TubaOrNotTuba

While watching a video this afternoon a particular phrase. The dog in the video was referred to as being off leash happy. I had to stop and try to imagine what that actually meant. Lived with dogs over a number of decades in different places. And in every case if the dog was allowed to just wander that is exactly what the dog would do; wander with or without me. I have spent far too many nights wandering my neighbourhood in and out of the neighbours’ yards looking for my friend. I can call I can wander with the leash in my hand and I can imagine what it is like to have a dog that simply comes home when asked. Is that a particular breed I wonder. Invariably in the absence of a leash the dog would go off to explore. Obviously more fun than sitting home with me. I imagine you can train a dog to do almost anything but certain things are innate. Among them checking out the world. People do not need to put their cats on leashes although I often wish they would but a dog deserves to know that it’s human is right by its side. The leash serves as an easy reminder and you can actually bring the dog back with a tug of your wrist. Safer for the dog and safer for the owner. I am sure that the neighbours wondered why I would wander through their yard at night armed only with a leather strap. Calling my dogs name as I went. A lament if you will. I worried about my dog even as he or she was off to see the world. We always provided a tag to our dogs with a return address and sometimes it worked. But those dogs in videos that are only two happy to jump back into the vehicle and wait for the next adventure to begin leave me curious. 

Without any real motive I have been watching too many travel videos. In particular those involving rides on a train or a boat. Oddly I tend to ignore those that are in a simple passenger car. Anyhow I have not been on a train for far too long but from what I remember the process was flawless. I guess that when you have several decades of experience behind you you get things right. Anyhow I never had the opportunity to ride a train to the wrong destination. In spite of the randomness of larger train stations they tended to get the passengers into the right seats. Not an easy task. From the outside a train coach looks pretty much like any other except for our number on the side. Inside the coach you have no way of knowing where you are or where you are going so you must trust the staff. I wonder do they ever find people leftover at the end of a trip because the passenger had boarded the wrong train. Great plot for a movie. As for ships usually there is only one at the dock when you arrive so the odds of getting on the wrong ship drop significantly. But on board the ship you can get lost. You need to pay attention to your deck number and your cabin number and your seat number and so many other things that tend to pass through our attention span. Happily a ship usually arrives at a port and the staff manages to empty out the decks. Making space for the next round of passengers probably. I believe That airlines are much more particular about how they allow passengers to embark or disembark but I could be wrong. Some of those stories in the news you know. Back to the trains All of our trains are gone but I believe that in the good old days even then the conductor made sure that you were getting into the right wagon or coach. I never heard or read that someone caught the wrong train around here.

We are all the children of a long and coloured mythology. That is we have all been told stories and in many cases the stories can be traced back for centuries. After all before we wrote things down we had an oral tradition and the best way to have a story remembered is to give it a strong structure. I’ve been watching a number of videos the trace the roots of common fairy tales. Legends, if you will. The stories that date back as far as we can trace. I know that I learned many of these stories from a relative before I could read for myself. And what I find really interesting is that the good stories I remembered with fidelity. Proof that the stories had structure that went beyond a simple afternoon. I have much more to study and less but it is proof that storytelling has value. What about you? Which stories from your childhood do you still remember? Take the time to look up any of those stories and see if you can find an older version. You may be surprised by where you end up. And for the record I have never tried to lose my own children in the forest or trade them for gold coins. Go ahead. Ask them. They may not remember many of my stories but they will know that I did not make those stories out of whole cloth. As for the content of most of our anthologies of children’s literature we will quickly learn the stories move from culture to culture across time. The actual details may vary but the structure underlying any given story remains. Have a look and see where your favourite folk tales or fairy tales or legends came from. It is no surprise that the majority of our own cultural heritage has the roots that go back a long way. Based on earlier tales that may not be true in the details but that convey a lesson. After all this is how we have kept our culture. Sitting around a fire and telling stories.

We rarely lock our doors in this house. Too much trouble to go look for a key usually. But if you were to ask do we have any reason I would also respond that there is little to worry about. There have been no pirates in these waters for centuries We don’t even have any bears anymore. Not since the time of my grandparents apparently. If you look around in the notes you can find the name of the people who went out and shot the last furry beast in the yard. I find that so interesting because elsewhere on the continent bears are everywhere’s. They will come in and check out your house. They will climb into your vehicle if you leave a window open. But not us. We have removed that hazard from our immediate world. I gave this some thought. I wonder what it was like back over a century ago when people would go out to gather firewood and bring along a firearm just in case. Yes we used to have wild animals. About a century ago my father did see a deer along the side of the road. But the bears had been gone long before he was born. An interesting way to treat your world. We have little to fear when we go out in the woods. No large wild animals. Unless that cow from the field over gets out. At best you might find a skunk. Or an old cellar hole. I believe the government filled in all the old water wells decades ago. But the bear still remains a story for children. If you go out in the woods today you’re sure to get a surprise. I remember that song. As for animals coming across on the ice that also is no longer a big danger. Something about all the warm weather we’ve been having. Right now of course it is very cold outside strong winds snow. What used to be typical weather and now is just a footnote in in An anonymous blog that nobody else reads. If you ended up here you were also seeking the bear. Surprise. There are none. At least not on this island. Head over across on the ferry if it happens to be running. That also is not a given anymore.

