Friday, March 14, 2014

#186. or, Shoes.

  It occurred to me yesterday, or it might have been the day before, that it's been a little over a month since I've worn shoes.

  Now, when I say that, in my imagination you have a vision of me wandering about like some free spirit in bare feet and flowing robes, pondering the philosophies of life. Also, you're probably imagining me with better hair than I actually have.

  That's not what I meant.

  Yesterday. Or the day before, I had to go to town, or some place else relatively mundane, that constitutes the connect-a-dots of my uneventful life. Yet still being one of the high points of my day to day existence. And as I sat on the bench in our porch, for the first time in a little over a month, I had a third choice of footwear to decide from.

  I considered wearing my shoes.

  Because, for the last while, my primary choice of footwear has been slipping my feet into a layer of felt and rubber. Unless I've been going to town. Then it was felt and a layer of canvas, or Thinsulate, or some other man-made synthetic, created to look moderately fashionable, but still provide a modicum of warmth while negotiating the outdoors in sub-zero temperatures. And as I sat there, with the shoes tossed into the mix, complicating my decision, that's when it occurred to me that it has been a little over a month since I've worn shoes.

  It was a little over a month ago that I had to make a different footwear decision, which ended up being, I would wear my flip flops onto the plane, and switch to the shoes I had in my carry-on, when I arrived back in the airport on my way home from Cuba. Actually, that was a pretty easy choice to make, because, while I was on holidays, all of the decisions on jobs that I need to make on a daily basis stayed at home. Things like trying to get enough pens cleared of snow so I could bring in the cows and finally wean my calves. Actually wean those same calves, picking out heifers that I want to keep for replacement cows, and getting the rest sent to market, then getting the cows back to the field where they spend the winter. Dealing with frozen watering bowls, frozen toes, falling grain markets, and trying to get the addition to our barn completed so we can use that barn before we start calving in about a week. Plus attending the boy's hockey and basketball games we squeezed in, when we wrangled free time.

  All things I've been dealing with since we got home, and consequently, things that have kept me from writing a post about our trip to Cuba, and doing it the justice I felt it deserved.

  So here's the condensed version.

  Cuba is a really nice place to visit. You should go.

  .......unless you're a US citizen. Because while it's a nice place to go, I think you have to jump through a lot of hoops, if you're an American, to get there. But it's still nice. Nice enough to give it a try if you have the opportunity.

Here's a picture from our balcony

....and a beach,

....and an old fort,

....and a church,
....and a pink hotel.

   Actually, there's a room in this hotel that's preserved as a museum, because some writer guy named Hemingway stayed here. It was also pointed out to us, on at least three instances, bars at which this Hemingway fellow frequented. It would seem, that if you ever want to have some place preserved as a monument to having you stayed there, you should also mark that stay with copious amounts of drinking. At least if you want to be remembered as a writer of some renown.

  Also, if you're an old car enthusiast, Cuba is a place that seems to be frozen in time with all of the 50's and 60's era American cars.

Cars like this......

  Now granted, this one was pretty mint. And I'm not really certain on how they get the parts to keep them running. But there was a lot of them, in various states of repair, as well as a good deal of Soviet era cars and trucks. It's hard not to imagine KGB agents behind the wheel of an early 70's Russian sedan.

  Unfortunately, I neglected to take any pictures of my toes in the sand. That's one of the things I like about being on the beach. Sand between my toes, and the ocean lapping at my ankles. For now, or at least the next month or so, the only thing that's going to lapping at my ankles is the manure I'm slogging through as a winters worth of frozen cow pies and snow melt and combine into a brown/green slop, as I make my rounds checking the calves.

  But when I get the chance to go to town, you can bet I'll be trading in my rubber boots for less practical, and maybe a bit more fashionable footwear.

  .........hopefully shoes.





31 comments:

  1. Cuba looks beautiful ... I've heard it's very cheap to vacation down there. Were there any Ladas? That was the first car we ever bought brand new - cost us a whopping $3000 and that sucker lasted forever!

