851, now down to 100, days left (and then after?)

The online journal is a miraculous thing.  You can trace the discovery of the Europa to the moment, 751 days ago, after a Halloween trip to see the Castle on her way across the Atlantic.  At the time, the thought was to make the Cape in 2017, but events, dear boy.

Proper thing, too, since it would be in the past, and you would have missed out on the Bali wedding, New Zealand, and the triumphant Brier trip.  Instead, now it is still all to come, and the planning must soon begin in earnest.  Have done a good job of keeping it in the distance - with trips like Chi/Nash, Maggie Isles, Ottawa and soon London and NO/Nan/NB. 

And what do you find yourself doing this evening to kill the time after a long and fairly eventless work day but mapping out a potential July Trans-Siberian epic to some Ulaanbaatar random festival...  Haha, that is some dedication to planning the next big thing so soon after Antarctica, and may interfere with the Ahab story you seem so intent on writing, but that's how it goes!  The contrast with the Air Canada Sydney to Halifax to Ottawa for three fiasco over the past hours continues to be hilarious.

Gill

A night of literature, listening to randoms debate the merits of the nominees before the awarding of the prize.  A stereotypical fundraiser, but an enjoyable one, if only to keep the mind stirring.  The firm connection, and yet the dreams wholly outside and unrelated to the law.  As you continue to turn over the thought of island and restaurant life in your mind, what sometimes gets lost are the twin benefits (and main drivers?) of the plot - the time and opportunity to travel and write.  Not to be overlooked.

Had a vision/dream last night of the makings of a fictional work in the Canterbury style, set in Freeport.  The bird-watcher, the whale-watcher, the tavern-dweller, the veteran, the grocer, the yogi, the auctioneer, the scientist, etc.  The writing does not need to be non-fiction, and is it to bold to imagine eligibility for future prizes?

I know not.  But the ideas inspire, far more than concerns on the electricity and inquiry fronts.  Keep the eyes on the prize is such a common saying, but here it may apply in far more ways than one?

First items first.  After falling into the Pussers of Purcell's, you need to get back on the 7min track for the next 7 days.  Then London and its stage shows of nostalgia and history and regret and whale-themed pilgrimages, to push the mind ever in the direction of something brand new.  The clock ticking down.  102 days only now.  Into the home stretch.  How glorious it will be.

Day 13

So far, so very good.  13 consecutive 7min mornings, with hikes and weights and stairs and healthy eating thrown into the mix for good measure.  All the more notable for what has been absent - wine and fast food and sauces and popcorn and sugars of all sorts.  Let it stand as a marker of what is possible, and use it as a launching pad to be truly ready on 02/21.

Alas, all good things must come to a (temporary) end.  The annual flight of NS to Greece by this time next week requires a Purcell's Cove send-off, the first proper symposium in some time.  Pussers and water shall be on my menu that evening, the gods require it.  But then a recommitment to the cause until the latest London escapade just two weeks hence.

Reflection today amidst the reopener repetitiveness in the Pictou room, of past meetings therein and the defaced map art on the wall, where the fragmentary word "Free.." is just visible.  How wonderful it would feel, in truth, to walk.  Hard for that thought not to dominate the mind.

But word tonight of the obligation to pay up the sizeable special assessment, amidst all the other machinations.  Every month you hang on could be worth as much as a year of profit at the new gig.  There will be much work to be done next year in the build up to Ahab's launch if you pull this caper off, and there should be no shame in running out the final salaried year and then some before departure.  Plan to take a few last holidays while on the payroll, in other words.  And use the 40th as the excuse for leaving rather than the Antarctic reflections.

Condo on the market in Spring 2019, one last year at Bishop's as you transition to the Island life, and Tibet/Nepal later that year when the first season is done?  It is the main plan at the moment. Dream me a better one...

Plan 40

Mapping out 2018 in the context of various scenarios.  Take a step back.  This may be a long one...

The current thinking is heavily invested in Freeport, and why not?  It lines up nicely with recent reveries, represents a safe and steady glide path out of this office while leaving action items for next summer, until the full transition around the time of the 40th.  And (most notably?) offers the requisite freedom from November to May each year.  Call it option (a), for now.

Is there any conceivable option that sees you stay here through 2019 and beyond?  At this point, difficult to fathom.  But I have had such thoughts before, of course.  Depends on the distractions, and what files may come along, the tariff renewal prime among them.  All the more reason to set up and pull the trigger on an escape before that starts in earnest.  Every day, looking at the conflict reports, there are so few matters that you would want to get involved in.  And, as always, it is later than you think.

If that is the case, what is option (b)?  What else to turn over in the mind in Patagonia and beyond, since the place could always sell, you and L may simply fail to come to terms, or a few additional drives out there could chill the feet past the point of jumping.  What are the other options to fill your tall ship dreams?

Go back through this blog, note the prior entries over the past year, at various points over the past 10 years.  Similar questions dominate.  The need to travel, and the desire for company in the process where possible.  The need for the proper balance of time and money to make it work. 