Today was parade day in town. Not for me. I had seen the forecast and I fully understood the context. Cold wind and cold air for people walking up and down a hill is a really uncomfortable combination. Instead I stayed at home and thought warm thoughts. I had done one of those parades. Many years ago now. I was the drummer in a very small brass band. I had to keep my hands moving so that my fingers would not lose feeling. And all I could think was how fortunate I was to not be playing a tuba. I had done that in other parades. The instrument attracts the cold and funnels it into a mouthpiece that you were then supposed to contact physically. As I say I learned my lesson. I could I suppose find some marching music somewheres and walk around the living room pretending that I was back in the good old band. But I won’t. Part of an earlier time in my life. I wonder if anyone else in that band remembers just how uncomfortable it was. I was asked to get a haircut and I did not want to do that so after the parade was over and we had made our goodbyes to the year I simply resigned my commission. As such, I decided that marching bands were fine for others but I would find something else to do with my life. Things have worked out well. No one has ever come back to say we cannot march without you. To be fair they never said that but when you’re in such a band you imagine that you are a necessary element. In reality only the bass drum can can claim that. I still have some drumsticks around here and I could walk up and down in the basement and pretend. Out of sign out of sight like someone out of his mind. I will not do that either. If you stop by to visit I will simply say seasons greetings and let you merge onto your next step. We all make choices and I have made mine. Instead I will think about things that can be done in the middle of the summer once the snow is all just a memory. Yes we have snow right now. Unsure if it will stay with us through the holiday season but there will be preparations made just in case.

There is a new dog up the road. I have not seen the animal but word spreads quickly. And so in order to properly identify the animal should it come across me I decided to look for a photo or a video. I took the brand name that’s actually breed name and plugged it into a search engine and back came lots of information including the origins of the animal. From what I learned this was a dog that lived on farms and took care of moving the animals around and also guarding the family and barking when necessary. I will start there all dogs will bark if given the opportunity. The level of necessity is open to judgment. Now this animal according to the videos is not that large so I try to imagine the dog bossing the cows. A bit of a stretch. As for keeping the monsters at bay this dog would have a hard time keeping a food bowl at bay. In fact it could probably use some more food but that’s a whole other story. What else do I know? Well the dog is one of those models with an inner and outer coat. Dressed for all weather I guess. Requires a fair bit of grooming which is a nice word for brushing. And trying to keep the mud off your floor. The article or or the video mentioned that this could take up to an hour a day. To be added of course to the required exercise periods which would add another three hours to the cycle. I am unsure if I want to put four hours into the care and combing of any companion animal. I don’t put that much time into my own coat or her or whatever. And the base colour is a gray which fits in well with our weather but not much else. So based on all of that this dog would be unknown starter at my house. I’m going to stick with something more traditional. Like that dalmatian we used to own which came dressed for dark or light days. Or the lab which waited for the food bowl all the time. Not going to miss a meal with a lab around the house. Based on a book I have somewhere around here there are way too many breeds of dog. The base model is a bit like a cheap pickup truck and then you add in the options. A wagging tail might be nice I guess although more and more they tend to chop the tail off at birth.

As a family we spent decades camping. Enough time to convince us that much of the advertising used by the industry is misleading. There is no such thing as too much comfort. Of course for years we avoided using any kind of a mattress and then after that we started to use the air mattress. If it blows up it will deflate. But with years we learned there were other things to consider. Recently I have been looking at travel trailer advertising. Not because I’m in the market but purely from the point of view of being curious. When a manufacturer tells you that there is lots of storage space they’re lying to you. When they tell you that the bed will be comfortable there lying to you. When they tell you that the toilet facilities will be wonderful they’re lying to you. From what I can tell the only thing that you will hear in an advertisement that is factual is the price. I think the law has something to do with that. And even then consider that most advertising comes from south of the border so you will be paying more than you think. But remember this is recreation space. When they consider that certain families have to live in spaces that are smaller than the proverbial thimble I have a sense of sorrow. How can you ever stand up straight again when the ceiling is less than your height. As a camper I learned that you learned to be comfortable. A true process. In fact the best hint I can give you is to find a dog. Dogs managed to find the comfortable places to sleep. And if that space used to belong to you, tough. But carrying on. I now watch these videos as amusing rather than factual. There is no way that you were going to prepare a full 9 course meal for a family on a single cook top. And that sink that looks large enough to hold one dish. It is but no more than that you will learn to eat differently. What the companies now do is try to distract you with different colours on the walls. It is an old strategy learned I imagine from the paint and wallpaper industry. Of course if you have gone to sleep in your car this is not what concerns you. You want a place to park where someone will not knock on the window at Zero Dark 30. It hasn’t happened to me, yet but it will. Seems to be part of the model. For both people sleeping in their cars and people sleeping in there RV. The industry makes jokes about sticks and bricks for a good reason. They’re trying to show you what is considered as normal. Your four tires do not make you normal. Rather they encourage you to head on down the road.

