TubaOrNotTuba

We may be on the edge of new math skills being required for daily life. I am referring of course to those advertisements that pushed me to buy a brand new electric vehicle. The mysterious EV. The advertisements tend to quote the range of the vehicle which is an important feature. Nothing worse than running out of gas or electrons while inroute. The ability to recharge your gasoline vehicle at regular intervals with that smelly liquid made a complete change in history. Now we’re asking people to operate on good faith. You can watch the gauge in your new vehicle and when it tells you that you are about to run out of electrons you can go find a charging station. There is of course a flaw. If you look around there are very few charging stations. Even the one in your own driveway that you spend money to put in place still requires a full night to bring things back up to the point where you could head off to town without any worries. Obviously this revolution needs work. Also when you have to pay more for a vehicle that will not get you through your day you may be unwilling to spend those extra dollars. We have an hybrid in the driveway and even after several years I have no idea if that actually means something. We still buy gasoline. But I guess we’re doing our part for the environment. Obviously the real push is to get people to travel less. Use their local facilities. That store just down the road might be a lifesaver. Right now if I had to go to the city to buy my groceries and come home again there would be very little time or energy left to do anything else. Again not sure what this means long term. Perhaps industry is just waiting for the goal to put charging stations on every corner. Not free but then again we live in a capitalist society. I realize as time goes on that was a bit of planning you do not need unlimited range to get things done. Just like two centuries ago when people walked from point A to point B they made sure that those points were close to one another. Or so I believe.

It will soon be time to change my footwear period. I guess. A seasonal change both for me and the car. People talk about snow this time of year. I try to avoid wandering around in bad weather. I could almost go barefoot for most of the year if I was actually going someplace but the reality is that here in the house I can do that and no one even notices. Outside there are some who wonder why I do not invest in a good pair of rubber boots. For mid season. I haven’t for most of my life although I think my father bought me boots a long time ago. Too small now. Instead instead I have sneakers and winter boots and I do not wear the both of them at the same time nor in the same conditions. I have learned that sneakers and deep snow do not go together well. As for those rubber boots I mentioned some people swear by them. Others swear at them. Get the wrong size and you’re uncomfortable for the whole of the winter. Cold too. In fact that’s the part I remember most from my other rubber boots. My feet were never warm when I had them on. I claimed that they kept them dry but that was only because I tended to splash through puddles and in winter there are fewer of those. Also with a good pair of rubber boots you can go into the woods and cut down trees. Although i think that involves an axe. When will it be change time to change to winter wear when I can see my footprints as I walk. Not there yet. I think I will wait for others to break the trail. And as the snow gets too deep there are probably snowshoes around here somewhere. I remember ordering them years ago although they serve very little use. We do not get as much snow as we used to. And the car has two sets of shoes or tires if you will those sick one for most of the spring and summer and those that go on for most of the fall and winter. We’re due for a change according to the calendar. It also balances out the wear and tear on the tires.

My first contact with a schedule came from the local train station period. There was a chalkboard just outside the station door which listed the arrival and departure and destinations. My father would update it with chalk because these were flexible. With the assurance of a child I had the idea of and a more announcement board clearly in my head. Later, in school I started to read historical fiction and I remember my curiosity about someone climbing into the belfry with lanterns. What was the Lantern? What was a belfry. By land and sea? What about air travel? I learned later that my suppositions we’re flawed. But I still wondered in the case of those lanterns what would have happened if a gust of wind had blown out one of the flames. Would that have changed history? Perhaps that is why we put aside candles and move to batteries but I don’t know. As I move through life I learned that there were many more destinations and many more time slots. Going into a large train station where the board covered a whole wall was an eye opener. The world was much larger than I had assumed. And that was only real travel. Did anyone care about all those cars on the road? Where were they going and when would they arrive? Who had the chalkboard. Seems like a lot of work for someone. Nowadays we simply call up a browser and check things online. Not for real travel or ships but plain still try to keep the schedule. What will life be like in the future? Will we try to schedule things that are visual, like a zoom call? Will a schedule even matter? As you can see the number of questions has not diminished even as I get older. And those train schedules where I learn to read are something from the past.

