Ruminations, Musings and Other Stuff…

So I think we’re on week three now for this intense, hot and dry weather that’s been plaguing the Piedmont this month. Sweaty dog and training walks, crispy lawns, one kicked rain barrel , and a whole slew of dumb asses who run their sprinklers aimed right… on… the road >: ( ! I swear, once or twice is forgivable, maybe it’s a faulty sprinkler after all, but when I see you watering the street in front of your home almost every frigging morning, thats when I question several things about you. Your place on the food chain, how lazy you are, and how you load your American Idol soaked brain into a multi ton bullet and get on 40 every morning. Gracing ALL of us with your presence.

Soooo… maybe that’s a little harsh, but I swear, the hotter it gets down here, the dumber the populace of the triangle gets.

Me? I don’t even water my lawn anymore. I tried 3 summers in a row to resuscitate my weed ridden lawn to no avail. The weeds always staged a successful come back, beating out my newly planted grass and kicking the ever lovin’ crap out of my wallet. So now I’m only watering the veggie garden (which is doing fabulous by the way) with the hose and any harvested rain water that we collect in the rain barrel which, woefully ran dry this weekend. In these conditions, lawns literally burn to a crisp. Add to that fact that extended forecasts show no rain on the horizon and your town inevitably moving to enforced water restrictions due to the drought and… well, lets say you just can’t win.

But, then, once and a while, fortune looks upon your parched and weary surroundings and forms a red blob the size of a pinhead over your little community.

This evening with no rain forecasted, a cloud opened up and started pouring down on us. Literally, all around our surrounding area you could see sunshine. But over our house it poured for a good fifteen to twenty minutes straight!! I absolutely adore these moments when mother nature throws you a curve ball! I immediately ran outside to bring the bikes in off the back porch and smiled big time to hear the water gurgling into the rain barrel. It’s music to my ears honestly.
Now, if only we could get a little more… and maybe people could learn how to make their sprinklers work. Oh yeah, and while I’m at it, maybe we could get our troops home soon to their families and loved ones.

I know, I know, lets not try to squeeze blood from a stone…

Tonight we got home from work at the usual time and about an hour into us resting and enjoying our evening the electricity conked out. Now, typically we are home to witness such events, but at the time we were walking the kids and I had even extended Mathias’ walk to get him to complete some “unfinished business”. Mel went back to the house with Cadence and I continued on. As I walked I noticed something… an intense quiet. All I could hear were birds singing and kids playing in the final light of the sunset. The whole scene had this eerie “last man on earth” feeling to it. Like civilization has come to a grinding halt. And it’s then that you are reminded how much noise our industrialized civilization makes hour after hour, day after day. That the hum of our convenience is more like a cacophony, that our place in this world has become a decidedly noisey one. I am ashamed to say that it actually hadn’t occurred to me that we had lost power until the neighbors started calling to each other across the street.

“Hey Connie? You lose power?”

“Yep, about 15 minutes ago…”

I smiled wondering how long it would take for Mel to know it was out because there was still a fair amount of daylight left and I knew we wouldn’t be turning any lights on anytime soon. I made the final lap with the little man and we ran up the front stairs into the house. Mel was out back working in our veggie garden. She told me she knew something was up when the music was off and then she checked the house and all the appliances were off. The house was still cool and the laptops had plenty of juice in them (hence the power free post ) so I fired up the grill, cooked up some dinner and settled into what I hoped would be a candle lit evening. I was shocked at how cool the house was and how the dogs had settled right into sleeping. The sun slowly went down and when the glare from the laptop started hurting my already office strained eyes, I lit some candles!

In a word: wonderful…

It’s interesting what happens to some people when electricity is extricated from their lives. Some folks in the neighborhood actually fired up generators, a lot went out for dinner. Us? We haven’t had cable TV in our home for well over a decade, and flame broiled Boca burgers were only a grill start away. Dinner, the dull glow of our laptops, the undulating candle light, Mel’s needles sliding together, and the clacking of my fingers on the keys writing….

It’s a life we’ve been heading towards for years, and I gotta admit; it was nice getting a brief preview of it tonight.

Now if only the power would come back so that I could post this ;).

…immensely in fact!

So Mel and I jetted up to Maryland for the second weekend in a row and partook in our second annual Sheep and Wool Festival!

I know, I know, I’m a guy, so what the hell am I hanging out with a bunch of ladies that like to slide needles and yarn together? Well, I’ve got news for ya Jack! Knitting isn’t just for ladies and the S and W fest isn’t just about knitting. There are livestock farmers, spinners, skilled woodworkers, musicians, soap makers, software engineers (for real!), shearers, silk worm enthusiasts, cutlery salesmen (knives!! ROAR!!!!); all honest folks trying to make an honest living on our wonderful planet. A lot of this lifestyle and everything associated with it, is something Mel and I are hoping to achieve one day. So on top of just watching hundreds of people simply feeling happy, I look at it as learning about my future via osmosis!!

I will also let you in on a little secret most folks don’t seem to pick up on when around the knitting populace of the world, and that is: knitters knit for a reason!

They embrace the fiber because it calms them. For some it’s therapy, for others its the peace that is only achieved by completing something with your own hands. The fact that what is created at the end is often a functional piece of clothing is just an added bonus! When you run into folks who enter this realm of relaxation, it tends to be infectious! You too become calm, and chill, problems seem lesser so, and life in general is just wee bit better!
Mind you, this is all coming from a non-knitter.

Mel’s been knitting for years now and when I am writing (like I am now) and she is 20 feet away, needles shick-shicka-shicking (like she is now), everything just feels… well, it just feels right. Like we are both in our element, clicking together, even though we are doing completely different activities. It’s hard to explain. I’ve always felt blessed when I’ve happened upon these situations in the past, but now that we can summon these moments at will, it’s just been wonderful!

So, when you see a knitter in your travels, don’t shun them! Try to get right up next to them. Sit still for a little while, listen to the rhythm of the needles and I almost guarantee you’ll notice a little peace and calm seep into you.

And only good can come from that! There aren’t enough knitters in the world in my humble opinion. So you can only guess how blessed I feel to be married to one!

For five I spend one third…
of my days bathed in the fluorescence
of high electric bills
high tech…
high expectations…

heightened meaninglessness…

Noble yes?
It’s become the file…
Buried in the cake…
from my time spent…
shackled to a chair…
to headaches…
that faint glow…
and debt…
seemingly insurmountable.

Except for time.

Pennies become grains of sand…
And seconds become water molecules…
wedded into motion…
day after day…
back and forth.
Causing metal to brittle…
and chains to weaken…

Until either they…
Or I…
Snap. Give in. Surrender.
Leaving me damned…
Or somehow vindicated.
That recycled air…
Cogs in a machine…
Free coffee…
Endless meetings…
Small talk…

Won’t ever define me.

That this stepping stone
Is nothing more than just that.
Worn away by diligence…
By tick tocks…
By patience…
Double clicks…
Left-left, right-right…

Sacrifice…

For a bluer sky…
A blacker night…
Brilliant sunsets…
Cooler breezes…
Lighter pay checks…
and sweeter days…

Days that are owned by no one…

But me.

- Tad Hunt