01-16-2019, 10:54 AM
Here's a photo (taken later) of one of the vines snakes.
![[Image: uc?export=view&id=1yaIOlVKdIoMNtiM9vmYm0KxOeGZidtnA]](https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1yaIOlVKdIoMNtiM9vmYm0KxOeGZidtnA)
2018-12-30: Part 5 -- My Shoes: So Close, Yet So Far Away
We get back to the ecolodge in late afternoon. I'm last, and hurting. Paula's pace isn't so fast that we can't keep up, but it's been unrelenting, never a pause to look around or time to drink water -- and it's hard to drink while walking a trail. Yesterday's long sockless trek had taken its toll; I'd worn my flat-souled cushionless shoes for that, meant for Tai Chi workouts, not long walks, and they are hard on my hips. And all of today they've been rebelling, sensitive to the least jar. At the ecolodge, the others climb the steps to the staging area of the deck, sit down on benches and remove their shoes. I settle on the steps themselves to work off my shoes, after which I crab delicately up onto the deck and onto a bench. Too late I realize my shoes are two steps below and out of reach. This may sound preposterous, but I can't wrap my mind around how to retrieve them, not in a dignified way, not in my current state. I'm beyond stepping down a step, let alone bending over. I wait for Mohsin, LC, Paula and Stewart to leave the staging area so I can retrieve them in my own pathetic way, but they are in a chatty mood.
And then the three rangers come into view down the path, followed by the snakers. Once more they've been skunked.
Mohsin takes great pleasure in showing them the vine snakes. There's irony in the fact that I was denied a spot in their group but ended up with the group that found snakes, but I only realize that now; at the time, I was intent on the conundrum of my shoes.
There's handling and photos of the vine snakes, with pointers by Mohsin. He transfers them to a better sack, explains that the snakes will be fine like that for the night, as mentally they simply shut down. Then people go off to get cleaned up. Finally I can ease down to sit on the deck, scoot to the steps and down them, and retrieve my shoes, which I move to the deck proper, under a bench and out of the way. With a lot of wobbling and dizziness I leverage myself to my feet, then go get cleaned up as well.
It isn't long before the snakers have gathered and are heading out for another walk. There's a friendly competitiveness about it; they don't want to be outdone by us. Surprisingly, it's a brief walk, as they're back within the hour and with a major find. But in the interim there's a minor incident with Stewart.
2018-12-30: Character Study -- Stuart (Stewart)
[LC just notified me that he spells his name Stuart. I don't have any photos of him.]
Stuart is a big soft guy weighing 230 pounds. When he lurches about in a boat, the rest of us must shift to compensate for his whims. A real estate developer, he seems out of place in the jungle. He knows the South Bay, was peripherally involved in the Sunnyvale Town Center redevelopment effort, but not the guiding hand in that whole fiasco of bankruptcies. He argues that the problem with congested areas isn't really too many people but not enough people, and the trick is to build upward, increasing the population density -- a strange viewpoint to hear at an ecolodge.
He's talkative, loud, irreverent. He'll joke about going upriver to hand out beads and bibles to uncontacted tribes. He can be very funny, and LC sees a lot of the class clown in him. But he's also a know-it-all, very opinionated, often expressing contempt for some group.
On this particular occasion while the snakers are off on their walk, he is targeting the Southern poor, blaming them for their own problems. They're in debt, on welfare, living in squalor, and yet if you take a close look, you'll see that they have big-screen TVs, the newest smart phones, new cars, etc. Someone challenges him over whether he's even been down there and seen it firsthand. He says he has. He says they could climb out of their poverty if they really wanted to. But they do not. It's in their nature, their character; that's the problem.
I finally speak up (though hoarse from dehydration), telling him that "character" is a very nebulous concept, and it's more about educational deficiencies, not knowing how to escape their poverty. Their parents can't teach them, not knowing how themselves, and the schools don't teach it. (Of course, there's a lot more to it than that.) I blather, I suppose, being very tired, about how commercials manipulate you, try to convince you you're defective and their product will fix you, and schools ought to teach how to recognize this, and how to manage money and prioritize. Mohsin joins in, expanding on this with greater lucidity.
