Killarney Trip

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legacy

Today's Blathering is in memory of my brother Jim and his wife Diane. Jim and Diane died in a highway accident on the way to join friends on a camping trip, eight years ago today.


My own love of the outdoors has deepened over the years, but particularly since my brother's and his wife's deaths. They were both active individuals who enjoyed outdoor activities. My brother had a special affection for Algonquin Park, where my parents took us camping for many years (I went on my first overnight camping trip when I was nine months old!).


No one wants a loved one to be forgotten, nor his/her death. The University of Waterloo established a Jim and Diane Ohi Memorial Fund, and the high school where Diane taught posted a plaque in her name.


One of the main things that Jim and Diane gave me (as did my mother, who died from cancer over ten years ago) is a reminder to embrace life instead of letting it coast by. You never know when it will end, or drastically change. Some people may think of this as being morbid, but this attitude has greatly enriched my life.


I try not to take anything for granted. I'm more willing to take risks and not be so afraid of rocking the boat. If I'm unhappy, I try to do something about it instead of just whining. I try to be proactive and passionate, and not get bogged down in the little stuff. And I've learned that when things get really, really bad, the best thing to do is take things one small step at a time.


A combination of age and life experience has made me far less patient with people who waste their lives, unhappily coast, or don't live passionately.


A challenge to all you out there, in memory of loved ones you or your friends have lost: do something today to remind yourself you're alive. Passionately alive, not just coasting. Maybe this means sticking your head in an ice-cold bucket of water, indulging in a decadent dessert, going white-water rafting, sitting in a nearby park and feeling the sun on your face, screaming on a roller coaster, or going for a jog around the block.


As for me, I think I'll go on an eight-day hiking trip during which I fully expect to experience aches and pains, soul-sapping fatigue, hunger and thirst, bug bites, bruises, frustration, refreshing swims, adrenaline rushes, peace of mind, exhilaration, relaxation, and a heckuva lot of fun with good friends.


Can't wait. :-)

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:



Do you basically consider yourself a happy person?

cat observations

What is it with cats?


I've had a chance to observe Mackerel (the cat belonging to our friends Harry and Jean) for several days in close quarters. He is served at least half a dozen meals a day consisting of several different FancyFeast flavours whose names which make even my mouth water. He spends 95% of his day dozing on the middle of the couch, legs splayed, back arched. The other 5%, of course, is spent eating.


I've noticed cats are experts at the art of disdain. Everything is beneath them. They have no master.


"Mackerel," Jean will call from the kitchen. "Dinner!"


Mackerel ignores her.


"Dinner, Mackerel!" Jean pokes her head out into the living room and holds up Mackerel's food dish. "Look, Mackerel! Dinner!"


Mackerel opens his eyes a fraction of an inch and gazes at her with half-lidded contempt. She comes out into the living room and waves the food dish near his nose. "Turkey and Giblet Feast! Yum!"


He yawns, bored.


Giving up, Jean takes the food dish away and puts it in the hallway. After several long minutes, Mackerel gets up and stretches, yawning again. Then, as if he has just decided to take a little stroll (maybe to see what's on the radio), he wanders in the general vicinity of the hallway, where he (much to his surprise and annoyance) encounters the food dish. He sniffs it, obviously finds it inferior, but nibbles daintily at the contents anyway.





After a few minutes of this, he wanders back to the sofa where he spends the next twenty minutes painstakingly grooming every hair on his entire body, clearly desperate to rid himself of the slightest nuance of Turkey and Giblet Feast. This done, he fusses for several more minutes trying to find a comfortable position (spreading as much cat hair on the seat area of the couch as possible), and then drifts into feline dreamworld again.


I have to confess that I prefer the singleminded drooling adoration of dogs. At least you know where you stand with dogs right away. Jeff likes cats better, saying they have more self-respect. We're both allergic to cats; cats always seem to know this.


When I visit ScottM's place to watch DVD movies, for instance, his cat Hobbes will follow me around, obviously unable to accept the fact that I'm not fawning all over him (Hobbes is a very affectionate cat). He'll try to jump in my lap, butting his head against me, purring, daring me not to pet him.


