The next 50 years

So the boat life is a go.  Dan's not as keen as he could be but he's wide open and excited now because he sees the financial advantage and the political security of it.  I know without question we're DIY enough to cope and if I get a good insulating wetsuit, I love water enough to dive down and scrape the hull frequently.  I'm pretty sure we could do this on a shoestring.  What's more, Dan is more reluctant than I to send the bird away.  He isn't here all day with that shriek!  However, I think Sam wouldn't be the same bird if we lived on board.  There's so much to look out at from the cockpit, there's such a clear division between where we live and where we don't, etc.  He can't fly and wouldn't likely develop flight, if he did, he'd return home by then, so I doubt we'd lose him that way.  People do indeed keep african greys aboard and often.  If Sam just can't adapt it'll at least be easier to properly rehome him out the...

Dan's definitely jazzed to move to Victoria.  He's found there's franchises for the store he works at in several cities out there and that means work is no problem.  Getting out of the rental apartment into a boat might be a bit more challenging.  Also challenging is he agrees we need a 5 yr timetable to stay on top of our health and energy.  That parrot.  I have no reason to think he's only got 5 yrs left.  We can't keep that screamer in an apartment either.  so what do I do with him?  Perhaps sending him along isn't as horrible as continuing to fail to enrich his life.  I've brought his health back, taught him a few things, but I don't play with him.  Maybe he can find a better home.  but how?  Oh boy, how?  I haven't a clue.

I've been grocery shopping without a budget for some time now.  For ages I'd gone with a list, calculator, and limit.  Already I can't remember how.  If I want something, I buy it.  It results in till totals that require manager authorization.  The only limit is I have to get it in my smart car.  Or van, these days.  But I detest using that hoopty so it usually means I have to fit everything in my car. The point, however, is that being able to say "want" followed by "okay" with such frequency has an effect on the ego.  It's fertilizer.  The ego starts to get stronger.  It starts to whisper words of entitlement.  It whispers moral reassurances.  It pets the conscience back to sleep and curls up next to your "want" center, gently blowing on the flames.  It tells you anything is possible for you and you're a personally privileged person and whether you're deserving or not, you owe the gift your full attention and enjoyment! ...

We generally presume the first clothes were skins but what about the second fabric created?  Was it knitted? woven? felted?  I think it was knitted and felted.  I think fishermen invented knitting.  They started with nets woven to catch fish in the river, and birds in the trees. then someone maybe felted fleece into a net and made a great blanket.  Then someone tried twining the fleece like the fibers used to make nets and baskets and tried making a really fine tight net with it.  Thus did someone invent knitting and from that, custom fitted garments.  Where woven fabrics existed in the early days they were used in whole uncut sheets, pinned and belted, but not cut and sewn.  With knitting, one can shape the whole garment right off the needles, holes, projecting tubes, and all.  Then the weavers saw the knitting stitches and got the idea and learned to sew woven fabrics. Just a thought, mind you, I'm no history major.  I majored in the ...

Finally starting to get more real about things.  You can't trust an idea until you've let it go and gotten back to living mostly.  I mean, it could be a temporary phase I'd regret, right?  Never do anything drastic till you can be sure the urge isn't temporary!  Sleeping on it isn't always enough of course.  That's enough for deciding on a hairstyle change or a diet change, perhaps even dumping a paramour, but for completely ruining your current life, it's got to be tested a full four seasons!  I've known a few addicts who could keep it together part of the year, and then always went goofy the same season and wound up back in the disease.  Seasons affect us, how we feel about ourselves, and our health.  Winter stresses the body and depresses the mind.  Lack of fresh nutrients sap our vitality.  Summer is too busy and that can be the stress.  Or the drive to go romping that summer sparks might make a person go after radical changes, ...

Yesterday saw me talking again with Tom and Dan about Vancouver and it seemed that they were both enjoying the daydreams.  Tom thinks it'd be nice to be able to move there too.  He figures maybe if he puts in enough experience in the library here he could apply out there for work. Today I learned a bit about boat electronics.  I know, for instance, that power is a huge issue on boats.  You pay through the nose for it at the dock or have to generate your own.  I know too that solar cells and wind gens and batteries currently still can't support a home theatre, so you need to hook in to the grid still or buy a lot of fuel and run a generator.  This also is noisy and stinky, ruining the whole point of getting out there. I also know that nobody uses their HT systems away from the dock for a 2nd reason, they enjoy the cruising too much to be interested in a screen.  Well, that and probably many still can't handle being inside while under way.  Starin...

