THE DATE GUY and THE SEVENTH STAGE OF GRIEF

POST # 185

I have been told on countless occasions that I am "the date guy."  For what ever reason,  dates seem to stick in my head.  And it doesn't really  matter how far back the date is.  The only condition, is that it was significant for me, in one way or another.  It's kind of weird, but lots of things are weird, especially in this day and age.

Yesterday happened to be one of those dates.  October 6th, 2007 was the day Madonna died.  No, not Madonna the singer, Madonna the mother.  My mom. Even though I think about her from time to time, it certainly isn't as often as it used to be.  I feel that I've worked through the grief as a result of her death, and I'm left with pleasant memories of the times we shared.

In an odd coincidence, there was an essay posted by my friend Guy at his website yesterday, and the title of the essay is, "The Seventh Stage."  If you're interested, you can read it here:
http://guymcpherson.com/2015/10/the-seventh-stage/

In short, Guy has added two additional stages to Elizabeth Kübler-Ross'  five stages of grief.  Stage 6 is gallows humour, and stage 7 is  fuck it.  Now I imagine that a few readers won't appreciate the fact that I've dared to use the "f" word on my blog, but I find it both funny and appropriate.

In fact, it takes me back to thinking about my mom, on the last day that I saw her alive which was one week before she died.  A broken hip had put her in the hospital, and at the age of almost 92, the odds of her coming out of the hospital weren't very good.  In spite of her advanced age, modern medicine "came to the rescue" with a hip replacement.  I could go off on a rant about whether or not a hip replacement was appropriate, but I won't.

So the day that I'm there at her bedside, a young lady arrives to get mom out of bed, in order to "get that new hip working."  At this stage, mom was mostly just skin and bones, and to me it seemed almost cruel to get her up and out of bed and positioned in front of her "walker" in order to exercise this new hip.  But I guess the young lady was just doing her job.  Anyway, I'm now getting to the funny part. Her plan for my mom was to have mom walk to the end of the bed, and then continue on out into the hallway.  Mom made it to the end of the bed, then a few steps more past the foot of the bed in the direction of the doorway, and it was here that I think in her mind, she just said, "fuck it" and made another left and bee-lined it back towards her bed.  She had had enough of this walking business. As painful as it was to watch her struggle along, my lasting memory was the look on her face, which implied, that she wasn't going to let some young woman tell her what to do.  I find myself chuckling right now, just thinking about it.

She died a week later, and even though I wasn't there by her bedside, perhaps she had decided to call it a day, and say, "fuck it" and drift off into a peaceful, painless, forever sleep.

Never in my life, did I hear my mom use the "f" word, and she only heard me use it once in front of her, which ended up causing both of us to laugh out loud, but that's a long story from a long time ago, so I'll leave it at that. Another happy mom related memory.

Getting back to my friend, Guy's essay, and in light of the bleak outlook going forward, it seems like a good time to be in the "fuck it" stage.  Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean giving up, it just means trying to appreciate even more, each moment.

So on that note, here are a couple of photos and videos showing how I appreciate the moments.  Enjoy.

A WEST COAST BEACH HERE IN NANOOSE BAY

_KAIN, THE HUSKY I MET A FEW DAYS AGO

QUALICUM BEACH B.C.

CHUMLEE PLAYING WITH HIS GREEN STRAW

Spending time with animals like Kain, and Chumlee, helps to reinforce the idea of how valuable being in the present moment really is.  It's not easy (for us human animals), but it is certainly worth it.  And just look at how much fun you can have.  Right Chumlee?

Happy Trails,

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

BRAIN IN NEUTRAL AND THE SUPERMOON ECLIPSE

POST # 184

With my brain in neutral this morning, I will just post a few photos and videos to cover for today.  Enjoy.

My slack blog writing assistant. "Is it blog day again, Paul?" "Can't we just sleep?"

Neighbourhood friend.

Chumlee has finally decided that the housesitter has a safe and comfortable lap to hang out on.

A short video of last night's Supermoon Eclipse.  This was taken about the time when the moon was only half visible, near the latter part of the eclipse cycle.
If you listen very carefully, you can hear the sea lions barking in the background.


Below is a link to the Supermoon event.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11895539/Incredible-blood-supermoon-eclipse-time-lapse.html



And last but not least, here is a cartoon I came across in Portland Oregon.  It might make you think twice, the next time you order at a restaurant.

Happy trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

HOT AIR

POST # 183

As our season turns from Summer to Autumn we are given a couple of options for the use of hot air.

