In a few hours I fly to Newfoundland and meet the family there. A week of bumming around St. John's will be followed by two weeks of touring England and Scotland. The laptop isn't coming. So any posting I'll do on the trip will be via iPad or iPhone. And the number of quiet, sit by myself moments that lend themselves to writing will be much fewer than the norm. So after today, things will be fairly different until early August. I fly back to Ottawa on the 1st. Probably won't feel like sitting and writing until the 2nd or 3rd.
And why is this post late in coming? Blame the robins. I was due to post on Canada Day but then it all went crazy with the nest in my backyard that day and all I would have written about then would be them. And that seemed unnecessary to me. After that, work pushed the delay further. It's really hard to want to write anything after a twelve hour day of work.
So anyway, onwards.
Getting Home.
I often think about transportation. That is to say, the changes in transporting people from one place to the next.
I first starting thinking of this in university. I was reading about 19th century St. John's. Back then, the downtown core was basically it for the city. Once you climbed up over the hills leading away from the harbour front, you were into forests, farms, and marshes.
Long Pond is, today, a body of water in the heart of the city nestled up against the main campus of Memorial University.
In the 19th century, people from downtown St. John's would take horse and cart to long pond. Many had cabins there. This was basically the place city dwellers went to get away for the weekend.
Communities outside of St. John's would have been days away back then. Where you'd take a horse drawn cart over rocky, narrow roads. The twenty minute drive of today's world that takes you to places like St. Phillips or Paradise... a hundred years ago, these places would be full day trips. And perhaps you'd look for a place to stop for the night along the way.
Today, I leave Ottawa for St. John's. Following modern roads and ferry routes, google maps tells me the distance between my current city and my home town is 2727 km. To make the trip, driving non-stop and timing the ferry perfectly... 35 hours. I've got a direct flight. Gate to gate... 2.5 hours.
It will take me two and a half hours to travel more than 2500 km. And I'll do it from a leather seat while sipping on a coke.
I've never driven home since moving to Ottawa. It has always seemed too far for the limited number of vacation days I have. Because even though google maps tell me it's a 35 hour trip, it would really take me much longer.
The ferry terminal, in Sydney, would be a two day drive. With luck I could do a night crossing. And then I'd wake in the morning docking at my homeland... but still a solid ten hour drive from home.
So it would basically take me three full days to accomplish the 35 hour journey. Three days by car... or 2.5 hours by plane. There isn't much to think about.
But think I did. After watching a doomsday movie in which all machines are left useless I thought about what would happen if this fiction became reality. Me in Ottawa with all phones, computers, vehicles... all nothing more now than paper weights and small rooms to shelter from the rain.
If I wanted to get home to family in the doomsday scenario... I'd be walking for 347 hours (ferry ride still included in such a scenario). Take away the ferry and I'd need to try to hire a sail boat to get me across to the island.
If I were to walk twelve hours each day... and the ferry still miraculously ran... I'd get home in a month.
We live in a world where everything is accessible. If I want to stand on Antarctica, it can be done. Tiny isolated pacific islands, that, due to the vastness of the Pacific ocean, European sailors never knew existed... they can now be flown to with pinpoint accuracy. And I will forgo a month long trek, watch a movie next to a window upon the world, and join my family once the credits on the film begin to role.
In fact, with the idea of that month long trip from Ottawa to St. John's kept in mind... over the next three weeks (one week less than that great walk would take) I will travel from Ottawa to St. John's... explore and visit in my home town for a leisurely week... then cross the Atlantic Ocean with the rest of my family... explore the city of London, several places along the English countryside, as well as Edinburgh, Scotland before returning for a few more days of London... then fly all the way back to my Ottawa starting point again while the rest of my family scatter back to Newfoundland and over the pole to British Columbia. In three weeks, my family will do something deemed impossible a hundred years ago.
In fact, if this was a hundred years ago but somehow planes would still exist... I'd already be in trouble because I'd never make the journey to the airport on time to make tonight's flight. I'd have had to have left by lunch time yesterday in order to have made the hike to the plane.
