doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
nature
rain
0As many of you know, I live in Arizona, about 70 miles (as the crow flies) from the fires that slashed through the hills here. We were desperate for rain and hadn’t had any precipitation for almost 4 months.
We’ve been getting small rains here and there that have softened the ground and started making things green again.
Yesterday, though, the skies broke open and let loose. We were pelted with rain that was hard and driving for nearly 2 hours. The electricity fluctuated in and out and lightening came so close you could feel the fizzle in the air.
I love storms like that. I feel incredibly energized when that happens.
The funny thing, though, is that a few of us jumped up to run to the windows to watch rain come down. Yep, you heard that right. We watched it rain. We were so overjoyed with it.
Flash floods and instant streams and lakes were formed. We had water that was pooling!!! To many of you, this may not seem like a big thang…but to those of us who have been suffering with dryness, it was AMAZING! :-)
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Our forests have been reopened. I’m not sure that I’m fond of this. I think they are still too dry to safely hold those people who smoke when they hike (what’s up with that????), who are stupid with campfires, and who just don’t care.
However, as someone who loves the forests, hiking, and camping, I’m thrilled to be able to go into them again.
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My nose was up in the air this morning as I left the house. Nah, I wasn’t being a snob. I was sniffing that fresh earth smell that comes after a good rain.
Isn’t it the best?
lake powell
0Well, thanks to all of you who sent encouragement for my meeting on Thursday night. I ended up breaking the plateau I’ve been on and lost 2.8 pounds. However, Memorial Day weekend probably will not help me out in any way.
I went to Lake Powell with my family (Mom, Dad, brother, sister-in-law, niece, boyfriend). It was a lot of fun. We took the boat out and found a nice beach to park ourselves, set up the tents and all of the other camp amenities and settled in for a nice weekend.
It was absolutely wonderful. I think we all needed to get away and spend some time relaxing.
Because the lake is 60 feet lower this year, there were islands that we had never seen before. Our beach had remnants of freshwater clams and lake bottom rocks that were really cool.
I always love going out on the wave runner and hitting the wakes of the boats going by, trying to catch some air. I like to cruise around in the boat, enjoying the beautiful scenery. I like taking afternoon naps in the warm outdoors.
It was a lovely weekend. I hope yours was, as well!
Oh, yeah…did I mention that I think I need a vacation to recoup???
forest closures
0I hike. I hike quite a bit and I love every moment of it. Being outdoors is akin to spirituality to me. My parents took us all camping, hiking, snorkeling, 4-wheeling, kayaking, and various other outdoor activities since we were all very young. In fact, this weekend, my whole family and their significant others are going to the lake, finding an island, and camping out for four glorious days. We enjoy the outdoors together often.
Each weekend, my brother, his wife, their daughter (my niece), and I go hiking. We have hiked around the mountains, into cinder cones, through the redrocks of Sedona, and along trails that aren’t known by those who aren’t local. Sometimes we are joined by my boyfriend or my sister-in-law’s sister and son. Most of the time, though, it’s just the four of us.
We really look forward to getting out, soaking up the clean air, and working our bodies. We enjoy the rush of completing a good trail.
As of tomorrow, though, that has to come to an end for a while. Unless we want to drive hours to a good hike, we will not be able to hike for the forseeable future. Our local forests are being closed down. There is no walking, no hiking, no biking, and certainly no camping allowed.
This winter has been a rough one on the forests. In the Sunday newspaper (on the front page) there was a picture of a bear who had climbed into an ancient tank to look for water and couldn’t get out. He had died in that tank, clawing at the walls to find a way out. Other animals are not surviving any better. There is no runoff this year. The regular creeks are not running. The lakes are all many, many feet lower than normal. In fact, the lake we are going to this weekend is 60 feet…60 feet … lower than normal.
I understand that the forests need to be closed. Fires happen when people are in the forests and this year we just can’t have that. With daily winds gusting up to 50 mph (which is highly abnormal here during this time of year – we usually get light breezes…if we’re lucky), the fire dangers rise exponentially.
I mourn the closing, though. I will miss my weekly excursions out with my family. They’ve come to mean a great deal to me.
I’m definitely looking forward to monsoon season when the rains will once again feed our forests and their inhabitants.
And we will all be able to enjoy the breathtaking beauty once again.
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Google Doodles are the term given to the fun and wacky Google dress-ups given to the Google logo during the holidays. Google is also going all out for those of us in the geek realm and giving us Dilbert & the Google Doodle. If you’re a Dilbert fan, you’ll enjoy this one.
Do you want topics for your next blog? How about your next research paper? How about your doctoral thesis? Research Paper.com has lots of ideas, handy hints, and chat to help those who are still having trouble. This is not a place to buy a research paper…so don’t even think about that!
Are you a gamer? The Dork Tower may be for you. This is a really great online cartoon that is all about gamers…and the characteristics that make them up.