    It's been at least five years since I've felt sand between my toes. I almost felt mud between them this week when my boots got stuck and I didn't think I was going to be able to walk out of there with them still attached to my feet. I guess I should be thankful there wasn't any manure mixed in.

    I just found out the difference between a Hereford and a heifer yesterday. And really showed my ignorance when I asked at the saloon whether the upcoming stud auction was for cows or eligible young men, neither of which was correct. I'm gonna have to step up my game if I hope to ever fit into country life. LOL

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    1. Funny you should mention Ladas. I did in fact see more than a few of them, and I also had to point one or two out to the boy and tell him the story about the one that our neighbour had.

      I fully expect to leave my boot behind at least once this spring. Preferably not when there's a nasty cow chasing me.

      If it's any consolation, I've never been to a stud auction either. As a buyer, OR up there strutting my business about the sales ring. :)

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  2. When the snow finally melts enough for me to deal with a winter's worth of dog poop I'm just going to keep reminding myself at least it isn't cow poop.

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    1. Hey Vanessa,

      Do what I do, and just leave it. The first lawn mowing generally takes care of it all for you. :)

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  3. Loving the photos! Of course, I've never been to Cuba, so I appreciated you sharing your view. And I find that funny, about all the American Heavy Metal down there; what a beautiful car.
    As a Californian, there are entire seasons when I don't wear real shoes – it's just too damn hot. My feet get marvelously calloused during this time.

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    1. Hi Natalie,

      I guess, before all that nasty business in the early 60's, Cuba was a hot bed of American tourism and in turn, they brought along their own cars. You can tell some of them have been cannibalized and now there's more than one variety of car in one unit, but there's still a lot of them that look really good. It's like stepping back in time.

      I wear flip flops as often as I can in the summer, but unfortunately, there's only so much my work will allow me to get away with.

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  4. I am so jealous of your vacation. And the car thing is really interesting. It makes me think of Godfather movies. Now I have a mental image of a young Pacino and Hemingway tossing back mojitos is light colored suits together...

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    1. One of the tourist attractions in Varadaro is Al Capone's house, which is a restaurant now. Apparently, he never actually lived there though, or even visited. It was just an off shore residence so he could keep some of his money out of America. Tax evasion and all that jazz.

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  5. I was just thinking about how much I miss my shoes this morning! Because it snowed again last night and I had to pull on the rubber and felt numbers to go out to the chicken coup... I feel your pain... although Cuba was a nice break I bet! looked lovely!

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    1. Hey Zoe,

      I look forward to those winter get-a-ways so very much. I just wish they were more affordable.

      I don't see packing up my winter boots just yet, but I did dig out my work boots to wear while I'm doing a bit of work in the barn. It was wonderful. As was Cuba! :)

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  6. Yes, I'd consider traveling to Cuba if it wasn't such a hassle. I imagine it will become a paradise once the Castro boys are gone.

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    1. Hi Stephen.

      I can't say for sure, but I got the feeling that there are a lot of people there who are very proud of their country and what Castro was able to do for them. They went through a bit of hard times with the collapse of the Soviet Union, being their major trading partner. Tourism seems to be what is pulling them out of that, these days.

      I think they're a good 15 or so years behind what, say Cancun is now, but for me, that's part of it's charm. I'd certainly like to go back.

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  7. Thank you for sharing this! I love the pictures. Too often we don't get to see this side of Cuba, the human side. We only see the political side. I am sorry that you had to come back to the bleakness of winter. I wish for you a warm, early Spring.

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    1. Hi McGuffy Ann,

      We have quite a bunch of pictures, and I was hard pressed to choose a few that would give a balance of life there. Havana is absolutely beautiful with all of the old architecture. And of the places we've visited in the tropics, I would say that the Cubans were the friendliest of them all.

      About the winter, we've been on a bit of a thaw, so there's a light at the end of the tunnel. :)

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  8. I love the photographs, especially the one of the church - very cool.

