After several weeks away from the blog, I’ve returned. Warmed, reddened, leather faced… All now faded to slightly darker white, smoothed, and refrozen.
So this week will be largely just a run down of what has gone on over the last three weeks. No added story/poem.
It is -7 degrees right now… With a windchill that makes it closer to -20. Eight days ago I was in shorts and 30 degree temperatures.
In the future, I could be convinced to save all my vacation time for March… Head to Florida… And do nothing but take in Grapefruit League Baseball. Small ballparks and warm temperatures while you realize that home is still semi-frozen and snow covered is pretty close to perfection.
Kennedy Space Center is pretty amazing. I knew I’d find it interesting but it was actually more impressive than I expected it to be. And seeing a shuttle in a museum setting is both amazing and kind of sad. I think it brings a melancholy feeling to see one this way for several reasons. (1) It’s a reminder of simpler days. The type of simple days that comes with youth. It’s not to say that the 1980s were necessarily a simpler time. It’s that the shuttle is a reminder of the dreams of space travel for a thirteen year old boy. And (2) The shuttle is an example of incredible engineering, but also a reminder of failures. Twice a shuttle exploded. And the last one was brought down by something as simple as foam heat shields. Combining these two points rips one from childhood dreams and reminds us of how little control we have over life.
Back to childhood wonder… Anoles (the little lizards that are all over Florida) continually cause me to pause and watch… Wondering what they’re up to and where they’ll go next. One was perched three feet from me as I ate lunch at Vero Beach. Another took shelter in a downspout of the house next to where mom and dad stayed. Overturned flower pots became Anole castles and empty driveways, on sunny days, are as Anole beaches.
I continue to love turtles. I didn’t see many while in Florida but I think I tried to take a picture of every one I did see. I still wonder to myself if I should buy a pet turtle. Lots of travel makes that a hard decision to make, but I think I mostly avoid doing it because I doubt my ability to give the turtle as good a place to live as the ponds they have in the wild. I know these are pet store turtles and not something captured from a nearby waterway… But I think I’d constantly look at one in his tank and feel guilty for not making his world a better place. In the end, I’d likely be releasing them into the wild or spending thousands of dollars on a tank that would take up my entire computer room.
Few things are as sad as destroyed forest. Part of the woods across the street from me has been plowed over in preparation for the new road that will be going in nearby. Walking through the stumps and fallen trees reminds me of the deforestation of my Wedgewood Park neighbourhood. I knew it was coming here. And I know that I live next to a forest by the partial destruction of that forest. My house likely being on the ground where once a grove stood for happy songbirds. But still, my walk through the downed trees was hard. And the sight of the poor Robin, chirping it’s alarm call while perched on a fallen branch made it all the worse. Another nesting neighbourhood no more.
In Florida, I saw my first armadillo. They are such interesting animals. And funny how, in the end, I’ll probably remember coming face to face with an armadillo on the same level of fascination as being up close to the Space Shuttle Atlantis. You wouldn’t expect those two things to hold equal standing in ones memory… But, there you go.
I continue to miss the four on, four off shift of CPSIC. I’m quite torn with work when it comes to my old section vs. the one I’m in now. Don’t miss twelve hour days at the office. I enjoy heading home at 3:00 in the afternoon. I like the focus of one task rather than bouncing from this to that. But I miss the independence of the old position. And my energy level is much better not bouncing from days to nights. But I sure do miss those four day weekends. Four days to be on my own schedule. To be able to go hike at 11:30 on a Wednesday and to wake without an alarm going off most of the time. I’ve been on a regular schedule for almost a year now and still, weekends are just too short.
So there it is, and with lots left off. I have lots of wonderful memories from Florida. Supper on the pier at Cocoa Beach with mom and dad, cards with them on the coffee table to unwind at the end of the day. Sitting in ball parks with perfect green grace, palm trees and soaring osprey. Exploring rocket ships, but also exploring the neighbourhood pond. And sharing my birthday with mom and dad, in a summery baseball park. Never have I had such a birthday as that.
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