anticipating flight September 29, 2006

As I begin to anticipate my visit to Vancouver next week, several thoughts take flight.

And I’m sorry to write that these idling, gassy thoughts are about airport security.  Here’s my dilemma.  Air Canada offers a very expensive round-trip price from Prince Rupert to Vancouver.  They try to soften the blow by allowing a small discount if you don’t take any luggage; just one take-on bag.

But then, at the same time they ban most “moisture products”.  That means my trip is suddenly more expensive again because I can’t bring and shampoo, moisturizer, water etc.

This aggravates me to no end.

Thanks goodness I found a much better article than my rambling rant against airport security.

HOW TO make a “Kip Hawley is an idiot” Freedom Baggie

KipHawleyIsAnIdiot.com is a site devoted to helping travelers express their dissatisfaction with the TSA’s security theater war on moisture. This week, a traveller in Milwaukee was detained and then booked as a threat to the nation for writing [TSA director] Kip Hawley is an idiot on the “liquids” baggie at the airport.

KipHawleyIsAnIdiot.com gives you instructions for making your own “freedom baggie” with your opinion of the TSA chief.

I flew from SFO to LAX yesterday morning, and was robbed at gunpoint by a TSA agent, who stole my cologne, face-wash, and moisturizer. She said that my moisture baggie could only contain vessels of 3 oz or less’ worth of moisture. I pointed out that all these vessels did have less than 3 oz’ worth of moist substances in them, as they were all half-empty, and she said yes, but the vessels were capable of holding more than 3 oz. Apparently, the risk is that a hair-gel bomber will take to the skies, and use a syringe to refill the tube of face-scrub through its tiny little aperture, somehow mixing some kind of moisture-bomb in the plastic tube without melting it. Apparently, liquids acquire magical explosive properties when they are in quantities of more than 3 oz.

A TSA supervisor took me aside and asked me why I was so upset. I said that my family left the Soviet Union to escape arbitrary authority, and the seizure of property by the state. She suggested that I send in a report to the TSA complaining, and I laughed and asked her how many of those people get added to the No-Fly List.

beach place September 17, 2006

This afternoon on Writer’s and Company they talked about the power of photography. One author who was being interviewed spoke of a blog she had created to keep friends and family informed of the travels she was taking to different countries.

What she realized was that writing the entries paled in comparison to the photos she shared there.

So with that in mind, as well as a recent acquisition of Photoshop, here are some pictures from my new Rupert abode:

Every morning I walk along the water front to get to work. It’s not a developed waterfront, in the normal pedestrian sense. I have to scramble over loads of railroad tracks to get to this gravelly road. But the walk is stunning every morning…and afternoon:

As I mentioned, it’s not your average waterfront stroll. It’s this recently forgotted industrial area. So there are all kinds of weird thing lying around. It’s like my walk is through a living museum.

Well I haven’t take any actual pictures of my house. But here’s what the world looks like from my living room. Which I think is hard to beat. Whether it’s dismal out or sunny out (which I hasten to add it has been all week!), the evening sky provides quite a reverie.

That’s it.

c

too frustrated September 12, 2006

ok…the blog isn’t perfect.

But I’m hoping the new set up is no longer so complicated that I am only able to do things accidentally.

I’ve heard tell that readers can’t comment on the blog.  I think you’ll be able to now.  So comment away!

Other than that, it’s beautiful and sunny out.  And I’m off to my first Prince Rupert council meeting.

Wish me good health and robust attention span.

yours,

c

on not going organic September 9, 2006

I type this from my kitchen table.  A plate of half-eaten scrambled eggs, home-made bread and milky coffee are pushed to one side.

It’s delicious really.  I don’t want to stop eating it, but I have to rant – if ever so briefly.

Prince Rupert may be the only place I’ve ever been to, let alone lived, where there isn’t a single farm.  That’s right…not a single egg, not a single vegetable, not a single steak comes from this last-ditch town.

That’s not to say there haven’t been attempts.  There’s a small area of Prince Rupert called Cow Bay.  It’s gaudy display of holstein patterns and bad puns;  and it is a testament to Prince Rupert’s failed farming attempts.

