Some Family Member Just Got Richer

Now I am on the ferry to the Isle of Harris, and Lewis. Where we will be taking a guided tour around the islands, eventually out to the standing stones. Mysterious prehistoric relics of ... nobody's really sure. Remnants of a culture long long long gone (as Syd Barrett might have said).

This morning we got up and saw the moon hanging, not far from where, yesterday, the setting sun's light had refracted through the clouds in a burst of golden rays. Luna was a nearly full, distinct but pale disk in the greyish blue morning sky. I took a couple of pictures of her. Then we left the Uig Hotel and drove to the ferry pier, around the little bay. It rained last night and was super-windy, but at least by the time we went to the ferry it was mainly clear, if still really gusty. (So glad I brought my fleece snowboarding hat.) We jumped on the shuttle that drives you to the end of the pier to board the ferry. We only had small overnight bags, having stashed all the bigger luggage in the trusty Vauxhall's boot.

The ferry was tying up when the shuttle arrived. It is big and black. See?



A few people came off. The air was windy, but not knife-like cold. Strangely. Deb wanted to take my picture but I was very not in the mood. She insisted; I resisted ... I became rather hostile. (Hey, I'm on the rag on the fringes of where-are-we. Whaddaya want?) An argument ensued over giving me my ticket to get on the ferry. I was very pissed at her ... edited for rantiness and tedium of same ... so at last I stomped up the steeply angled metal ramp/ladder and got on the ferry ... and got away from her. The ferry is nice and big, with a cafeteria and bathrooms and a tiny arcade with four videogames, and seats in a TV lounge as well as seats, thankfully, w/o TV. I found one by the window on this nearly-empty boat, got out my iPod and sunglasses (the sun was glaring bright on that side). Deb came back to apologize but I just did not want to hear it. I did not want to engage at all. And I told her to get away from me. That was pretty cold. But, then, I am evil.

So she went to the observation deck, and I stayed where I was. I haven't seen her since.

What I have seen is the land recede -- green hills and rocky cliffs dotted with a few houses and inns. Endless curls of whitecaps. And now some other curving, rugged humps of land amid water. Like this:



I think this trip takes two hours. The sea I am looking at right now is greenish blue, almost teal ... or aqua ... marine ... I dunno. Not as green as the Atlantic off the East Coast of the U.S. There are blackish-brown streaks in the water -- seaweed?

I am listening to Tori Amos and feeling very torn up right now. I don't want to be mean to my sister, but why can't she back off? Also in the mix, howev, is just that same thing of looking at the landscape and feeling something, peering at the shoreline and the water, seeing how close the land masses are and letting my mind wander, and just feeling it coming at me. (I know that doesn't make much sense.) Right now in this mid morning light everything is very sharp -- bright sun, blue sky, white clouds, emerald water. It kind of cuts me raw. It's a visceral sensation; I can't process what it means yet. Maybe it's just b/c it is such a weird different landscape. Or maybe it is how the music and the view are converging to intensify my fanciful sense of traveling to the edge of the world. More like edge-of-the-world adjacent, really. But still. Harris/Lewis will be more rugged than anything so far. We are very far from home, Toto.