Here is a good use of hot air:




And here is a waste of hot air:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-globe-leaders-debate/article26377613/

The majority of the "hot air" that spewed forth from these three "leaders" contained the words "jobs" and "growth", and the oxymoron, "sustainable development."
As has been demonstrated in the past, and is true in this debate, the Economy trumps Ecology every single time.

Here is Chumlee's reaction to the debate:

Maybe the comedian, Louis CK has it figured out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOojbp8ptWI

Happy trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

A PROFOUND SADNESS

POST # 182

One of her* favourite times of day was just before the sunrise.  It was peaceful then, and the lack of light made it easy to forget her location.

The concrete slab that she had slept on overnight, soon reminded her of where she was, and it made her extremely sad. She had a vague memory** of her life before this place, but it had been such a long time ago, that the memory of what life used to be like was now almost non-existent. The memories that had survived were of wide open spaces, with plenty of food to eat, an abundance of clean water to drink,  along with a variety of comfortable places to sleep, much more comfortable than last night's concrete slab.

After the sun was up, she could see exactly where she was.  It was the same place she had been for almost as long as she could remember.  While she was surveying her surroundings, she heard a familiar sound coming from the corner of her enclosure.  A few moments later, the animal*** which she had come to know as the food provider entered, and within moments, this animal had dropped on the ground a variety of different types of food.  Her favourite food looked like this:




The animal had left behind a generous amount of this food for her and her three companions, and so for a while, they could focus on the enjoyment of eating.

Later, she took a nap, and when she awoke,  everything had changed.  The peacefulness of the early morning was now gone, and as she looked around, she could see huge numbers of the same type of animal that had provided her with food that morning, surrounding her enclosure.  For some reason, which she didn't have the mental capacity to understand, none of these animals were able to enter the space that she was in.  She could look them all straight in the eyes, and they were close enough to touch, yet some invisible barrier prevented physical contact.  The vast majority of these animals, both large and small appeared to be quite excited to be there, and made all sorts of different sounds, especially the small animals.  She then noticed the facial expression on one of the large animals who was standing directly in front of her.  It looked deep into her eyes, and the expression on its face seemed to reflect her mood.  It was a mood of profound sadness.
Eventually, the animal walked away in silence and was replaced by some of the smaller noisy ones.  She had seen enough for the day, and retreated to a part of the enclosure which had at least a modicum of privacy.  Here, she would remain, until the darkness of the night enveloped her.

It was quiet now.  She gazed up into the sky and could see the sparkles of light scattered throughout it.  For a brief moment, she remembered that it was like this in the place that she had come from so very long ago.  It helped her to forget about where she was.

*
http://www.oregonzoo.org/discover/animals/orangutans


**
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(13)00708-2?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982213007082%3Fshowall%3Dtrue&cc=y=

***
Animal/s in this piece refers to the human animal.

Happy trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqhdRs4jyA

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES

POST # 181

SMOKE, SMOKE, and more SMOKE.  Yes, that certainly seems to be the case here in Oregon, and in fact the entire west coast of the USA, as well as Canada.  The world appears to be burning up right in front of our eyes.

This situation has been going on for months now, and it only seems to have gotten worse as the time passes.  With the monster El Nino parked off the West Coast, and the High Pressure Ridge that has been there for an extended period of time helping to exacerbate the drought conditions, it looks like fires and the smoke associated with them, will continue into the Autumn season.
A couple of links that show the fire situation can be found below.
http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/

http://fires.globalincidentmap.com/home.php

Even though I am still here in Bend, Oregon, for a little while longer, I was scheduled to do a house/pet sit in Grand Forks, BC, which was meant to begin on August 22nd.  The location was right next door to the place I housesat at in early 2012, however the owners cancelled their vacation,  so my services were not required.  This appears to be fortunate for me, but not for them, as I read recently that there has been an evacuation alert issued for that area due to a wildfire burning in Northern Washington State.  See below.
http://globalnews.ca/news/2187170/wildfire-threat-prompts-evacuation-alert-near-grand-forks/

And there is still plenty of summer weather to go.  Things seem to be going from bad to worse on the fire front.
Here is a short video from the top of a hill in Bend called Pilot Butte, which normally offers a CLEAR 360˚ view of the surrounding area, including mountains to the west of town.  As you can see, it was anything but clear when I took this video five days ago, and these smokey conditions have persisted day after day after day.  Even the little kid "whining" in the video doesn't like all the smoke.

