Monday, August 2, 2010

I would hardly call myself an expert or even a modestly expert or serious kayaker. I do take the safety part seriously, and also like to think that I take the fitness part seriously. By that I mean, once I start moving I don't like to stop, to smell, or more realistically contemplate the water lilies. I figure that my mentor from the UOHI would want me to move somewhat aggressively (after the appropriate warm up) and keep that heart rate up, up, up for those 45 minutes or more.

My wife takes a more Henry David Thoreau approach to things, as least as far as the paddling goes. She wants to contemplate the water lilies and the exposed tree roots and the giant polyp water plants that we saw yesterday. She in fact headed out before me today as I had to attend to the beagle, but as I finally got into the river, I saw her lazily drifting along the shore on the other side of the river. I got in the water and as rapidly as I could, raced out to meet her, slowing down only when I thought that I fell within her gaze.

But then we slowed down. There are indeed water lilies out there that sit on the water like regal princes and princesses surrounded by their green leafed minions. There are water striders out there as well, and as we approached our little water falls, there must have been hundreds in the water, jetting at breakneck speeds (relative to their size of course) They looked to me like a squadron of the hated and despised "Sea Doo" crowd viewed from above. At least they were mercifully silent.

The wonder of the morning was a deer and her fawn staring at us from the banks. They had obviously come down to the water for a drink and were fascinated by the two idiots that were floating out in their river. The little fawn kept staring at me and as I glanced backwards, as I slowly moved away, the look of triumph on her face (Mom, Mom, I sacred them away!!) was evident to even a non wildlife biologist like myself. I am proud of myself that I was able to quietly drift by a small turtle, sunning himself on a log, without making him retreat into the water. I always feel bad when I do that. Just imagine being cold blooded, sitting in the sun and warming up to almost the perfect temperature, and suddenly your security concerns make you jump into the water; it must be like having the hot water cut out half way into your shower.

I also saw what looked like a black duck that a) Swam like a duck in the water, b) did a very conspicuous running across the water take off for flight, and c) perched on a branch for a while. It at first thought to me was the dreaded cormorant but somehow seemed too compressed to be one of those. Maybe a scoter? But those are unusual guests here and I am not sure if they perch.

But pondering the question is quite pleasant. The slow morning in which Mother Nature offered such an exquisite buffet of wonder makes me think of electronic gadgets as the dichotomy. Our desk top computer is starting to hum increasingly loudly which makes us think it is not long for this world. "Fixing the Computer" is not done, so we likely will need something new, but what? A laptop? A netbook? The iPad? I had dismissed even consideration of this less than 24 hours ago , but was reminded by the old (old - 36 months old!) machine's possible death song this morning. My wife has a laptop, I have a work computer, what is this fear of being without that electronic connection? Why do I go crazy if I cannot check the Globe and Mail on line when I want to? Why do I feel so vulnerable when I leave the house without my BlackBerry? Maybe it is because I worry that I would be not able dial 911 should the need arise. Sure

What I really need is less Internet time and more time trying to figure out what that black bird really was. Thoreau, writing in Walden Pond has a great line: " I have always been regretting that I was not as wise the day that I was born" . Great line, and what he says about that ever diminishing wisdom certainly rings true for me. But getting stupider all the time accelerates the search for the return to wisdom and I do think is the search is what matters. You can search with Google and you can search with the paddle ; I am grateful that I am at least wise enough to which one is better.

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