dreaming of adventure
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 rarely suffered insomnia on a boat too. If there was anything to threaten, it was easy to hear while sleeping.
So this summer I've been realizing that I don't have to face another quarter century staring out at bushes and trees, hiding from substandard citizens in my poor neighbourhood. After which would come the horrible headache of finding a care home I could live in.
I started trying to figure out what kind of life I could jump to from here without diving headfirst into destitution and that would bring my spouse along willingly! It was clear that going on a vagabond hike around the world wasn't going to fly with him. It had to be something that would lighten the poor guy's financial burden (he's the breadwinner) while not dumping him into daily discomfort and struggle. He cares a whole lot about his comfort and works hard to keep it, to my benefit!
Sailing. Oh yes, sailing! I thought about it. I'd broached with him already the idea of just leaving. I said we could get a 5th wheel rig like my parents? We could just move to Cranbrook, Kelowna, or even Calgary! Any land option is frankly expensive. We'd have to pay off our debt to have enough from the house sale for even a mean little house in a rural area! Lets face it, a shack in the wrong side of town doesn't buy much and if you have to pay off your bills, even less than you had.
Sailing! I explained to him how cheap life aboard could be! He was still in that land lubber mode "why would you want to give up solid ground for a home that's constantly in motion?" I explained about how after a few days aboard it's the land that moves, not the boat! It's a funny effect and new sailors returning often stumble a few times when returning to solid land.
I kept at it, all weekend getting more and more excited as my internet researched revealed that it's cheaper than I thought, boats are cheaper, there's better equipment and services than I remember from the 70s, and more! I told him we could take his young grandson sailing and go visiting in Washington state if we lived closer to his family too. I even suggested we could just move to his home town, but that wouldn't get rid of the snow shovels.
Finally he started to understand, no more snow. No more -30C chewing on your face like a ravenous zombie ghost. No more 60hr work weeks to pay for cable tv and home phone and 3 cars and 2 motor bikes and .... and... You need a vehicle to get anywhere in this town and when you get there, it's just another shopping mall. People around here are focussed internally on raising families and interacting with community. Nothing wrong with that, unless you're too asocial to participate. We'd be much happier watching seals and listening to the wind in the forest. I also know we only need TV and high speed internet because winter drives you so deep indoors. While the weather will still be wild and cold and wet and windy on the coast, it'll never be up to your hips in ice with a temperature that makes grease freeze. I have lived one winter on the coast and it wasn't cold at all by my standards. Just about like june in saskatchewan, but lasting 3 months instead of 6 wks. (it's a long damn month and uses up part of may).
So all weekend I kept showing him what boat interiors and engines look like. I read excerpts from sailing blogs on the west coast. I looked up moorage options and fees. I looked up boat sale ads and videos on how to find cheap or free boats. I shared. I burst with excited information. I recalled living in populous areas and how handy the shops and cafes are. You can't get to much more than a confectionary/gas station within a mile of our neighbourhood. The crime has driven out the stores and cafes. No point offering the service if they just keep stealing from you, right?
I think it was when I told him he'd be "Captain Dan" that he really started to see it as interesting.
We have to wait for the parrot and rabbits and old dog sarah to die, the finches to die. I owe these animals a safe haven till they're done with it, and that gives us a nice flexible time table to plan and learn!
I told him we should print off a sextant with our new 3d printer (which could totally fit on a boat!) and learn to chart. I love the idea! My daddy tried to teach me but it was too hard for my math retard mind back then and he was a lousy teacher anyway. Still, I remember those lessons and they'll come roaring home when I tackle the subject.
With modern GPS and digital maps we won't need it, but Dan gets off on stuff like that so it'll probably help condition and prepare him for what ultimately won't be anywhere near as pleasant as it looks. Thing is, the crappy stuff is much easier to handle when you've committed and are focusing on why you're doing it. So the new crappy stuff always seems worse than what you're currently trying to escape but putting up with anyway. Even so, a tornado could take out our house, or a speeding car or falling tree, so there's no guarantee we won't sink just because we live on land. Hell, this old house is rotting all over and could sink itself one day.
Squeezing ourself into the boat was no imposition as some may actually have more interior space than our tiny shack and certainly we're used to living in small spaces. What's more, I pointed out, without winter we can just go out when we need space. You can sit on a log in the pouring rain at 5C with an umbrella and remain warm in your wool and slickers. You cannot do that with any amount of clothing at -25C. No relaxing outside, even with an awning!
Sailing is fun, but it's not easy or secure. Dan's a bit of a coward that way. Oh he'll put up his dukes to any man who dares threaten him, but actually putting his life and comfort on the line is hard. I had to point out that he drives, which is statistically the most dangerous activity he could choose to do. He does it every day without concern. "So," said I, "could you feel about living in a floating home." I also pointed out that there's no undercarriage with shocks and brakes and tires and axels and gears, etc., to be constantly repaired! He deals with that all the time with his truck, or if we had an RV instead of a boat. I also assured him we could just pick a harbour town as home and not venture far for a year or three. I also said we could choose to sail to Hawaii or California for the winter too. Since he's American, we could reside in either country. Choices, the more you have, the happier you'll be. That's probably my biggest slogan in life, keep your choices broad and conscious!
