April 23, 2004
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Signs of Spring
I woke this morning to the sound of birdsong I haven’t heard since last
year. Sounds good to me. Days are much longer now, about
sixteen hours from sunrise to sunset. It’s warmer, too, but still
freezing most nights at this latitude (62°N) and elevation (?).
Yesterday, down at the lower end of the Susitna Valley, in Wasilla, I
heard gulls crying for the first time this year, and saw a big flock of
them at the rehab ranch. I also watched about thirty geese take
off from there in a flock and form up into a long V and fly… south,
but I don’t think that’s a sign of anything except that there’s open
water that way.
Summer really is on its way. Besides the returning birds, here’s how I can tell:The water level in the driveway has gone down and I hardly need the stepping “stones” anymore.
The path to the outhouse is slushy, not icy. (Marian,
no luge now for at least six months. Oh, and thanks for that
verbal “snapshot” of the Kansas spring the other day. I read that
this is the year for cicadas, the “seventeen-year locusts”, in your
part of the world. Fifty-one years ago, during my first summer in
Kansas, we couldn’t walk without crunching them underfoot. After
the die-off, my cousins and I amused ourselves finding their cast-off
exoskeletons stuck to tree bark, house siding, etc.)
My boots speak for themselves.I was happy yesterday, enjoyed the ride down the valley and seeing many
more birds than usual. Greyfox is preparing for a big gun show in
Anchorage this weekend and I took all the knives and swords he had
remaining here at home to him. His car still needs work and Mike
the mechanic was going to pick it up this morning and put a new slave
cylinder in for the clutch hydraulics. Then he, Mike, plans to
follow Greyfox in to make sure the car gets there, and help unload
stock for the show tonight. What great friends we have!The van from the rehab ranch was full to capacity last night, fourteen
riders and me driving. It’s doggy at best, with an automatic
transmission that might let it do 0 to 60 in ten minutes, on a
downgrade. With that load the performance was laughable, and most
of us did laugh on the trip, with comments about my taking the turns
too fast, etc. On the way back, the talk turned to ME/CFIDS when
another rider overheard my sponsee and I discussing it and said that
his mother has it. I talked frankly about symptoms, and frankly
seemed to stun some of the listeners. Most people just don’t have
any idea….The meeting was another good one. I got both laughter and nods of
recognition when I talked about how in active addiction (thirty-some
years ago, on hard IV drugs), the high point of my day would be finding
a good vein that didn’t collapse when the needle slid in, and the high
point of a month would be making it out the back door as the cops came
up onto the front porch. Then I talked about the beauty and joy
in life now. One of my soulmates there, a man who keeps going in
and out, tore my heart out and fixed it all up again with his sharing
about the frustration and pain of frequent relapse, and the anger he
feels at himself and the world. It was the humor with which he
talked and the undying hope he expressed, that really did it for
me. He said what we all needed to hear.I got home too tired to sleep, again. I lay there for about two
hours, got up, had a snack, played some Disgaea for an hour or two,
went back to bed and slept for somewhere between two and three hours,
then gave up and got up for the day since it was daylight by
then. I feel the chemistry of fatigue in stiff muscles, burning
eyes and aching head. Tonight will be better, I know. I let
my sponsees and anyone who expressed concern at not seeing me for a few
meetings know that I was cutting back to no more than two trips to town
a week. This week, since my sponsee at the ranch will be
otherwise occupied and Greyfox will be in Anchorage, I’m going to skip
the Sunday trip. A whole week, maybe, between trips down the
valley, unless I decide to go in on Monday or Tuesday… what luxury,
what leisure!
Comments (3)
I can imagine your signs of a new season coming are much different form down here in Missouri. Right now our little city is all a bloom with lilacs. Pretty indeed.
“0 to 60 in ten minutes, on a downgrade.”
…you crack me up.
ahhh…we’re going to have more locusts? seems they come almost every year now. some worse than others. funny thing is that we complain about the noise but, when they leave…they leave behind such a void. and the shells…yes, still found hanging on the deck, trees, what-have-you. as annoyingly loud as they are, they’ve given me some neat moments of just watching nature. a few years ago i watched one just emerging and then as it hung onto its “shell” as it dried its wings. last year, there were so many in our sweet gum tree out front that the leaves seemed to be moving and there wasn’t a breeze. and, on the same tree, i heard one that was so loud that i knew it had to be within view. i stood there and followed the sound with my eyes and, there it was…it was fascinating to watch it vibrate and that screetching weeeeoooooweeeeooooo coming out of that little body. oh and then there was one on our screen window last summer…got close enough to it to see there’s a reddish “M” on their foreheads. going to watch for them this year. want to catch one and photograph the mark.
holy crap. i’ve just gone on and on about locust. locust! well…they are kind of cool.
I was reading about the Periodical cicadas recently. I’d love to see them … Every seventeen years, evidently. Or something like that.
They seem to be pretty harmless, and I guess they’re tasty too. heh.