key to the clubhouse

before the potomac froze over last month i paddled from the washington canoe club to chain bridge and back and on this trip paddled under the key bridge to washington harbor in georgetown.  as a member of the club i can paddle from there any time i'm in dc and can use one of their boats if i don't have mine.  pays to be an "out-of-towner". 

bridges over untroubled waters

it hardly seems that long ago i was cruising on the C&O canal, parallel with the potomac river in virginia, but after a couple trips on the river and joining the washington canoe club it froze up completely and i was back to memories only. 

open water on the C&O Canal in Georgetown, VA

now i'm back in iowa and able to find open water below red rock dam on the des moines river.. my usual winter paddling routine.  today it is -5F and there is enough snow on the ground to xc ski so guess i'll find solitude in a different place.

“Water is sufficient...the spirit moves over water.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo

absentee balance

it's amazing how out-of-balance you can get at times when you have so little direction.  opportunities for an old man in today's working world seem to be slim to none.  attempts to secure a traveling job on the east coast, or even here in iowa, have been frustrating to say the least.  i've occupied my time working out: swimming, spinning, running, paddling and doing yard work.  the leaves continue to fall and yesterday i paddled on whitebreast bay with whitecaps and steady headwinds blowing 15kts, while viewing what is left of fall colors.  being in shape is superseded by the breathlessness of waiting for the phone to ring with someone saying "i want you".  i'm not holding my breath, mind you, but it is always possible to imagine.

for the first year i don't have transitional pics of the tree outside my office window because i don't have an office anymore.  the lake is my office now and my co-workers are pelicans, gulls, ducks and geese.  things could definitely be worse...  we should celebrate good health and the time to enjoy it.

lost

without my camera i'm a bit lost for posting and journaling but am a bit more inspired after listening to Chris Howes, jazz violinist, last night.  i even got an invitation to piano lessons by a minister also attending.  this am while surfing youtube i listened to leonard cohen's "anthem" and the phrase that caught me was, "there is a crack in everything, that's what lets in the Light".  i'm back to the beginning of my blog (i know some people don't like the word 'blog') where mention of "Light" had the original meaning for me.  now to reestablish some meaning in this disorganized world in which i exist....

lost words

life definitely catches you unaware at times.  during RAGBRAI someone repurposed my camera from my bag to theirs and now i'm unable to document my activities as before.  my thousand words per has shrunk to decidedly lower levels and my lack of accounting for what is occurring has increased. 

last month i finally threw in the proverbial towel and decided against setting up a new clinic.  i had to let my employees go and start looking for alternative employment myself.  in all my years, with all the jobs i've held, i've never been on unemployment so filing with workforce was a bit degrading.  i've paid in thousands of dollars though so can rationalize that it was savings put away for just this moment.  i hate to be part of the statistics of why this country is in trouble when i said there never was an excuse for "not working".  it is easy to be judgmental regarding other people's troubles until it hits you smack in the face.  i hope to get my act together soon and file paperwork for licenses on the east coast and by january take a traveling job that gets us closer to family at least for 13 weeks at a time.  it is so difficult to leave the place you've been and called home for 38 years, but nothing is static and i started out as a vagabond anyway. 

having more free time has allowed me to get back in shape physically, if not mentally, and finish a couple projects set aside for so long.  i'll take my kayak along wherever i go and continue to fill my bucket list of places yet unpaddled.. 

"let us go then , you and i, while the evening is spread out against the sky, like a patient etherised upon a table." -- T.S. Eliot, J. Alfred Prufrock

don't let them know you're coming..

Clair Skies on takeoff across Red Rock Lake

"when you go after honey with a balloon, the great thing is not to let the bees know you're coming." -- winnie the pooh

my peeps

 

hangin' w/ my peeps

 

whitebreast reflections

hickory ridge wayfinder

here's lookin' at "you" kid

"reflection must be reserved for solitary hours" -- Jane Austen