That's when I showed him a video of a dry storage area and some scenes of liveaboards on land fixing the hulls. Realizing that you can haul it out on dry land any time you like and leave it there for the same cost as a slip, or less, and still live on it? Gold. Finally it began to dawn on him that if our primary expense was food and entertainment, it was actually pretty feasible for a man of 70+ yrs to earn that much without continuing life as a mule. He's a hard working man and deserves a solution that allows him to quit hauling heavy carpet up stairs day in and day out!
So how old is that parrot anyway? I doubt even he knows. he could be ancient or just getting into his adulthood, we really don't know. Maybe I'll find a home for him instead one day. Given what a cantankerous ball of feathers he is, he's lucky to have found this home and unlikely to do better.
One thing I'm sure of, if I can keep my health on this track I'm going to launch myself somewhere. I could bike across china. I could move to the yukon. I could go live on a sail boat. I could settle down in my mother in law's house in spokane and help her finish her life. I could tour the himalayas and europe. I could book passage on a tramp and see where I land and go vagabond.
Frankly I'm open to just about anything short of staying put in Saskatoon. I'm tired of a land so harsh you can't go out for 8 months without bundling up as though for a space walk. I'm tired of fumbling through gloves, steaming in my own sweat as I try to lock up my bike in the crisp cold air. I make the best of it, but I miss the water so much. I really miss the waves on the shore. Ski-boat wake on the riverbank just isn't the same.
Ok, so I may not write here again, perhaps ever. Or tomorrow. Or I may write here faithfully right through whatever adventure I launch myself on.
Since I'm not going to promote it at all, there'll be no readers and no worries. :-) But the next 50 years just looks so damn exciting, I feel a desire to record it outside of my own experience and memory banks.
Hey honey, lets buy a boat and move to the coast. No, seriously, let's sell it all and go live on a tiny 27 ft boat in some harbour and see how cheap we can be. He really enjoyed one video of a man the same age who lives on and fixes up his own beloved boat. He showed us his motor, the woodwork he'd done, upgrades and fixes and inventions, etc.
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 rarely suffered insomnia on a boat too. If there was anything to threaten, it was easy to hear while sleeping.
So this summer I've been realizing that I don't have to face another quarter century staring out at bushes and trees, hiding from substandard citizens in my poor neighbourhood. After which would come the horrible headache of finding a care home I could live in.
I started trying to figure out what kind of life I could jump to from here without diving headfirst into destitution and that would bring my spouse along willingly! It was clear that going on a vagabond hike around the world wasn't going to fly with him. It had to be something that would lighten the poor guy's financial burden (he's the breadwinner) while not dumping him into daily discomfort and struggle. He cares a whole lot about his comfort and works hard to keep it, to my benefit!
Sailing. Oh yes, sailing! I thought about it. I'd broached with him already the idea of just leaving. I said we could get a 5th wheel rig like my parents? We could just move to Cranbrook, Kelowna, or even Calgary! Any land option is frankly expensive. We'd have to pay off our debt to have enough from the house sale for even a mean little house in a rural area! Lets face it, a shack in the wrong side of town doesn't buy much and if you have to pay off your bills, even less than you had.
Sailing! I explained to him how cheap life aboard could be! He was still in that land lubber mode "why would you want to give up solid ground for a home that's constantly in motion?" I explained about how after a few days aboard it's the land that moves, not the boat! It's a funny effect and new sailors returning often stumble a few times when returning to solid land.
I kept at it, all weekend getting more and more excited as my internet researched revealed that it's cheaper than I thought, boats are cheaper, there's better equipment and services than I remember from the 70s, and more! I told him we could take his young grandson sailing and go visiting in Washington state if we lived closer to his family too. I even suggested we could just move to his home town, but that wouldn't get rid of the snow shovels.
Finally he started to understand, no more snow. No more -30C chewing on your face like a ravenous zombie ghost. No more 60hr work weeks to pay for cable tv and home phone and 3 cars and 2 motor bikes and .... and... You need a vehicle to get anywhere in this town and when you get there, it's just another shopping mall. People around here are focussed internally on raising families and interacting with community. Nothing wrong with that, unless you're too asocial to participate. We'd be much happier watching seals and listening to the wind in the forest. I also know we only need TV and high speed internet because winter drives you so deep indoors. While the weather will still be wild and cold and wet and windy on the coast, it'll never be up to your hips in ice with a temperature that makes grease freeze. I have lived one winter on the coast and it wasn't cold at all by my standards. Just about like june in saskatchewan, but lasting 3 months instead of 6 wks. (it's a long damn month and uses up part of may).
