Upon closer inspection, I'm able to step back and take a more in depth look at the situation. Realistically, I can't expect to go from decades of self-imposed reclusion to suddenly effortless expression of my thoughts to a mass audience overnight. (mass audience in this case taken as a purely relative term)
Part of the problem is not enough happening in my life that I deem sufficiently entertaining to those who may read these pages. The flip side of that coin is having too many thoughts and being unable to satisfactorily organize them for public consumption. Being stranded in this eternal, internal sparring match renders me to a perpetual state of inaction. Otherwise known as procrastination.
I could sit here for another month and dipping my toes into the pool. The water isn't going to get any warmer and my toes will resemble prunes long before I gain the skill of Michael Phelps. I just need to jump into the pool and start swimming.
A better analogy might be sitting atop a hill with a hastily built soap box racer. I know the steering mechanism isn't up to par and judging from previous posts the brakes are non-existent. But, sitting up here atop the hill will get me nowhere and if I wait much longer I'll be too old to get in and have fun driving the thing. With that said, I'll just choose a couple of subjects, push off... try to keep this thing on paved ground for as long as possible and pray there isn't traffic waiting for me at the bottom of the hill...
"How's the weather?" "It's COLD!"
Perhaps I'm mistaken but I could have sworn we lived in Florida. I know I've only been here 13 years, and with my advancing age my memory isn't what it used to be, but this winter has been the coldest I can recall. We've had so many freeze warnings and even though I've diligently covered our plants, the flower bed looks as if it has been kept by the Adams Family.
Let me preface the following paragraphs by saying I completely understand there are many out there living under much worse conditions then we currently are. Take Sarge for instance (pictured to the left) He spent most winters in a insulated dog house with a straw floor built into the side of the garage. He was plenty happy and you never once heard a complaint. This is one of my all time favorite pictures I've snapped. I always wished it was a little sharper, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post it in a somewhat relevant context. He was a great dog and deserves his own post someday on this site. With proper respect shown and the groundwork laid, let me commence being a grumpy curmudgeon.Our current abode doesn't do much to assuage this whole deep freeze situation. Our furnace is a relic of a bygone era. The house itself was built before I was born and I've come to believe the furnace wasn't new upon installation. Compounding this issue is the fact that the duct work is better suited distributing any generated heat into the attic then to the vents supplying livable space and I've seen Speedo's containing more insulation. I know I need to crawl up there, seal the joints in the duct work, and blow in some more insulation, but that is much easier said than done. In true old Florida tradition, our home has a nearly flat roof. I'm being generous when I say there may be 3 feet of head room at it's peak, which means I will have to crawl around on my stomach and seal all the joints before crawling around some more to re-insulate. I will obviously have to conduct this adventure during the winter, else I risk dying of heat stroke in the summer. Taylor is actually the perfect size to complete this task, but she lacks the prerequisite ability to crawl, or seal duct work, or control an insulation distribution hose. For now we cope with the strategic use of a space heater to supplement the relic residing in the closet.
When things seem bleak and I start feeling sorry for our current situation, I remember back to the days of my youth. Oh yeah, Taylor can look forward to many "When I was a kid..." stories as she grows up. I'm sure she will be thrilled. For instance...
We didn't have any central heat and our bedrooms were located in the basement on the opposite side of the house from the barrel stove. One of our main year round chores consisted of preparation for, or tending of the fire that burned continuously from early fall to late spring every year. I remember many mornings waking up and expecting to see my own breath. The first thing we would do would be to run over to the barrel stove and re-stoke the fire, hoping we had done a sufficient job the night before to have plenty of coals, then getting dressed huddling around the heat source. There were many times I realized I hadn't filled the stove with enough wood the previous night to keep the fire going for the morning. One of the times the coals weren't hot enough I learned one of those life lessons that tend to stick with you forever. For instance, you should never add kerosene to a smoldering fire, then close the door while you run upstairs to grab some matches from the kitchen. When you get back and open the door again you'll notice massive amounts of smoke billowing out of the opening. That smoke is actually very flammable. I bent down and struck a match... I don't recall if I actually got to throw the match into the stove. That detail is really immaterial. I do remember flying backward across the basement floor and explaining to everyone I saw the next few days why I lacked eyebrows.
Then there was the time just a few years before moving to Florida, when I was living and working in Tracy MN. I woke up one morning in the middle of a blizzard and headed to work in near white out conditions. I only lived about a mile from the office and of course I hadn't learned anything from living most of my life in Minnesota. I wasn't really dressed for the weather, wearing a pair of jeans, tennis shoes, with a moderate jacket and baseball cap. I made it maybe half way there before running up on a snow drift and getting stuck with all my wheels suspended above the road surface. With no other options and no hope of getting rescued (this was years before I owned a cell phone) I headed off on a trek toward the office. Now, I've done a lot of stupid things in my life including walking on ice in the spring long after it was safe to do so. I've fallen through many times by myself, each time making my Dad shake his head in disbelief as I arrived home soaking wet and freezing cold. One time it happened out in the middle of the lake we lived on, seriously thinking I'd met my end before finally finding purchase and pulling myself back onto the ice. (these excursions could be the subject of a future post)
That being said, never once did I have the feeling that I wasn't going to make it like that cold morning in Tracy. The wind was howling, the temperature was well below zero and I was dressed for a nice fall day. The only thought I had was someone was going to find me frozen in a snow drift later in the day when the sane people left their homes. Obviously, since I am here writing this blog, I did make it to the office, and luckily there was an entrance on the down wind side of the building that was still free from obstruction. Needless to say I was the only one who had even attempted to come to work that morning. The picture on the left was taken out of another door of the building. If you look closely you can see the drift is actually much higher farther away from the building. You can just see the tops of the trees in the distance. Later in the day I was able to get in contact with some who had a snowmobile to take me back to my house. So I guess in relative terms the winter I'm dealing with right not is not too bad... And at least our cold snaps are sandwiched between periods where the temperatures reach into the 70's. So when I see we are headed for a record low in the 20's and I see our thermostat stuck between 60 and 65 I know there is a large segment of the population that would scoff at any complaints I may have. Living and working in a petri dish...
