Daily Rant 2009-03-18

March 18

Now this is what retirement is all about. I’m propped up in my bed with the remote keyboard on my lap reading E-mail on my computer with a coffee on the night table beside me—I feel almost decadent. After the sun has had a chance to warm things up I plan to go for a shower; then I need to pump out my grey water holding tank. When I’ve finished that task I plan to cycle down to a local restaurant called The Chart Room for lunch. Life is good. The world always looks better when the sun is shining.

When Ol Sol finally peered out from between the clouds yesterday after the rain stopped I got my bike set up and went for a spin up the coastline 6 miles to the end of Pebble Beach Rd. The wave rollers wash in up to 10 at a time crashing against the rocks along the shoreline and the prominences further out. Several off-shore islands actually have grassy patches and trees clinging to the rocks. Everywhere the seagulls and shorebirds own the skies. There are a surprising number of oceanfront homes for sale along this roadway—a sign of the present economic times or in the case of homes on the Oceanside an attempt to unload homes in danger of being washed away by the sea.

I’m just back from that shower and although I managed to figure out how the present shower stall works and get hot water, after six months on the road there’s nothing I’d like better than a full length luxuriant soak in a bathtub. Whether or not it would be worth the cost of renting a motel room for the night for that purpose I’m not entirely certain. Perhaps I’ll wait until I can borrow a friend’s in Calgary. (Are you reading this in the birdsnest?)

March-19-2009

Just a twenty mile drive up the coast and into Oregon and the price of gasoline drops 50¢ a gallon. The Welcome Centre at the border, alas, proved just as impossible to locate as any in California. A sign on the highway is useless if nothing indicates exactly where the place is located. Given the importance of tourism to the local economy you’d think they’d make a better effort to be visible.

Gold Beach has a decent bookstore but alas they had none of the books I was looking for in stock. The people in the attached coffee bar were the only servers in sight and they seemed to know nothing about books. I’m reminded of the proprietor of the Lutheran Bookstore in Kitchener Ontario whose classic response to any book enquiry was a wringing of his hands and “We don’t have it but we can order it.” At least there is no tax on books in Oregon. The toothy grin on cover-shot of the then 18-year-old author of a collections of WW#2 letters home from the European Front so captivated me that I just had to buy this book by a local Gold Beach ‘boy’ who looked remarkably like myself at that age.

Having an exact street address for Honey Bear Campground made finding it easier than usual even if my GPS wasn’t exactly sure where the cut-off to reach it was located. I ended up retracing my steps slightly getting here. The proprietors Gary and Jeanett Saks are German and Gary has been making German Sausage since he was 14 and has two missing digits to prove it. I may have to stick around an extra day to enjoy their Blackforest Kitchen Restaurant Fare tomorrow night. The Oregon shoreline is just across two highways a short walk away and from my RV I can hear the Pacific’s crashing waves.

From my online CBC sources I learn that Standfield’s Underwear in Nova Scotia is shrinking the size of its workforce by instituting a 4-day work week to avoid lay-offs. As long as their briefs don’t shrink as well. Atlantic Canada has a glut of frozen lobster. It would seem that sales have been hit by the economic downturn. Plans are underway to find new and unique ways to market it.

In 2008 Toronto Police used Tasers once a day and in 1/3 of those occasions the person tased was emotionally disturbed--if they weren't before they certainly were afterward. Should police be using a tranquilizer gun instead? I still say that Taser use is replacing the need for proper training in the use of physical restraint and replacing the need for police to get in close and risk possible physical contact; or just good old patience, waiting for the individual to calm down and rationally assess his/her situation.