BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

POST # 44


Without going into any boring old technical details, my electronic link to the outside world has now been restored, and as a result I can continue on with my blog, which is a couple of days overdue.

Since my last posting, I have resettled my bones, both the good ones and the ones on the mend, back here on lovely Orcas island. This is now my third visit to this peaceful island oasis, and I am happy to be back with my furball friends Oscar and Felix. Oscar appears to have caught up to Felix in the size department since my last visit in February, which gives him a more even match with his brother, when they get started with their daily "boxing" matches with each other. Felix is probably wondering why he hasn't quite got the edge over Oscar that he had in the past.

Also, since my last visit, Cathy,the owner, has relocated to a new home, not far from where she was renting, but now she has her own house which has about twice as much space as before, and a yard as well. The furballs have a whole new world to explore, and in the short time I have been back on the scene, they seem to have adapted to it very well and appear to be quite content with the new location. It is a couple of blocks further from the beach, so my nightly walk there with the cats is now off of their agenda which is unfortunate, however the boys and I can walk up the road from the new house if we chose to and that will have to do.

Cathy's former residence was a loft above a house near the beach, which was a very cozy location. It was rather tiny, but compared to living on a sailboat, it was more than enough space for me. I am one of those people who feels cozy rather than claustrophobic in a small space. I guess you are either one or the other. I'll take SNUG over a McMansion any day of the week, and I am not sure why. However I have a book which I purchased many years ago, titled "The Hand Sculpted House." The book is a detailed account of how to build a cob house, and one of the authors, Linda Smiley, talks about this business of feeling cozy in a small space in the introduction of the book. She is one of those type of people and she attributes this partly at least to the fact that as a newborn baby she was in an incubator for a while, and as a result of that experience, she felt safe in a small space. Having weighed in at only 4 pounds, 9 ounces when I was born, I too have some incubator time under my belt. Whether or not this early experience affects how we feel about the space that surrounds us is probably up for debate. All I know is, as far as I am concerned, small is better, and that would partly explain why to this day my little shack in the bush called SNUG is still at the top of my list as my favourite home. It was only about 80 square feet in total, which wouldn't even be the size of the bathroom in some houses, yet the longer I lived there, the more I thought that I had too much space. Anyhow, all of this rambling on is just another way of saying that my current location is very roomy indeed, and it will take a while to adjust to it after the previous Orcas location. But adapt to it I will, and I am sure that Oscar, Felix and myself will be content in our new location together.

In other news, my leg continues to slowly improve, and even though the changes are small ones, the direction is positive and for that I am grateful. It's been just over 7 months now since my fall, and I seem to recall being told way back when I was still in the hospital that it could take the better part of a year before I would be back to any kind of normal walking, so we'll see how that all goes. The bike riding has been a great blessing indeed, and I try to make that a part of my daily routine. Riding is important and the added bonus, is that I love to ride, so my rehab ends up just being fun in the end. I don't imagine that too many people ever think that way about rehab. I am thinking about making my second journey up to the top of Mt. Constitution, the highest point here on Orcas at some time during my stay. It's been great bike riding weather of late, and it would seem a shame not to take advantage of it while it lasts. Whether I go to the top of the mountain or not, I will most certainly continue my daily rides exploring the backroads of the island.

I think I'll wrap this up now, because it will be a shorter time between blogs, and I want to have something to write about on the next one.

Now, it's time for some cat bonding with the furballs.

Until next time.
Stay happy,

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer