On the Road Again (almost) 2013) #3

D-day-6.

This time next week I will be somewhere west of Winnipeg.

It has been a strange spring. Not just because the weather has been inconsistent and un-spring like but also because this year I have spent far less time thinking and planning my trip than any of my trips in the past 10-12 years. I am not nearly as restless or as excited as usual/ And I am not too sure why.

It maybe in part because I had a really challenging winter semester at school that consumed a lot of my energies. It took me a bit of time to slow down and refocus my "oomph" once school was finished. I have also in the past two months been far more consumed with my weaving then at anytime in the past. It has paid off as I have made some money selling at the Farmer's Market (not a lot but I am quite pleased with the possibilities). In the past year I have processed a total of nine fleeces. That is a lot of work. Last night was the first night in weeks in which I had no work to do with wool - it felt very strange. I was sort of lost and rather bored. That level of focus has not left a lot of room for over thinking my travel plans.

I have also been wearing my wireless headset a lot. Because my landlady frequently works nights and sleeps during the day, I keep them on so that I can listen to my "talking books" in whatever room I am working in without disturbing her. Having someone reading into my head distracts me from thinking about anything serious or complicated. I think that I may have thought less about the trip because my head has been too noisy. Even listening to music is more intense with the headset on. It makes me wonder about the impact on our collective creativity as we spend more and more of our time walking around with I-pods/mp3 players plugged into our brains.

But at the heart of it all, this may be the first year in which I am less sure about actually doing the trip. It is not that I don't want to go - I do. But I am spending far more time worrying about whether or not I have the energy to do it. Next Monday morning after taking a long city bus trip, I will have to walk for about an hour (depending who else is on the road and how busy the highway is) before I can find a spot to stick out my thumb. It is not a hard walk, the ground is flat - but I do have to dodge a few cars as I cross over a couple of exit and entrance ramps. There are no shoulders and if it has rained, it will be muddy walking. I have walked that stretch of highway  12-13 times - it is not a big deal. But for some reason it worries me. It worries me that I will not have the energy.

And finally - I have done it all before. The sense of adventure is just not there as it use to be. It all feels a bit too easy or at least a bit too routine. It took me just an hour to pack my bag, I spent virtually no time debating with myself as to what to take. I always take the same stuff. I then remade the signs (they were getting a bit battered). and recharged all of the assorted batteries ) cameras, phone etc.). And that was that. Total time - probably less than half a day. Not too much to get excited about.

 In the 20 odd hours since I wrote the above things have changed a bit. I am getting excited. In a week's time I might, if the hitchhiking Gods are kind to me, be on the other side of Calgary. I might be in the mountains!!!

No more Horses

I went down to Oshawa today and then headed back north to visit a friend in Lindsay.  I was sort of looking forward to the drive. While I have not been on Simcoe Road for a number of years, there was a time when I drove it on a daily basis.  I know it well.

It is, in good weather, a pleasant drive. The road which has relatively few straight stretches skirts small towns such as Columbus, Raglan, Sonya, Seagrave and of course Port Perry. There are small farms and clusters of houses scattered along the old road. Small ponds and creeks are hidden in the valleys of the gently rolling hills. 

But the best part of the road is the section just north of Oshawa where the road carves its way through the hundreds of acres that make up E.P. Taylor's Windfields Farm. It is a glorious section of prime farm land used for growing hay and for providing pasturage for the racing thoroughbreds. At this time of year one can always count on seeing the current crop of foals dance and gallop around the paddocks while their mothers replenish themselves on the rich grass.  Scattered amongst the paddocks and field are series of barns and houses. I visited one of the barns once with my daughter's Pony Club. I should live in a house so nice! But then Northern Dancer or one of his sons was living there earning lots of money through his stud fees. I never got to see inside any of the houses but the larger ones, which I assumed were for the managers etc of Windfield looked pretty nice. I always thought it would be a pleasant life - working with horses and living in a well maintained house provided by the company.

In the fall one could drive by the open sided hay barns and see the hundreds of square bales all stacked ready to feed the valuable horses throughout the winter, and watch the piles of bales slowly shrink as we moved through the winter months. I always looked forward to marking the seasons by what was happening in the fields of Windfield Farms.

