Tuesday, August 16, 2005
It was a dark and stormy night...
What do you get when you combine a "confirmation that Windigo 'exists'" with a non-fiction book about canadian mountain men that put the Ozarks to shame, an over reactive imagination, and a drafty dark bunkroom facing nothing but vast forest?
Simply put, not much sleep. The worst part is that since I've never seen "the artist's conception" of what a Windigo [1] looks like, of course I would spend the night coming up with my own detailed and horrifying idea. In retrospect, it would make a good comic strip (the actual creature as I see it), but damn.
Yesterday I brought the Junior [2] out by myself. I lost the sheet for the head sail up the mast however, so was only availed of the mainsail for the trip. Which made it ridiculously easy to sail, but it was still fun. It was gusty enough (and surprisingly "Fall" like) that I had a good run.
[1] The Windigo is originally a Cree myth that involved a half werewolf, half vampiric person with a constantly freezing heart, who ran around sucking the blood of the innocent, or animals. However, as I read in the Journal the other day, it is somewhat verifiable of an idea, if not flawed. There is a type of paranoid schizophrenia, or a trait, rather, of some mentally ill that is something akin to self-cannibalism. Add that to the very real possibility that there were still mentally ill people running amok back in the day also, and Windigo is highly feasible. If it was a bad enough case, I imagine that villages would probably turf them into the wild to fend for themselves also. The kicker of the story in the Journal was that apparently, the guy was trying to disprove his grandmother's belief in the creature, but actually found a grave surrounded in barbed-wire where the "original" beheaded Windigo man was.
When you look at that though, it's pretty debunkable. You don't want your relatives graves desecrated by animals or thieves? Surround it with barbed wire, right? Anyways... This is all just a lot of filler. The IDEA of the Windigo man is what robbed me of sleep.
[2] The Junior (J-12) is the twelve foot sailboat that my dad has. It's teeny tiny, and a hell of a lot more exciting to sail then the Tanzer 26 (T-26) which tops 26 feet. I think that the 'letter-#' thing should be pretty self explanatory, but some of my readers never cease to amaze me... ¶ 2:03 PM
Simply put, not much sleep. The worst part is that since I've never seen "the artist's conception" of what a Windigo [1] looks like, of course I would spend the night coming up with my own detailed and horrifying idea. In retrospect, it would make a good comic strip (the actual creature as I see it), but damn.
Yesterday I brought the Junior [2] out by myself. I lost the sheet for the head sail up the mast however, so was only availed of the mainsail for the trip. Which made it ridiculously easy to sail, but it was still fun. It was gusty enough (and surprisingly "Fall" like) that I had a good run.
[1] The Windigo is originally a Cree myth that involved a half werewolf, half vampiric person with a constantly freezing heart, who ran around sucking the blood of the innocent, or animals. However, as I read in the Journal the other day, it is somewhat verifiable of an idea, if not flawed. There is a type of paranoid schizophrenia, or a trait, rather, of some mentally ill that is something akin to self-cannibalism. Add that to the very real possibility that there were still mentally ill people running amok back in the day also, and Windigo is highly feasible. If it was a bad enough case, I imagine that villages would probably turf them into the wild to fend for themselves also. The kicker of the story in the Journal was that apparently, the guy was trying to disprove his grandmother's belief in the creature, but actually found a grave surrounded in barbed-wire where the "original" beheaded Windigo man was.
When you look at that though, it's pretty debunkable. You don't want your relatives graves desecrated by animals or thieves? Surround it with barbed wire, right? Anyways... This is all just a lot of filler. The IDEA of the Windigo man is what robbed me of sleep.
[2] The Junior (J-12) is the twelve foot sailboat that my dad has. It's teeny tiny, and a hell of a lot more exciting to sail then the Tanzer 26 (T-26) which tops 26 feet. I think that the 'letter-#' thing should be pretty self explanatory, but some of my readers never cease to amaze me... ¶ 2:03 PM
