Last update until August 2…
MONDAY…
--- Hot hot hot. I get home and the weather network on TV says the humidity makes it feel like 44. Around 110 F.
--- Work is alright. A little slow… lunch with Kiyomi, Mike and Derek is fun.
--- Last grocery run before the vacation home.
TUESDAY…
--- Less hot but still hot. And not much happened today. Lunch with Louis and Michelle is not the normal thing but is fine… work is quite busy but goes by quick.
--- Pizza delivery for supper. I’m done getting groceries until after the vacation.
WEDNESDAY…
--- Lasagna for lunch today is great. The HQ Cafeteria does some good. Megan, Melissa, Kiyomi, Leslie all join me. Not many guys around these days are there?
--- The driving range with Atlas after work. My driver has bitten the bullet. It has died after years of use… a little bend near the driver head is too much to deal with. I need to do some shopping on the golf side of things very soon.
THURSDAY…
--- Not a bad day. Kind of too myself kind of day though. I have lunch with Kiyomi and that’s fun… and chat with Leslie a few times at breaks… but most other people are just sort of in and out today.
--- Vacation time starts at 3:01 this afternoon. It begins with some napping at home… exciting I know.
Back to the Breezes
As I write, the laundry is running and the bags are laid out on the bed ready to be packed. It’s an odd thing, searching for sweat shirts and fleeces when it’s feeling like it’s in the mid thirties outside (90s for anyone unable to understand the Celsius scale of temperature measurement). But in less than twenty-four hours, shorts and t-shirts may no longer be enough. Then again, they may be.
For I am returning to Newfoundland. A place where you just never know what you’ll need to wear. My entire trip home may be held in twelve degree temperatures with winds howling and drizzle making those who wear glasses wish for little windshield wipers.
Then again, it may be sunny and twenty-five most days. You just never know. So sandals will make the trip… but so will hiking boots. And several fleece tops will come along in case the t-shirts don’t keep out the chill. Even jackets (I haven’t had a jacket on in more than a month) will have to be reacquainted to me.
How does one travel to Newfoundland? With fancy luggage or business like duffle bags? No. I’m packing my backpack. It’ll be useful in case there’s some substantial hiking going on. Yes, it’ll be a good trip home if the luggage on the plane also sees time in the woods or along the coast.
I will have to prepare for wind. I have become wimpy in Ottawa. I have actually not gone for evening walks because the weather network has told me the wind was blowing at twenty kilometres and hour. In Newfoundland, that’s a below average windy day. St. John’s average daily wind speed is between twenty-four and twenty-eight kilometres an hour.
In fact, wind influences my walking style. That is… in Ottawa, I go walking with my MP3 player. Music accompanies me wherever I go. But in Newfoundland, I often leave the music behind. Gusting wind drowns out tunes so I go with the music of wind and rustling trees instead of Wilco or Spoon (for the musically ignorant… they’re bands!).
With the return home, I will return to some phrases that are put away here in Ottawa. Not that I’ll become an outport skipper, talking a mile a minute. But I will once again be able to ask family and friends “whataya at?” (Translated as “what are you doing?”). I’ll be able to once again say “Yes b’y”… (“indeed my friend”). And when dad talks foolish like, I can scold him with the not entirely logical “dad m’son” (“dad, my son”… translated as “dad, my friend, what do you mean?”).
Yesterday at work, Louis wondered if I would be in Newfoundland talking a different language. He wondered if it was something like Gallic… an old language that few can speak or understand. And it made me think. Because even though it’s all English, there are those Newfoundlanders who speak with such heavy accents and so quickly, that I barely understand what they’re saying.
In fact, the Newfoundland dialect is almost Shakespearean. Sometimes it’s the feel of the phrase that you need to worry about… not each individual word. If you get bogged down in translating the words, you won’t know what’s being said. It’s poetic really. Usually poetic with a humorous spin.
And I’m coming back to it. Where at some point, with surprise, my sister will exclaim “Go on!”… where my mother will make statements in the form of a question in a slightly Irish way… where my uncle will use “Yes b’y” as a greeting much like “hello”. And where perhaps… just perhaps… if the stars align when the moon is full… my father will be heard telling my mother to “Go way Jean… Go soak yer head.”