But no more. The whole area is being transformed into a suburb. Already there are spots where the land has been dug up, survey stakes are scattered about and there are large signs announcing what developer will be building there. The barns are either torn down or sadly and slowly disappearing into the ground as they rot. The remaining houses have not fared any better. The windows are boarded up and the stucco is starting to peel off the outside walls. This time next year it will be all paved over; in ten years almost no one will remember the dancing colts.

I know that the population of Canada is growing.

I know that all of those people need to live somewhere.

I know that almost everyone with a family dreams of living in their own house - my kids benefited from that dream.

and I know that Windfields was not a good use of agriculture land. Raising thoroughbreds is a rich man's game, a game that I could never have dreamed about being part of.

I know all of those things - but I am still sad that the horses are gone.

Update

As I go through my annual transition from my stable (sort of) teacher/professor/spinner and weaver winter-being to my perhaps less stable couch surfing/hitchhiker self it strikes me that perhaps a review of the past few months is in order:

• ·         Rob Ford is still the mayor of Toronto - all discussion of his various addictions (real or imagined), cell phone recorded videos (real or imagined) or his gross incompetency's in terms of any capacity to plan or to develop a consensus (perhaps more real than other assumptions) have not had the tiniest impact upon his behaviour or upon people's expectations. Those who disliked him six months ago still do - albeit with perhaps more vigour. Those who thought he was great - still admire his cost cutting measures regardless of who has lost their job.

• ·         The Canadian Senate is still sitting - or rather they are not as they have the summer off. Those senators who made the news in what appears to be a rather obvious double (or even triple) dipping at the publically funded trough have managed to evade any sort of public censure and continue to draw their salaries. The Prime Minister has managed to evade any responsibility for anyone including himself. The only person who seems to have been directly affected is Nigel Wright. I somehow suspect that someone will offer him a job that will ensure that his $90,000 will quickly be replenished.

• ·         Our (and I use the word "our" somewhat loosely) Prime Minister while ignoring the rather blatant ethical issues at home continues to travel around the world instructing other countries on how to do business. Most recently he has announced plans to require all publically traded mining and energy companies to report any monies given to other governments (what I would perhaps call bribes). Of course this is only a thought and he needs to consult with those companies for a few years before he decides what/how to achieve this. But it sounds good and it is always useful for him to lecture other countries on how to be more ethical. But then this government has a track record for teaching others.... For example

                (1) we tell other countries that their policies concerning the rights of the population usually referred to as LGBT are wrong - while a number of members of his party (and certainly his base of support) are opposed to the granting of any rights to those individuals who deviate from their norm

                (2)  The government's international aid programs supposedly supports maternal health as a function/goal of those aid programs but we will not support birth control as part of that process.

                (3) We preach to the world that all government business must be transparent while  the federal government continues to practice the fine arts of double speak, delaying tactics until people get bored and cronyism.

                (4) The government argues for sustainable developments and aggressive environmental initiatives while continuing to allow this country's land and animals to be destroyed (see CBC doc for example). Plus of course the naive (which would be embarrassing) or disingenuous statement that as Canada only produces 4% of the world's pollution - it really is not our problem. According to the government - other countries need to get their act together before we do. (less than .5 % of the world's population live in Canada)

                (5) And perhaps most embarrassing of all - we suggest to  other countries that they must improve their human rights record including their responses to their indigenous peoples. At the same time the Canadian Government continues to at best drag their feet in terms of resolving the long standing issues and more often appear to be going backwards in their relationship with the First Nations of Canada.

• ·         Factories in Bangladesh and in other parts of Asia continue to hired people to make our clothes in poorly designed and constructed buildings, working longer hours and for less money than any one born in Canada could ever imagine. While Loblaws appears to have made a commitment to monitor the situation more closely - other companies such as Wal-Mart have refused to accept that they are part of the problem. People in Canada, in spite of their apparent outrage, alarm and concern over the collapse of that one factory continue to shop for their clothing at stores that purchase their products from such factories.

• ·         The government is reviewing the Foreign Worker program and has promised that Canadians will not lose their jobs so that companies can hire outside workers to save money. Of course, according to the CBC they knew about the problem last year. I am not particularly confident that it will get fixed any time soon. My confidence is weakened further by a decision made by the courts in BC that a civil servant's decision to allow 200+ Chinese miners to be hired as there were no Canadian miners available was an appropriate decision

I suppose one could go on and on; there are probably hundreds of issues (I have not even mentioned the chaos that was/is the Liberal party in Ontario) that could be mentioned..... I think instead I will focus on my upcoming trip across Canada.