Perhaps, The Platters said it best all those years ago, even though they weren't singing about forest fires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2di83WAOhU

Happy Trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

PS.  I will be in transit to my next house sit on September 7th, so I may or may not get an opportunity to write on that day.  However if that is the case, I will write my next entry on the following day.

Latest update.  I have decided to cancel my September 7th blog entry due to time constraints. I will write again on September 14th.

SHORTEST HOUSE SIT TO DATE- JUST OVER 24 HOURS

POST # 180

This may be one for the record books, at least as far as house sitting goes.  And unexpected as well.
My friend Mary has friends south of here that called her up the other day to see if she/we would be available for a short term house sit.  Soon after, we were out the door and on our way.  It was anticipated that we would be there for two or perhaps three days, however from start to finish it lasted just over 24 hours.
Here are some photos and videos of where we were during that time.  Enjoy.

THE MAIN HOUSE

PART OF THE INTERIOR IN THE EVENING

SOME UNIQUE FURNITURE

THE HIRED HELP ON THE PROPERTY, TAKING A BREAK FROM THE HOT SUN
(in case there's any confusion, this is just a mannequin)

MAZEY- THE RESIDENT "BONEHEAD"

TWO PHOTOS OF RASCAL-THE RESIDENT "FURBALL"

And last but not least, a couple of videos to round out the picture for today.

The owners arrived home yesterday afternoon, so we were on our merry way shortly thereafter.
I doubt if I will ever have a shorter housesit than this one.

Happy Trails,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

DEAD WHALES AND MORE CLIMATE ENGINEERING

POST # 179

Four more whales died off the British Columbia coast this past week, and the experts seemed to be perplexed as to the cause.  This always seems to be the case.  They will suggest a variety of potential causes, but rarely is the connection made to the fact that humans have heated up the planet to such an extent, that this excess heat is having a very negative impact on life on earth.
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/four-dead-humpback-whales-found-off-b-c-coast-in-one-week-1.2514429

The last time the planet was this hot was 252 million years ago, and at that time ancient carbon was being released into the atmosphere at the rate of 1-2 billion tons per year.  Today, due to industrial civilization and the massive burning of fossil fuels (more ancient carbon), we are releasing 11 billion tons each year.  That fact alone should be enough for the marine biologists to at least ponder the idea that all this extra heat generated from the burning of fossil fuels will have a very negative impact on marine life.  But if that were to be admitted, then of course industrial civilization would have to be put into question.  So instead, the "experts" continue to look for other causes, like perhaps a rare virus that may have caused the whales to die and be washed up on the shore.

Speaking about tons of carbon being released each year into the atmosphere, I came across an article in The Province newspaper, http://www.theprovince.com/technology/environment/Squamish+site+will+debut+device+that+pulls+carbon/11285512/story.html
which talks about a Calgary based firm which is about to open a plant in Squamish that will pull carbon out of the air.   So let's see, it expects to pull 500 tons/year out of the atmosphere, and industrial civilization dumps 11 billion tons/year into the atmosphere.  That's 0.0000045% of the carbon emitted.  The firm "hopes" to build an industrial scale plant in the future that will pull 1 million tons/year out of the atmosphere.  That would put the percentage at a whopping 0.0091%.

The company was founded by "climate and engineering expert" David Keith.  This is the same David Keith who thinks that we can just spray particles in the air to slow the rate of global warming.  More pie in the sky engineering solutions to a predicament that can't be solved.  We're way past the point of no return on this topic.  But the new company gets the headlines and the tax deductions and the "green washing" continues.  Of course the article doesn't mention a word about how much fossil fuel energy went into building the plant in the first place, plus how much additional fossil fuel energy is required annually just to keep it running.

Even if this plant and others like it (which don't exist at this point) could theoretically capture all of the carbon emitted annually, it still wouldn't matter at this late stage in the game, because the methane "monster" has now been released and there's no putting this genie back in the bottle.

The problem with this kind of news article in a mainstream newspaper, is that it gives the impression that "we're serious about climate change and we can tackle the problem".  In other words, someone else is out there taking care of things, and you dear reader, can just go about your business as usual.  I think it won't be too long before the general population realizes that business as usual just won't be viable any longer.

Happy trails,

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer

A PHOTO OF THE RECENT BLUE MOON TAKEN ON ORCAS ISLAND
------------------------------------------------
A late update from the Arctic News Blog.  Could the sea ice be gone this September??
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/