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Making It Up As I Go Along #227
An upcoming change in things. Due to my vacation coming up (July 21 to August 1) there will be an update on July 20… none on July 23… none on July 30… And a quick one on August 2 before returning to the regular schedule on August 6. I thought of keeping the updates going while in Newfoundland, but it will likely be too busy with little nieces running around and such… so the break will be done instead.
MONDAY…
--- Up kind of early (before 7:00) but able to get back to sleep for a few more hours.
--- Around the house on e-mail for much of the morning. Pretty quiet times.
--- They talk about economic sanctions against North Korea as punishment for their weapons testing. But how does that help the people of one of the already most poor countries on Earth? I hate to say it but straight to military action may be the way to go here if the North Koreans can’t be reasoned with.
--- Happy birthday to my mother. Soon to be seen… the celebration can happen a bit more face to face.
--- Work is fine. It’s weird seeing Laura and Karen back on evening shift (after months in the training unit). It will make for some laughs again I’m sure… even if they aren’t my team mates anymore.
TUESDAY…
--- Rare Birds on DVD in the morning. Getting my Newfoundland mind back in gear… I love the Newfoundland dialect when it isn’t some forced thing for an audience. Speaking like a Newfoundlander in Ottawa is about the same as juggling at a party. It’s there for kicks… and I don’t want to juggle.
--- Busy at work dealing with stats.
--- There are about sixty mosquitoes on my door when I get home. Thanks to it being a hot and humid night. Probably a dozen of them come in with me… it’s a pain.
WEDNESDAY…
--- Long day. In early to prepare for a meeting… and have the meeting… and I still stayed until the regular time (more or less). So a little banked time will come in handy soon enough.
--- Chinese food for supper is good.
--- A long walk tonight is pretty peaceful. I think I passed one person and two cars in the hour.
THURSDAY…
--- Hot day. 39 or 99 F with the humidity. Work is less busy than lately so I can go at a pretty calm pace.
FRIDAY…
--- Hot day… about the same temperature as yesterday. The car is like a sauna. It still doesn’t stop Mike, Laura and me from going to the Chip Wagon for supper. Good times… Mike and Laura are easy to relax around.
SATURDAY…
--- Quiet day around the house. I’m really tired all day so I’m sleeping much of it.
This Wilderness Trail Brought to You by…
Is there no better way to be driven out from the city and into the country than advertising? Cities are great… I love cities and can hardly wait for that right time to move from my suburb no-man’s zone further into this city. But urban life in North America is brutally commercial. The more urban your lifestyle, the more you get bombarded with sales pitches. Newspapers, billboards, sports arenas and stadiums, the internet, TV, radio… all dominated by product sales pitches. Our economy is largely based on how to pry the disposable income out of the public’s pockets. Even the postal carrier is little more than a flyer deliverer now. It’s bad enough that they won’t bring your mail right to your door anymore (they need these large postal boxes where they can deposit all the mail at once without need of walking the neighbourhood). But now most of the mail I pull out of my post box is advertising flyers. I’m battling this though… I take the junk out of my mail box and deposit it straight into the outgoing mail slot. It’s the modern day circle of life (advertising style).
TV commercials used to try to either inform or entertain. There was some thought put into them and you at least felt like there was an effort on the part of the seller to better the life of the buyer (either through education or giving a smile).
More and more, these commercials are only about two things… pound the name of the product into a person’s subconscious or guilt you into buying their product. Making you think you’re a lesser person if you don’t buy what it is they’re selling.
One of the best examples of the drill-it-into-your-head approach I’ve seen is out right now. Some product named Head On consists of a commercial of a smiling woman rubbing what looks like a deodorant stick on her forehead. She’s smiling blissfully and the voice over simply repeats the same statement three times… “Head On, apply directly to the forehead.” We are then told that we can get Head On without a prescription. And that’s it.
I have no idea why the smiley woman is rolling this gunk onto her head. Did she have a headache and does this stuff magically make the pain go away? Was she depressed and in need of a high? Was she hyper and needing to be settled down? Maybe she’s just stupid and does what she’s told.
Many products fall into the ‘you’re a lesser person if you don’t buy this’ approach. I recently saw a spaghetti miracle product. No more waiting for a pot of water to boil! No more having to break the pasta in order for it to fit into the slow boiling pot! Now get this plastic canister (looking much like the canister you pull the pasta out of) and pour boiling water in there to watch the pasta cook… in minutes!
