April Fool's, 2014?

Another future date to serve as a marker?  A fixed bearing to focus the mind on new, ever grander adventures?  For the combination of the Ransom and the World Cup loom large in the mind, more so after airing the possibilities with Nick after another wonderful 7 hour bender of Lemon Hart ("Monday Monday" on the jukebox, the catastrophe of darkness on the boat, and To Parapono) and with Inch and co. on the boat tonight.  It is almost too dream-like and magical a chance to deny.  There would be things to be done and sorted, but none unmanageable.  The recent retention and potential NL work to pass the time until then would appear to fit in well as a bookend, offering up the possibility of taking a crucial February holiday just before the dropping of the news. 

I like when a good plan comes together of a sudden.  And a symmetrical one too, almost 5 years to the day when you set off for the Camino originally, and wasn't it just like fate to remind you of that with the timely appearance of Ms. Kos in Halifax after all this time.  Must send Mr. Walker a message. 

And as for the office, as the time goes on I think it is worth facing the inevitable at some point.  This is never going to be the career.  The opportunities up to this point have suited beautifully, but the ongoing chase for clients, the predictability of the opposition, and focusing so much on representing the views of others...  surely it has always been clear that long-term there are other horizons.  What a thrilling moment if you can take to the seas, onto the Amazon, through the Canal and Darwin's island, and then to the once-in-a-lifetime World Cup, with destination truly unknown in front of you as that winds to its conclusion? 

Third time's a charm and all that.  This could be the wandering time to rule them all.  Dream on about it further, and think of it while walking again along Shakespeare's Thames and within Red Square in the next two weeks.  But already, I get a sense of wheels in motion, of waves leaving and not yielding in their drive forward.  "No second life," as Elytis says in the yet-to-find translation of Parapono.  But that must be the motivating fortune that leads you out into that beyond, in search of what's next.  Hard to imagine a better place for a 35th year tape than somewhere in the Pacific...  Oh, oh, oh.

"...the relative value should be equal."

So there you are...  probably a sound decision, although not exactly what was expected, and certainly not what was hoped for given the ongoing fight versus the utility.  An enjoyable one nonetheless, funny to win the tougher battle but be let done by the language.  A sign as well, perhaps, along with the retention letter C L E session today, that the stomach just is not in these battles over the long haul and that the ivory tower may yet be calling.  With the evaluations, the Bicycle Thief sighting of the Dean, and the donation form to be sent in, the lack of engagement in the response to the onerous MF conition - the signs are piling up...  And imagining limited work for clients grows ever more appealing.

7 minutes until I have to leave for the ferry.  Anything else to add?  Only just that the wind looks glorious out there once again, and another night on the water calls you toward an end of Ramadan celebration.  Truly, there are many more summer possibilities to come this high up the Atlantic shores that might warrant you sticking around in such a capacity.  And the Dartmouth opportunities for ridiculous solo early morning silent crossings (such as last night/today) remain ever-present.

For now, I can see the growing appeal, and it is something to mull over and wonder further on.  Wherever you are in looking back on this particular post, I would be surprised if in two years or so it is from the same vantage point.  Which as always is the unexpected aspect that makes this life so worth living.  And why the value of things is, in real terms, much different than the cost.