My load of laundry is drying in the background. Not quietly because that would be too much to hope for but on the whole a pretty easy task compared to when I was younger. My parents were always able in my memory to have a proper washing machine. That is a big tub that you filled with water and then the dangerous mangler on top which we were warned upon pain of death to never touch even when the machine was stopped. Apparently we could lose our arms up to the elbow although I’ve never met anyone who actually suffered that fate. Anyhow my mother would bring out the clothes and take them out to dry on the line where the dust from the local asphalt plant would then make them dirty again. The laundry cycle as we knew it. By the time I got to university I would take a bag of clothes across campus to the machines that were provided for a price. If you timed things properly you could get in and out before the day was over. And then I went on my own into a house with a brand new washer and dryer which cost far more than I had ever thought I would spend to get my tighty-whitey leaned. Anyhow we’re now decades down the road and the machines have not evolved all that far. I still pick up all the laundry and throw it into the big open gaw of the machine and then I push buttons randomly until the machine starts. One mystery that remains is how that little cube of soap turns into soap. I was used to the days of powder. And when the machine grinds to a stop I transfer clothes to the dryer and then I wait for another hour and then I’m done for another few days. I do not put this on a plan. I know when it is time to do laundry. Part of being an adult. I tried to imagine what it was like to live in the days when people took all their clothes to a local laundromat or to a local place that cleaned and folded your clothes and set them back with those little paper tags on them that apparently had something to do with identifying the ownership. After all all wet shirts look the same.

A number of people close to me have suggested that I get into the world of the audiobook. I am not saying that will not happen and I am not saying that it will never happen. I just want to point out that it has not happened yet. And there are reasons. I have been a reader in one way or another for better than six decades. I have read a lot of books in that time and it’s in acquired talent. In the same way that some people do not want to be driven by anyone else in their car I do not want someone else using their voice to replace my thought process. There is no such thing as an audiobook that will be in my voice until such time as I start reading them aloud to make my own library. It could happen but it has not, yet. Also based on some serious research the number of audiobooks does not equal the amount of content available in print. Not even close. The idea of deciding what I want to hear and then purchased to be able to hear it has not has not clicked with me. I listen, all the time, to a wide range of content. Thank you Internet. I have just not evolved to the point where I want to commit myself to thousands and thousands of words by a stranger. I tend to be distracted by accents and I am sure that I would come across an audiobook where I would only be able to concentrate on the speaker and not the content. I think you see the risk. So for now I will continue with my habits that I have built up and I will not be transmitting my thoughts via an audiobook anytime soon. Could that change? For sure. After all I am a work in progress. Unlike most audiobooks. I will listen to content that is being given to me by YouTube channel because in no way does a YouTube video commit me to a week of listening. Also when I tire of a video I have probably seen enough of the content visually to give me the story. In the case of an audiobook if I stop after the 1st chapter I will have no idea about what happened or is going to happen.

1st a disclaimer. I have no intention of pivoting. I do not want to turn my blog into a vlog. I have the equipment I think but zero interest. Too many hours of my life spent behind the viewfinder of a standard camera to want to try something new at my age. However I watched a video today of some people who have reached great milestones in work on YouTube and I wonder at least a little if what it would have been like to have gone in that direction. You must know that I have been doing this format for 20 years now. Every day. I do not want to think about how many bad photos I could have taken during that time. Remember, I grew up in a world where we said that every photo was worth 1000 words. Or as I put it four days of blog. It doesn’t take long to build up a suitable library. Because I also grew up in a world where film was expensive. We tended to think that 36 photos was a big deal. Moving along watching these people talk about their experience on YouTube leaves me wondering about how I would have gone to make my life into something more interesting. I have become very accustomed with the view outside my window and I probably would have shown that over and over and over again period. After all what is out there might seem similar but every day is really quite different. Buy now we could have watched several generations of the local foxes passed through the yard. And so many small birds. I live in a flyway and we buy bags of bird seed and believe me it all gets eaten. Otherwise I will be living in a jungle of sunflowers. I think. I seem to remember having learned that those same seeds were unable to reproduce adult plants. Not going to experiment though because I have become lazy. Also if I was going to have flowers I would have them by now. The people doing vlogs get my congratulations because you don’t simply turn on a camera and create content that others want to watch. A bit like this blog I suppose although I have stopped looking at the viewing numbers years ago. A friend pointed out just how easy it would be to game those results.