It leaves me wanting to run to the phone. I’ve always had so much trouble making spaghetti! Come on… I make about three dishes ever. I’m about as far from a cook or chef as you can find… and one of the meals I can very easily prepare is spaghetti. I really don’t need to buy some plastic tub to magically do the work for me.
Then there is the ultimate guilt job… Viagra. What once was a product for the poor ol’ soul who could no longer be a man in the bedroom is now a product each man should be taking. You have no erectile difficulties? Foolishness… who do you think you are to say that you’re better than these millions of men who can’t get it up? Now take this stuff! The woman you love will thank you for it. Not doing it is letting her down!
If a man had no trouble being a man before the Viagra onslaught, he sure learned to have trouble soon afterwards. We’re so much a society of sheep and we’re so swayed by images of happy men holding hands with smiling women as they walk into the bedroom preparing to go where no network television channel can take us that I’d think there are single, sexually inactive men buying this stuff. Considering that we’re now being told we aren’t really a man unless we can sustain six hour erections, I bet there are many a lonely fellow just laying alone in bed, making sure the drug builds him up… just like it would his sexually active friends.
Hummer is now guilting the meek. Ads of men and women being pushed around by their fellow man… or woman. Ads where the kind hearted man is pushed aside in the checkout line at the grocery store. And Ads where the gentle mother is at the playground with her daughter… waiting patiently in line for the slide… only to have another mother pushing her daughter in front and preparing to pick a fight when the meek woman protests.
In these ads, the meek and mild look up to see a Hummer rumble by. And like Clark Kent disappearing into a phone booth in order to unveil Superman, the mild mannered victims disappear into the Hummer dealership, trade in their minivans, and come out boldly… with rock music blasting… and, in the case of the woman who was bullied at the playground, with the daughter probably rolling around somewhere in the back of the behemoth. Or maybe the daughter was traded with the minivan in order to make up the difference for the suburban tank… we the viewers never know the poor daughters outcome.
Of course, Hummer has a social conscience. Global warming is a problem… they know that. So they give us the H3… the midsized Hummer. I think that, in reality, midsized means they rounded off the corners. And I’m sure even the midsized has the fuel efficiency of a transport truck. But using the term midsized makes some of the sheep feel the Hummer is now okay. It’s definitely good for that suburb mom now… she won’t be pushed around at the playground anymore.
Yes, with all of this kind of advertising, I want to go into the country. Let me wander wilderness trails where pine trees are the billboards and hills are named after original settlers or explorers rather than products. Where men are men even without pharmaceutical aids. Where you’re inspired to do more in life than buy the latest gadget or knickknack.
MONDAY…
--- Up kind of early (before 7:00) but able to get back to sleep for a few more hours.
--- Around the house on e-mail for much of the morning. Pretty quiet times.
--- They talk about economic sanctions against North Korea as punishment for their weapons testing. But how does that help the people of one of the already most poor countries on Earth? I hate to say it but straight to military action may be the way to go here if the North Koreans can’t be reasoned with.
--- Happy birthday to my mother. Soon to be seen… the celebration can happen a bit more face to face.
--- Work is fine. It’s weird seeing Laura and Karen back on evening shift (after months in the training unit). It will make for some laughs again I’m sure… even if they aren’t my team mates anymore.
TUESDAY…
--- Rare Birds on DVD in the morning. Getting my Newfoundland mind back in gear… I love the Newfoundland dialect when it isn’t some forced thing for an audience. Speaking like a Newfoundlander in Ottawa is about the same as juggling at a party. It’s there for kicks… and I don’t want to juggle.
--- Busy at work dealing with stats.
--- There are about sixty mosquitoes on my door when I get home. Thanks to it being a hot and humid night. Probably a dozen of them come in with me… it’s a pain.
WEDNESDAY…
--- Long day. In early to prepare for a meeting… and have the meeting… and I still stayed until the regular time (more or less). So a little banked time will come in handy soon enough.
--- Chinese food for supper is good.
--- A long walk tonight is pretty peaceful. I think I passed one person and two cars in the hour.
THURSDAY…
--- Hot day. 39 or 99 F with the humidity. Work is less busy than lately so I can go at a pretty calm pace.
FRIDAY…
--- Hot day… about the same temperature as yesterday. The car is like a sauna. It still doesn’t stop Mike, Laura and me from going to the Chip Wagon for supper. Good times… Mike and Laura are easy to relax around.
