Wk8- Meaning of Life... Nurhan:

Nurhan's take:

First things first, Newfies like to be helpful (to the extent that if you ever have a break in, they will probably help to carry the stuff out - However, you really don't want to see a giant breed dog, angry. Despite Karma listening to me, if he didn't like someone who was coming towards you, he'd stand between you and them and keep an eye on them, and good luck if you think that you were going to relocate him onto the 'down-threat' side.), here’s Kin moving wood away from the fire...

 So he’s got it ½ right!!!

 He's also met his first Newfie (after leaving the breeders), at Åsen. Kin's on the ground, the Newfie here is almost seven months old and has the (unlikely) name of "Boss"... this is unlikely as 'boss' is Stavanger slang for rubbish, so I really am hoping that I heard his name wrong.

Kin likes to leave his mark...

And who say's giant breeds need a lot of room... here he is wrapped around a table leg (and above his willy is a painting of Karma on the wall... the walls in my living room have a slightly different paint scheme to that, normally found in Norwegian households).

Here's a picture of Kin (four months old) with Oscar (the second) {six months old}. Now Oscar (the first) was a similar size to Oscar (the second), but completely different temperament; every time he saw Karma, he'd be up on his back legs, straining against the lead, the very image of the dangerous pittbull, ahout to eat a child,  that people have in the back of their minds. Karma, invariably off the lead, would nonchalantly stroll by and pay no heed whatsoever. The times that they did both meet off the leads, Oscar was a wee bit more respectful of Karma's size (one of Karma's paws was the same size as Oscar!). Oscar died ~ six months before Karma, and Oscar (the second) and Kin, seem to have started their relationship significantly better!

I've just been interrupted by two Jehovis Witnesses (from Cameroon), who have just knocked on the back door... now in order to do this, they have had to go past the front door, and through two gates... you have to admire their persistence!

Kin had his first vet visit (with me). And he was remarkably unfussed. This trait he shared with Karma (my last Newfie).

The first vet he met (with me), was also the last vet that Karma met. Thinking back to that day still brings tears to my eyes.

The day after I lost my father, I had a vet call, where the vet said that, “I shouldn’t plan on buying Karma Christmas presents.” Karma outlived this prediction by seven good months. But the loss of my father and the loss of Karma are intimately linked in my mind; and time has done little to sooth the pain.

I do wonder about vets. I like Tu; and they were very good for Karma, but the above prediction did come from a vet there, and they are in Bryne (35 minute drive). The above picture is taken at Stavanger Smådyr klinikk. Jury is still out as to which vets should be Kin’s regular. Although if he is ever unlucky enough to require surgery, then Tu will rate highly in the rankings.

We are all the product of our own experiences, and (to a large extent) we control the experiences that our dogs encounter; which I am going to use as an excuse to ramble off in another direction that is only loosely associated with this blog.

Losing loved ones causes some of us (read me) to ask the basic questions that have no definitive answers: “Why are we here?” “What’s life all about?” “What’s the point?” Some folk don’t appear to ever ask these questions, the rest of us learn to make our own peace with these ideas, until an event comes about that focuses the mind on such things. Time does tend to allow these questions to dissipate into the background and lose their bitter sharpness. I suspect, that the truth is, everyone finds the point to continue, or distractions from these questions.

Dogs exist in the moment... whilst training Kin, behaviour has to be addressed at the time of occurrence, otherwise the little chap doesn’t have a squoobies why I am reacting. Past, and future, do not figure large in their lives. They doubtless remember situations and people, but they don’t dwell on such things. Now is their keyword. For better or worse, humans don’t have this option.

Life is a tenuous commodity. It doesn’t take much to snuff it out. This was exemplified recently by an event that occurred locally (that I've been dwelling on). The Thursday before last, a couple with their grand-child found a dead skier, under drifted snow. It took some time for searches to piece together the gist of what happened. Two further bodies were found within 600 m of the first. 

(Each square in the above map is 1kmX1km, the people with a circle round them are where the bodies were found, sources, map, Sirdalsheiane Turkart 1:50 000, body placement, Stavanger Aftenbladet, Saturday the 19th of Feb. Red lines on the map are summer walking routes, blue dotted lines are the winter routes were it's safe to ski over the lakes. The summer routes are marked by red "T"s painted onto rocks, the winter ones are marked {at certain times of the year} with branches placed vertically into the snow).

A fourth person is now known to be missing. These four set out from a turistforening hut {Taumevatn} (http://www.stavanger-turistforening.no/trail.php?tr_code=ryf31v) to ski into another one nearby, on the Sunday before their bodies were found. There is no record of them having arrived at the next hut (you write yourselves into the hut book). Everything, (other than were the bodies were found) is conjecture. 

It looks like they turned back at some point in the day owing to very strong winds; and tried to retrace their steps back to the cabin that they had skied out from. In order to do this they probably skied right by a private cabin. The first body was found 600 m from this cabin, and all three of the bodies found so far, were within 2 kms of the cabin that they left from. The fourth person has not been found; and it is suspected that he’s been buried under so much snow that he now won’t be found for several months until the snow melts. These four were all related in some manner and were all visitors to Norway. Now strangely for Norwegian newspapers, they have not been criticised for being ill equipped, or lacking experience. Yet some train of events led to their deaths within short distances from refuge in three different directions (three cabins on the edge of the lake that they were found on). The question in my mind is HOW did they get into such a situation that they could not reach one of these three cabins.

