Since every moment of our lives should be considered an adventure, I just went to the Fry's grocery store and had 10,000 items to select from. I had the money to pay for what I want, so I'm blessed.
I think life would have been a constant adventure back when our species were hunter-gatherers. Imagine the uncertainty of never being sure whether one would find tubers, grains, fruits, veggies, or herbs - animals might have got there first. Variations in the seasons would mean never knowing how much might be in the places one last found them. We would never know whether the hunters would have success in finding and catching prey. Prey could often escape, or turn and fight, wounding or killing the hunters. Depending on which part of the world we lived in, there may often have been several days without food.
These days, many people live humdrum predictable lives of routine, live in airconditioned houses, travel in airconditioned cars, work in airconditioned offices or factories - cut off from nature. Some choose never to watch any but the most local news, with no clue about what goes on in the wider world. Much of Western life is so great a retreat from the risks of adventure, that we then recreate it in fantasy through film, drama and literature.
Adventure? I can't remember. Wait...it was a tryst with my girlfriend in a public park about 24 years ago. Some boy scouts walked past us but didn't see us.
I remember something similar with Ari about 35 years ago. Bright moonlight in Hyde Park under a gigantic and ancient Moreton Bay Fig (no passers-by), on our way to the Sydney Opera House to hear the Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart's The Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra in C major, K. 299/297c. Wonderful night. :)
I stopped at a new gasoline station/store a while back just for gasoline. I pulled up to the pump and got out of the car. As I was looking for the slot to insert my credit card I realized extremely loud rock and roll music was blaring from the pumping machine. It was brand new and had buttons I had never seen before. I found a button with a symbol not unlike the one on my computer that is for turning the volume up and down. So, I pressed it. Nothing. I pressed it again. Nothing. Then more on the right side then more on the left. The volume didn't change. All of a sudden a woman's loud voice came out of the machine asking what help I was soliciting. I politely asked her how I might reduce the volume of the music. She asked that I repeat myself...... twice. I just didn't realize she was saying (without saying) Are you kidding me!?I stepped forward thinking I might could make eye contact with her if she was the cashier in the store. Sure enough, she was standing on her chair to get a look at me. That's when I realized that there, indeed, was no way to get rid of the annoying music. I waved at her and got back into my car and drove away. This became really funny to me the first time I shared it with someone who was just bent over laughing. The funniest things are real things we do. Innocently. It seems that all of the new gasoline pumps are pumping out rock and roll these days so investing in ear plugs might be in order.
This post was edited by Thriftymaid at November 17, 2022 4:52 AM MST
No, I have encountered similar things. Many newer gas station pumps have built-in video screens and speakers which start hyping at you as soon as the device knows you're a captive audience.
How surreal! Something similar has started happening in public lavatories near our beaches. As if one had to hide the sound of bodily functions. I'd rather hang on and wait till I can get to a more conventional and quiet cubicle.
I so hope we never get that deafening blast of rock music at our petrol pumps -- and if we do, I hope the consumers mount a boycott and protest movement.
Those who love rock so much that they can't live a minute without it are probably already using their MP3 players, mobile phones and ghettos blasters.
BTW - I like your definition and sense of adventure. :)
I drove 10,000 miles from Florida to British Colombia, Canada and back. I saw my first grizzly bears. I was going to upload the picture we took of them but I am at the wrong computer. Maybe later.
If you had a diary or a recorded running commentary of your trip, I'd be interested. Am reading Jack Kerouac's On the Road at the moment -- his mad hitch-hiking journeys across and around America in 1947 & 49. It gives a certain flavour of the country which I imagine might still be the same in some ways. Would be fascinating to compare how it has changed.
Didn't Kerouac go from NE to SW? I did write short blogs with pictures for friends and family, maybe four of them. I could cut and paste the text, but I don't know about the pictures.
2 of many possible reposts... Hope it was a tiny boom and didn't leave you deaf. or Now how could you get better when you're always fine just as you are?
I went out for a knight on the town with a Steeple Jack and got to see far more than I bargained for...My parents had always shielded me from such Things.....and it was not some Thing I wanted in the end.... I had to try reaaly hard as well not to just fall for him in a big way ....It was quite a come down for him in a way to :(
This post was edited by Thriftymaid at November 17, 2022 4:53 AM MST
WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH 