Orca-Dominance

On Friday night the Domination of Eiler was engaged in its usual practice of staying up way too late and having creative fun on the computer. (Coming soon: cover art for Britannia Beach the Action Story! www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/britannia_beach.txt) Thereby the Dominator was awake when an online invitation came in from a high school friend who was visiting metro Seattle, for luncheon on Saturday before a whale watch cruise. This was non-trivial, because this friend is the only person known to the Domination (other than the Dominator himself) who can comment from experience on the Midwest and New England and the Pacific Northwest right down to the real-life Britannia Beach. But rather than drag himself out of bed for a very hurried lunch, the Dominator countered by signing up for the whale watch itself, out of Anacortes-Washington.

It is Domination of Eiler doctrine to let its whales and other animal citizens roam free, unless they get in the way of Dominance. (There was one ferry boat out of Labrador where they did, and so did the icebergs...) But this particular whale watch was practically scientific, albeit heavily subsidized by tourist money. The staff tracks each whale in Puget Sound, knows each one by name and age, and claims to find whales 97% of the time. For this statistic, sharks ("orcas" or "killer whales") count as whales, but that's not a bad thing for tourists. The cruise also observes governmentally-mandated rules of engagement: not within two football fields. But sharks responded to this special occasion of Orca-Dominance by buzzing the boat! Like Domination itself, sharks laugh at human rules. One minke whale showed up too. So the cruise was exciting enough to pre-empt nap time. And toward the end, a rainbow even came out. The only thing missing was sea unicorns.

There were things other than whales to dominate. For instance, there were two birds on a log (referred to by naturalists as "Canadian Aircraft Carrier"). But Anacortes is also a busy harbor with ferry boats, fuel tankers, and reportedly an actual Pirates of the Caribbean ship, which would explain a costumed pirate crew walking through town. Arrr. (Pirates in pop culture today; two hundred years 'til terrorists do that.) And a nice sunset on the water too. Aqua-helio-vesper-Dominance, that is. Domination of water sunsets.

With so much orca-excitement, the cruise ran late. No complaint was heard. And the Dominator made it home to his own bed, 75 minutes away. But he slept late the next day, and went to mega-church instead of friendly Lutheran church. At least mega-church has a reliable schedule to benefit people who stay up late on Saturday, not a summer schedule for people who want to get out of church early on Sunday.

In short, this was a weekend of Dominance. Thanks to the visiting allies.