So all weekend I kept showing him what boat interiors and engines look like. I read excerpts from sailing blogs on the west coast. I looked up moorage options and fees. I looked up boat sale ads and videos on how to find cheap or free boats. I shared. I burst with excited information. I recalled living in populous areas and how handy the shops and cafes are. You can't get to much more than a confectionary/gas station within a mile of our neighbourhood. The crime has driven out the stores and cafes. No point offering the service if they just keep stealing from you, right?
I think it was when I told him he'd be "Captain Dan" that he really started to see it as interesting.
We have to wait for the parrot and rabbits and old dog sarah to die, the finches to die. I owe these animals a safe haven till they're done with it, and that gives us a nice flexible time table to plan and learn!
I told him we should print off a sextant with our new 3d printer (which could totally fit on a boat!) and learn to chart. I love the idea! My daddy tried to teach me but it was too hard for my math retard mind back then and he was a lousy teacher anyway. Still, I remember those lessons and they'll come roaring home when I tackle the subject.
With modern GPS and digital maps we won't need it, but Dan gets off on stuff like that so it'll probably help condition and prepare him for what ultimately won't be anywhere near as pleasant as it looks. Thing is, the crappy stuff is much easier to handle when you've committed and are focusing on why you're doing it. So the new crappy stuff always seems worse than what you're currently trying to escape but putting up with anyway. Even so, a tornado could take out our house, or a speeding car or falling tree, so there's no guarantee we won't sink just because we live on land. Hell, this old house is rotting all over and could sink itself one day.
Squeezing ourself into the boat was no imposition as some may actually have more interior space than our tiny shack and certainly we're used to living in small spaces. What's more, I pointed out, without winter we can just go out when we need space. You can sit on a log in the pouring rain at 5C with an umbrella and remain warm in your wool and slickers. You cannot do that with any amount of clothing at -25C. No relaxing outside, even with an awning!
Sailing is fun, but it's not easy or secure. Dan's a bit of a coward that way. Oh he'll put up his dukes to any man who dares threaten him, but actually putting his life and comfort on the line is hard. I had to point out that he drives, which is statistically the most dangerous activity he could choose to do. He does it every day without concern. "So," said I, "could you feel about living in a floating home." I also pointed out that there's no undercarriage with shocks and brakes and tires and axels and gears, etc., to be constantly repaired! He deals with that all the time with his truck, or if we had an RV instead of a boat. I also assured him we could just pick a harbour town as home and not venture far for a year or three. I also said we could choose to sail to Hawaii or California for the winter too. Since he's American, we could reside in either country. Choices, the more you have, the happier you'll be. That's probably my biggest slogan in life, keep your choices broad and conscious!
That's when I showed him a video of a dry storage area and some scenes of liveaboards on land fixing the hulls. Realizing that you can haul it out on dry land any time you like and leave it there for the same cost as a slip, or less, and still live on it? Gold. Finally it began to dawn on him that if our primary expense was food and entertainment, it was actually pretty feasible for a man of 70+ yrs to earn that much without continuing life as a mule. He's a hard working man and deserves a solution that allows him to quit hauling heavy carpet up stairs day in and day out!
So how old is that parrot anyway? I doubt even he knows. he could be ancient or just getting into his adulthood, we really don't know. Maybe I'll find a home for him instead one day. Given what a cantankerous ball of feathers he is, he's lucky to have found this home and unlikely to do better.
One thing I'm sure of, if I can keep my health on this track I'm going to launch myself somewhere. I could bike across china. I could move to the yukon. I could go live on a sail boat. I could settle down in my mother in law's house in spokane and help her finish her life. I could tour the himalayas and europe. I could book passage on a tramp and see where I land and go vagabond.
Frankly I'm open to just about anything short of staying put in Saskatoon. I'm tired of a land so harsh you can't go out for 8 months without bundling up as though for a space walk. I'm tired of fumbling through gloves, steaming in my own sweat as I try to lock up my bike in the crisp cold air. I make the best of it, but I miss the water so much. I really miss the waves on the shore. Ski-boat wake on the riverbank just isn't the same.
Ok, so I may not write here again, perhaps ever. Or tomorrow. Or I may write here faithfully right through whatever adventure I launch myself on.
Since I'm not going to promote it at all, there'll be no readers and no worries. :-) But the next 50 years just looks so damn exciting, I feel a desire to record it outside of my own experience and memory banks.
Hey honey, lets buy a boat and move to the coast. No, seriously, let's sell it all and go live on a tiny 27 ft boat in some harbour and see how cheap we can be. He really enjoyed one video of a man the same age who lives on and fixes up his own beloved boat. He showed us his motor, the woodwork he'd done, upgrades and fixes and inventions, etc.