SATURDAY…
--- Quiet day around the house. I’m really tired all day so I’m sleeping much of it.
This Wilderness Trail Brought to You by…
Is there no better way to be driven out from the city and into the country than advertising? Cities are great… I love cities and can hardly wait for that right time to move from my suburb no-man’s zone further into this city. But urban life in North America is brutally commercial. The more urban your lifestyle, the more you get bombarded with sales pitches. Newspapers, billboards, sports arenas and stadiums, the internet, TV, radio… all dominated by product sales pitches. Our economy is largely based on how to pry the disposable income out of the public’s pockets. Even the postal carrier is little more than a flyer deliverer now. It’s bad enough that they won’t bring your mail right to your door anymore (they need these large postal boxes where they can deposit all the mail at once without need of walking the neighbourhood). But now most of the mail I pull out of my post box is advertising flyers. I’m battling this though… I take the junk out of my mail box and deposit it straight into the outgoing mail slot. It’s the modern day circle of life (advertising style).
TV commercials used to try to either inform or entertain. There was some thought put into them and you at least felt like there was an effort on the part of the seller to better the life of the buyer (either through education or giving a smile).
More and more, these commercials are only about two things… pound the name of the product into a person’s subconscious or guilt you into buying their product. Making you think you’re a lesser person if you don’t buy what it is they’re selling.
One of the best examples of the drill-it-into-your-head approach I’ve seen is out right now. Some product named Head On consists of a commercial of a smiling woman rubbing what looks like a deodorant stick on her forehead. She’s smiling blissfully and the voice over simply repeats the same statement three times… “Head On, apply directly to the forehead.” We are then told that we can get Head On without a prescription. And that’s it.
I have no idea why the smiley woman is rolling this gunk onto her head. Did she have a headache and does this stuff magically make the pain go away? Was she depressed and in need of a high? Was she hyper and needing to be settled down? Maybe she’s just stupid and does what she’s told.
Many products fall into the ‘you’re a lesser person if you don’t buy this’ approach. I recently saw a spaghetti miracle product. No more waiting for a pot of water to boil! No more having to break the pasta in order for it to fit into the slow boiling pot! Now get this plastic canister (looking much like the canister you pull the pasta out of) and pour boiling water in there to watch the pasta cook… in minutes!
It leaves me wanting to run to the phone. I’ve always had so much trouble making spaghetti! Come on… I make about three dishes ever. I’m about as far from a cook or chef as you can find… and one of the meals I can very easily prepare is spaghetti. I really don’t need to buy some plastic tub to magically do the work for me.
Then there is the ultimate guilt job… Viagra. What once was a product for the poor ol’ soul who could no longer be a man in the bedroom is now a product each man should be taking. You have no erectile difficulties? Foolishness… who do you think you are to say that you’re better than these millions of men who can’t get it up? Now take this stuff! The woman you love will thank you for it. Not doing it is letting her down!
If a man had no trouble being a man before the Viagra onslaught, he sure learned to have trouble soon afterwards. We’re so much a society of sheep and we’re so swayed by images of happy men holding hands with smiling women as they walk into the bedroom preparing to go where no network television channel can take us that I’d think there are single, sexually inactive men buying this stuff. Considering that we’re now being told we aren’t really a man unless we can sustain six hour erections, I bet there are many a lonely fellow just laying alone in bed, making sure the drug builds him up… just like it would his sexually active friends.
Hummer is now guilting the meek. Ads of men and women being pushed around by their fellow man… or woman. Ads where the kind hearted man is pushed aside in the checkout line at the grocery store. And Ads where the gentle mother is at the playground with her daughter… waiting patiently in line for the slide… only to have another mother pushing her daughter in front and preparing to pick a fight when the meek woman protests.
In these ads, the meek and mild look up to see a Hummer rumble by. And like Clark Kent disappearing into a phone booth in order to unveil Superman, the mild mannered victims disappear into the Hummer dealership, trade in their minivans, and come out boldly… with rock music blasting… and, in the case of the woman who was bullied at the playground, with the daughter probably rolling around somewhere in the back of the behemoth. Or maybe the daughter was traded with the minivan in order to make up the difference for the suburban tank… we the viewers never know the poor daughters outcome.
