Sunday, January 21, 2018

Sleep



Is what I should be doing, but I can’t get to sleep.  At least it isn’t a six am flight, so there’s that. 

This is one of the pieces of art in the Vancouver airport, where I hope I will be in 12 or so hours.  So far the weather is looking good here, but I’m not sure if it will be good in Vancouver.  So many things to think about, even for a short trip. 

We take air travel so much for granted now.  It’s hard to believe but the very first time I flew on a plane was to return home from Sweden in 1969.  You see, I’d taken a berth as a passenger on a freighter, out of Montreal to Oslo, then a train to Sweden.  And then I had to get home.  So I flew from Stockholm’s Arlanda airport to Vancouver. 

Air travel has changed a lot since those days.  But then, so many things have changed.  

Even hand weaving, although I hadn’t begun to weave in 1969.  That was to come later, in 1975.  And now, in 2018, I am about to go meet Tien Chiu’s loom, a Jacquard, with a computer interface.  Such a loom for hand weaving had not been thought of, I don’t think, in 1969.  After all, home computers had not really been thought of, either.  

And now, we email across the world, post digital photos and videos to the internet and communicate in ways that only science fiction writers seemed to think of.  Cell phones.  Fitness trackers with Bluetooth connections to iPads.   And more.  

Amazing  times we live in.  These are the sorts of things I think about when I can’t get to sleep...

2 comments:

Rhonda from Baddeck said...

Good heavens, what an adventure - taking a freighter to Norway at the tender age of ... 19-ish? Weaving might seem a 'tame' pursuit to some, but you chose well for ongoing challenges and creativity (and adventure)!

Peg Cherre said...

I'm a stay-at-home girl, although I'm trying to figure out how I can get out of my comfort zone in a not-too-long-or-scary way in 2018. Maybe it's a trip to visit my blogging/weaving friends. I've been thinking about that lately and wondering if that's something I can arrange.