okay, so maybe that is stretching things just a little bit…
I live, I breathe, I am here.
Guess that this is the normal thing for life, eh? Although, as I watch, I see more and more people just going through the motions of life ~
**shrug** seems really sort of empty for most folks, it really does make me sad to see.
Lets see ~ I’ve not been watching the Olympics, I’m afraid that they have bored me since day one, so badly so that I don’t even bother with the news of who, what, where, when and why the next day… Call me humbug and wrap me in bacon, but NBC so absolutely stinks at the coverage now ~ can’t stand it. Been reading at night instead, worked my way through about six boxes of books now… I’m proud of me.
Things here go apace. It is so very tantalizingly spring here, but then it goes and snows for three days ~ successfully killing any buzz I may have had over the sun and growing things ~ it is makin’ me insane. I have been drooling my way through the garden catalogs on a weekly basis, though I’ve yet to actually order anything. I don’t know that I will be growing anything this summer, but it is a good way to keep myself occupied when I am not reading ~ or watching movies ~ or daydreaming about being able to pay the bills on time… and quite honestly, I have come to the realization that I’ve no idea what I am doing anymore. I feel bereft almost, rudderless, I am currently wandering about in a bit of fog… yeah, yeah, I know… situation normal… :P (oh shuddup you!) though quite seriously, it is not normal.
For so long, it was about everyone else (yes, I know… you’ve heard this before) and now? It is just me… and I am not at all sure any more what I want.
**sigh** besides Viggo that is… :)
‘Tis late, I must be to bed. I only got up to turn off the computer, the buzz was/is giving me a headache… now all the critters seem to think that they need a potty break or something, so maybe midnight snack is in order…
so…where else on earth would I rather be???
I dunno. It will come to me I am sure.
Meanwhile… good juju to all and to all… goodnight! :*
The house where I work is right on a river ~ the building itself sits on a sweeping turn~ the turn itself has a two rocky gravel bars in it ~ they offset one another, one on each side~ and the river channels itself around them.
The main channel (current) goes down the near side of the first bar, and then the far side (opposite side) of the next ~ making the current speed up as it goes through the constriction…
There are a lot of small ducks out front, two in particular that hang about all the time. One resembles a Mallard, but only its head and neck. The rest of him is white, like a domestic duck ~ his partner though, is a full on Mallard, right down to the pin feathers…quintessential odd couple.
I first noticed them when I got to work yesterday, they were in the eddy down at the bottom of the sweep.
Just above that eddy there is a small ripple where the bank on the far side fell in ~ they would ride the ripple down, swim up the slow side of the eddy then ride the little ripple down again ~ every once in a while, they’d turn upstream in the middle of the ride down and swim as fast as their legs would go, then dive under water, and pop up at the bottom of the ride…
I lost track of them for a bit ~ figured they’d gone to do duck stuff somewhere.
Not half an hour later, I took a chance look upriver, and here they come around the top corner of the sweep ~ diving and splashing, and having a real ducky hoot…
Top of the first gravel bar is where the river must crunch between “my” bank and the gravel bar… as they approached that spot, they both turned tail down river and started paddling for all they were worth. They held their own until one goobered ~ then they crashed into one another and went rushing down through the gauntlet, playing bumper ducks all the way to the bottom of that chute ~ the current actually slows down just below the top of the ripple where the river crunches on the far side of the second gravel bar ~ So as soon as they got organized from the first tumble, they paddled like mad things to hit the top of the second “gauntlet” ~ rode that one out just like the first, holding steady until some slip of the web feet, and down they bumped, splashing and a hollerin’…
That current also slows down below the final “white water” ~ so they then paddled like crazy to get the ripple across the way where they did the tails downriver, dive, and pop up out the water in the middle of the big eddy … right back where they began.
When they hit the bottom of the sweep, they did the “Mallard High Fives” (I swear!) and launched into the air ~ flying straight back up the river, disappearing around the top of the sweep.
Five minutes later, here they came ~ down through the ripples, swimming like crazy, doing bumper ducks through the ripples~ and *high fives* at the bottom.
Rafting the river, Mallard style.
~:-)