I've spent more time sick this year then healthy. With Taylor in daycare and Linda working at a school, they are kind enough to bring home every cold and bug making it's rounds out in the general population. We seem to play a biological game of "tag you're it" and I'm the slow kid who doesn't understand the rules. I'm sure it doesn't help that I live and work in the same place. For a couple of weeks Taylor and Linda seemed to be getting better as I was getting worse so we started to sleep in separate rooms trying to interrupt the viral version of hot potato. So I was sleeping on the futon in my office. Basically living and working in my own personal petri dish. With the cold weather we have been having I would just close the door and heat the office with a space heater during the day. Spending my days and nights taking medications, sneezing and coughing all in the same room. When the weather gave us breaks I would open all the windows in the house and try to acquire some fresh air and that seemed to help, at least mentally. With an abundance of patience and reams of Clorox disinfecting wipes, I'm happy to report that the entire house seems to be cold free at the moment. I'm hopeful that fact remains truthful for the foreseeable future.
Poor Taylor had it pretty bad for a while. Between the drooling from teething, a runny nose, coughing and and ear infection she had it really rough. You'll notice almost every picture taken recently her face is pretty well soaked from one of these sources. It's done nothing to detract from her cuteness factor. She has started eating "solid" foods.. that is if you can count apple sauce and other sorted saucy fruits and vegetables solid. She has started helping Mommy during her feedings. I've never been one to think dirty baby eating pictures were cute, and frankly even watching Taylor hasn't changed my mind on that subject. Thankfully right now she isn't all that messy, although I'm sure that will change when we start introducing things such as spagetti into her diet. I did capture a little video of Taylor helping Mommy feed her. There are also a couple of pictures to view.
Taylor Pictures
Taylor Helping Video
"That's ugly!"
I'm not going to name any names because I'm fairly confident that it wasn't meant in the way it sounds. But I happened to show someone some plans of a house I designed for the 2008 Spring Parade of Homes as an example of what I do for a living. The response I got was "That's ugly!" Now, I am the first to admit that looking at a 2-dimensional construction drawing doesn't show a plan in it's most flattering light, and not every style of house will suit ever persons taste in architecture. But, I did state that the house really wasn't that ugly in real life and promised to take some pictures of the house to defend my design. Since I've spent much of this month working on the brochure for the 2009 Spring Parade, I figured it was about time I actually posted pictures of my design from last year. Unfortunately I don't have any of my designs in this years Parade (the first time that has happened in a few years). I still did the brochure work for the Home Builders Association, a project I have done for the last 10 years. I take the construction drawings from the houses in the parade and redraw them to appear neatly in the brochure that gets handed it to those making the tour. I finished that project last Friday and that is always a reason for celebration. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from my "ugly" house. I'll leave it to you, the viewer to form your own opinions.2008 Parade Home
Enjoying Florida from a different perspective...
First thing many people think of when you mention Florida is beaches and palm trees. While we do have plenty of palm trees, and the beaches are plenty close enough to spend the day there and sleep in our own bed at night, the area surrounding Gainesville is much different then the stereotypical Florida landscape. One of the activities we really started to enjoy was kayaking. We are in close proximity to many rivers and fresh water springs. The closest is the Santa Fe River, which is where we have spent most of our kayaking time. It's a slow moving river that gradually approaches the High Springs area and becomes more and more clear as you travel along passing fresh water springs. Another place that has incredibly clear springs is Rainbow Springs. We haven't been there as often, but hope to head back in the future. We had planned on purchasing a couple of kayaks to more easily expand our destination and activity list. Some day I'd like to take a kayak out in the surf for some fun and to explore the possibility of some kayak fishing. As you all know, we received news early last year that put those plans on hold at least for a little while. For obvious reasons we didn't get any kayaking in last summer and I'm not sure yet how soon we will get back on the water, but I'm hopeful I haven't seen the last of that activity. I've uploaded a selection of pictures taken on a few of our Santa Fe River trips. While you won't really see any of it in these pictures, if you are quiet and watchful it's very common to see a vast array of wild life on a typical excursion. I've seen deer, raccoons, alligators, waterfowl, tons of fish and more turtles then you can shake a stick at.
Kayaking Photo Gallery
Well, I warned you before we started that I lacked brakes on this soap box. I really had no intention of writing a novel when I started. Luckily I believe I've avoided the traffic here at the bottom. Let's see how long it takes to drag this thing back up to the top and get ready to take it for another spin. By the way, there is a new poll up, please take the time to vote as I use that as a guide for things to write about when nothing else is going on. (it's over on the right side column)
