When last we met our intrepid lesbians in the waning days of yesteryear, they planned to head out, in their trusty little travel trailer, into the wild blue yonder that is Canada.
Their motto,’ Two women, Eight Wheels, Coast to Coast to Coast’, would’ve taken them to such diverse places as Tyuktoyaktuk, which shakes hands with the rather chilly Arctic Ocean, Peggy’s Cove, nestled up against the mighty Atlantic Ocean, and catch a few waves off the shores of Ucluelet, brought in by the hemisphere-spanning Ocean that is the Pacific, just to name a few.
… … yeah … … about that … …
2020 – The Year That Changed The World!
We may yet get to visit all those places, but our priorities have changed … and who among us hasn’t had to rearrange a few things here and there over the last year?
Here’s the new plan.
We still do all of the above, but first, we get ourselves settled on a piece of land that’s not on a flood plain (here on Widder-island we’re barely above seal level as it is), or a major earthquake zone, or one of the battlefronts of the effects, social, environmental, economic, and political, that the climate crisis has wrought, and will continue to wrought (anyone know the present and future tense of ‘wrought’?) for decades to come. Decades that Mrs Widds and I, in our 70’s and 60’s respectively, hope to live long enough to survive.
What, I hear you ask, are a couple of middle-aged biddies going to realistically do to change their circumstances? Why don’t they just stay where they are? It’s comfortable, if a little small, all the services they need are nearby, and let’s face it they’re not getting any younger, and who knows if all the above mentioned crises will pan out as ‘worst-case scenario’s’ predict.
Yes, in the present moment, our lives are ‘secure’, but all we have to do is lift the veil and peer out from it’s comforting obscurity and see the world as it really is, and what it really will become in our lifetimes. (assuming, of course, we both make it happily and healthily into our 90’s and beyond)
That’s the thing with a slow moving crises, it’s really difficult to see any movement until the damn thing is breaking down your door.
There is hope in the world. Scientists are on the case, huge numbers of individuals, smaller numbers of corporations, governments, etc, are making changes to how they live their lives, conduct their business, make policy. I believe these efforts will be sufficient for the continuation of our species, but as to the quality of life for the greater percentage of eight billion-ish humans? That I think is where the dark might days lurk.
I have no wish to live out the remainder of my life in dark times if I can, in the immediate future, take steps to change that fate.
We have time, we don’t need to rush.
… back to the plan …
First, we’ve rented a storage space, sufficient to hold all our worldly goods. Then, after judicious sorting and taking of sorted stuffs to thrift stores, over the next couple of months, we’ll pack up everything into boxes and deposit them, (after carefully considering the order in which we will need to unpack) into storage.
In the meantime, we will set up all sorts of searches for land in our chosen area, that of the Kootenays, a mountainous region of the British Columbian Rockies, along the Columbia River, going both north and south.
In the meantime of that meantime, our trailer will be out of storage and I will be finishing off the last of the renovations so it will be livable for us both in the long term if necessary.
In the meantime of meantimes, our province has scheduled the covid-19 vaccinations for our age-groups in May-June-ish (all things being relatively equal-ish, and travel restrictions lifted) at which point all our meantimes should be aligned and we’ll be off.
We’re not foolish enough to believe that we won’t encounter any hiccups along the way, after all, this was our plan, with a few new tweaks, at this time last year, but without taking action all we’ll be doing is sitting here stewing in our own regrets … and I’ll be damned if I let that be my epitaph.
Widdershins Worlds 
Here in Cardinal Wolseyland I have been considering the possibilities and, if I reduce them to three broad scenarios, I fear the very worst of them the most.
Scenario one is a complete return to what used to be comfortable, ignorant, manageable normality.
Scenario Three is a Proper Apocalypse, with the world population reduced, by whatever means, to a few millions of cave-dwellers and a handful of well-armed survivalists. An apocalypse wherein I would eat meat, howl barefoot at the moon while wearing rags, and defend a small but perfectly-formed library.
