Journey's End

Back from my trip and naturally, I'm tired from the trip.  But ... while the trip was very good, with lots of great food and strangers, plus beautiful scenery, just now I'm too tired to appreciate it.  The sheer exhaustion of twelve hours in a car yesterday, as we took a circuitous route to get back from our wandering (to see more things), casts a pall over the memories that it will take another sleep to get over.  Good to be back in my own bed, sitting at my desk, my fave coffee cup in hand, drinking my own good-tasting coffee.  Travel coffee always sucks.  Always.

I don't know why the kickstarter hasn't launched yet.  I set the date up for last week, and it is clearly public; I received an email last Wednesday that it was confirmed from the company.  Without a direction to go, I'm just waiting.  Originally, the site said 8 business days to launch; I set it up for 8 business days, but maybe they mean AFTER the date I set.  Don't know.  This is my first time.

I received two complaints that the menu shouldn't be listed under "game hardware" because this usually means electronic and obviously the menu isn't electronic.  Well, too fucking bad.  The menus are "hard", they're "ware" and they're for "games."  There were no choices for "fictional game menu" in the list, it isn't an actual food product, and if anyone gives me money thinking it's an electronic gadget, because they didn't read the DESCRIPTION, then caveat emptor.  Yes, that's right, I'm saying this is a super-clever grift to steal money from enormously stupid people who don't read about the electronic products they want to pump money into.  It only proves how frickin' smart I am.

Much of the last four days was spoiled by a consistent theme: Things We're Not Allowed to Do because at some point in the past, stupid people acted stupidly and died.  Going onto the Ferry's top deck to see 360 degrees?  Nope, it's closed, people have fallen off and drowned despite the railing.  Crossing the bridge over the canyon, that's been there since the 1950s and I've crossed twenty times in the past?  Nope, can't do it now; stupid people have purposefully jumped to their death.  We saw one sign in Nelson B.C. that warned us that if we wanted to walk over the rocks to reach the lake, we should be careful to "wear proper shoes."  Careful, the Hot Springs are hot.  Warning, this scree is slippery.  Careful, this mountain lake is deep.  I wanted desperately to find a "cliff" sign literally at the edge of a cliff; unfortunately, all the cliff signs could only be found at the bottom of trails leading up mountain sides.  Didn't really make that good a picture.

In effect, the world is being held hostage by what the stupidest person coming to this place might do at any given moment.  The most obvious example is covid and masking.  Travelling while masking ranges from a mild inconvenience, where one merely needs to remember a mask when meeting people, to a entrenched headache when randomly subjected to a stranger's paranoia or arrogant rudeness.  We did meet the occasional right wing sort that refused to mask; we did find one stranger in the village of Radium who was screaming about how masks are stupid and no one needs them.  But far, far worse than such idiots were the occasional left wing obsessives posting fake "out of order" signs on public toilets or imposing excessive demands for social distancing.  I am a strong believer in taking steps for public health and I steadfastly support mask wearing, social distancing and getting vaccinated.  But I am definitely opposed to self-appointed screaming fanatics without education, credentials or sense shouting their dictates at strangers like WWII block wardens.  Maybe someone should issue these people white hardhats so we can identify them and cross the street.

But ... yes, had a very good time.  Spectacular mountains, deep azure blue or emerald green lakes, water in some places so crystal clear as to be invisible, lots of friendly shopkeepers, one moment of staggering serendipity (I'll write about that on another post) and very good company for four days made a marvelous winding, adventurous time. I hope to do something like it again next year, in a different part of B.C. — and in parts of Alberta I've never seen as well.

I've had some thoughts and I feel restored somewhat creatively.  This is always a good feeling.  As soon as my body catches up, I know I'm going to have a great month.