Of course, Hummer has a social conscience. Global warming is a problem… they know that. So they give us the H3… the midsized Hummer. I think that, in reality, midsized means they rounded off the corners. And I’m sure even the midsized has the fuel efficiency of a transport truck. But using the term midsized makes some of the sheep feel the Hummer is now okay. It’s definitely good for that suburb mom now… she won’t be pushed around at the playground anymore.
Yes, with all of this kind of advertising, I want to go into the country. Let me wander wilderness trails where pine trees are the billboards and hills are named after original settlers or explorers rather than products. Where men are men even without pharmaceutical aids. Where you’re inspired to do more in life than buy the latest gadget or knickknack.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Making It Up As I Go Along #226
MONDAY…
--- Holiday Monday… watch a ball game… and a DVD… and get groceries… and look out the window at another thunder storm in the evening.
TUESDAY…
--- Busy work day. Lunch with Mike, his girlfriend, and Leslie… And I give Louis the main supervisor desk so he can get practice for my vacation.
--- Talking vacation… 17 days until I land on the Rock.
WEDNESDAY…
--- Very busy at work. Nap after I get home… miss France beating Portugal in soccer but France vs. Italy in the final should be alright.
THURSDAY…
--- Keep pretty busy at work. Some work on stats and some other issues coming up. Lunch across with Leslie, Michelle and Grace… and a long walk after work this evening.
FRIDAY…
--- Busiest day of the week. I’m even at work until 4:45 due to having to deal with stuff with the computer tech guys.
--- Some e-mails and TV in the evening.
SATURDAY…
--- Very lazy, long day around the house. Long cause I’m out of bed around 7:00. Lazy because I spend much of the rest of the day falling asleep on the sofa. I just seem to be really tired from the past week.
--- While awake, baseball, movies, and CNN coverage of North Korea dominate much of the day.
The Spout, Then and Now
The Spout is a six to eight hour coastal walk located a half hour drive outside of St. John’s. Four or five years ago, I did this walk. Today, my sister, brother-in-law, and uncle should be on it as I write.
When I did the Spout, my group went backwards. We started in the community of Bay Bulls and ended at the Goulds. This was a mistake that wore us out. Where we ended, my family will begin. And where I went up a cobbled grade for the last hour or two of my hike, they’ll start fresh and, with strong legs, be able to stride down the cobbles.
The cobble hill of hell takes you right out to the coast. And this is where 80% of the walk stays. For four to six hours, you follow paths along Newfoundland’s east coast. In places, the path is narrow and only a small tuft of bushes separate you from the edge of the cliff and a several hundred foot drop to the rocks and ocean bellow. In our modern world, it’s about as anti-wheelchair accessible as you can get.
When I did the walk, the last half of it was done in the pouring rain and there were no whales to be seen. We did manage to see one distant whale in the first ten minutes of the walk, when the sun still blazed… but that was it whale-wise. A week after I did it, my uncle (and today’s experienced hiker with sister and brother) saw dozens of whales… some of which where breaching out of the ocean majestically. It’s a crap shoot, and on the whale front, he won while I lost. Today, I hope to hear tales of whales from my family.
At the exact half way point of the walk, you come upon the Spout itself. What is the Spout? It’s a fault in the coastal rocks. An underwater cave with a hole a few hundred feet in from the coast. And with each wave that funnels into the cave, a geyser of water shoots up into the air some twenty feet or so. For most, the Spout is the reason why you walk this trail. It was the main reason I planned to go when I walked it. And there have been stories of a rich Newfoundland family who occasionally bypasses the walk and helicopters in to the Spout for a day at this one location. When they’re done eating and socializing, they fly out again.
For me, I hear of this and believe that those rich people and their helicopter have missed out. Looking back at my Spout walk, the Spout itself was simply one of a half dozen highlights. We only stayed there for twenty minutes or so and, although it was impressive, it was the walk as a whole that remains special to me.
Hanging around the Spout, back in my day, was a fox. It cautiously skirted along rock outcrops, keeping an eye on us the whole time we were there. I wonder will my family get such a greeting this time around?
Another highlight of my time along this trail was a great stack of rock that stuck out of the ocean like an old and weathered finger. We had stopped along the trail across from this stack and watched the eagles that were nested atop the pillar… a mature bald eagle and her adolescent, grey offspring. They sat in and around their nest, glancing over at us from time to time. Does a family remain there today? Will sister get the same experience as I had?