Conditions change rapidly in the mountains:

This picture is taken two years ago by David. Normally we don't take pictures in bad conditions as we are too focused on getting to a safe location. This is a picture of me, ~ 200 m higher than where the car is parked and within 600 m of the car. We were out skiing in good weather and noticed a solid wall of cloud coming up the valley. Within 20 minutes the weather went from clear visibility to a biting wind and visibility down to five metres (we know this area well, so were never in any real danger - added to that on my back I have a 'daysack' with stove, shelter, shovel, food, extra clothes, and other 'goodies', as has David, to ensure that survival shouldn't be an issue... could be unpleasant, but not questionable for survival).

Between Christmas and New Year we skied into Blåfjell. Little wind in the valleys, but as we topped the highest part of the route (900 m) we were being blown over. At this point we had to get head torches out, my hands (despite never taking off liner gloves), got painfully cold. We had to drop over the edge out of the wind before David, helped me warm my hands up. Even then the next 100 m of descent I skied very poorly... It doesn't take much to set the body out of whack. Between Christmas and New Year of 2005-2006, we were trying to come out of this cabin in bad weather (high winds), and after three hours (the whole route normally takes this long), we were still within two km of the cabin and it was obvious we wouldn't make it back to the road before nightfall. Given the conditions we turned around and went back to the cabin... Happy New Year!!! We found out the next day that we'd been reported missing and had a Sea King Helicopter hovering over the cabin at 22:00 hrs, they decided that we were probably okay and in the cabin, we for our part never heard the helicopter, we were told the next day!

The above stories are used to illustrate that normally you have options. But nothing destroys resolve as high winds... Forget Gortex, only walls help in that case... BUT... how could they not have got to one of the three cabins or dug themselves in (maybe they had and were trying to get to a cabin some days afterwards)? Even had they lost their map, and the GPS they had didn't have the huts programmed in, they would know they were on the lake; follow the lake around and with a compass you can tell where on the lake you are, you'd find the cabins (there are no other lakes close enough to confuse with). At what point was the decision that led to their inevitable deaths? Or did they get onto the ice and the weather ratcheted it up another level and none of us could have survived?

Yet when I am out in nature, I feel happier... thus the t-shirts that you see folk wearing, "A bad day  in the mountains/on the water, is better than a good day in the office!" (Which is undoubtedly true, only up to a point...). We are not designed to sit in offices and work on computers all day (types he ironically on his laptop)...

(

The above pic, from left to right, is me, Svein, & David, in great conditions, which is just to offset all the gloom and doom and try to illustrate why we go up...

This pic is 30 minutes after leaving the car, to ski into Tommansbu only using moonlight (we didn't need the head torches until we were in the cabin!)

This is the next day, taking an extended top tur, on the way back to the car and good luck figuring out the circumstances for this pic...

Not to mention that cross country skiing is (possibly) the best form of cardiovascular exercise and if the conditions are good, then the downhill runs are fantastic...

This pic was a top tur when I had the choice of go alone or not go at all... Despite skiing very carefully, the above pic shows a downhill run with 22 linked, continuous turns... and yes my ski tracks ARE THE ONLY ONES ON THIS HILL :-)

Some year's even road crossings are an adventure. Here we are at a road. We had to dig a ramp down on one side and here I am digging steps to get across on the other side, in between cars going by... The others are waiting on the snow on the other side along with the skis, poles, and sacks... Shouting the occasional encouragement like, "CAR!!!"

And here's Karma, when about 18 months old, enjoying a ski trip:

{Music seemed soooo appropriate. Music is D'lay, Going Wild}
)

Just to complicate things a bit more, I'll mention a book/Norwegian film, about Jan Baalstrud. The British book is called, "We Die Alone", the Norwegian film is called, "Ni Liv". He comes over on a fishing boat from the Shetlands, engaged on espionage activities. The come to Troms (North Norway, way inside the Arctic circle) in March 1943.They are betrayed and a German gun boat attacks them. He's the only survive and escapes wet, without boots. He then swims through the ice, between two islands (now any survival 'expert' will tell you that this is not possible... you would die... not to mention he should already be so hypothermic that he couldn't swim {I've tried swimming 50 m in ice water, I lost all co-ordination (and probably couldn't have swam another ten metres to land), and spent 40 minutes in a shower waiting for pulse to come down into double figures}. He walks across an island and finally finds good Norwegians to help him. He gets a pair of skis and tries fleeing to Sweden (with no map just a a vague route description). The German's are still searching for him.  The weather turns bad, he gets avalanched in a snow storm. Loses clothes, skis, poles, goggles, yet somehow doesn't die. Eventually he gets to a place where more good Norwegians (by 'good' it means not collaborators with the Germans), help him. By now he's frost bitten and blind (snow blindness). Eventually they get him up onto a high mountain plateau, where they pay Laplanders to take him to Sweden... BUT they don't come, and a storm comes in. Several days later they go up thinking he must be dead, and can't find him. In fact one of them gets disabilited because of the cold and they have to turn back. On the second attempt the find him, dig him out and he's still alive. This happens a second time, and finally the Laplanders turn up. There is some more drama and excitement and then he's in hospital in Sweden. The only permanent damage is the loss of all ten toes to frost bite (which he removes while trapped on the Arctic tundra!). 

Life can be fragile and life can be inexplicably strong...

All I can say is that I am enjoying my life now with Kin!