Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Photo Essay

Today Ruth is recovering from jet lag, so I thought that the best thing to help her out with that would be to go on a ridiculously long and hot hike.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park is so named because some poor sap was shipwrecked there in 1669. Jonathan Dickinson was a Quaker, who had a bunch of Quaker friends with him when they crashed on their way from Jamacia somewhere else I can't remember. I can't imagine their disappointment when they stepped out of the sea and hiked inland a bit to see the miserable surroundings they were suddenly forced to deal with. It's shrubby, sandy and hot. It was nice to get out and have a walk, but beyond that...it was still shrubby, sandy and hot.


We had FUN. Especially crossing rail road tracks.
We stopped for lunch when we found enough shade to huddle in along the trail. I brought my dragonfly along. It has a lot of moving parts so I try to be careful when I set it up. Here I am reading the instructions. "A soccer ball sized flame is normal." What?
But we got the stove lit and made ourselves a nice. hot. lunch. Just what we needed....Fritzilla approved.
Fritzilla was a bit overdressed for the occasion.
The trail was not hard to follow, but it would have been pretty easy to get lost and disoriented in the endless expanse of shrubs and palm trees.

We found a friend. This is Oscar.
We interrupted his lunch, but he didn't mind. He's an easy going guy, but he couldn't keep up so we left him behind.
The End.

2012

Laura and I have uncovered a Gem in the rough of Miami. There is a movie theater right down the street. I haven't been to the movies at night for ages. It's not a great theater. It doesn't have stadium seating or the latest equipment, but it shows movies, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It's only $5 for matinees and $6 for students to see the late show. Now I can afford it! Thanks Le Jeune 6!

Last Friday we went out to see 2012 on opening night. It was an adventure. The theater was packed, we had to sit near the front. There were at least three fussy babies behind us and a group of kids in front of us who insisted on throwing their hats in the air whenever a tense moment was resolved. The audience clapped and booed and yelled back at the screen. I've never been to such a lively showing, but I was in a good mood because I only paid $6 for it.

Like the theater...the movie wasn't great, but at least it was enjoyable in its own way. I'm pretty sure this movie was concieved over a few beers one night. The conversation probably went a bit like this:

"Hey, I just went to see War of the Worlds, have you seen that yet?"
"No, who's in that"
"You haven't! It's great. Tom Cruise plays this divorced Dad who accidentally ends up with his two kids during a natural disaster of epic proportions"
"Awesome, were the special effects good?"
"They were the best! And the kids were great too--his 7 year old daughter was precocious and had strange fashion sense and his teen aged son hated him. But they all ended up being a big happy family in the end because they went through so many near death experiences together. The guy even got back with his ex wife at the end!"
"Wow, that does sound good"
"It was really touching, and the aliens were Sweet!"
"You know, I've been thinking about making an apocalyptic film myself"
"Oh, you have?"
"Yeah, and I think now I finally have a premise..."

And so on. Eventually they crafted the script for 2012 which includes a divorced dad who ends up with his kids on accident in the middle of a natural disaster. He has to save the kids, reunite them with their mother, survive countless near death experiences (a brush with a live volcano, a crash landing in the Himalayas, and a Poseidon adventure like swim of breath holding endurance), and manage to ALWAYS be in the right place at the right time.

The best approach to this movie is to expect big explosion, ridiculous science (Crust Displacement Theory?), and not much more than that. I had a good time.

Thanks a lot Myopia... for ruining my day

It's 5:32 in the morning, which is not a totally unusual time for me to be up and at it. Usually it takes a certain amount of excitement or interest in what's going on to motivate my weary old body (yes, I'm getting up there) out of bed. Which was true this morning. Thursday mornings are for H.ammerhead swims. Yay! I love H.ammerhead swims. I get to get out into the germy-rash inducing waters of Hobe beach, dodge jelly fish, and stoke my ego because I can swim faster than 70 year old men, which is saying Something I think. I was getting ready to put on my zoot-suit. I'm so proud of that thing. Because they're normally very expensive, but I found mine in last season's clearance bin. I had my zoot in my hand, when I realized that there would be no swimming for me today. None at all. Because of my eyeballs.

I've been wearing glasses all week. I hate hate hate wearing glasses. The lenses bob around on my face and change the focus of things as I move around. I can't swim. I can't wear sunglasses. Worst of all, I have to endure people saying things like "Oh, I didn't know you wore glasses", or "New glasses! Those look great!" Which is nice, I guess, but I have to struggle to respond "Oooh thank you" while I bite my tongue and grumble grumble grumble because I'd like to say "I HATE wearing glasses!"

I've been doomed to glasses hell because I set up an appointment to do something about my eyeballs. I'm going to see the Lasik people to see if they would be able to cut part of my eyeball off and root around in there until it's better.