My most memorable time on my Spout walk… the memory that I am quickest to share with people in Ottawa… is the lunch I had on that day. It was a simple sandwich (from a Subway restaurant actually) but it was eaten on the top of an abandoned lighthouse. Three or four of us sat along the top railing with legs dangling out over the edge, eating and looking out over the sea. I count myself lucky to be able to say I’ve eaten atop a lighthouse. For uniqueness in my life, it ranks up there with viewing the library of Ephesus (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), being at the original Olympic track of Olympia, and flying over the Kokanee Glacier of BC. It’s funny what makes a treasured memory. For me, eating a sub sandwich at that lighthouse along the trail to the Spout is more special than standing in front of the Parthenon in Athens. Not that the Parthenon didn’t mean anything to me. It remains a special memory as well. But I’m sure more people would be able to say they’ve stood at the Parthenon than eaten atop an abandoned lighthouse.
Of course, the Parthenon is a more sought after attraction… but sometimes it’s the subtle moments of life that make the biggest impacts. I mean the Parthenon just falls short of having neon arrows pointing to it… telling people “COME HERE!” But an abandoned lighthouse would be easy to pass by. You have to find it for yourself. There’s no outside influence telling you to appreciate it… it’s all upon yourself to make it a special moment.
The beginning portion of my walk, and the end of the walk of my family today, is the coastline that leads you to (or takes you from) Bay Bulls. It gives you a different and memorable perspective of a coastal Newfoundland community. Fishing and tour boats enter and exit the bay. Tourists who spot you along the cliff tops may wave. And you look towards the community as people would have generations ago… when entire families would walk out along these coastal trails for a picnic on a Sunday afternoon.
What was a family event back then is little more than a tourist walk today. Modern families have become disconnected from much of the environment which surrounds them. So now, a community trail like this one brings ghostly images of yesterday rather than real experiences of today. I’ll be shocked if my sister calls to say they came across families of locals out picnicking today. But I’m sure she’ll appreciate the view of the bay town as they near the end of their walk.
The Spout trail is one of many Newfoundland treasures. Memories like the ones you collect on these trails are what make my home province special.
--- Holiday Monday… watch a ball game… and a DVD… and get groceries… and look out the window at another thunder storm in the evening.
TUESDAY…
--- Busy work day. Lunch with Mike, his girlfriend, and Leslie… And I give Louis the main supervisor desk so he can get practice for my vacation.
--- Talking vacation… 17 days until I land on the Rock.
WEDNESDAY…
--- Very busy at work. Nap after I get home… miss France beating Portugal in soccer but France vs. Italy in the final should be alright.
THURSDAY…
--- Keep pretty busy at work. Some work on stats and some other issues coming up. Lunch across with Leslie, Michelle and Grace… and a long walk after work this evening.
FRIDAY…
--- Busiest day of the week. I’m even at work until 4:45 due to having to deal with stuff with the computer tech guys.
--- Some e-mails and TV in the evening.
SATURDAY…
--- Very lazy, long day around the house. Long cause I’m out of bed around 7:00. Lazy because I spend much of the rest of the day falling asleep on the sofa. I just seem to be really tired from the past week.
--- While awake, baseball, movies, and CNN coverage of North Korea dominate much of the day.
The Spout, Then and Now
The Spout is a six to eight hour coastal walk located a half hour drive outside of St. John’s. Four or five years ago, I did this walk. Today, my sister, brother-in-law, and uncle should be on it as I write.
When I did the Spout, my group went backwards. We started in the community of Bay Bulls and ended at the Goulds. This was a mistake that wore us out. Where we ended, my family will begin. And where I went up a cobbled grade for the last hour or two of my hike, they’ll start fresh and, with strong legs, be able to stride down the cobbles.
The cobble hill of hell takes you right out to the coast. And this is where 80% of the walk stays. For four to six hours, you follow paths along Newfoundland’s east coast. In places, the path is narrow and only a small tuft of bushes separate you from the edge of the cliff and a several hundred foot drop to the rocks and ocean bellow. In our modern world, it’s about as anti-wheelchair accessible as you can get.
When I did the walk, the last half of it was done in the pouring rain and there were no whales to be seen. We did manage to see one distant whale in the first ten minutes of the walk, when the sun still blazed… but that was it whale-wise. A week after I did it, my uncle (and today’s experienced hiker with sister and brother) saw dozens of whales… some of which where breaching out of the ocean majestically. It’s a crap shoot, and on the whale front, he won while I lost. Today, I hope to hear tales of whales from my family.