I could have gone to town today. But I didn’t. I thought about sitting in the car for the two plus hours of transit time and realize that there was nothing in that that would make my day better. Here at home I have a coffee machine and a refrigerator and a bed if I get sleepy. None of those things are available in the car. Plus someone might come to the door and need to see me or another person. And if the house is just empty their trip is for want. And so I declined the chance to travel and set back to do what I do best. Kill time. If I were more in tune with how much time I have left I might be more committed to doing things. But none of us have an answer to that. I thought briefly about some of my siblings who are currently wandering around in Dublin and I thought that that might be interesting to do for an hour or two. But then I’ll be back to wondering where was the next stop going to be. I need to find a reason. Is that a sign that I’m getting old? Right now the most interesting thing that will happen today is having my favourite foster dog come to visit. Giving him a chance to sit on the couch and scratch softly behind his ears. Dogs like that you know. If I were more of a cat person I could learn to tell why the purr sounded so perfect. But I am not a cat person for medical reasons. All that sneezing and I dripping is less than amusing or enjoyable. Dogs don’t do that to me at least. You can tell that I have not tried many other pets. There was a bird that lived in the house once I think. And there was that silly Guinea pig but it killed itself. So sad and not so sad. That is an animal that gives back nothing to the relationship.

I think you know the drill. That next door neighbour who moved away five years ago is back. You were convinced that he had gone on to do other things but he liked that house and so at the first opportunity he was back in hanging his gaudy curtains and putting his junk around the place. Seriously doesn’t he have something better to do with his life. Like playing golf or insulting people. But no, he is back and from what I hear he has a few access to grant. Without the necessary grinding wheel. I hope he doesn’t take up axe throwing as a new hobby. I really expected him to build a wall around the place at least on one side and they also expected him to find some new friends. Most of them have gone on to better things. Like prison. But the neighbourhood is getting ready for the side show. It would be great to say that we know what to expect, but we do not. Maybe he has learned a few new ways to insult people while he was away. And what if he dies in his sleep. Who gets to clean up that mess. When they say that the neighbourhood has gone to ruin this may be the most correct statement you can make. I am not going to raise a flag in his honour or mine. I will try not to play loud music when I know that he is home from the golf course. No sense attracting attention to myself. And if the prices at the local grocery store go up I will know who to blame. This is a thinly veiled analogy because I am sure that you know what I mean. The best we can hope for, is that he will not bring war down on our backyard. Or cause the rest of us to fade into bankruptcy. He knows how that works. And I hear that he does not like dogs. No matter because my house is currently dog-less but if I change my mind do I have to get the neighbour involved in my decision process. Maybe something small and discreet.

Here we are. The morning after. The headache has not begun. All I can tell you from listening to the press is that nobody understands what really happened here. We now have four years to try and figure out just how bad the damage will be. Moving along. I decided to get ambitious this afternoon and start clearing the last of the lawn furniture off the deck period. I managed to get most of it down to the next level but as the light outside faded I also realized that this was not something to do after dark. I managed to not fall down stairs but I was going to have to wait until tomorrow or the next day to finish my task. As you get old you learn that your safety means more then getting things done. Am I disappointed? Only minimally. The deck is clear enough for the snowfall should it begin and getting the stuff down from where it is now to below the deck. It’s just a matter of my making the effort. In broad daylight. I forgot how the daylight fades away at this time of year. What seemed like an easy job in mid afternoon turn turned to be something very different only an hour later. I also should not be trying tasks like this by myself. If I fall it could be hours before someone comes along. Anything else of note today? Not really I am here by myself this evening waiting for my loaner dog to arrive. That might not happen until tomorrow or the next day but I am prepared. You can tell from this that we have not made a choice to get our own dog just yet. I want to see a bit more of what is going on around me before I commit myself to having a trip buddy. In all the contexts that implies.