And then the snakers return from their jungle walk. They were only gone an hour, but that's all they needed.
2018-12-30: Part 5 -- My Shoes: So Close, Yet So Far Away
We get back to the ecolodge in late afternoon. I'm last, and hurting. Paula's pace isn't so fast that we can't keep up, but it's been unrelenting, never a pause to look around or time to drink water -- and it's hard to drink while walking a trail. Yesterday's long sockless trek had taken its toll; I'd worn my flat-souled cushionless shoes for that, meant for Tai Chi workouts, not long walks, and they are hard on my hips. And all of today they've been rebelling, sensitive to the least jar. At the ecolodge, the others climb the steps to the staging area of the deck, sit down on benches and remove their shoes. I settle on the steps themselves to work off my shoes, after which I crab delicately up onto the deck and onto a bench. Too late I realize my shoes are two steps below and out of reach. This may sound preposterous, but I can't wrap my mind around how to retrieve them, not in a dignified way, not in my current state. I'm beyond stepping down a step, let alone bending over. I wait for Mohsin, LC, Paula and Stewart to leave the staging area so I can retrieve them in my own pathetic way, but they are in a chatty mood.
And then the three rangers come into view down the path, followed by the snakers. Once more they've been skunked.
Mohsin takes great pleasure in showing them the vine snakes. There's irony in the fact that I was denied a spot in their group but ended up with the group that found snakes, but I only realize that now; at the time, I was intent on the conundrum of my shoes.
There's handling and photos of the vine snakes, with pointers by Mohsin. He transfers them to a better sack, explains that the snakes will be fine like that for the night, as mentally they simply shut down. Then people go off to get cleaned up. Finally I can ease down to sit on the deck, scoot to the steps and down them, and retrieve my shoes, which I move to the deck proper, under a bench and out of the way. With a lot of wobbling and dizziness I leverage myself to my feet, then go get cleaned up as well.
It isn't long before the snakers have gathered and are heading out for another walk. There's a friendly competitiveness about it; they don't want to be outdone by us. Surprisingly, it's a brief walk, as they're back within the hour and with a major find. But in the interim there's a minor incident with Stewart.
2018-12-30: Character Study -- Stuart (Stewart)
[LC just notified me that he spells his name Stuart. I don't have any photos of him.]
Stuart is a big soft guy weighing 230 pounds. When he lurches about in a boat, the rest of us must shift to compensate for his whims. A real estate developer, he seems out of place in the jungle. He knows the South Bay, was peripherally involved in the Sunnyvale Town Center redevelopment effort, but not the guiding hand in that whole fiasco of bankruptcies. He argues that the problem with congested areas isn't really too many people but not enough people, and the trick is to build upward, increasing the population density -- a strange viewpoint to hear at an ecolodge.
He's talkative, loud, irreverent. He'll joke about going upriver to hand out beads and bibles to uncontacted tribes. He can be very funny, and LC sees a lot of the class clown in him. But he's also a know-it-all, very opinionated, often expressing contempt for some group.
On this particular occasion while the snakers are off on their walk, he is targeting the Southern poor, blaming them for their own problems. They're in debt, on welfare, living in squalor, and yet if you take a close look, you'll see that they have big-screen TVs, the newest smart phones, new cars, etc. Someone challenges him over whether he's even been down there and seen it firsthand. He says he has. He says they could climb out of their poverty if they really wanted to. But they do not. It's in their nature, their character; that's the problem.
I finally speak up (though hoarse from dehydration), telling him that "character" is a very nebulous concept, and it's more about educational deficiencies, not knowing how to escape their poverty. Their parents can't teach them, not knowing how themselves, and the schools don't teach it. (Of course, there's a lot more to it than that.) I blather, I suppose, being very tired, about how commercials manipulate you, try to convince you you're defective and their product will fix you, and schools ought to teach how to recognize this, and how to manage money and prioritize. Mohsin joins in, expanding on this with greater lucidity.
And then the snakers return from their jungle walk. They were only gone an hour, but that's all they needed.