At the exact half way point of the walk, you come upon the Spout itself. What is the Spout? It’s a fault in the coastal rocks. An underwater cave with a hole a few hundred feet in from the coast. And with each wave that funnels into the cave, a geyser of water shoots up into the air some twenty feet or so. For most, the Spout is the reason why you walk this trail. It was the main reason I planned to go when I walked it. And there have been stories of a rich Newfoundland family who occasionally bypasses the walk and helicopters in to the Spout for a day at this one location. When they’re done eating and socializing, they fly out again.
For me, I hear of this and believe that those rich people and their helicopter have missed out. Looking back at my Spout walk, the Spout itself was simply one of a half dozen highlights. We only stayed there for twenty minutes or so and, although it was impressive, it was the walk as a whole that remains special to me.
Hanging around the Spout, back in my day, was a fox. It cautiously skirted along rock outcrops, keeping an eye on us the whole time we were there. I wonder will my family get such a greeting this time around?
Another highlight of my time along this trail was a great stack of rock that stuck out of the ocean like an old and weathered finger. We had stopped along the trail across from this stack and watched the eagles that were nested atop the pillar… a mature bald eagle and her adolescent, grey offspring. They sat in and around their nest, glancing over at us from time to time. Does a family remain there today? Will sister get the same experience as I had?
My most memorable time on my Spout walk… the memory that I am quickest to share with people in Ottawa… is the lunch I had on that day. It was a simple sandwich (from a Subway restaurant actually) but it was eaten on the top of an abandoned lighthouse. Three or four of us sat along the top railing with legs dangling out over the edge, eating and looking out over the sea. I count myself lucky to be able to say I’ve eaten atop a lighthouse. For uniqueness in my life, it ranks up there with viewing the library of Ephesus (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world), being at the original Olympic track of Olympia, and flying over the Kokanee Glacier of BC. It’s funny what makes a treasured memory. For me, eating a sub sandwich at that lighthouse along the trail to the Spout is more special than standing in front of the Parthenon in Athens. Not that the Parthenon didn’t mean anything to me. It remains a special memory as well. But I’m sure more people would be able to say they’ve stood at the Parthenon than eaten atop an abandoned lighthouse.
Of course, the Parthenon is a more sought after attraction… but sometimes it’s the subtle moments of life that make the biggest impacts. I mean the Parthenon just falls short of having neon arrows pointing to it… telling people “COME HERE!” But an abandoned lighthouse would be easy to pass by. You have to find it for yourself. There’s no outside influence telling you to appreciate it… it’s all upon yourself to make it a special moment.
The beginning portion of my walk, and the end of the walk of my family today, is the coastline that leads you to (or takes you from) Bay Bulls. It gives you a different and memorable perspective of a coastal Newfoundland community. Fishing and tour boats enter and exit the bay. Tourists who spot you along the cliff tops may wave. And you look towards the community as people would have generations ago… when entire families would walk out along these coastal trails for a picnic on a Sunday afternoon.
What was a family event back then is little more than a tourist walk today. Modern families have become disconnected from much of the environment which surrounds them. So now, a community trail like this one brings ghostly images of yesterday rather than real experiences of today. I’ll be shocked if my sister calls to say they came across families of locals out picnicking today. But I’m sure she’ll appreciate the view of the bay town as they near the end of their walk.
The Spout trail is one of many Newfoundland treasures. Memories like the ones you collect on these trails are what make my home province special.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Making It Up As I Go Along #225
MONDAY…
--- In a bit early for cake and a double birthday celebration in CNI. Work is alright. Mostly me going through staff member’s stats.
--- Supper is Greek food with Melissa. We eat in the breeze outside and it’s pretty good.
--- This is Tuesday to me. I worked yesterday in order to get Friday off.
TUESDAY…
--- Quiet day around the house in the morning. Work is busy tonight but in a good way. Back to quiet at home after work.
WEDNESDAY…
--- In a bit early for a meeting. Work is alright with lots of unusual stuff happening that takes me out of CNI and figuring some stuff out.
--- Chip Wagon with Melissa is nice. Good to get away and the birds over there are insanely tame now.
THURSDAY…
--- Morning thunder storms… kind of cool to see. Even some hail fell today.
