Tag Archives: Driving

Aug6

A car accident in France

Posted on August 6, 2024 by perfectusvarrus

Sunday, 07-July-2024

On the drive home from picking my Mom and Steve up from the airport, a challenging situation arose.

As the title suggests, I got in a car accident.

I’d rented a car, since Cassis is a good ways from Marseille and we were considering taking some day trips into central France. I wasn’t too worried about it – France is a bit crazy with their driving (everyone is training to be an F1 racer. EVERYONE.) but they’re fairly predictable… at least in my opinion. And, frankly, I was confident – I’d driven in France and Spain before, and come out from it none the worse for wear.

I won’t include photos here, because car accident, but understand that it was thankfully quite simple and minor. It took a while to deal with, of course, but there wasn’t any blood and both vehicles seemed to work perfectly fine afterward. I also won’t include details here, since there was a police report… and I’ll let them stick to the official details.

Instead, the point of this post is to walk through what I did, and how I did it, during the parts that happened after the vehicles stopped moving.

Mainly, I shut up.

See, I don’t speak fluent (or conversational) French. Because of that, heated communication in an emotional time isn’t an ideal situation or decision. So, I shut up.

I moved the car out of the way, and let people do their thing. A car stopped to help, the police arrived, and we used Google Translate when necessary. I shut up. I was ignored, which isn’t pleasant… but far preferable to the alternative of being thrown off the side of the road by over-energetic bystanders who are sick of tourists.

I answered the questions posed, and kept the extra details to a minimum. And, 90min later, we were back on the road.

It wasn’t pleasant, and definitely took me a few days to fully recover from… but I’m okay with that. It happened, and we were able to move on from it. That, at the end of the day, is the only important part.

Jan11

An afternoon and evening on Cannon Beach

Posted on January 11, 2024 by perfectusvarrus

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Saturday, 11-Nov-2023

After a day hiking out in the Snow on Mt. Hood, I felt the need to switch it up, and embrace one of the many excellent attributes of Oregon. I felt the need to go to the beach.

The morning found me brunching at a new spot in town, which has the best BLTs I’ve had in years, sipping a latte and getting myself ready for the adventure. I wasn’t running; instead, I was aiming for a later start than normal with a goal of finishing my walk after dark had fallen on the beach.

Not quite sure why I had this goal, but… you know what, we embrace the gut feelings that we’ve got, and sometimes we find some excellent adventures along the ride.

This time was one of those times.

I got to Cannon around… 2:00, maybe? With approximately three hours left before sunset. I mean, less… but three hours of light, at least. My goal was to use all that light up walking outbound – then, I’d turn around once the sun was down, trekking my way back in the dark.

The plan went smoothly. The tide was out (not a surprise, that was why I went on Saturday, vs. Friday or Sunday), so I had an endless beach surrounding me to walk on. The sand was well-packed, the views were beautiful, and I even flew the drone a bit to get some pictures of myself.

The sun dipped down, then fully sank below the horizon, and I turned back to town and warmth.

The hike back was glorious. I’ve spoken about hiking after dark before, how your whole world condenses and focuses down to a small pool of warm light, shining from a headlamp into the darkness… this was absolutely one of those times. The endless beach surrounding me, the light fog rising up from the warm sand into the cold night air, the immense distance between surf and full shore… I legitimately couldn’t tell where the sand ended and the sky began.

My world wasn’t just focused into the thin ray of my headlamp… it devolved and unfocused into a well of grey. The sand, the horizon, the sky… I couldn’t tell the difference. I had to check my GPS every so often to make sure I was still moving, still heading toward my destination… still on Earth, even.

It gave me space to think, to disconnect, and to let my thoughts wander.

I could have strayed further toward the surf, or to the shoreline, to get a handrail for my senses… but I chose not to. I was enjoying this sense of limbo, of slowly walking through the infinite plains of purgatory. It lasted long enough for me – The lights of town started shining through the fog just as my mind was starting to miss the stimulation of the world.

It was lovely.

Oct11

Not laboring on Labor Day

Posted on October 11, 2023 by perfectusvarrus

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Weekend of 04-Sept-2023 – Friday, 01-Sept-2023 through Monday, 04-Sept-2023

I didn’t really labor, over labor day. I’d spent the last few weekends in the woods exploring, and felt the need to relax and recenter myself a bit before the coming few backpacking adventures. I had three big backpacking trips lined up – two days in Goat Rocks, then three days in the Alpine Lakes, then four days in the Wallowas.

It’s important to balance rest and adventure, so thus – a weekend of rest.

I didn’t stay in the whole time, of course. I mean… I’m kinda antsy, so laying on the couch wasn’t quite in the cards… though I did try to maximize the couch time as best I could, to give myself some legit rest time before the next few weekends.

I started off with Brunch, because clearly Brunch is the best way to start a long weekend… as evinced by the capitalization of Brunch.

Then a long roadtrip, driving south past Salem, around Bend, to Mt. Hood, and back to Wilsonville. I stopped to fly the drone a bit, stretch my legs, and even swing the sword around. I explored, appreciated the rumble of the engine, saw a beautiful sunset, and alternated between listening to music and embracing the silence.

Saturday I rested, hit the gym a bit, and went out to dinner. I couldn’t tell you exactly why, but Labor Day weekend marked a turning point for me in Wilsonville… I felt the drive to explore some nearby restaurants, and Saturday felt like a Mexican day… which found me staring down a massive plate of enchiladas paired with a margarita the size of my head and a delicious bowl of fried ice cream for the little sweet tooth I have.

Sunday and Monday brought more relaxation and more fun meals – I painted one of the figurines that I’d bought ages back, walked to the grocery store to pick up some steak, and even did dinner with my neighbors – finally watching Stand By Me with them! Such a great movie… and definitely helped prepare me for backpacking (and avoiding leeches)!