Scenario Two is what we seem to have at the moment – The Wrong Apocalypse. An apocalypse wherein I may neither shoot social-zombies, jump-start vehicles that I need nor grow tomatoes and weed in some quiet, easily-defended corner of England’s green and ravaged land. An apocalypse wherein I am merely subject to bureaucracy gone utterly wild, to the whims and caprices of folk with IQs and World Visions inferior to those of the Lesser-Spotted Dribbling Unthinking Beast. An apocalypse with no new freedoms and no new experiences to replace those that we have lost and to compensate for the comforts now long gone and the uncalled-for novel “responsibilities” with which we have been laden (by circumstances and people aDreary). Scenario Two never goes away, it simply becomes more entrenched and life looks daily more and more akin to life in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Wear drab clothes, enjoy nothing, shuffle along and never look up.
Scenario Two, the “middle ground”, the Wrong Apocalypse For Ever and Ever Amen, would methinks be the very worst of all possibilities, the most difficult to survive – the most difficult to even want to survive. I fear that it is also the most likely.
I wish you the very, very best on your travels. Keep your powder dry and your knife handy and sharp. Keep on blogging. 🙂
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A slow-sliding scenario two I think is the course the humans are staring at … will keep on blogging and throw in a video here and there for good measure. 🙂
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So mote it be to those last words…
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Not for want of trying! 😀
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I know 😀
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I wondered how long it would take you to come up with a plan B! Sounds very daring, but I can appreciate the yearning behind it, as I am getting itchy feet too…
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Itchy feets needs scratchings. 😀
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But how long until we are allowed?
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That’s the kicker, isn’t it? 😦
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That’s about the colour of it…
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Setting out in search of higher ground sounds a fine plan – whether on actual or metaphysical planes.
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We think so. 🙂
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The desire for adventure does not wane as we age. it can become more focused and perhaps more appreciated. I hope you continue to blog during your travels so that those of us who cannot do what you were doing can live through you vicariously. I, for one, will be at the top of the list waiting for the next post.
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The plan to make videos and blog about our adventures still stands, I promise. 🙂
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What fun to have a plan and get up and go, albeit not too quickly and with good preparation. Wreak? Keep on feeling good.
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Wreak, yes! Of course!!! Perfect 😀
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Plans are great but I find the detours that life hands me are sometimes (usually) much better. Look forward to hearing all your adventures
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Plenty of wiggle-room in this plan, I tell ya! 😀
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Wow–what an adventure. I know a lot of people who are embarking on vastly new adventures this year–and I for one think there couldn’t be a more perfect time for it. Can’t wait to hear about it 🙂
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We’re fastening our seatbelts, cos it’s going to be a bumpy ride! 😀
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Go for it!!!
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Barring any unforeseens, this year we’ll make it! 😀
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Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! You’ve definitely got a plan. I’m so excited for you and the Missus. Yippieee!
By the way, how about wright, wrought, will wright? I thought about looking it up, but it’s more fun to think this may be right.
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I think I’ll have to make one up. 🙂
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Good for you!
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Thanks 🙂 … here’s hoping we get it off the ground this time. 😀
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Don’t let anything hold you back. Life is not guaranteed. Life is precious. Live Love and Enjoy. 🙂
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Couldn’t agree more! 😀
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Whether things work out as expected or not, sometimes just having a plan to work towards is enough to get over the hump of the present. Just make sure you and Mrs Widds keep talking to /us/ while you’re gallivanting around from shore to shore. 🙂
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Will do! 😀 … if you don’t have a plan you’re not eve in the game! 😀
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lol – ka ching! You, dear Widds, have a plan. 🙂
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Indood I dee! 😀
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lmao!
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😀
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Indood I dee! 😀
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Sounds like a plan! I’ve seen my parents lives change overnight. Everything became an emergency and that had a huge impact on their choices. I’m all for planning ahead and taking the necessary steps when still able. It sounds like you’re getting ready for an adventure. Enjoy.
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If nothing else 2020 made us all aware of just how fragile our choices were, didn’t it? … an adventure it will be. 😀
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[…] the beginning of February I did a wee Wunder-Lusters update, wherein we were planning to initiate the new and revised plan by the middle of this […]
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Late to the conversation, I know, but you ought to read A Kootenay Country Garden (http://kootenaygarden.blogspot.com/). I don’t know the blogger (Ien) personally but I find her writing refreshing and rooted. Good luck in your adventures!
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Funny you should mention that very blog … she had her land up for sale a while back and we thought it might be a fit for us … sadly ’twasn’t to be, but I agree with you about her writing. She sure knew how to turn a phrase. 😀
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