--- Another great show is no more. Dead Like Me was cancelled after it’s second season and now Huff has also been cancelled. Thoughtful TV shows are really frowned upon. More Karaoke shows are surly on the way!
--- More thunder storms through the day… Greek for supper again… and the end of the day brings a four day weekend on its heels… giddy up.
FRIDAY…
--- Quiet day around the house. More thunder storms in the morning… some soccer on TV and some napping.
SATURDAY…
--- Some soccer, a couple of movies on TV… and get together with Karl to go see the new X-Men movie. Not a bad, relaxing Canada Day.
The Parade Before Canada Day’s
Humid air… look out from the deck… a water tower in the distance… behind it… darkness closing in.
Hills and trees beyond the tower grey out… a veil of nature overtaking… the tower itself disappears… greyness marching towards me.
People below pause… look towards the west… quicken their pace… birds zip for cover… winds suddenly whip trees.
Distant flashes chasing the greyness… low rumbles chase the flashes… the grey wall reaches the road… getting closer.
Drops hit the pavement… cars scoot in to parking spaces… the driver jumping out… jogging into a home.
The grey veil disappears a hundred yards away… the large drops replaced by an ocean in the sky… draining.
Retreat from deck… now behind glass… watching… listening… wide eyed… mouth a gap.
Jagged bursts of light… hitting the fields between me and the tower… great bellows… now a mere second after the light.
Wind brings plastic bins to life… they skirt about the parking lot… obstacles for cars that arrive too late.
Through the window streams… in the distance… the tower reappears… the backing greyness turning more yellow.
Light continues to approach… darkness drifts over… the bins die again… plastic corpses strewn about the scene.
Pavement glistens… birds pop from eves… zipping… looking for each other once again… the airborne ocean has run dry.
Bellows return to rumbles… coolness refreshes the air… the parade passed by… life returns to normal.
--- In a bit early for cake and a double birthday celebration in CNI. Work is alright. Mostly me going through staff member’s stats.
--- Supper is Greek food with Melissa. We eat in the breeze outside and it’s pretty good.
--- This is Tuesday to me. I worked yesterday in order to get Friday off.
TUESDAY…
--- Quiet day around the house in the morning. Work is busy tonight but in a good way. Back to quiet at home after work.
WEDNESDAY…
--- In a bit early for a meeting. Work is alright with lots of unusual stuff happening that takes me out of CNI and figuring some stuff out.
--- Chip Wagon with Melissa is nice. Good to get away and the birds over there are insanely tame now.
THURSDAY…
--- Morning thunder storms… kind of cool to see. Even some hail fell today.
--- Another great show is no more. Dead Like Me was cancelled after it’s second season and now Huff has also been cancelled. Thoughtful TV shows are really frowned upon. More Karaoke shows are surly on the way!
--- More thunder storms through the day… Greek for supper again… and the end of the day brings a four day weekend on its heels… giddy up.
FRIDAY…
--- Quiet day around the house. More thunder storms in the morning… some soccer on TV and some napping.
SATURDAY…
--- Some soccer, a couple of movies on TV… and get together with Karl to go see the new X-Men movie. Not a bad, relaxing Canada Day.
The Parade Before Canada Day’s
Humid air… look out from the deck… a water tower in the distance… behind it… darkness closing in.
Hills and trees beyond the tower grey out… a veil of nature overtaking… the tower itself disappears… greyness marching towards me.
People below pause… look towards the west… quicken their pace… birds zip for cover… winds suddenly whip trees.
Distant flashes chasing the greyness… low rumbles chase the flashes… the grey wall reaches the road… getting closer.
Drops hit the pavement… cars scoot in to parking spaces… the driver jumping out… jogging into a home.
The grey veil disappears a hundred yards away… the large drops replaced by an ocean in the sky… draining.
Retreat from deck… now behind glass… watching… listening… wide eyed… mouth a gap.
Jagged bursts of light… hitting the fields between me and the tower… great bellows… now a mere second after the light.
Wind brings plastic bins to life… they skirt about the parking lot… obstacles for cars that arrive too late.
Through the window streams… in the distance… the tower reappears… the backing greyness turning more yellow.
Light continues to approach… darkness drifts over… the bins die again… plastic corpses strewn about the scene.
Pavement glistens… birds pop from eves… zipping… looking for each other once again… the airborne ocean has run dry.
Bellows return to rumbles… coolness refreshes the air… the parade passed by… life returns to normal.
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