April 28, 2007
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Playing Catch-Up
I have about an hour before my son Doug takes over the keyboard for his regularly scheduled Saturday D&D session, and I have a week’s worth of pictures and about a lifetime’s worth of words — I won’t be able to get it all in. I’ll do what I can. Hang on. Here goes…
Doug took these two shots at the spring on our most recent water run, April 19. He took the camera while I filled jugs and buckets, then he hauled the full containers up the stairs and loaded them in Streak’s hatch. In the top picture, I’m the dark blue shape near the base of the stairway, slightly left of center/bottom. By climbing the slope next to the spring, Doug got a good wide-angle view of the big muskeg across the highway from our water source.
Did anyone see the Democratic presidential debates on TV this Thursday? I didn’t see them. Our TV has been only a monitor for Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and VHS video for several years, since a heavy load of snow took down the antenna. Doug and I agreed that TV wasn’t worth the effort of fixing it, so I get my news and public affairs from the web and NPR.
Check my shoes, above. The sno-jogs are put away for the summer and I’m back in my Nikeboks. The left one is a Nike Air and the right one is a Reebok. I never saw the missing members of either pair of shoes. I don’t know whether the person who discarded these is wearing the other unmatched pair, or if a dog ate the mates to these, or what. They are the best-fitting and most comfortable shoes I have. I wore them to town on Thursday and on yesterday’s walk around the neighborhood.
Below is the little muskeg across our road here, yesterday.
I put his banner up on my site thinking that Mike Gravel had somewhat less than a snowball’s chance of becoming president. I don’t care. I’ll keep supporting him until after the primaries, at least, because I agree with what he says and I think he really means it.
Crooks and Liars quoted Mike at Thursday’s debate: “And I gotta tell ya, after standing up with them, some of these people frighten me!“ Mark Leibovich of the New York Times called him a “longshot who made short shrift of his rivals.”
After the debate, it seems I might not have been too quixotic with my choice of candidate: “He’s
the one to say not only that the emperor has no clothes, but that the
emperor wannabes have no clothes,” said national pollster John Zogby,
adding, “There is an angry voter. I don’t know how that will take
shape, it’s way too early. But you got a sense why Mike Gravel is in
the race on Thursday and that he is in the race.” [Joe Lauria, Globe Correspondent]
Above is the face of the ice sheet covering the little muskeg across the road right in front of our house. I sat there on the edge of the track out to the cul de sac yesterday and listened to the ice melt. The sun was shining, wind was blowing, and bits of ice were breaking off with little bell-like sounds as they fell onto the ground around the edges, or splashing into the water under the ice sheet. The ice is suspended at the edges by the higher ground, leaving a few inches of clearance between the ice and the water pooled in lower-lying places. I slipped the camera beneath the ice to get the shot below.
Listening to the ice melt reminded me of something Doug told me a few days ago when he came in from a walk. He said he saw a wooly caterpillar, and sat down to watch it for a while. I heard awe in his voice when he told me that it was so quiet out there he could hear the caterpillar’s footsteps. The small stones and grains of sand shifting under the caterpillar’s feet were audible. That’s awesome to me.I grew up in places where background noise was continuous. Here where Doug has grown up, there are intermittent traffic noises from the highway and trains on the railroad track, planes flying over occasionally, dogs yipping and howling from the yards of our mushing neighbors, and this time of year we hear geese, ducks, cranes, loons and many songbirds, but sometimes it is quiet enough to hear the passage of a caterpillar.
Comments (6)
FYI–and yhis gets relevant, bear with me–I sa Jay Leno, and one guest was an 83 or so year old woman–Miss Amaserica 1944–who held off some robbers by shpoting a hole in thier truck tire.
She said she had run for office several times, but lost due to scaring people by telling the truth.
Her take on the Shrub–”He’s a rich spoiled brat who should be spanked.” ( Or “who needs a good spanking,” one or the other.) The audience went wild with laughter and applause. BTW, his approval rating is at an all-time low–28%.
the quiet’s what i’ll miss most about the folk’s place in the ozarks.
even though they live on a highway, it’s nothing compared to the thoroughfares at home. and, aside from the occasional heat pump noise, sitting outside is so relaxing.
someday maybe i’ll have a place of my own where it’s quiet.
at least i hope so.
love the little muskeg across the road shot AND the close up of the ice.
the last pictures really cool. if i hadn’t read your description i would have beleived it was a cloud.
That last picture is awesome!
LOVE the Nikeboks!
By the way–and I don’t know why this never struck me as weird ’til now–isn’t it funny that a woman who lacks running water in her home has the ability to share her life, via blog, with anyone, anywhere in the world?
I love your shoes. And listening to ice melt sounds like a perfect meditation.