Silence In Shanghai

When I was a kid, maybe 7 or 8 years old I was at my grandma's house....my mom's mom Barbara's.  I can't remember what I was doing, but I distinctly remember her turning at me, a bit irritated, and saying "Calee go sit on the davenport!".  I had enough sense to listen to what she said....but I had no idea what the hell a davenport was.  A bit frightened, and in a flail of a guess, I went into the laundry room and sat on the dryer.

That is a true story and my point is I've been around long enough to know the sound of crap when it's about to hit the fan.  You want to know what that sound is?  Silence.

That has been the last two weeks here in Shanghai.  Sarah and I have been here for 2 weeks straight.....no quick, or long trips out, just straight Shanghai.  Silent.

Well that's about to come to a close.  Sarah leaves for the US tomorrow, the day before Dade arrives here.  Dade and I will be here for a few days then will be travelling to Beijing to breath some particularly bad air.  Sarah gets back sometime while we are gone.  We get back for a day and Dade leaves....at which point Sarah and I are travelling to Hong Kong.  Once back from Hong Kong we're here for three days then going to Taiwan....then I'm out to the US.  And on and on.  Sarah's birthday, August to US, September all over the place.....it just doesn't stop.....and all of a sudden here I am- the very person I swore I'd never be.  The planning in advance kind.

I don't like to plan.  I can't stand it when I hear someone say "We might have one weekend at the end of July" or "I wish I could but I'm booked until September".

So, what am I going to do about it?  Can Sarah and I avoid it?  In short, yes. 

In what many would consider complete irresponsibility, I'm quitting my job.  I'm changing my future plans to come home to I don't know when.....and am probably just going to show up one day at your house needing a place to stay.  We're going to bail for Sarah's birthday and hope we don't need a visa for where ever we show up.  I'm bailing to Alaska to fish, and we're going to close out the year with a backpack and a sleeping bag.  Maybe in Australia, maybe in your living room....we'll know a few days in advance.

Like I said before, we wish to live deliberately- and to see if we can not learn what the world has to teach....and not, when we come to die discover that we have not lived.....

Unfortunately it is probably time for me to fess up and let you know that I stole that line the first time I used it from Stewie Griffin from Family Guy.  This time I couldn't remember it so I cut and copied it from a previous blog.

Last, a while back Driver David went bow hunting over here and shot a pheasant.  Knowing that I use feathers to tie flies he brought me some pheasant tail from the bird he shot.  Well, this was before that whole bird flu thing really came along....and so I accepted the gift with open arms.

Fast forward to this last week and I've had time to tie up some flies for my trip to Klamath.  I sprayed the tail feathers with Lysol and called it good.  I've tied these in years past and every year they seem to evolve.  This year they include Chinese pheasant tail, olive rabbit fur with rubber legs, Hungarian partridge, the wing is goose and the collar is peacock....a blend of H7N9 if I've ever seen one.  So I'm going to name it either "Calee's Bird Flu Fly", "H7N9 Trout Slayer", or "Trout Influenza"......not sure which yet but I promise it'll catch fish!






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