TubaOrNotTuba

This morning I woke to the sound of a boat horn. Not at all like my usual cuckoo. We’re just kilometers away from the ferry terminal at PAB. In a small campground which is beside a beach. One with a shipwreck according to the person who works here. An old shipwreck. I stayed around while this morning wild birds were hunted. At least I assume that’s the right word to use none were ever killed but photographed. We decided to seek out something else on my tiny bucket list. I wanted to visit the site of a disaffected lighthouse. The Rose Blanche. Brought here by boat about 300 years ago from granite quarries in Scotland. The light is at the top of a high cliff which requires quite a climb. Especially when you can’t see where to place your feet. But we made it and I had pictures taken of me. Enough to confuse the children. After we came down we realized that supper was soon so we found a nearby restaurant that served a delicious halibut steak. The kind of food that would have been on a table at home during my childhood. The lighthouse was never put back into service when repaired. No longer important in a day where we have satellites in space. Around here construction is difficult and I can only imagine what was required to get all those granite blocks up the cliff facing a good wind, sure those lass needed a strong back. We see e there’s a lot of water around here. Around every corner it seems. Constructing roads is not for the light of heart or faint of heart or any other kind.

Today we made another move from 1 province to another. This one was a big move. It started with us finding our way to the ferry terminal and into their parking area. With large fairies, nothing happens quickly. We were there for hours. The best moment was when a crew member kinda convinced a trailer being told by an RV to go up a steep ramp and then realized immediately that I was not where he wanted to go. Trying to convince a timid RV to backup with no visibility it’s hilarious. Also nothing that I ever want to do myself. But all things come to those who wait and we were finally on a moving vessel. Off to more adventures. This cruise was long enough that we rented a cabin. A very small cabin but one they had a bed and a TV in the bathroom and all the other comforts that you would call homey. In fact I stayed there for most of the afternoon until we decide to go for the last call for supper. Someone had realized that I was trying to navigate a very large vessel deck and gave us the assurance that when time came to leave the vessel someone would come and find us. And they did. This went well except that I would not want to do it without assistance. Too many tripping hazards. We came on land in the new land sometime before dark. We use the GPS to navigate away from the Wharf area and get us to a small provincial park where we already had reservations. All has gone well and this is the third Word May 4th province of our trip. Actually I’m starting to lose count. But with Wi-Fi running and darkness coming I will settle down for the evening and get a good night’s sleep. Stress relief after a day with a certain amount of uncertainty. Vacations are sometimes like that. I did watch a movie I had not seen before which is sort of a plus the third in a series. Good music. Unfortunately i did not see any of the actors involved. But that is my problem. Now I am settling down for the night, in a new place with a new time.

Can we be on the level here? No I mean in the most mechanical sense. We have left home and today is day one of our trip and we’re parked and there is a variation from corner to corner in our level. Something that you can correct with a couple of plastic blocks. I wish that other things were so simple. You may ask yourself about why that could be important and if you have never slept away from home I invite you to try being on a platform that is slightly out of trim. You will find yourself quickly on the wrong side of the bed. I will say no more right now. Anyhow we have taken our first boat trip and I’ve riding in an elevator period. On the boat period. It made more sense than trying to navigate those multiple flights of stairs that seemed to go absolutely no worse. The goal is to get down to the right level. And there’s that word again. The real trick is to be back in your vehicle before they finished docking and lift the gate in front. There are many people depending upon you when you’re at the front of the line. And they do not understand why they should have to wait even a few seconds longer. Now the boat does its best. An alarm horn blows and they have a bright flashing light that tells you that we’re getting close. Hold your horses. I know there were no horses there. We have so many expressions that go back to the past. And with that we are ready to spend the night and then leave early to catch another boat. This could be the theme of our lives for the next few weeks. Probably better then simply staying in bed. Stay with us we are the intrepid voyagers and allow we may not know where we’re going you can come along with us.

