day 1
room 1
visited a pub
in a little village
filled with
friendly people
from near and far
then
slept above it
in a tiny room
while beautiful irish music
kept on
playing below
dancing me into sweet dreams.
—
“i’m not afraid of chaos and i’m happy talking to strangers.
i really love not knowing where I’m going.”
-fiona shaw
met a friendly irishman
in line
at the first airport
with an accent
who was
going my way
we had
many hours
of
travel adventure
ahead of us
through
flight delays
canceled flights
missed connections
route changes
airline changes
seat changes
itinerary changes
re-ticketing
running to gates
taking shuttles
sitting on the tarmack
trying to find lost luggage
sharing
food
and
beers
and
stories
and
laughs
and
names of
places to visit
each
making our way
to the magic land of
ireland
for our own reasons
and
what a lucky beginning
to this wonderful adventure.
—
“luck is believing you’re lucky.”
– tennessee williams
(not us, but what we imagined we looked like)
back in my advertising days
we decided to get active
and created
an after-work
roller blading group
we did this
each wednesday
for 6 years
with a pretty loyal core of people
and noticed that
we never got better
never lost an ounce of weight
never got faster
but we did
meet our local police
see things from street level
like we had never seen them before
scream when going down big hills
frequently get passed
by speed skating groups in matching outfits
sweat a lot
listen to outdoor concerts in the park
plug in a blender outside
for margarita night
laugh endlessly
cross paths with many interesting people
discover places that we didn’t know existed
blade into taverns for refreshments
get breathless
survive many scrapes bruises and sprains
and
share such a wonderful adventure.
(not us either, but more what we really looked like)
—
“there is more to life than increasing its speed.”
~mohandas k. gandhi
—
image credits: google images
out on an adventure hike
with the kinders
we came across a sign…..
“i could never resist the call of the trail.”
-buffalo bill
unlocked the door
with the secret key
climbed way up high
into the secret tower
with
the kinders
up and up and up
the
spiral staircase
with
stone walls
tiny windows
brave hearts
and
a wondrous view from the top.
—
“a well-ordered life is like climbing a tower;
the view halfway up is better than the view from the base,
and it steadily becomes finer as the horizon expands.”
-william lyon phelps
the kinder team in action on the big dig,
in search of dinosaur bones.
some do the labor,
some supervise.
their dino artifacts go on display
for all to enjoy
in the playground museum.
—
the dinosaur’s eloquent lesson is that if some bigness is good,
an overabundance of bigness is not necessarily better.
– eric johnston
we went outside
on a class hike
touched stuff
picked up things
fell down
rolled
ran
played in the water
saw some pretty little stuff
and saw some big and beautiful stuff
and tried to figure out
how to get way up there
then we found this
and
think it was a message
left for us
and decided it was true
and our adventure
was even better.
—-
land is the secure ground of home, the sea is like life,
the outside, the unknown.
– stephen gardiner
j and b amidst the magic at the hands-on museum
spent the afternoon at
the rogers centre
in canada
where the
baseball opened with
the official roof report –
‘the roof is open’
the game began
and we
watched our detroit tigers
get mowed over
by the toronto blue jays
such a game (15-1)
where
our outfielder even
lost track of
how many outs there were
and forgot to throw the ball back
toronto fans threw out hats
when their player hit 3 home runs
all in the same game
and
hockey and baseball
blurred lines
in the old hockey tradition
of the hat trick
then
every opposing starter
got at least on base
giving us the chance
to see their entire roster
all in one game
but the staff and the local fans
were very friendly
except for the guy
who impounded
our piñata head mascot
kind of a chicken
who was meant to be a tiger
(a chi-ger)
upon entering the stadium
lest i possibly wear it
and conceal my identity
but we decided to shake it all off
and
embrace the huge loss of this game
by enjoying the town
with fans from both sides
and
our pinata
came right along with us
as we met
a rickshaw driver
a man with a chicken hat
( a kindred spirit who grew up in my hometown)
a street singer with a bag on his head
a sweaty spiderman
a bachelorette party
and a band
playing american and canadian covers
so we danced a lot
and passed the piñata on to the band
but upon returning to our hotel
i couldn’t exactly remember
my hotel room number
except for the last two digits
which caused a bit of a logistical issue
so i visited a few floors
on the elevator that only moved
in response to an electronic key swipe
(who knew?)
saw a lot of our beautiful hotel
made friends with the front desk
who made a few phone calls
to my fellow travelers
who mostly had their phones shut off
in this
faraway and friendly foreign land
and
finally got back into my room
where i soon after
got locked in the glass shower
for a while
then
relaxed and drifted off to sleep
in my pillowy bed
until there was
a 3am fire alarm (false)
but it was one great day
leading into the next
and
there certainly was a lot of laughter
i’d say there were
at least
3 major bouts of laughter
all in the same day.
and
that’s a hat trick.
—
‘that’s the beauty of sport.
sometimes you laugh,
sometimes you cry.’
– joseph gradual
so excited!
we put the food together quickly
packed a picnic
headed out to the arboretum
our sanctuary
right in the heart of the city
on a perfect late summer night
to see live opera
performed by
university music students
found a parking space
how lucky!
hauled out our gear
hiked in a mile
worth it!
found the amphitheater
saw an open space for a great place to sit
our luck just kept getting better!
didn’t hear any music
wondered if we were too early
didn’t see any signs of a musical set-up
didn’t see any people around
walked on a bit
listened
to see if perhaps
the music was
in another location in the park
i even said,
(a bit indignantly and dismayed),
“the paper said it was on the 23rd at 5:00!”
at that
mg turned his head
looked at me
and
it was then that i knew
something was wrong
he calmly mentioned
that it was actually
still the 22nd at the moment
we were a bit early
24 hours early
but at least we had great seats.
—
I didn't have my glasses on.... 