Haven’t posted in a few weeks. Lots been going on over that time frame. The parents came for a visit. Life was less than normal for a few days with a medical procedure. Left CPSIC at work. Been training for the Latent Fingerprint department. Playing ball again. Walks. Groceries. Fossil hunts. All sorts of things.
I couldn’t take time off with mom and dad when they visited. Going to Latent training made that an impossibility. I was off for about half of their trip but the majority of that time off had me preparing for, going through, and recovering from a fairly routine medical procedure. It was great having mom and dad around for that. To have them available to help out getting me food and drink… and to have dad driving while I was still a bit loopy on meds.
It was also good having them around when I’d get home from work. They cleaned the house from top to bottom. I’d have been happier hearing them say they took a bus downtown to explore or shop. But I appreciate the work they did do. Home made meals also were a nice treat. I rarely cook a regular meal. Food preparation for one often just doesn’t seem worth it to me. So to come home with a meal in the works for three of us was a nice thing. And the frozen meals left behind from their visit come as a reminder of family by way of supper.
When mom and dad are here and I’m not taking time off work, it makes the visit feel more part of my routine. So dropping them at the airport and returning to an empty house felt weird and a bit lonely.
With that, there is no weekly portion to this one. Just too much stuff over too long a period of time.
Journeys
They came to be millions of years ago
At the bottom of an extinct sea
Some miles from here
Filtering extinct waters for extinct meals
Others sat anchored to rock
Swaying leafy branches
In long ago currents
Part of a long forgotten environment
And another fluttering through the ancient kelps
Searching out food
Hiding from predators
Trying to attract mates
A deposit of silt buried them all
Poured off continents of ice
Settling down into the deep
Like a gently falling snow
Millennia of silt past
Ice retreated
Seas drained
And sea floors become land
And in layers of sedimentary rock
They remain hidden
Ancient clams, plants and trilobites
Turned to stone within a grave a stone
I came to be decades ago
Thousands of miles away
Atop a rocky land
Sea winds whipping my blonde locks haphazardly about.
Growing up brought me here
Miles from this place
Working and living
Unaware of their existence
Machines unearthed their graves
Broke up their rocky resting places
Transported them here
And dumped them as haphazardly as the wind with my hair.
And here they sit
Exposed for the first time to air
Thousands of miles from any sea
So long encased in rock that it is what they’ve become
And at this time I moved here
Blonde locks long gone
For several years walking over them
Unaware of their presence.
Until one day I photographed a bug
Had it landed on a different stone I’d have missed them
Without a zoom lens I’d never have tried the shot
Once downloaded to my computer it all changes
I return to the place with new eyes
Bend low to search them out
Recognizing muddy ripples in rock
Deposited by long ago currents
On long ago sands
And carefully I pick some out
Gently carry them home
Afraid my ten minute walk will destroy
What millions of years of geology created.
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