That’s it for today. Until next time…
oy!
09 years ago
Warren and I leave each other notes. He’s on a night shift and will come by my house (he lives a block away) and leave a note on my car. Sometimes they crack me up, sometimes they make me smile. The most important thing, though, is that they make me care about him for thinking of me.
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This morning I was driving to work and on the side of the road, I spotted a raven. Normally, this would be no big deal. There are multitudes of ravens here and you see one every few feet, it seems like. This morning, though, not 3 feet from this raven, was a tiny grey kitten.
The raven looked hungry.
I swung my car around and stopped in the center lane (I live in a rural area and stopping in the center lane at 6:30 in the morning means I won’t see anyone). Weirdly enough, though, a woman was biking by and stopped also. We both ran over to the side of the road to get the kitten. She asked if I would take it to someone. I agreed. Heck, it was a cute kitten and I knew I’d find someone to love it.
However, I tried to catch the kitten and it hissed and ran from me. I tried to get to it quietly by calling it. It meowed louder. We tried to corral it so we could grab it. This little cat packed such a punch that it made both of us back off.
The kitten bounded into the forest where we couldn’t see it anymore.
I’m guessing it was one of the many cats that has become feral because of inconsiderate cat owners who allow their cats to run wild, procreating, and creating huge hordes of feral cats that roam our forests and town.
It makes me angry that people are so irresponsible and sad for cats who have to live that existence. And now I have the vision of this little kitten who may or may not survive and there was nothing I could do to help it.
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Pilates are cool. You feel like you’re working out but it feels really good. —Until the next morning. I feel SO sore this morning. It’s a good sore and I’ll go back again during lunch today…but my gosh, I don’t think I’ve worked some of those muscle groups EVER.
quote of the day
09 years ago
It is not enough to fight for the West; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that sweet yet lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep the brain in your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound men with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards.” ~ Edward Abbey
spiritual phone call
010 years ago
When I associate a scent with my thoughts of you, I imagine that you have the aroma of a forest.
I can almost smell that sweet bouquet of damp leaves hidden from the sunlight for an entire winter. I call it “aspen-sweet” because of the fragrance the aspens exude in the local forest. I can also detect the “sun-scent” that clings to your skin. It’s a bit dry, somewhat heated, and has a slight tinge of muskiness with a clean wholesome natural flavor. Mountain air is the final addition. It flows from you; mostly cool like a high country evening. Occasionally, though, a warm breeze comes across with the tangy odor of pine.
When I close my eyes, I imagine your scent being as familiar to me as the beloved fragrance of my mountains: multi-layered, complex, and evolving.
You carry with you the promise of life.
I picture you traversing the deep red-orange soils of the southern deserts. Sandstone high-rises are merely challenges to you and not the obstacles most others see. They don’t deter you. You slip silently through the various shades of desert green with nary a bit from a cholla neighbor.
The night skies sing out: stars twinkling to the beat, ocotillo thorns whispering the melody, and the giant saguaros dance majestically above you.
This land is a part of you and you of it. It speaks to you, calling out to you. You hear it in your innermost thoughts.
It beckons you.
“Come home.”
power
0Everything comes down to this for me. The earth is my constant. She speaks to me. She allows me to see beauty and wonder and allows me to understand that while I may be mortal, she is not. She wreaks havoc and mayhem wherever she may. And yet, she also introduces us to astounding sights that capture our attention.
On Boxing Day, I stood at the shores of her greatest body of water. I rolled up my jeans and waded into her cool waters. I felt the sands beneath my toes wrapping around me. I smelled her scent in a way that reminds me of why I love being near her shores. She soothes me. She cleanses me. She reminds me of what is important.
I looked into the eyes of my niece, on her first trip to the Pacific, and smiled. Her joy was immeasurable as we stood there, the surf pounding upon Huntington Beach, the surfers riding the waves.
I knelt and collected sand, driftwood, and shells to make a gift for my Beloved. I wanted to share her with Him. She had reminded me that He was there with me, even if not physically. I could feel Him there, wading, laughing, having fun in her waters with me.
On New Year’s Day, at approximately 12:15 a.m. (while fireworks continued to go off in my time zone), she once again showed me her wonders. The skies finally opened up and the first snowfall (albeit it VERY late) of the year showered down upon my sleepy town.
I looked up in the wide-eyed wonder of a child, belying my years. She always impresses me in these displays. And again, I was aware that He was there with me. She graced my cheeks with soft flakes of snow but it was His finger tracing my cheek that I felt.
He knows that my spirituality is based upon the earth. Perhaps that is what brought us together at a deeper level. He understands that I’m at my happiest when I can feel the earth around me. Her scents and sounds and powers surrounding me.
And perhaps that is why, when her hand touches me, I feel His, also. We are connected, inexplicably, by this ever-changing, ever-revolving place called Earth.