Today we pressed the Expedia CONFIRM button and booked our flight back to Canada for next week. It's time to come home for a reset from the reset.
Both of us are weary and in need of a regroup before we head out on the road again to some of the other places we want to go to. Being here in Yachats, Oregon and having a chance to sit and stare at the ocean has driven home to us how much we have done over the past 5 and a bit months. We'd still like to go to Alaska. We'd like to go to the Arctic. We'd like to go to Iceland and Newfoundland and Labrador. But we need to regroup, change up the underwear and bags and hug our family members, friends and kitty before we can move on to that.
The waves out front of the house are massive, collapsing over themselves in a froth of white foam as they roll in. The sun is setting and we're hoping tonight will bring a true Oregon sunset which has eluded us the past few evenings. I like it here very much. The creative energy is good. I like the rocky shoreline and being beside the water.
Yesterday we saw whales. Jannah at the Visitors Centre informed us that many of the grey whales stay along the Oregon coast during the summer months and will cruise close to shore with their young in order to avoid any hungry orcas. Suddenly, we are seeing whales everywhere. There is something about spotting whales that brings smiles to everyone in the vicinity— whales seem to strip everyone from their bad moods, their anxieties, their need to get somewhere and get things done. People will just stop and scan the water surface for air puffs and then point excitedly and get out the binoculars and watch as the whales pass by, spouting a tall shot of water and air and then giving a flip of the fluke before diving down. No one is immune to the charm of whales. Remember that when planning your next social event...
Also important to remember — never let a lumberjack cut your hair.
Today I went to a salon in Waldport to get a haircut, a salon recommended by the lady in the visitor's centre. I get set up with Alan — burly, flannel shirt wearing, Alan — who, as he pulls out his axe...oops, I mean scissors, informs me this is his first week in the salon and for twenty five years previously, he was a lumberjack in the Oregon forest.
Could this be the big surprise of the western coast? A remarkable haircut by a lumberjack who has forged a special connection between the art of cutting trees and cutting hair?
Eight dollars later the answer is nope. No go. Even as Alan starts out, I can tell, as untrained as I am at cutting hair, it's not going to go well. About five awkward snips in, I just decide to go with it and pray he leaves enough hair for me to get restorative work done at a later date.
Alan is not the sociable type. He speaks in short monosyllabic bursts and has trouble looking people in the eye. Give him a chainsaw, a pine filled forest and nature's solitude and he'd be in his element. In 1987, he had his larynx crushed by a logging chain that whipped him in the throat. He endured a tracheotomy in order to breathe. His adam's apple is a plastic substitute inserted by the surgeons. The doctors were unsure if he would ever speak again. But six months later, he was back in the woods, felling trees like nothing ever happened, able to take a full breath and speak just fine.
Then the logging work dried up. Alan received a grant from the state government to retrain himself. For reasons unknown, he chose hair cutting.
Meeting up with Alan gives me a sense of what life is like for people in Oregon. Along the coast we've heard from people that the economy all over the country is not good. Gas prices are high. Vacation rentals are down. There's little work. Here in Yachats, we've met good and kind people. And we've also heard (and encountered) stories of folk who are under educated and lacking motivation. The available work is mostly skilled labour. Except, skill levels are low. Standards are even lower.
Alan troubles me. I'm not sure he's going to make it as a hairdresser. He's not very good. Jenn says she can see the stumps from the clearcut... Maybe over time, Alan will improve. He's determined. He tells me about his commitment and his positive attitude which he believes will allow him to succeed. For $8 a cut, maybe people won't care too much about the quality of their styling job?
But the woods are really his place. Now that he's in the salon everyday and not outside, he's started to wheeze again when he breathes. I mention the forests and all the spruce trees nearby and his face lights up.
"I love it in the woods," he says.
But that's no longer a career option.
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