Evanston: a voyage ahead
Evanston: a voyage ahead
The Great Blizzard missed us.
Chicago was never predicted to get more than 1” to 3”, but when I woke this morning there was none on the streets or sidewalks, only a little on the roofs of parked cars. At O’Hare .2” was recorded which was barely enough to count as Chicago’s first snow fall in a record 290 days.
Today is cold, sunny and windy, with gusts to 41 knots earlier.
Last evening we watched a Wallander episode, THE AFRICAN.
Kurt Wallander is a Swedish police detective originally in novels by Henning Mankell, then in films and various television series, including one by the BBC starring Kenneth Branagh. I’ve read some of the novels and seen some of the films. This episode was from a Swedish series with English sub-titles. All the Wallander I’ve read and seen have been superior examples of the genre.
In the penultimate scene in THE AFRICAN, Wallander and his adult daughter pull a small daysailer on a trolley across a tussocked beach. The last scene is the sail bobbing across the screen. It reminded me of a line from SHADOWS: the solace of water.
I am very much looking forward to next year. To being in San Diego where I have good memories. To sailing GANNET. To riding my bicycle along Mission Beach. A year just of enjoying the oddity of still being alive. I have work to do on GANNET and preparations to make for the voyage, but they won’t dominate my time.
I must confess that I am not in a rush to press on with that voyage. I plan to enjoy the year of anticipation, for this might well be the last.
If I complete a sixth circle, I’d be back in 2016. At the end of that year, I’d be 75. What would that be like, I’ve found myself wondering, not to have a voyage ahead of me? There’s been a voyage ahead for almost six decades. Since before I bought my first boat or had ever sailed. Since I was sitting in my bedroom as a boy dreaming of the sea and saved by the solace of water.
2016 is a while away.
I wish all of you a fine end to 2012 and a 2013 filled with passion and joy.
Friday, December 21, 2012