ChrissyCat (old cottage cat) used to lie lengthwise along my chest as I lay on the couch, her face very close to mine. She'd sniff my breath and then bite my chin very, very gently, purring so loudly I could feel the vibration, the pinpricks of her teeth making my eyes water (or maybe the latter was from allergies). I was genuinely sad when I heard that she had died.


Ok, so maybe I'm not as much of a cat-hater as I try to make myself out to be. Maybe cats just make me feel insecure because they seem to know everything. Maybe it's because they seem to know that they own us, instead of the other way around.


So what is it with cats, anyway? :-)





p.s. Parki arrives today! Two more days until we leave for the Killarney hiking trip!


Some postings re: Inkspot from misc.writing:

---

>A little more than a year after Debbie announced that Inkspot was

>"joining forces" with Xlibris and a little less than six months since

>Xlibris shut down Inkspot and Inklings, the Inkspot archives that

>Xlibris was keeping online ("Xlibris is not planning to shut down

>Inkspot. Instead, we are meeting with various interested parties who

>would like to become Inkspotís new partner. In the meantime, the site

>will remain at its current location, unchanged."), the archives they are

>no more.


SHIT! They were my first on-line publication credit. But, I'm not removing the link from my tiny web page. Yep, I'll leave it there as a tombstone, my little tribute to a great web page for writers.

---

Strange you mention this now -- I went looking for (what was left of) Inkspot just a couple days ago. On the Xlibris site I got all turned around looking for a writer's resource. Kept coming up empty. Abandoned the site, and took the opportunity to tell hubby the tale of Inkspot and Xlibris.


He and I recalled a time way back in the old days, when Debbie emailed me

to do an interview for her online writers magazine... That must have been around 1995, I guess. Gee, that's like a quarter of a century in Internet years!

---

Today's Blatherpics


- Keyboard of the cottage Smith Corona.


- My iBook and the Smith Corona. I use the former for my Blatherings, the latter for the Outhouse Daily News.


- Mackerel.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:



Do you prefer cats or dogs as pets? Vote 'yes' for cats, 'no' for dogs.

leeches and ukeleles

Gorgeous weather yesterday, so we all (JBR, Harry, Jean, Jeff and I) decided to go for a day trip out to Big Porcupine Lake. We took two canoes: Jeff and I in one, JBR and Harry and Jean in the other. I knew it was going to be an unusual trip when Harry insisted on bringing a ukelele and a big bottle of Dr. Pepper, a soda to which he is utterly devoted.


Lots of sun -- despite slathering on an SPF30 sunscreen, my knees (from kneeling in the canoe) started to get sunburned, so I finally resorted to soaking a bandanna in water and covering them up. Also soaked another bandanna and stuck it on my head beneath my Tilley hat.


Having the ukelele along on the trip turned out to be highly entertaining. Nothing quite like paddling through lakes with Harry strumming the ukelele and singing, "That's All Right, Mama" at the top of his lungs. Sometimes we'd pass a campsite where a few people had gathered on shore, curious about the music. "Any requests?" JBR would yell.





We had two portages on the way to our destination spot, three on the way back on a different route. We had loaded up my backpack with cooking utensils and other gear so I could test it out before our Killarney hiking trip. Jeff carried the two canoes, making two trips on each portage. JBR slipped and fell on one of the portages; fortunately, he didn't hurt himself seriously.


Lunch was salami sandwiches, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, Jean's homemade cookies, gorp, Tang, and Koolaid. After lunch, Jean, Harry, and JBR wanted to nap, but Jeff and I decided to go adventuring a bit more. We found a pretty island with blueberry bushes and sunny rocks, pulled the canoe up on shore, and went for a skinnydip.


By the time we returned, the others were just waking up from their naps. It was decided that we should head back to the cottage instead of having our dinner in the campsite; it was getting late, and people were tired.





At the end of one of the portages back, I wandered briefly into water in my Teva sandals to tie my belt pouch to the bow of our canoe. When I came out, I felt something moving on my foot and looked down. There were about five or six small leeches stuck to top of my foot.


