On the Road Again

I have not written on the blog in quite some time.

I spent a lot of the summer in Canada not doing much, merely hanging out with various friends and family.  It was very fine, but also felt a little bit like I was wasting my time, waiting for the traveling to start again.

I flew from Saskatoon to Lima Peru and then from Lima to Trujillo, and sat on my butt in trujillo not doing much.

So, it is time to get moving a little again, and time to post a few pictures, first from around Trujillo, then tomorrow a few from Chan Chan, a set of ruins just outside of Trujillo.

First up, a couple pictures from Plaza De Armas, the central public square of Trujillo.

The traffic through the square is quite busy, and one of the roads leading East-ish from the square is closed to vehicle traffic and is lined with small and medium sized shops.

My local guide on the walking tour of Trujillo also lead me to the university, the gate most used by the student is the following one, it was hard to get a decent shot and thus the two pictures.

And last up are a few pictures from the mosaic that goes around at least two sides of the university, a distance according to the guide of over two kilometers.  What is likely the largest mosaic in the Americas.

Pictures vrs words

It is quite true that pictures tell stories, and that they are worth many words, however pictures do not capture the full mood of the photographer.  Even the most evocative photos still skip the back story of what lead up to the photo.

I was traveling from Kamloops to Penticton, taking my time and using highway 97.  The morning was slightly cool, with very little wind.  The highway is an older one, but well maintained and I was really enjoying the ride.

There are times when the road seems to stretch in a good way, when the views take their time to unfold and you can see the view slowly alter from one great vista to the next, not zipping by in hurried glimpses snatched between vehicles and tricky turns.

Monte Lake lay on the right side of the highway, with the rolling edges of mountains behind it.  Pines reaching upward and patches of the hills covered in buffalo grass turning brown as the spring rains left and the summer heat hit.  The intense green of the willow and other shrubs lining the lake and the few patches of bull rushes growing around the edges.

The lake itself was not quite still.  Minor movement on the surface kept it from being a true mirror, but that added to the over all view, drawing your mind to the stillness implied.  The sun had not risen quite enough to hit the surface of the lake, but shone strongly on the slopes above it.

There were only two boats on the water that I could see, a canoe sitting placidly with two people fishing, and near them a small boat slowly leaving a wake behind it as it trolled across the lake with an electric motor.

There was a dichotomy involved, for the view because it called for a quiet, a total lack of modern traffic noise that was not happening.  The bike below me, the tunes playing in my ears, and the occasional other car or truck added their voice, but in my mind the scene called for silence and that is how I will remember it.

There was a pull out coming up, one on my side of the highway, and I could easily pull to the side and reach into the saddlebag for my camera.  It would have been a slight delay with no real consequence as I was not on a time schedule.

But I rode on instead, thinking at the time that I would try to paint the picture with words, allowing my words to give echoes of my emotions, rather than capture my mood with an image.

SCA An Tir May Crown 2016

A friend received an over due recognition by being elevated into a Peerage in the SCA.

The following photos are from the event, in no particular order but showing some of what I love about the group.

Bad Dodging

My parents have moved into a retirement home.  The decision was carefully thought out and the place chosen should work very well for them.  How everything came together was amazingly quick.

The place they have moved to usually has a waiting list, some people have waited over a year but they got in the week they applied.

They decided to sell their house and a friend of a neighbour approached about buying before it was even listed, it took less than 30 minutes to agree on a price.

Everything was set, the movers hired and they started to figure out what to downsize.

Then mom fell on a patch of ice and broke her leg.

It could have been the start of a series of bad things happening, but in reality it was a minor bump.  Friends and relatives have lined up to help and things have worked out fine.

I flew back to Canada from Guatemala, and the temperature was a mild -10c.  Very mild for the middle of the night in Februrary.  The bus trip to the small town mom and dad lived in was uneventful, and helping them pack was okay.

The day of the move, I got smacked in the face with the reason I do not like Saskatchewan in the winter, -35c without wind chill.  I really did not need that reminder of why I left.

The weather since has been much milder, at times even getting above freezing.

But I figured the least I can do is post a picture as a reminder of what a mild winter in Saskatoon can look like.

I'll end with a Canadian winter saying;
Keep your Stick on the Ice.

Cutting it short

Just a quick post.  Many things have been happening in a short period of time.

I have been meeting new people and connecting with old friends.  Enjoying my time in a tropical climate.  San Pedro in Guatemala is a great place to dodge a Canadian winter, and Caye Caulker in Belize is even warmer.

My avoiding cold weather is not going to be successful this time around though because my parents have run into a bit of trouble.  They are moving from their own home into a retirement home, and Mom fell and is injured.  My brothers can help them a little, but I have far more spare time than they so, so off I go to Saskatchewan to help.