Yeah, that's what I wrote, intelligent boat.  Okay, so boats have pretty much all the electricals at one panel, where also are all the electronics, the nav systems, communication, and so forth.  so it's easy to change out the switch panels with modern digital switches.  Dan will want a good fast computer, why not integrate it right into the boat?  I want it to have an autopilot on the tiller, why not tie it right into the computer?  Get modules for the electronics that have computer I/O ports and hook them in.  Give it voice control.  Put the electronic ignition on computer control and use an iphone to drive?  Hey, they've got the google car, match that thing's sensors and control software but in a boat?  Why not?  I can't see it being safe to drive it from it's moorage to the dock instead of having a dinghy, but one could positively sail from inside the cabin with cameras and sensors giving full view to an in-cabin monitor.  Why no...

Still riding the excitement of planning my future.  I think this winter will be harder just from the contrast with this high.  I mean, it can't be sustained, it's unnatural! But I think Dan's on board with Vancouver living more or less.  We took a Google Earth tour last night and I told him my memories of the city.  I do love that city and promised to return one day when I left in 1990.  I'd only been 8 months and it was clear that city would chew me up.  I was just too young, too disabled, (didn't know about autism yet but it knew me) and too poor. Well Dan's in love.  He's noticed the skiing and hadn't realized he could ski most of the summer too.  Yep.  Summer in the valley, skiing in whistler!  I think he misses skiing.  He says he could definitely keep busy working there.  I said we could definitely not afford a house even as clean and decent as this old shack in this relatively quiet (they don't fight out front every ni...

I feel like I've already committed and can't abide waiting a moment to make changes.  But I know that's a transient feeling.  I'm riding the endorphin high that it's giving me to daydream about a new life.  I don't really want to, although some of that happy is certainly worthwhile.  it's good to have a bounce in my step but this utter rejection of all that's around me is a sour state to find myself for a decade or more as it could possibly be. I don't know how old that damn parrot is!  He could be 35 or 15 and who knows?  If the former, he's got maybe 5 years in him, and could just go one day soon.  If the latter, I need to rehome him!  The rabbits?  Well I take such good care of my buns, they've got at least another 2 yrs each and the younger is the healthier, so unless a hawk grabs him from the yard, he's good for a while longer.  Oh me, calculating animal lifespans, mentally selecting what goes and pondering how to sell and how soon...

In the interest of making blogging a habit, I'll also post the minutiae of life. Today was a day of cleaning.  We'd tamed the hedges and topiary on Saturday leading to a van-load of branches from the Manchurian elms.  I loaded these into the van and took them to the compost depot but got turned away.  Seems they're not comfortable differentiating manchurian and american elm.  I expected as much so I and the doggies drove back home.  I added the old bbq to the pile and out to the dump we went.  I had intended to take the bbq to a metal recycler but as it was, taking it to the dump was easier.  That cost us just over $11 and then we loaded the bottles and cans for refund and me and my dogs sailed off in our hooptie van again.  Poor old thing is a beater and she sometimes can't chug any faster than 30km but we managed okay today.  I got another $20+ so today's net is around $10 and change, which is probably how much gas I used!  Now home f...

It's most of the way through my 51st year and I'm healthier than I've been since childhood.  It's from being on the paleo diet, without question.  Finally a diet that forces me to eat vegetables!  Being healthy again has changed my idea of how the next 50 years ought to play out.  I was planning for a long senescence on the prairies, hunkering against winter storms, trying to live as cheaply as possible and trying to get this house ready for handicapped residents.  It wasn't a pretty future but I knew I could keep busy enough to not be too miserable. Still, my parents dream of living out their dotage on a boat had infected me just as the rhythm of the waves had done.  It's been rough living on the land like this all these years, frankly.  The kayak just doesn't compare, for all the thrill it offers.  A kayak on a small section of fast flowing prairie river just doesn't fill the heart like falling asleep to the waves in a harbour can do!  I r...