I have strong memories of one of the first recordings I listened to from a rock concert. Not going to name the group but there was a chanted slogan in the background. The whole world is watching. Not in context with the video of this concert. Rather a political statement. It turns out that history does repeat itself and today we’re back at that same point where the whole world is again watching. Waiting for the alarm bell to sound closing the election polls south of here. We have been warned. This one will not be counted in 15 minutes. Perhaps not in 15 days. Something complicated and complex. Beyond my own experience with canadian elections where we generally know the winner within hours. And I like so many others will be uncovering my eyes and checking the results from time to time this evening. And tomorrow. After several years of this campaign I want to know the outcome. I want to know if things are going to be as bleak as some have said. Enough time to get my sleeping bag ready and head out into the bush or something. Why does it have to be so complicated? Why cannot elections be as they are designed to be comma, straightforward. We will know eventually who was the winner but the lead up to that point is painful. So back to my videos where I have some choice in what I see. I can look for a title that interests me instead of depending upon those who make life difficult telling me what I do or do not want to hear. Remember, I have no skin in this game. I am not voting nor do I really care about the outcome other than the inevitable effect on me. Will my savings dwindle away in a flash of light? I mean, the odds that I will suddenly become wealthy based on the outcome qualifies as slim to none.

I still remember the first book they read as a directed reading. While in high school. I was a drummer and although I did not understand the relation between my instrument and my hearing I think that my teacher who was wiser did. He loaned me a textbook that had been given to him while in college by the author. A concept really. I’m not going to bore you with details but the overlying subject was something called sound escapes. You can look it up. We live in an environment where it is increasingly difficult to find silence. Industry has gone so far has to make noise cancelling headphones part of our standard toolkit. From time to time based on what I learned in that textbook I take a few moments to actually listen to the world around me. Today as an example I had an eye appointment. Afterward I ended up sitting in the middle of a woodlot simply listening to the world around me. It takes a while for your brain to tune in the new sounds. First of all the big trucks going by outside. And then the sound of someone hammering on a roof across the fields. Only after this had gone I was able to hear the different sounds of birds who were doing what birds do best. I did not stay there long enough to record all the sounds that I heard but I did take the time to listen and that is the real lesson here. If we do not listen we cannot hear and if we stop listening there are sounds that we will never hear. Think of the effect of the jet airplane which has given a new way of covering up the sounds of the environment. Not just at the end of a landing strip but as they pass overhead while I sit in a woodlot. I will go back to another place to listen soon because this is one of those things that you must exercise. And yes, I have reread the book after all these years because we tend to forget the little details while keeping the larger ones. Things that get covered up in the noise of our lives.

Currently one of the important political slogans is that we’re not going back. I can assure you that we are not and this has nothing to do with politics. I have lived through the pre electricity era and I have lived through the pre easy heat your home era and I am not going back to either of those someone said why don’t you put up solar panels to light your house? The answer is simple there are more efficient ways. It turns out that central electricity beats all the other old ways hollow. I say that because I have been there. I have watched the trimming of the Wicks before the oil lamp went into service after supper. I have watched the slabs of wood come in from outside to heat the single stove in the house. I have lived in a home where electrical appliances were only a dream. I am not going back. I know more about alternative technologies and if I was pushed I could probably get the lights on using stuff I have around the house but the lighting would be limited and it would be dim. I think I would simply go to bed early. As for transportation I am not ready to walk from here to the store more than once a year. That would make for some hungry supper times, believe me. The conveniences of lights and transportation in a car mean that what we do now is for our own good and at a price we can afford. I have never owned a horse but I know that they’re more trouble than they’re worth. Cantankerous beasts with big feet. As for chopping down trees to heat my home I have learned from my ancestors in every case when something else came along they put the axe in the corner and carried on as if it had never existed. You see we do learn. And we do change things for the better.