Last week things were getting kinda ugly around here. I had a few lame shots at humor come back and bite me. When tossing out "humor" its intent is to draw a grin or two from its recipient. Sometimes "humor" is offered up as a self defense "mask" to hide other emotions trying to get out. Maybe it was losing my buddy in a plane crash. Maybe it was that feeling of seperation as once again I'm away from my family... Who knows? What was clear though that something was leaking through into what I was thinking as innocent jabs and pissing people off. I tried to apologize but things got worse. My knee jerk reaction would have been to stand and slug it out but that would do this site I care so much about no good at all. It was fourth and long from the wrong end of the field so I needed to drop back and punt...
I took a couple fishing trips with nothing remarkable to report. I took care of some other chores then decided to take a few days to get my head right. Vacations come in many forms... For many it involves stuffing the Samsonite and jumping on a big iron bird. Maybe off to a ski slope out west, maybe to the "old world" across the big pond, maybe to some place to wet a line. For some it may involve boarding a floating city, eating round the clock and enjoying exotic ports of call. For others yet they follow the path of the Griswolds and a stuff the staion wagon and undertake a pilgrimage to Wally World or at least six flags.
Chores all done and a few days open I considered a trip to the Poconos to stand in a stream and try a trout or two. Maybe a ride north to someplace I havn't been before and try my hand at besting cod or pollock. Then I looked out the kitchen window and got inspired. ...
People always talk about how great it must be living in Florida. It does have its perks. Big game a mile off the beach, warm winters, swaying palms... But. looking out that window I could see so much life right there I knew what might just be fun. In my field of view I could see all kinds of birds... A couple species each of sparrows and finch, chickadees, tufted tit mouses, redwing blackbirds, starlings, robins, orioles, grackles, cardinals and even a hummingbird...
I've been part of this neighborhood for going on 45 years... It was time to refamiliarize myself with it...
Nearly a half century brings with it change... It used to be a neighborhood of just plain big houses. Recent years have seen them one by one bow to the never ending pressures of progress... Castle Deep North stands as it did all my life...
I look a couple houses to the north where my childhood sweethearts house stood as recently as a couple weeks ago and see what will eventually become of my home...
No doubt her simple structure will be replaced with some other monolithic architechtural triumph as a monument to its future owners success in life. I look at others surrounding her and wonder what will stand there when she nor I are still there.
These ones have been erected in the last few years. Where once humble one story ranches stood...
Enough realestate 101... This is a wildlife site...I continue up the road a couple thousand feet to "where it all began"... A pond that my buddies and I spent untold hours at. It was a lively place with bluegills and hybrid bass abundant to obscene levels. Bullfrogs, green frogs, painted and snapping turtles rimming the two acre body of water.
I take a seat on the bank and as I eat a mullberry from the old familliar tree I'm transported back forty years... Can feel the excitement as my old buddies and I catch fish after fish on the nightcrawlers we had collected from under the rock pile that remains today. In just minutes I'm alive again. Senses return... I'm no longer alone... The first shapes are plain to see.
I remain quiet... My eyes adjust and other shapes appear...
A barely dectable movement infrontof me catches my eye... I focus and see the starry gaze of a relic from the past... As a kid the pond had a fair number of these snapping turtles. I notice now that they have proliferated to such numbers that they are no longer content to hide in a hole along the banks and wait for a meal to happen by. Now they were on the move working from spot to spot and actually hunting...
We share stares in silence... The longer I sit the more life gathers around me... I look up to see this girl doing a drive by...
More time passes... My stillness makes residents more comfortable... They come for a closer look.
Minutes turn to hours... I enjoy the solitude and my company... Troubles fade.. The sun moves across the sky... Time to move on... A couple more "friends" come to say goodbye...
Yeah,,, I know... Bunnies, squirrels, deer, turtles are no big deal... True unless you live in a place they don't...
I walk back to my old house... Above, a 747 with the fancy winglets on downwind leg to JFK reminds me of the change. Gone are the prop driven constellations, martins, electras, and dc7's of my youth. They were replaced by noisy black smoking 707 or Dc8's... Also gone only to give way to the high tech Boeing giants and fly by wire Airbusses... I feel good... The tensions of the world around me have been erased... I'm awake... Soul cleansed and almost home I stop for a moment and watch another of our new Rumson residents trimming her lawn...
Thanks for the look back.....we all should stop and smell the roses more often.... they will all be long gone one day and we should cherish them while we can.
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