I may have deciphered one of the reasons behind my reluctance to travel far from home. It can be summarized in a single sentence. You can’t take it with you period. At home I have most of the things I need to get me through the day happily. Going some results requires a lot of forethought. What happens if I go into a public shower? Will my feet be covered? And what is the wind comes up? Do I have a toque? What about fighting off monsters in the forest. I just because I do not intend to enter the forest at least not on my own will. We’re in the froze of packing right now so many tiny articles to remember. Any one of them could sentence turns us to an unhappy time. What if I don’t have the correct charging cable for all of my toys? Is my pocket knife sharp enough? Should I pack a wet stone? And what about a water bottle? How much is enough? That same line can be applied to my packing? How much is enough? We will make it I am sure. One of us is driving. Actually two of us will be driven but one of them is not me. I am a passenger and that’s why I have so much time to worry about things that really aren’t important. Be glad I’m not trying to solve world hunger or global peace. Too many variables. Do I miss math class? Not for college minute, I tried that bit. Failed miserably. And my ability to travel is probably rooted in something that happened back in grade 12. In those days I had to make sure that all the junk from the percussion cabinet was at hand. If I left it behind I would have to improvise. I hate improvisation. Probably why I gave up on the whole idea of being a jazz musician. Right now I’m just trying to wrap my head around how many coats are needed for a single trip. Remember that I do not go into fashion statements. This is just making sure I can face the inclement weather. I had forgotten that I even owned green pants. Learned a long time ago that at home I did not need a coat in the rain. Stay with me for more worry. I am sure I have more, deep in my soul.

I have found a new way to exercise my imagination. I have been listening to a series of old documentaries going back to my childhood about the days when people fished for a living. In particular on the Labrador coast. Not a place that people around here paid much attention to because it was too far away but over the years you get a sense of what was going on. A small ship with a crew of maybe two dozen people they would go for the whole season in the hopes of finding enough fish to fill their holds. And they had it rough. Today, hours with people who are stuck in the ice. Not because they wanted to be there but because that was the only way to get close enough to the shore to actually get into the fishing grounds. I do not have an accurate date for the documentary but I can tell from the radio equipment and the mentions of aircraft that this had to be sometime in the early 60s. A time when there were still fish in the waters. The documentaries also give a foundation for later hard time. When the fish came no more. That is something that is well within the lifetime and memory of the older people. Even me. For an area that was known worldwide for its fish stocks to suddenly find that there were no fish in the water must have come as a true revelation. After all if all you know is fish and there are no fish what do you do. No chance of going home and transitioning into a life on the land. I have been up there and they have a lot of rock. I’m going to use what I’m learning from listening to these documentaries to embellish my vacation time. I will be looking for more than signs that a road went this way. If we go down to a harbor I will try to analyze what still remains of an industry that was all important at that time. Like anyone who goes fishing it’s an act of faith. You cannot see below the surface and you can only guess based on past experience where the fish might be. Blind faith. For those of us who grew up on fish once a week we now realize that we too were part of the solution and part of the problem. Fish were cheap to catch and yet there was money to be made in the sales. We pushed the stocks to the brink. And as for going out in the ice? Again something that you had to be both brave and foolish to do. In one shot, they showed someone’s anchor that had been chewed up by an ice pan. Something that had required two or three people to move was now nothing more than scrap at the end of a rope.

I overhear a lot of conversations. This morning, one coming from Australia. I should paraphrase the conversations were between two or more birds. I understand them no more or less than birdseye here on my front step. But one was a kookaburra and that touches me personally. You see during my first year of teaching I had the responsibility to showcase music for children. Including the hit Laugh Kookaburra Laugh. I had almost forgotten the song. Life gets away from you. And no, I have never met or seen a kookaburra although life goes on. Why are there no songs about Blue Jays in conversations? A missed opportunity if you ask me. We have several that sit aside and shout all day long. I can usually tell when a hawk is in the area because they up the volume. I wonder do hawks and jays understand one another. Actually we hear a lot of life outside. There are those three foxes that showed up and are sleeping next to each other. Why can’t they whisper? Actually most of the other livestock around here, excuse me life wildlife around here, is fairly quiet. Well behaved. I do notice that when I hear wildlife on TV I pay more attention. Birds chirp everywhere. Foxes not so much. As for dogs they just bark that’s all they do. I should go looking for wilder conversations. An afternoon of elephants could be interesting or maybe, the chatter from home coming fishing boats. I have a radio.

We are just days away from a short trip. Or a long trip depending upon your way of looking at the world. And in the planning procedure trip we have to consider having the comforts of home. In particular sanitary comforts. Water and the toilet. We have both but we have learned that you have to plan your use. Nothing is unlimited. Nothing last forever. If you fill your water tank up with water you will then have to plan for where that water is going to go after you have made it dirty. And you can’t dump just anywhere. A good thing. And also water is heavy. I’m not going to bore you with the math it’s all available online. But the weight that you carry with you either clean or dirty must be considered. If you carry several 100 kilograms of liquid you must then plan for how much it will cost you to pay for the extra fuel. We have been lucky over the years we are two people with minimal needs we have never actually filled our tanks to overflow. But, it could happen. We have to read the gauges and plan ahead. There are apps for this sort of thing that will allow you to locate places that accept water exchange. I know, that’s a nice term for it. We also must plan to filter our own water supply and know when we need to find more. Again more than just a question of gauges. Your needs will depend upon your diet and the temperature and a host of other issues. At least we no longer have to plan for a dog. So as we head out, I will try to keep track of what we do, with the where and the when being important. If we find that someone wants a lot of money to help us out I will note that along with the location. I will not be adding to my maps but you’ll be able to reverse engineer things. That’s where the fun comes in. Maybe later in time I will start adding videos but not this year I am not ready for that responsibility. I can barely tell night time from daytime.

