TubaOrNotTuba

If you try to resume the topics that people discuss you come to a quick realization. Be it politics or sports or religion those are all the same thing. If he’s throwing a fourth topic that of weather you realize that here we have no implication. Talk all you want the sun will still shine. So back to my insistence I’m listening to political dialogue. To the chagrin. Of certain family members I admit. But I do want to know what other people are talking about. I want to match my impressions with those held by other persons. I have learned along the way that we all have a sense of history but the details get cloudy. If in the Canadian context I hear someone discussing what happened in a certain time. I learned that all of those concepts are somewhat flawed. Probably for that reason that we insist on trying to write down history even though that is another vague way of dealing with life. We should probably just talk about the weather all the time everywhere. Still variety without any attempt to change the narrative. As I say I do listen to political dialogue and what I have learned is that for all the chatter we have little control over what actually takes place. We had a national election? It changed nothing. The impression is that we should just turn off any discussion of politics and concentrate on whether the sun will shine tomorrow. Yes it probably will but even if you make a prediction you have done nothing more then predict.

With a change forecast in the weather we decided to turn the boat around and head for our own familiar harbor. Out of the city before the traffic and with a full day of sunshine ahead of us, we just let things go as they should. For the record it takes us two complete tanks of fuel to get from there to here. At the bridge the winds were high. Not high enough to stop us but enough so that the speed limit was reduced. I consider us fortunate to not be sitting by the side of the road somewheres. On the way towards home we stopped for a welcome hamburger some milk and that final tank of fuel. The house was much as we had left it allow the grass seemed, to me, to be longer. Maybe it was social yellow flowers. And now I have put away all my clothes and plugged in what needs to be plugged in and than, we can sit back and say that the trip went very well. We have met the first of the grandbabies who are actually small babies. That too will change I am sure. Apparently a year from now they will seem like different people. And we will also go back to see them because that is what you do when you can. There was nothing out of the ordinary on the road today. Not much traffic not much pressure. Tomorrow I can get back into my own routine. Something tells me that this summer has finally started. I should expect to see that new windmill any day now.

This is a slow Newsday here in Canada. So much so that lead story points out the relative indifference the Canadians have over the visit of a special guest. The first time the King has come to visit us. Before him we had a Queen who came for decades but this is Chuck’s turn. Did they notice that anyone else was indifferent? One of those moments that will be marked in a history book but I doubt,  it will be showing up anywhere else. They (the Royals) will also plant a tree as if Canada did not have enough. We really need better news stories. I also learned that during my shower yesterday I managed to substitute conditioner for shampoo. You see how news stories are relative. At least the sun is shining. There has not been much of that for the last couple of weeks. I may be developing a rain tan. We’re back at my son’s apartment and I do note that the dogs are also indifferent. Not even a bark to say hello. Just that the passage have a ball filled with kibble making its way from room to room to room piloted by the younger of the two dogs. I give her credit, she does this every day despite the opportunity to go to a real food bowl and have a real meal. Kibble is its own reward. I also want to note that the weather is getting warmer. There was very little need for the electric heat last evening in the camper.

I listen to a lot of music. I have all my life. And there are some people who stand on the shoulders of others. So much better than the average. One of those artists is Justin Hayward from The Moody Blues. I have been listening to them for over half a century. Today I came across an interview done with Rick Beato just a few days back. And it was so good. Not covering territory I had already heard about. Rather explaining the process of how you go from a song to something that will stand the test of time. I am not going to listen to that interview again soon but I probably will in future. A very calm measured explanation of how you get people to do things the right way. I would like to say that I was familiar with all of it but that is not true. Justin is one of the few renowned artists that I have seen preform live. He probably will be among the best of my life. I invite you if you are a Moody’s fan to go and seek out the interview. I think you will be surprised at how com everything was and is. Of course when you know what you’re doing it all seems easy but that is not the explanation for what is going on here. This is a particular level of musical genius that I may not come across a game. It was good for me to sit here in the living room at my son’s apartment and just try to understand. As you can tell I am still on vacation. Not at home.

I do make an honest effort to decode signs. Sometimes I get close. We had stopped to buy dairy products at a small restaurant. In the parking lot there was a large warning sign. My first guess was that it was telling me to dump the garbage can into the trunk of a nearby truck. That made no sense. I re-interpreted things and it turned out that the sign was warning me that if I stayed parked there a big truck would come and tow me away. Not me literally but someone else. Warning taken. Yesterday and overnight we went to visit the new summer home of son #2 and his family. In the woods away from the city. A lovely home that would look good on the pages of a Architectural Digest. I cannot speak to how things will be in the middle of winter but I assumed that will workout in due time. Still it was fun to visit even if I cannot claim to have seen everything. Now we’re back in the city waiting to have a larger group for a supper. At least I think that is the plan. I spend a lot of time guessing about the intentions of others. Given my age, they accept my wrong impressions and assumptions. Not ready to head back to our home just yet. At least that is my assumption. I will know that we’re headed for home when we cross the big bridge and get back on familiar roads.