Jeff came over and told me to sit down on a nearby rock so he could get them off. His dad held up my foot for him, turning his back so I couldn't see what was going on. I knew something was up, though, when Harry and Jean came up to see what was happening and Harry exclaimed, "Oh my GOD!" when he saw my foot.


It turns out that I had stepped on a family of leeches. Later, Jeff told me that there had been a big leech stuck to the bottom of my foot (probably the mother), and about 50 baby leeches.


We had no salt with us, so Jeff tried pouring napthalene camp fuel (for the cooking stove) over my foot. Then he tried sand. Then he remembered that the couscous spices he had prepared for dinner contained salt, so he poured some of that over my foot. The leeches eventually came off.


I didn't freak out, if that's what you're all wondering. Mainly because I couldn't see any of it, and it didn't hurt (except one twinge, when the big leech fell off). The ickiest part was when I was lying there while Jeff poured various substances on my foot and feeling something big squirming against the bottom of my foot.


We thought we had picked off all the leeches, but at the next portage I checked and found seven more; I think they must have been stuck inside the straps of my Teva sandals and attached themselves to my foot when I put the sandals back on. As you might imagine, I checked pretty frequently after that.





Despite the small mishaps, 'twas a fun day trip. Woke this morning to some small aches and pains in my shoulders and right arm from paddling...nothing major. Jeff and I are pretty pumped about our upcoming Killarney trip! Yesterday's day trip, however, has convinced me to add one more item to my "have within easy access" inventory...a bag of salt. :-)


Today's Blatherpics:


- Me, swimming.


- Harry serenading us with his ukelele on our day trip. Jean is in the bow, JBR (Jeff's dad) in the stern.


- Rest stop.


- Jeff setting out on a portage with one of our canoes.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:



Have you ever had a leech stuck to you?

muggy

Very muggy and hot at the cottage. It's the sort of weather that saps at your energy, fuzzes up your brain so that all you want to do is swim and nap (like Mackerel the cat in the top of this picture).


Our friends Harry and Jean are visiting. We had planned to go on an overnight canoe trip today, but the weather looked like it was going to turn bad so we cancelled at the last minute. We'll probably do a day trip tomorrow instead. On our hiking trip to Killarney next week, we obviously won't have a choice about the weather. :-)


I've taken two naps today already, and have been in the lake several times. I'm trying to imagine carrying a heavy pack in this kind of heat, without water nearby (part of our route is nowhere near any lakes or rivers). Guess I've been spoiled by canoe trips where I take water for granted.





A poll survey: if you had to choose between the weather being too hot and too cold (assuming that you had to spend an extended period of time in it, i.e. no heat or air conditioning), which would you prefer? I'd prefer cold. At least then you can pile layers on and have fun in the snow. In the heat, there are only so many layers you can take off and you can still be there melting and fuzzy-brained. Whenever I think of being too hot, I am reminded of a scene from Apocalypse now where the hero is lying on his bed smoking a cigarette and perspiring, watching the fan turn slowly above him.


No exciting wildlife sightings so far except for a large male moose spotted by Harry and Jean in Adaskin's Bay. Lots of chipmunks, squirrels, blue jays, and crows. Apparently there is an abundance of bears in cottage country these days (including the area where we're going for our 9-day hiking trip next week!!!)...one was even seen on the second floor of the Algonquin Park offices, looking for food (they have since increased their security).





Just went in the lake again (just now). With the sun starting to set, this side of the lake is now in shadow...the water is colder, but not nearly as "I wanna scream it's so cold" as earlier this year. There is a small fish off the dock that nibbles on swimmers' toes sometimes, but it left me alone this time. A big snapping turtle used to live under our dock (taking a dip in the lake was more of an adrenaline rush back then, as you can imagine), but no one's seen him around in years.


I can't help but imagine that he's still alive somewhere, that old snapper. Drowsing at the bottom of the lake, maybe, dreaming his turtle dreams.


Today's Blatherpics:


- Harry's and Jean's cat, Mackerel.


- Harry, John, and Jeff in the lake.


- Jeff fixing the steps up to the cottage.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:



Do you have air conditioning at home?