What will be the norm a hundred years from now? Will my 2.5 hour flight seem like a monumental slog in 2114? Will they have transporters that bring you across thousands of kilometres within seconds? Would a family vacation in England not even be considered a big deal because people from BC could meet people from Ontario in a city in England for a bite of lunch during a break from work? How small can the world get?
No matter. Today I'm left to wonder about travel a hundred years from now. And I'm left thankful not to have the travel of a hundred years ago. My next sleep will be in my parents basement. With the sea air wafting through windows and my family all around me. With an adventure awaiting on the other side of the ocean.
WEDNESDAY...
--- Work is ok. Ball after work. Still a wet field after yesterday's rain and the biggest puddle is at shortstop... Guess where I'm playing. Nice wet feet.
THURSDAY...
--- Take a bit of time off work for patio afternoon with Laura and Janice. Nice times with supper and drinks.
FRIDAY...
--- A bit of morning tv. Laying low before night shifts alone.
--- Nights is fine. Bit of work but handled alright.
SATURDAY...
--- Second night isn't too busy at all. Makes for a slow shift. One of those 16 hour 12 hour shifts.
SUNDAY...
--- First day off is around the house with an afternoon walk. Humid out there.
MONDAY...
--- To MEC before lunch for some baggage for the Europe trip.
--- Hour walk in the heat and then Louis' Pizza and a movie in the evening. 22 Jump Street is a fun time. But between the pizza and the movie popcorn, I eat too much.
TUESDAY...
--- The robins are gone. It was a fun month that ended not as I'd like. As far as I know, they're all well but I went out on the deck today, gave a peek in the nest, not realizing the fledglings have gotten so alert, I frightened one... He took off as best he could, then scrambled under the fence, out of the yard. Mom and dad bird come back in a panic, mom chirping and bouncing around. I head back in the house to let them settle and notice, from there, that dad and the remaining two fledglings are gone. I look around the area for the one that went under the fence but see nothing. Mom stayed in the area the rest of the afternoon while I haven't seen dad and the other two since. I do see mom in the evening, bringing worms and berries into some bushes in the forest around the corner. And she was chirping protectively when I came within twenty feet of the woods. So my hope is she's bring food while dad is watching over the little ones in the bushes. They were due to leave on their own in a day or two. So they should be big enough to do ok. But it's a shame the departure was so frantic.
WEDNESDAY...
--- Golf in the morning with Harley. We get put together with a pair from Newfoundland. A nice couple.
--- After I get home I clean up the backyard BBQ. Pull the nest out and put it in a flower bowl. Maybe when I get a chance to spray it for bugs, I'll keep it. Saw mama robin perch on the fence briefly this afternoon with food in her mouth. A quick stop and look before flying off to the bushes around the corner.
--- I use the backyard BBQ tonight and mow the lawn in peace. Nice to have the space to use again but I do miss the robin family buzzing around feeding and on guard.
THURSDAY...
--- Busy work day. Lots of shoe impressions to do. Basically all day.
FRIDAY...
--- Calmer day. And now I'm done for day shifts until August. Hate those 4:30 alarm clocks, so this is a good thing.
SATURDAY...
--- Alone at work. Fairly straight forward and quiet night.
SUNDAY...
--- Mona is back in and it's quiet tonight. Weekend nights are often this way.
MONDAY...
--- First day off. Get some laundry done for the trip and lay pretty low around the house.
TUESDAY...
--- Pack for the trip. Going to go for it with carry on only. We will see how this goes.
--- Supper at Harley and Solange's. Nice evening there. And nice to go out to a meal by basically walking twenty feet.
SATURDAY...
--- Alone at work. Fairly straight forward and quiet night.
SUNDAY...
--- Mona is back in and it's quiet tonight. Weekend nights are often this way.
MONDAY...
--- First day off. Get some laundry done for the trip and lay pretty low around the house.
TUESDAY...
--- Pack for the trip. Going to go for it with carry on only. We will see how this goes.
--- Supper at Harley and Solange's. Nice evening there. And nice to go out to a meal by basically walking twenty feet.