A am very glad that I have the available time to help them, but I am not looking forward to arriving in Saskatoon in February without any winter clothing.

My last few days spent in Guatemala were a lot of fun, and it was a great way to finish that chapter. 

The more I travel, the farther spread out my circle of friends and family get.  Sometimes it feels like they are all only a step away, but far too frequently I am many, many miles away from the people I want to interact with.

Be well My friends and watch your step on the ice.

Ken 

Aging

We all age.  Some gracefully, some fighting against the eroding process, and some speeding up the process through life style choices.

My parents have set a fine example for me, making clear choices and detailing those choices to their family.  I applaud their look at life.  They have now chosen to move into a place which will allow them to ease into assisted living as they need it.

My mom worked as a psych nurse, and dealt with many geriatric patients during her years of work, and that gave her a ground level perspective on that part of life that many in her generation missed.  She witnessed first hand many battles between children and their parents as the parents fought against moving into assisted care, and how many times that care would have made so many lives easier.  I am sure that long ago she decided that she would not fight against the tide that way, and somewhere along the way dad joined her sensible approach to acknowledging the impositions and limitations that time makes.

My maternal Grandmother fought against going into care, and because mom had seen the way things could drag on, was quick to act once it was inevitable. Grandma's struggle I believe re-affirmed to mom that that was not the way to go, and many of her own friends have stated that moving into assisted care was something that freed up a lot of their energies and time as well as taking a lot of stress off their children/heirs.

The reason they chose now, is the one that leaves so many of the world helpless in the march of time.  My father is experiencing degrading in his short term memory, and while he is doing all he can to fight against it, and he is still doing okay, the day will come when he will need more help than mom can provide, and they have chosen the path that I hope will prove best for them, and so easy for me and my brothers.

The last two summers I have spent a fair amount of time with my parents and have been very glad about the experience.  I watched from the sidelines as they got on with their day to day existence and how all of their friends moved in the circles around them.  They have built a life that connected them to friends of all ages and have shown me how to effortlessly give love and care into a community of friends and family.

Traveling into other countries can give you a glimpse on how other cultures deal with aging, but it is something I have so far turned a blind eye to.

I am sure that Guatemala is missing the infrastructure to provide the level of care that mom and dad will get, but that does not mean that the elderly are not loved or cared for, merely that the level of assistance available is sadly lacking here.

The third world puts a great deal of effort into giving their children all the help and education they can afford, and that is a grand effort done not just by parents, but by local and federal governments.  I have avoided looking at how the elderly are supported here, and it is perhaps a failing on my part, but it is also a reluctance to look at how I am going to fare when my time to need help comes.

It is a ways off, and I plan on being a wandering soul for many years yet, but somewhere in the back of my mind I know that aging will catch up with me too.  I have no idea where I will end laying down tracks, but I do hope that I can follow my parents trail and do it with grace and dignity.

Global Warming / Going Green

This post is not really about Global Warming.  What it is really about is reasons other than Global Warming to go Green.

Number one on the list of going Green from my perspective has little to do with Warming and everything to do with pollution.  Even if there is no potential in causing our climate to warm up, there is still massive damage from the pollution involved in our petroleum based power consumption.  Passing a poorly tuned diesel chugging up hill and breathing in the vapours will make you a believer that burning that stuff cannot be good for anyone.

The sheer amount of hydrocarbons spewed into the air every day and the fact that those vapours and particulates are going into the lungs of every living thing should give you pause.  It is a poison, and it is spewed everywhere.  True, the concentration is diluted unless you are inches from the exhaust pipe, but the effects of this as a poison are rarely discussed or researched.  The acidification of the oceans is a direct result of our use of petroleum, and that alone is reason enough to try and curb our dependence on it.

Coal is worse.

The cost of mining coal on the environment is harsh.  The cost of burning it is harsh, and the ash left behind is radioactive waste that is treated way more casually than it should be.

There is an environmental cost involved in most green power supplies, and that involves batteries.  The manufacturing of virtually all economical batteries involves hazardous chemicals and waste.  The waste is easier to contain and limit that that from petroleum, but there is still waste that needs careful containment.

From where I sit, way up in the cheap seats and lobbing opinions with not enough research, given the choice between any petrol based power generation and nuclear, nuclear wins. It has a smaller footprint and less damage done to the planet as a whole than anything done with hydrocarbons.  The next generation of nuclear power looks to be even better at limiting the amount of waste, which is the number one detractor, even though the current amount of radioactive waste is better than that from coal.

From what I can read, the best alternative energy right now is geothermal, followed by wind, then solar, then wave/tidal, then hydroelectric, then nuclear, then the various means of power from petrol/hydrocarbons. 

And now, we have reached a time when the Greener alternatives are getting cheaper, and the reasons oil is better are fading.  With a little luck the world's dependence on oil is about to take a dive, and I can hardly wait.