While waiting for the pest control guy to finish his rounds outside I let my coffee cool down to the right temperature. That’s a word that is filled with lots of interpretation. We start very early trying to control the temperature of food. Checking the temperature of a baby’s bottle against your arm or checking the spoon full of food. Get it wrong and the infant will paint you. One of the frequent questions to ask any visitor is was the coffee hot enough? We have certain assumptions about our food and about our bathwater. Yes there is a perfect temperature for my bath and my shower. And it is my perfect temperature. Yours may vary. I wish I had a better thermometer so I could try to quantify those numbers. This is where we move from subjective to objective. I realize the temperature in my shower cannot go beyond a certain level because I have a thermostat to control that. Also nature. It is hard to boil water beyond a certain level. Steam if you will. But the right serving temperature plays out in so many other areas. I have watched someone gently warm their ice cream in a microwave. I did not understand the why but you probably do. Is your soup too hot? Would you like an ice cube to go with that? Certain questions we learn to ask others. Right now I live in a house where the temperature is constant within a few degrees. If I go outside I consider whether or not I need an extra coat or not. We all have a level of comfort. What about the rest of the world. We try to make sure that the eggs we leave outside for our neighborhood friends are neither too hot nor too cold. We cannot ask for input but we know by their actions. When I make bread, I know almost instinctively how long to leave it on the counter before it can be put away. Again, I wish I had a thermometer to quantify some of these things.

Once you reach a certain age you start trying to break the rules. My most recent moment? Well, that would be when the Courier showed up with the parcel. And wanted me to sign for receipt. And I explained to him that I could no longer see the screen but would it be OK to just place an X. The driver does not care about such things. And so I did. I made a big X in the middle of the screen and that was enough to send the driver on his way. Yes he did ask for my name which means he may have done some fixing after the fact I did not bear witness to it. I wonder how many other places I could just sign an X. Like in the good old days. As for the personal? I haven’t opened it but I think it contains the SIM for the iPad. That’s a guess. I will get confirmation later on this afternoon when someone else who actually can see what’s going on takes over the situation. But I have done my part. I did sign for the package, after a fashion. You know, we do things because we’re told to. I am sure the driver of the delivery van could care less about what my name was or if I spelled my name correctly or if I just placed a mark on the page. That isn’t his responsibility. And if someone back at general headquarters decides to audit the process they will have a check mark for their script. And X if you will. If we were keeping up with technology he would have asked me to confirm by saying so. A Siri or an Alexa moment if you will. We’re not there yet. I look forward to seeing what changes will come in standard technology as time goes on. After all I have a talking clock. And that does not refer to the cuckoo.

From deep in the woods and the tall grass of past years a photo. Posted on social media. A local bird, nameless. And I wonder where is it now? Did it serve as supper for a local coyote. Did it fly South and never find the way back. So many unanswered questions. Our old photos are like that. You can take a photo of a house and probably recognize the address. Not so much a photo taken in the woods. So many anonymous trees. We used to have a famous tree locally. Deep at the back of a pasture something much taller than all the others. One that was visited by people with painstaking maps. Turn right at that corner and then go down to car lengths and then turn left and you get the idea off the beaten track but the wind came and the tree was no more I still haven’t found a replacement although I don’t wander the woods enough to be on the outlook for old timber. As for animals we have a brood of foxes and we can pretty much guess which year but nothing more. We still cannot tell the siblings apart. Perhaps if they had different coloured T-shirts. As for cars in the yard. They too change with time and after a few years it’s hard to be sure when the car arrived. Or when it left. We tend to forget such moments unless there’s something added to the soup. If I look out right now I can tell you that the lobster season has started. A few days late but they will pick it up at the other end of the calendar although that seems to satisfy few. Nothing in the nearby fields yet although I’m sure that once we start to get weather that isn’t hovering around the freezing point that will change. The March of time.