That’s where we live

Note: This is where your mom writes blog post on the plane ride out of town. Wordy, yes.


It can’t be said that we’ve had to endure a long and torturous winter. No. We had a stretch in January, but we ALWAYS have a stretch in January that makes alternatively wonder 1) What the h-e-double hockey sticks am I doing here? and 2) What a brave soul am I to live in such a state where the temperature can easily vary 100 degrees in the span of 6 months. Ok, that’s not true. 120 degrees. That’s like some textbook fact  you are amazed at when you’re learning about the world in grade school. Usually about some far off desolate place. We just call it home. 

At any rate we had a weekend of in March that dictated we get outside our bunkers and enjoy sunshine. Vitamin D. Pure joy in radiant form. And oddly enough we were all available. I’m guessing the older you get and the more you engage in the world, the more rare the overlap of “free” time. So off we went. Dodge Nature Center.  Since he was in the neighborhood, we invited your Uncle Dave to join us.. Then we traipsed thru some mud. Don’t like mud? How about ice? No? Yeah, maybe not a great idea just yet. The snow isn’t all gone yet, which made for a slow and careful walk. Your ma didn’t really think it out too much (and often that’s my preference).

We came upon one of the employees and he asked us if we wanted to go see an owl that had perched itself in a tree. Well of course we would. So we retraced our steps back to an area we had passed. And there we came upon who, who, who?

This little guy.

Your dad got a few photos before he turned his head from us. Another visitor to the park who had walked out with us started inspecting the pellets that were on the ground beneath him. Mouse bones. As your dad said “that’s enough nature for your mom”. Half right. I don’t want to see the owl eating a live mouse. THAT’S too much nature for me. Let me be ignorant.  There is a difference between knowing something and knowing something. That there be a golden nugget kiddos. Your very existence has been an exercise in getting to know more. And I’m glad for it. I mean look at my beautiful family.

Sometimes I wonder how I ended up here. There were times in my life when this looked an impossibility. As Sam Cooke said “A Change Is Gonna come”