight.  Say what???   If you offered that option, I suspect that virtually everyone would decline the money, in order to save their life, and live another day.

 The number is significant.  It's the amount of seconds that we all have to "spend" each day.  Given the choice between dollars and seconds, it seems rather obvious which is more valuable.  So what's the point of this whole story anyhow, Thoughtful Wanderer?

That's a reasonable question to ask.  The point is to help the reader appreciate just how precious each moment (second) really is.   But it's a difficult task if you're human.  Dogs, cats, birds and the myriad of other sentient beings that live on the planet spend their moments in the now, but humans probably spend more time in either the future or the past than in the present.  I'm as guilty as the rest, however I do try to catch myself when I find that I am not concentrating on the current moment.  Try it some time. Try focusing on being present for as long as you possibly can.  You'll probably discover that it is a challenging, but highly worthwhile thing to do.

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I'm settling in at my current housesit, and enjoying my daily routine.  It's a pet-less sit again, however there are plenty of animals around and occasionally I even get to be up close and personal with one.

This is one of the neighbourhood furballs, and I was fortunate enough to have a few minutes to spend with it yesterday.

Aside from keeping an eye out for pets, and plenty of deer,  I also like to get my daily ride in.  Here in Sudden Valley, there is an excellent road  to travel on which is low in traffic, and at the same time is a very good work out due to its roller coaster configuration.  The other day I decided to duct tape my ipod onto the handlebars so that I could capture the thrill of going downhill.  This isn't the entire video, however it gives the viewer some idea.   Talk about having to be in the present moment.  Especially with all of those deer lurking in the bushes.

living a life of profound acceptance,

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer