Education

All my dreams that I can remember have involved education. I am receiving an education through video (both cartoon and actual life), actual schools, libraries, school hallways, field work with my educators, riding on school busses, etc. These have been going on for about a month and I can recall no other dreams or pieces of dreams that involve anything other than being educated.

I am currently reading "Culloden," as my previous posts have mentioned. As well, I am listening to "Four Against the Arctic," by David Roberts, on CD. "Four Against the Arctic" is about an old true life Russian legend about four Pamori from Maizen (sp? on both) who sailed into the Arctic for the usual walrus and fox hunting in the summer weeks where such action is capable. This adventure was taken up in 1743. Four men got stranded due to weather conditions that blew their ship off course. The rest of their crew of 14 were possibly killed in the ice, but such documents about what happened are unclear. These men survived for 6 years and 3 months in these harsh conditions, with one of them dying a few months before their rescue in 1749. It is also about the research done by one David Roberts and his rather crazy adventures through the modern world of research all over the world as well as the rather interesting Russian bureaucracies. He adventures to the area in which these men survived, and that is where I am now. David is searching for the cabin in which these men survived for so long under such harsh conditions.

Me, I am a driver. Lately, the conditions of my life have led me to boredom, as well as for my wife, Shusli. Life is boring in this winter stretch with the almost constant presence of clouds and at least a drizzle of rain daily...often much more. These conditions have not been stress free, but as I read of adventures and harsh torture, genocide, etc., I cannot help but feel like not a whole lot is happening. ...booorrrred...

I think of the constant conditions without family for all those years those four men endured in what is even now described as a lonely place. I've had dreams of floating on a flat chunk of ice, naked, in the dark calm waters of icy land many a time. Thinking of plunging myself into the water that is so dark and mysterious and would claim my life should I do so. I never do in those dreams. I just sit, or lay, amazed at the beauty that such a harsh place in the world carries. And it feels like the world is asleep in a boredom. A boredom of waiting... waiting for something... something to happen...

As I said, I am a truck driver. And in this rainy weather, when it is raining, I am mostly wet. I acquire moisture inside my coat, and am usually wet until my day is over. When it is not raining, I fare well, but life is interesting...and boring...

Recently, I trained a driver, kind of. The man, a nice enough fellow, could not back up a truck. This, of course, raises my suspicions. With the type of activism I do, I am always wary of such folk who claim to be capable of something...and are not. He supposedly drove for Fed Ex for a year or so, but he also could not work a stick shift. Fed Ex, he told me, have nine speeds, and since he was there for over a year, you think he would be capable of getting a truck up a small incline with easy effort in a stick. But such efforts were...difficult...for this man, who not only killed the truck we were in and incapable of getting it up the hill (I had to take over), he had also done something similar with another driver. For me, and many other drivers I know, once you learn a stick, it is almost impossible to forget. Today, while at my second stop, I was told he didn't show up there until 10:30am one day. On a bad day, like today [I had to go to a Plaid to get batteries for my pager], I am there at 4:30am. That is a rather large difference. He was also at one of my stops that I am at by 7:30 even on a busy day at 2:30 in the afternoon. The man no longer works there. That, amigoes, is about the extent of my adventures lately. Maybe the man lied, maybe he really can't keep a stick shift in his memory, maybe he always had difficulties backing up (but in a box truck?), ...more than likely it was nothing.

Shusli and I have been almost frantic about getting the heck out of this neighborhood. We would either move to Coos Bay or somewhere around here closer to nature. Our neigborhood has three well known meth houses (see Shusli's blog) within a block. We are constantly barraged by noise. Yesterday, Eli informed us that there were gun shots fired just across the street. In the end, however, we have kind of surrendered ourselves to staying here until at least September, most likely until the summer of '09. We will scrimp and save (it is tough not buying mochas on a frequent basis for me, but shit, big fucking deal! It's not like I'm stranded in the arctic or surviving in a prison in Inverness where my dying comrades are constantly moaning, the dead are left at our feet, and I am waiting in our shit and piss for days on end to be tried and hanged for fighting back.) until we have a nice downpayment for a house, or we may do whatever the conditions deem need to be done depending on if the collapse has come by then.

Until then, maybe these dreams of education will continue. Maybe we will be bored until spring comes along (is boredom natural in winter?). Maybe excitement will come or we will create it ourselves. Who knows? Until then...