One change with age, and since the condo purchase, is the need/want for a place of your own.  Modest, filled with trinkets and delights.  Motivation for gathering souvenirs from the road.  Since the partnership was won, that thinking has crystallized into the idea of a place in Nova Scotia on the ocean.  The condo has served its purpose, but it lacks a bit of character, uniqueness, independence.  The next chapter seemingly requires that new spot, and likely a transition out of the living quarters that are beginning to grow somewhat stale on account of time served.

Option (a) checks the box of a new place, even offering up the idea of a flyer offer on 111 Water as a further 2019 purchase, if things are running smoothly and the condo is sold off.  What others do?  The MFA looms, but the tuition is sizeable and the issue of the topic remains elusive.  I see no sense in sliding right into it on the back of Antarctica, so that means 2019 at the earliest.  No need to push out the application yet.  But it appeals. 

So let's call it option (b).  Same time frame for departure as (a), but what it lacks in commitment it could make up for in flexibility.  Biggest downside I see is that it leaves you in the wind come graduation in 2021, but that is so far out that you can take that as it comes.  May be able to get by with a rental of the condo and no new purchase as part of it, although hard to see the MFA working without a bach.  Something to wonder about, and there may be new properties available come next May to test your fancy as compared to the cow ledge.

On that note, I would say option (c) is the status quo beyond 2019 and 40.  Even writing it out makes me want to reject it out of hand.  But the thought of finding another full-time office job that would provide similar perks to this one seems impossible.  And every extra dollar banked is one that does not have to be earned (or provides something to spend it on), or allows for the purchase of a more convenient and idyllic hideaway.  It is not the dream at the moment, as it does not provide the adventurous break that seems needed psychologically, but it is a path that bookies would set decent odds on.

Which brings me to the ill-defined, catch-all option (d).  The most nuclear, uncertain, and flexible.  No property purchase (unless it results in a cheap exchange for the condo), no business, no MFA, and notice provided.  Maybe in the fall of 2018 in time for Tibet, maybe in the spring of 2019 in time for Central America.  This is the vagabond route.  No direction home.  The opposite of (c).  The "to be continued" option in which you set out and figure things out on the road.  A (potentially) lonelier option at that.  But something to dream about, in stark contrast to others.

Those seem the paths, this workless TFI Friday.  Only three more until Gatsby, as the cleanse continues.  One thing is constant.  There is always a next trip to London.

Swingeing Detail

Ah, the old standbys, heard echoing through the office halls.  Funny to hear such words so often, and realize they are so little used, in other contexts.  A useful link here, as contrast.

Registration submitted today for New Bedford - one of the geekier moves to date and yet one that nicely reinforces the Ahab commitment.  The thoughts on the way into work this morning are consistent with a general theme - that it has now become a question of timing more than anything.  Late 2018 or mid 2019?  The perusal through the bookstore at lunch, and hovering in the travel and also the cooking sections.  Heh.  The continued distractions.  The

Off to get some groceries.  Fun over the last week watching Canopy rise.  One of the first rodeos, likely not the last.  A bit of money left on the table, but experience gained, and a solid overall win.  Trust your instincts.  Timing is always tricky, but worth it for the learning.  The fun of the psychology of it.  Candlesticks and tombstone technical finishes.  Such language, even here.  (recalling "...books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.")

News that Halladay is dead today late this afternoon.  40.  Not directly an omen, of course, but ever a reminder. 

But...  for now the timing question can be shelved for the Southern Ocean.  Much needs to, and will, transpire over the next span of days, until the May return and the potential June acquisition...  2011 it was the boat, 2012 it was the condo.  Does 2018 hold a similar destiny?

Time, Ozan says, will show.

Cleanse

6 days in, and have not succumbed to temptation yet.  7 minutes, stairs, groceries, hikes, weights, agua.  Feeling enormously better already.  A manifesto whose time has, finally, come.  Kick started by San Fran activity and book-ended by the planned trip to see the hated United for the third time.    22 more days to go, and nothing immediate on the horizon to test the willpower.  We shall see.

Otherwise, things feel as though they are coming together, with plans sorted for the start of 2018.  Consider the run of flights out of Stanfield in 2017:

- Halifax to Hong Kong (January 6-23)
- Halifax to St. John's (March 3-6)
- Halifax to Grenada (March 29-8)
- Halifax to Toronto (April 20-23)
- Halifax to Calgary (May 6-8)
- Halifax to Glasgow (May 19-28)
- Halifax to Toronto (June 16-17)

- Halifax to Chicago (August 16-22)

- Halifax to Ottawa (September 27-1)
- Halifax to San Fran (October 27-30)

Throw in Cape Split (June 7-8), the Wild Islands (July 15-17), Isles de Madeleine (September 16-19), and Brier Island (Oct 5-6) and you have yourself a pretty good year outside the office, especially when the SC and cottage and multiple drives to Moncton are factored in.

What will next year hold?  All seems in limbo until the return in May.  The birthday weekend presents a natural escape this year, although likely a similar in-province jaunt?  LA beckons near the end of June as by far the best of the Jays road trip options, especially if you can fit in a drive up to Big Sur.  Perhaps not the best expense depending on what else is under consideration, but Detroit and Philly are poor alternatives. 

Who knows?  Much to come before then...  Keep on the plan.