Here’s the story:  At the turn of the century a farmer came up to Prince Rupert with a boatload of holsteins.  The goal was to produce milk, cheese and butter for the growing population of fishers and cannery workers.

But there was nowhere for the farmer to dock his cow-laden boat.  So he pushed the cattle off, one by one, into the ocean.  The story goes that the farmer figured if they sunk, well the whole attempt was an unfortunate disaster, if they swam, dairy farm number one was well on it’s way.

Those cows, they swam!  Swam like heck through some of the deepest waters in the world.  And they managed to come ashore in the spot that is now “Cow Bay”.

Despite their bovine bravery, the dairy farm was ill-fated.

Because of the damp climate their hooves rotted and, it’s is said, their hides got mouldy. The farmer had to destroy ever last one of them.

And so the brief history of farming (at least in typical Western fashion) in Prince Rupert ended.

I tell you all this by way of explaining the ills of going organic in this place.

It’s not for lack of trying on my part.  I dream of a big-time organic grocery store muscling it’s way in.   It would only be competing against overwaitea and safeway (no small little local jobs here).  And it would bring with it my dream bounty of overpriced, prettily packaged organic goods.

But I don’t think it will happen for a long, long time.

You see, the small amount of organic produce that does make its way up here is . . . well, astronomically expensive.  In Vancouver we groan about the price of choosing organic.  Here in Prince Rupert to afford organic goods you basically have to be from somewhere else.  And loaded.

What I’m talking about is 6 dollars for a litre of organic milk.  And about the same for a dozen eggs.  What I’m talking about is huge cash for sickly produce that has been driving for too many days from California.

And so because someday I hope to pay off my student loans, I have stopped eating organic foods.  There’s just no hope for it.

This does not infuse me with happiness.

One of the most popular B-C publications out there right now is the 100-hundred mile diet.  It’s the concept wherein all the food you consume is grown within a hundred mile radius.  A great idea . . . particularly if you live somewhere that the cows don’t turn green with mould.  What a boon for indigenous foods!  What a reduction in oil useage, agri-corps and many other less than perfect things.

But for me, it would mean a life of eating kelp, berries and fish.  Not that that’s a bad thing.  Just very, very, very difficult.  Especially being white and not knowing much about kelp harvesting – or fish smoking.  I don’t even know how to catch a fish.

So, eating in Prince Rupert.  It demonstrates how very urban my up-bringing is.  How little I know about eating off the land.  And how I’m going to have to sacrifice ideals for the reality that my food comes from very far away … and maybe isn’t even all that healthy.

the days September 3, 2006

It was an unremarkable story.  Vaccines for this flu season have been delayed until October.  But out of it I learned two things:

1) People living in the North suffer from worse flus than our urban neighbours, and

2) That a flu bug is making the rounds right here in Prince Rupert.

Perhaps that accounts for my malaise this morning.

To be frank, I am wasting time this hour waiting for a loaf of bread to come out of the oven so I can rejoin the land of the living.  My big plan today is to brave the dull, grey skies; to hop on my bike and ride out to my my favourite Rupert site: Butze Rapids.

I had a significant revelation yesterday:  If you put off doing outdoors things until the weather clears, you will rapidly become a very pale house-hermit.

Despite very wet weather, we rented kayaks yesterday.  50 bucks gave us a full day to paddle around Denise Inlet.  I was delighted by how very quickly I took to being back in the kayak.  It was like I had never stopped paddling for these last four years.

The sea was calm, the weather was mysterious.  We paddled through underwater gardens of jellyfish (they really did look like pulsating lotus flowers) and counted eagles out fishing.  The only thing we didn’t get to see was the running salmon.  I guess it’s still a little early.  Had we entered the salmon run we would probably have seen many more eagles and maybe even some fattening bears.

But, what we did see was thrilling: hordes of jellyfish, serious eagles and the occassional curious seal.

It made me happy to be here.  Although when I heard it was sunny and 30 degrees in Vancouver I felt sorely hard done by.  So much so that I’ve been repeatedly looking at plane tickets.  It’s expensive though – ever so expensive.

And I’m grappling with the question of frugality over fun.