Last night I dreamed (or is it dreamt? I've never figured that out...) that I was in the doctor's office and he had handed me a schedule of events for my appointment. It included things like "D.A.R.E" and "Stock Market Time". No wonder I'm supposed leave a few hours for this damn thing. The doctor in my dream was a real jerk. He wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise, so I picked up my stuff. I had a lot of stuff in his office, like a change of clothes and a lunch and a raincoat, so it was quite dramatic when I packed up my things and headed to the door. He looked very confused and I said "I don't have time for your drug education or to listen to you talk about things that are not my eyeballs". He begged me to stay and promised that he would stay on topic, and thus reduce the time of the appointment to about an hour. I agreed, and we headed to the operating room.

The operating room, and the ante chambers leading up to it were more high school science lab from 1943 than actual sterile medical environments. The walls were lined with jars of formaldahyde with things floating in them. Dark topped tables with initials carved into them were set at regular intervals around the room. The sinks were full of garbage. Wait...this sounds an awful lot like the science lab I work in at my middle school...but I digress. In my dream, we donned some sort of plastic wrap head covering and shoe booties. The doctor turned the lights on in the room and then I realized that it was full of children preforming all sorts of Harry Potter type magic. You know, moving things around or changing the shape of clay without touching anything, looking at a globe that was spinning on its own. Stuff like that.

And then I woke up. Hope my actual appointment is a bit more high tech than this, and that there is no drug education.

Oh boy! The paper is finally here....

Time Warp Photo Essay

Here's what you missed.

I did a triathlon. That is my finisher's medal, because I rock. I finished 9th out of 40 in my age group. It was very hot and miserable and I thought I was going to die. There were tons of people passed out. I even saw one guy getting an IV put in on the side of the road. The paramedics were covering him with ice bags and squeezing the iv bag to get the juice in him faster. He was shaking. I can't wait to do it again.My friend Katie came over and made me and Laura dinner. She brought 4 dogs with her. This is Van Gogh. He can't breath or walk very well and he only has about 4 teeth. Katie carries him around in a baby sling and he likes to be held like this.
We even got all six dogs on the couch at one point. It was over whelming. My face is sunburnt because of the triathlon.
Katie likes cooking.
Some time after that Laura and I got all dolled up for Halloween. She is clearly a zombie.
I was a vampire.
After a busy night in the Grove drinking beer, Zombie Laura was very hungry and just wanted to eat some Braaaiiinnnnnnnsssss.
And finally: Laura is a RoseBeard. No, I mean Rose B.andit. She loves biking almost as she loves her new pink uniform. This picture was taken before her big shot race where she came in 2nd. She is a big shot pro biker now. See?

That's the end, there ain't no more.

Time Warp

If life were Girl Scout camp, this wouldn't be a triumphal return at all. Instead you would yawn and turn towards me and say "Oh, hi, there you are" or, rather you would Squeeeeeeel in delight and loose control of your limbs and jump for joy for at least two minutes before the yawning part. Because that's a time warp. Whatever happened in between, whatever the space and the distance and the events don't matter. Only that we're all here together again. And it's always the same.

Here I am. My dog Granite, a.k.a. Concrete, a.k.a. Pee-Machine, is snoozing on my leg. Laura is playing on the facebook talking with her biking friends about their latest drama which involves a 72 mile race and 25 mile an hour head winds. We're watching a movie called the Brothers Bloom, which is pretty good. I would recommend that you Netflix it.

Miami is taking it's damn sweet time cooling off for the year. We had record temperatures last week and this week it may be cooler but that is only because of the ridiculously strong winds I've already mentioned. If it isn't one weather phenomenon making me miserable it's another around here. How's the weather in all those lovely places with Seasons? huh?

My friend Ruthie is coming to visit next week. We're going on a cruise, which I suppose is a positive thing about Miami. We can practically walk to the port. We'd have to walk, because naturally Miami doesn't have public transportation that serves the port. Except for in the early morning or late afternoon. I guess they get some points for trying to make life a little bit better for the people who work at the port. But still: I think the message is that tourists have money and they can damn well call a cab. Which is what we'll do.

I've turned in my thesis proposal, next I must defend it and take some qualifying exams. That means a lot of studying and worrying and being bored, on top of being busy up to my eyeballs with a Girl Scout service project I foolishly became mastermind of. It's a ton of work, but it's the kind of work that we all know is going to work out in the end, no matter how tenuous it feels at this point. In a nutshell, we're collecting Christmas presents and throwing a party for 150 people served by a community organization that helps low income families, especially victims of domestic violence.

Wanna donate a gift? This is exactly like those commercials, you know the ones, except there really is a kid that really does get something out of it. Let me know.

In other news: I'm starting to love O'Douls. I know it's a little embarassing to admit, but I do love it and I'm not entirely ashamed. It tastes good. It doesn't make me sleepy, and it doesn't make my nose run. And it's cheaper. So don't even try to talk me out of it.

Oh, and Laura came in 2nd in that big bike race. 150 people started, only 66 finished and Laura was the second woman across the line. Probably only the second one that actually finished the race too. Apparently there was a lot of willy-nilly course making going on during those 72 miles in the gale, thus shortening a lot of peoples' race and thus sparking the drama that has been keeping her quite busy for the past two days. But, Laura finished her race.

Hope you've enjoyed my return. I'll try not to be so long anymore: but remember, everyone always loves you when you're on your way out the door.