Grazing on the cliffs. If you want a new perspective on life – just come to Newfoundland and sit on the edge of a jagged edged cliff four hundred feet above the vast expanse of the North Atlantic and feel the magnetic pull of thrashing waves of waves. Once you recover from the ensuing vertigo and swallow a reeling nausea threatening the back of your throat - breathe in some of the purest air on the planet and thanks be to Jesus make it back to solid ground even if it means crawling on your belly like a snail through the ground cover roses and stinging nettles.
Welcome to Newfoundland - it’s not for the sooky of heart- but I think it’s paradise. Once you regain your equilibrium, think back on that tantrum you had last week – you know the one where you spazzed out like a Roomba on a cleaning binge, cursing and flapping your way through the house looking for your dead cell phone. These daily trials lose their potency in an elemental landscape of rock, water and wind - where death by drowning lurks in every cove and harbour. No wonder Newfoundlanders have a keen sense of humour - a necessary survival skill even for us machines. Newfoundlanders have a long history of rescuing the shipwrecked, disenfranchised and rerouted. They are Ole Blu’s kinda people. Always ready to lend a hand.
Welcome to Newfoundland - it’s not for the sooky of heart- but I think it’s paradise. Once you regain your equilibrium, think back on that tantrum you had last week – you know the one where you spazzed out like a Roomba on a cleaning binge, cursing and flapping your way through the house looking for your dead cell phone. These daily trials lose their potency in an elemental landscape of rock, water and wind - where death by drowning lurks in every cove and harbour. No wonder Newfoundlanders have a keen sense of humour - a necessary survival skill even for us machines. Newfoundlanders have a long history of rescuing the shipwrecked, disenfranchised and rerouted. They are Ole Blu’s kinda people. Always ready to lend a hand.
Newfoundland Fisherman - drawing by Louise Markus
Take for instance the last trip we made to Montreal and back to Newfoundland. I was dragging a 22 foot fully loaded trailer. When I say drag let me emphasize the 60’s sense of the word. These trailers are a pain in the differential. And frankly they’re dumb as shit. No breaks. No steering. No engine. The only thing they have going for them is wheels. Anyway I’m 3 kilometers, a little over a mile away from home when the lug nuts on one of the trailer wheels shears off and the tire bounces merrily into the forest, free at last from its dumb burden. G goes hunting for the runaway tire, trashing around the woods like Dr. Livingstone, I presume, but the tire when found is useless – we have no extra lug nuts and the hub is affixed to the wheel.
Ole Blu - hard at work as always! We’ve managed to stop a few yards from a dirt driveway but I’d have to make a tight corner pulling a one-wheeled trailer. Buddy (that’s Newfoundlandese for man) comes running out of his house and kindly offers to help - volunteers his driveway for our use. G tries dragging the trailer onto the driveway. Oops! Did I say G? It’s yours truly being torn apart like a torture rack victim - spitting up dust and getting nowhere. Then another buddy on his way home from work pulls over when he sees we’re having a breakdown party. He uses his truck to push the trailer more in line with the driveway. Then he drives home to get an extra wheel he has kicking around and sure enough it fits that no good trailer perfectly. That’s Newfoundland for you – full of down home human made miracles. Despite all kinds of hardship they’ve been surviving on The Rock for generations not just on cod & potatoes, but music, art, storytelling and bigheartedness.
If you ask me (it's surprising how many people talk to their vehicles more than their own kind) bigheartedness is a way to combat corporate greedypocketness. As citizens (and I consider myself one despite my lack of suffrage) it’s our responsibility to help corporations with their greed problem. One way to do this is to buy from small business and I don’t mean just lettuce. Support your local artists and artisans! Instead of acquiring that celebrity t shirt show your individuality and buy from a small entrepreneur artist. Lulu and Ole Blu have decided to join forces with the growing movement to relieve the corporation of some of its bad karma. Our part is small but we have to start somewhere. I hereby announce the opening of my new product line – Ole Blu’s General Store where you can buy Ole Blu tshirts on line . Check it out at http://www.cafepress.com/oleblusgeneralstore
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