It is a beautiful September morning. I’ve been on the phone for a very long time working on my insurance claim for a replacement drone. It seems the people who sort-of interact with you turn ying to yang and then back again. Long pregnant pauses precluded more new instructions about how to upload flight data went on forever. First I needed a special cable to connect my cell phone to the drone remote control, then I did not. It went on and on. All’s well that ends. But…I’m not sure it has. Two weeks later, my replacement drone is supposed to arrive today; but now it has been delayed. But what’s more persistent than an old man with no place to go?
Losing that drone skewed my entire prairie trip. I wanted to teach myself to fly it well and record some good drone footage. Nothing was life or death but someday it might be and I want my flying camera ready to rock. Hopefully I’ll be entirely on cue. Of all the airplanes and other machinery I’ve operated I have never needed a mobile phone or a QR Code or an Asian accent to make things work. I am missing something in all this AI gobbledy goop. ( By this computer’s AI, AI is not a spelling error, gobbledy is) Perhaps I should return to Drumheller AB and find a job as a dinosaur. “Alive! Living and breathing just as it came out of the swamp: Phredophartaus!”
Home again I find our local world immersed in a provincial election circus. This has become a two-pony race. The incumbent NDP party seems determined to run a shit-slinging barrage against the provincial Conservative party. They respond in kind. In my opinion, if a political entity starts muck-raking against a political opponent it has dismissed itself. If you cannot build a platform based on your positive aspirations and what you intend to do for your constituents, then go to hell. It demonstrates a lack of integrity. You have nothing of value to offer anyone! The conservatives emailed me today to ask who I was voting for. I replied that it was none of their damned business and now they were down a vote for Rustad. BUGGA!
Our home selling and buying endeavours are a confusing muddle. I’d much prefer to haul my wee trailer over the horizon and not look back. All this manoeuvring for much more room than you need to live. The rest is to store, or display, all the stuff you don’t really need. I presently have rented a 20′ shipping container to re-move a load of stuff. I’m OK, I have stuff. The storage yard bulges with folk’s belongings that are rotting into the ground. There are RVs there which have not turned a wheel in years. I wonder at the devilish simplicity of that industry. No sales force, no financing, no warranty, low maintenance, and if a client walks away, you now own their stuff. It is a perfect capitalist storm.
Meanwhile the tedium of buying and selling a house goes on. Each day another potential buyer wants to see our house near mid-day. The remains of the day become collateral damage. We fuss about cleaning the joint yet again until it is tiddly spotless then bugger off out to waste some time in the midst of another beautiful day. It’s tedious. We now know half the houses for sale on Southern Vancouver Island. The quotient price is near a million. Few vendors do much to enhance the “curb appeal” of their property. Take it or leave it. My instinct screams to move back onto a boat despite all the dark logistics of that lifestyle. What a strange culture. We constantly struggle with an obsession of becoming rather than cultivating the wonderful art of being. Dogs have it all worked out. We just have to pay attention.
Today is our most precious possession. It is our only sure possession.