Based on my experience from last evening I might be an anarchist. I appear to have, yes, I appear to have a degree of opposition to authority no matter how justified. Did I mention that using vocal translation of my words to text is tricky. Hard to get any rhythm going in the sentence when you must stop and start period. Quite unlike anything I ever did in public speaking. No matter. Tomorrow will be tomorrow and I might find an easier way to do things. If not you will have to follow my stumbled sentences to some point that makes sense. Did I mention it has been raining for a week now. Every day. I really hope that they have good green lawns after all this. Tomorrow we will go deep into the countryside to visit my sons home or cottage period. I have not seen it so I cannot prejudge how the property is being used. I just hope we do not get stuck in the mud because I feel it outside the city that is a risk. At least the nights are warm. I think what we really need is to have a dog in here with us just to mix things up but we’re not ready to take that step. As well I have a word counter that seems to work only when I am not paying attention. I will make it work and at the end I will pat myself on the back singing that little couplet what a good boy I am one that I will teach to the grandchildren because they need to learn those important facts of life.

Today we crossed the city to go visiting. Part of the extended family. The other grandparents of one of the babies I cannot claim I was familiar with the address. We had to park on a downhill slope. Trying hard not to get cross legged as we waited in the rain. But everything worked out and we went inside to join the others for brunch. At one point I decided that I wanted to go to the bathroom. I admit I cannot see things as well as I used to but the missing door to the bathroom left me puzzled. I could clearly make out where the door latch would go into the frame. And so I continued to search not wanting to return with a request that would seem strange and I found the door. Hidden in the wall. Everything worked out  we’re back to camping. Trying to get this blog posted in poor Internet conditions. Virtually a word at a time. It is hard sometimes when one depends on another network to get a job It feels like the good old days when we would drive from one place to another hoping to get a signal strong enough to allow us to do something on the network. Not extreme but it does make one work to keep a sentence structure. In fact for tonight I’m going to wish you all a good rest while I back away from the microphone. I have been guided by a kind helper so this blog could be posted even is mysteriously our internet code died.

After watching a lot of videos about staying in your RV I’m getting a feeling for our limits. We are two adults in a small space. No dancing in the hallways. The real test is how much autonomy we have based on our own supplies. After a week the black tank has been drained. We have been careful users. No excesses. And now with drained tank we can continue for another week. The original fell of freshwater is not yet empty. However we have not been using the shower. Too early in the year for that. I believe we still have propane because we have been using electric heat for the main part. Staying in the campground with full services allows us to make choices. We have not been cold and we have not been uncomfortable. The two beds are based upon large foam mattress material and I have been able to sleep all night long. The sleeping bags were chosen to allow us comfort even on the edge of the season. Right now night temperatures are down around 4 Celsius. Because of staying in a campground with services the battery box is still not in service. No need for extra juice as they say. I think small amount of solar panel on the roof is keeping the house batteries up. I will continue to monitor the situation. Meals have been limited to food that we brought with us. To put that in context we finished the big bag of bagels today. I keep wondering if we really do need to purchase one of those fancy grills that I see advertised. Unsure if the cost will match the benefits.

This current road trip is now moving into a second week. No incidents to mention. We have found a good campground close to the city and it has allowed us to visit with family members on a daily basis. For the first time ever we have babies involved. Two of them. Still on a milk diet if that helps give you an idea of the age. And we have not had to take the responsibility for real care. Instead we’re doing what grandparents have done for ages. We hold them when they’re happy and we note they smile. It might not have much to do with us actually but it is a new paragraph In the life story. A year from now these two babies will be very different people. And because we will not be there to see all the steps it will seem as marvelous as child rearing has seemed for every generation. After all, how can you complain about a small child that smiles when it sees you. As for our daily bread we have been doing meals with family which means that we have not had to do much serious searching for our next meal. Yesterday was KFC platter. Something I had not done for well over a decade and I can assure you that the recipe has not changed in the mean. I checked to see what the plans are going forward and we should be here through the weekend at least. That will be the longest time we have been away from the house in the past year. No storms incoming and someone is checking the property so even that is just a detail. We do not get much mail anymore so if the post is due go out on strike I will not be able to use that as a marker.

This afternoon I am staying at the apartment. Not alone. I do have two dogs in my company. And my choice of all the chairs one at a time. I can handle this. Last night when we arrived at the campground we found that our space was already occupied. That too I can handle. This campground has no staff outside of the dinner time window right now because we are in off season. However finding an empty space near the reception office was simple. We parked up. We found some codes for the Wi-Fi system near the office in the mailbox. And we went to sleep. This morning we had the chance to visit with the park staff and learn that what was going on was just a glitch. No big deal. When we return this evening we should have a space where we expect it to be. All good. I rather like the campground in the sense that there is a lot of area and we’re close enough to the city that if we needed to go out for something we could. We have not. We received some apple juice from son #1 and we will eat in the morning each morning because we have our own supply of bagels in the fridge. The comforts of home. I am not responsible for meals So what we have for supper is still a mystery. There was some chatter about KFC but I must wait to see if that actually happens. I haven’t had a bucket of chicken in many years. You learn that you can do just as well at home. I mean, that 11 herbs and spices is overrated. And as for entertaining myself I have Wi-Fi for the iPad and my choice of chairs.