    Thank you for conjuring the image of you with manure lapping at your ankles.

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    1. Hey Karen,

      If you like that type of thing, there's no end to the buildings you could spend hours just looking at.

      We now interrupt this comment, to return to the regularly scheduled manure lapping.

      .....which sounds so much worse than I had intended.

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  9. Sometimes I get nostalgic and think of returning to colder climates. Thanks for the reality check (not that I'm wearing flip flops any time soon, but no rubber and felt either.)

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    1. Hi TriGirl,

      There's always room up here for you if you ever change your mind. :)

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  10. As a cattle farmer friend said to me the other day, "that shit smells like cash." Just keep that in mind friend.

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    1. Ya, but they don't appreciate it when you go to the CO-OP for coffee, smelling like cash. :/

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  11. I like how shoes prompted the condensed version of the trip. I get the impression that even with all the hassles, it must have been worth it. (It's always hard to come home and deal with realities after a trip, too.)

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    1. I had wanted to do a post about our Cuba trip for quite a while. I wrote one up and didn't like it at all because it sounded like an encyclopaedia selection. So it's still just sitting there.

      This post certainly didn't do it justice, but I sort of like the way it unfolded for me, out of the blue.

      Fortunately for me, being Canadian, travelling to Cuba is really quite a breeze. It seems to be the vacation hot spot for us in the great white north. :)

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  12. That photo on the beach looks exactly like TV led me to believe.

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    1. Hey Michael,

      I base all of my perceptions of reality on what I see on TV. That and the internet.

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  13. Hi Suzanne,

    We came home to some nasty, nasty weather. But I certainly wouldn't have not gone.

    I think I need to look for some new shoes as well. A little arch support would certainly do me some good.:)

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  14. I was going to call you a dirty hippie for not wearing shoes, but the rest of the blog took the wind out of my sails.

    You're not a dirty hippie, even if you are indirectly encouraging me to flout the laws of my country to go and visit those commies.

    I wonder whether Spain advertises which bull fighting stadiums Hemingway went to.

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    1. Hey Katy!

      Sorry for that bit of misdirection.

      Now that you mention it, the nobody goes without, everybody's happy because there's no competition because nobody owns more than their neighbour, Cuban socialist lifestyle has rather hippie-esque undertones.

      I say flout those laws! Visit the commies.

      It would be pretty interesting to see if it was like that in Spain. It seemed that every 2nd corner we turned in Havana had a pub with a sign on it that said Hemingway frequented the place.Based on what I saw, I'd be surprised if the dude was ever sober.

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  15. I don't know a lot about classic cars, but I appreciate their beauty. Seeing your photo makes me long for the warm days of summer filled with car shows.
    I can't wait to put away my boots!

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    1. Hi Cynk,

      I could do with a few summer time car shows myself! :)

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  16. Hi My Friend Ken!

    Shoes. A topic after my own heart.

    I do love all the pics. It sure makes a place I've never been more real than what I could read about or see elsewhere. Seeing it through the eyes of a friend makes it that much more tangible.

    The only shoes I want to think about right now are the rubber strappy variety - namely flip flops.

    As it stands right now, I am at the beach, and it was 32 with a wind chill today. This rots on a large scale. But it is still the beach. So I can't complain.

    This weather is just wacky, and I shall zoom back up to your picture fo the beach above, perch my toes against the screen and wish myself there.

    Thanks for the vicarious warmth. :)

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    1. Hello, my friend!

      When I say that I'm on a beach at 32 degrees, means something substantially different than your beach at 32 degrees! Hopefully you get a bit of benefit out of the ocean either way.

      I have a ton more pictures, but I'm always leery about how many I can post to blogger without crashing the whole darned thing. I tried to pick a a bit of a representation of the highlights.

      Here's hoping your flip flops aren't packed away too far. I'm certain you'll be in them soon enough! Mine are still in the corner from holidays and I can't wait to get back into them. :)

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