Imagination Ocean
Mar. 29th, 2015 10:52 pmSo I got up before astronomical dawn the Friday before last and walked to the lake. I saw 2 other people on foot the whole way there: both of them walking dogs. I'd decided months ago that I was going to walk to the lake for sunrise on spring and so I did. It was A Mildly Strange Experience.
It was still pretty completely dark by the time I arrived and I found myself sliding about on ice as I first stepped onto the beach to get to the bench where I'd spend the next hour and a half, or so. Walking onto an abandoned beach in the dark was fairly eerie. There was still this pretty massive wall of snow right up against the lake and the wind was strong enough that the waves were crashing loudly. Probably so much more the loudly for there not being any other sound than I bird whose call I'm frustrated to have forgotten. I felt like I just might as well be up at Hudson Bay (or the moon in an alternate reality) for all I could actually see at that moment being grey and snow. I also wound up briefly disoriented by the city in the west being in a pink glow like the sun was coming up over there...
I wound up noticing that even in the darkness I could see my shadow cast from the streetlights up and behind me and that made me feel at bit better that it also meant no one could sneak up in this loud, dark and mildly unnerving place which was a nice psychological comfort. Within about 20 minutes someone wouldn't be sneaking up... they'd be showing up with a flashlight.
I'd assumed it was just another dog walker until they got past my bench and walked about 20 feet forward. They were wearing a high visibility vest and carrying a pylon in their free hand. Eventually they stopped, fished about for a can, and started spray-painting a circle on the beach (it was still so dark that I couldn't see if this spraying was having any colouring effect), ignoring me the whole time. Once done with the circle they placed the pylon on it and then proceeded to spray another circle around its base followed by some arms in each of the cardinal directions. They then walked another 40 or so feet directly to the left and did some more spraying on the border wall of the R.C. Harris filtration plant. Then they came over to the bench and we had a dialog that began:
"Here for some zen?"
"First day of spring, really."
"It's spring?"
It ended with him noting that I should enjoy the silence but probably shouldn't stay too long 'cause some noisy contractors were on the way. Guess he couldn't give up the idea that I was there for some zen, then. :)
Just as it was starting to get light an Almost Certainly A Bird appeared in the water in front of me. This sparked an exciting new game of Is It A Bird Or Is It Some Garbage (it was a little white splot with a little black circle on top) and later Is It A Snow Heap Or Some Plastic Tarp once I'd decided to get up and walk about the grounds of the treatment plant to fend off the cold a bit better. I tried to take a crappy cellphone picture of the Is It A Bird and just wound up with a whole lot of Not A Bird instead:
While I was playing Is It A Snow Heap Or Some Plastic Tarp ( Which you can play along with at home if you'd like ) I got to watch some actual tiny birds bobbing about. I decided to call them skunk birds since that was pretty much their colouring. They were, naturally, quite cute. Most of the time I'd been there there'd been 2 photographers (very easy to spot as they both had tripods). One of them came up to me while I was playing Is It A Snow Heap and asked if I was also there for the eclipse to which I could only reply "Eclipse?" (I'd learn after that he was way more off-base in trying to be there for that than I was in not knowing about it...).
Around 7 I started to head off for work and took a picture of the strange pylon/bench configuration:
Turns out that the spray paint was neon green and wasn't on the beach so much as on a manhole cover. It was an accident that the 'noisy contractors' pulled up just as I headed off. :)
(I wrapped up my Plato and Orwell this weekend so it should be back to Naomi next).
It was still pretty completely dark by the time I arrived and I found myself sliding about on ice as I first stepped onto the beach to get to the bench where I'd spend the next hour and a half, or so. Walking onto an abandoned beach in the dark was fairly eerie. There was still this pretty massive wall of snow right up against the lake and the wind was strong enough that the waves were crashing loudly. Probably so much more the loudly for there not being any other sound than I bird whose call I'm frustrated to have forgotten. I felt like I just might as well be up at Hudson Bay (or the moon in an alternate reality) for all I could actually see at that moment being grey and snow. I also wound up briefly disoriented by the city in the west being in a pink glow like the sun was coming up over there...
I wound up noticing that even in the darkness I could see my shadow cast from the streetlights up and behind me and that made me feel at bit better that it also meant no one could sneak up in this loud, dark and mildly unnerving place which was a nice psychological comfort. Within about 20 minutes someone wouldn't be sneaking up... they'd be showing up with a flashlight.
I'd assumed it was just another dog walker until they got past my bench and walked about 20 feet forward. They were wearing a high visibility vest and carrying a pylon in their free hand. Eventually they stopped, fished about for a can, and started spray-painting a circle on the beach (it was still so dark that I couldn't see if this spraying was having any colouring effect), ignoring me the whole time. Once done with the circle they placed the pylon on it and then proceeded to spray another circle around its base followed by some arms in each of the cardinal directions. They then walked another 40 or so feet directly to the left and did some more spraying on the border wall of the R.C. Harris filtration plant. Then they came over to the bench and we had a dialog that began:
"Here for some zen?"
"First day of spring, really."
"It's spring?"
It ended with him noting that I should enjoy the silence but probably shouldn't stay too long 'cause some noisy contractors were on the way. Guess he couldn't give up the idea that I was there for some zen, then. :)
Just as it was starting to get light an Almost Certainly A Bird appeared in the water in front of me. This sparked an exciting new game of Is It A Bird Or Is It Some Garbage (it was a little white splot with a little black circle on top) and later Is It A Snow Heap Or Some Plastic Tarp once I'd decided to get up and walk about the grounds of the treatment plant to fend off the cold a bit better. I tried to take a crappy cellphone picture of the Is It A Bird and just wound up with a whole lot of Not A Bird instead:
While I was playing Is It A Snow Heap Or Some Plastic Tarp ( Which you can play along with at home if you'd like ) I got to watch some actual tiny birds bobbing about. I decided to call them skunk birds since that was pretty much their colouring. They were, naturally, quite cute. Most of the time I'd been there there'd been 2 photographers (very easy to spot as they both had tripods). One of them came up to me while I was playing Is It A Snow Heap and asked if I was also there for the eclipse to which I could only reply "Eclipse?" (I'd learn after that he was way more off-base in trying to be there for that than I was in not knowing about it...).
Around 7 I started to head off for work and took a picture of the strange pylon/bench configuration:
Turns out that the spray paint was neon green and wasn't on the beach so much as on a manhole cover. It was an accident that the 'noisy contractors' pulled up just as I headed off. :)
(I wrapped up my Plato and Orwell this weekend so it should be back to Naomi next).
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