In Our Own Way

When you've gotta go, you've gotta go.

Starting to Get Itchy Feet

by Leave a Comment

A couple days ago, I decided the hell with it — I was tired of just hanging out here, tired of taking photos of palm trees and such. I mean, that’s all very well and good per se, I just needed a little variety. The Missus and The Stepdaughter were out getting dolled up (well, their nails were), so I just decided to head out somewhere.

My initial destination was a site commonly referred to as just “Jupiter Lighthouse.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to climb to the top — among other things, the weather was a bit dicey (I kept seeing lightning flashes from that direction). But as you can see if you followed that link, it’s still picturesque as hell. (In fact, I got a shot of it from the far side of the inlet, during our previous visit down here a couple months ago. Obviously the thing has a way of attracting “interesting” weather!)

Again, though, the weather was determined to put obstacles in my way: I had no GPS signal at all, hence no Google Maps to guide me. Luckily, I’d already looked at the route a day before, so I had a general sense of how to get to the Jupiter area. I just used that as a starting point, and headed out…

Report of a Central Florida visit even worse than ours.

Well, between one thing and another, I opted not to visit the lighthouse that day. Instead, on the way, I came across a state park. Jonathan Dickinson led a Quaker mission to this general area in the late 17th century; as you can see from the photo on the left, things didn’t work out for him quite as he’d hoped, but at least he got this park named for him. (Maybe we’ll have one named for us someday.)

It’s a fairly small park, with a campground for RVs and such and a handful of “points of interest.” Scenic? Well, sort of… The Florida peninsula doesn’t spring naturally to mind when you think “scenery” — it’s so flat. But here at Dickinson State Park, there’s at least a little relief… a whole blooming mountain, at that. All 86 feet of it!

Sign warning against contributing to erosion, while also warning of oxygen deprivation from the altitude.

I did not, in the event, go all the way to the top of the tower (although I did get about halfway up into it). I thought you might appreciate a glimpse of the trek. The photo below is actually about a 180-degree panorama, squeezed to fit here; the boardwalk/path extended a little bit behind me from this vantage point.

About 50% of the perilous hike up to the observation tower on Hobe “Mountain.” If you tap on the image, you’ll get a larger version of it.)

I’ll be posting other photos of my visit to the park at my Instagram account for the next few days. In the meantime, here’s one more shot taken that night. It was the night of the full moon known as the “Buck Moon,” so-called (says one source) “because the antlers of male deer (bucks) are in full-growth mode at this time.”

Buck Moon, July 23, 2021.

We’ll almost certainly be leaving the area sometime in the next few days. I may be posting an update before then… but no promises! 😉

Status: Quo

by Leave a Comment

Don’t get excited. “Tentative” isn’t necessarily the word of the year, or even the moment… but it’s got my vote, for now.

We now have a definite must-leave-by date: next Friday, July 30 — that is, the day our hosts leave for a long-planned (and frankly, long-desperate-for) five-day drive to Michigan and back. Our intention, though, is to leave a couple-three-four days before that, to give them some time to tie up some loose ends here with their home and business.

But, well… 2021, right? The Year of Overturned Schedules. (And we thought 2020 was bad: bwaa-ha-ha!) So, not counting any chickens. We’ll just have to see.

Snacktime with The Stepgrandpig

by Leave a Comment

How domesticated mini-pigs graze indoors: pretty much the same way they do when outside. I.e.: nose and eyes aimed groundward, softly grunting and snuffling in contentment, tail a-whirl… Also, relentlessly. And oblivious to the paparazzi sharing the kitchen floor. My favorite thing about this video: how the background (human) conversation just goes on, not remarking on Norman at all.

Prepping for Release

by Leave a Comment

Souvenir of a recent neighborhood walk. (Details provided in the post itself.)

I’m kidding, of course: at a certain level, The Missus and I both feel we could probably hang out here for a few weeks more. But aside from the (surely considerable) inconvenience which our presence offers to The Stepdaughter and The Stepson-in-Law we ourselves are chomping at the bit to be in motion — for our separate as well as shared reasons.

I at least have been lucky enough to get out and about a bit: nearly daily shopping forays (“I can’t believe I forgot to get the milk for my tea when I went shopping yesterday!” etc.); walking to the end of the block and back…

On one of the latter excursions around the neighborhood, I took along my “good” camera. Most of what there is to see (and photograph) here is a uniform green-and-tan: palm trees, sago palms, bamboo, numerous tall pines, the sudden shock of a riot of tropical flowers… The individual plots of land are large enough (maybe 5-10 acres?), and so well shielded by vegetation, that a lot of the houses are completely invisible from the street. What you can see tells you there’s probably no neighborhood “design code” or anything; the architecture is all over the map — Spanish-style haciendas, traditional Colonial, ranch-style, etc. (Haven’t seen any doublewides but, like I say, who knows?)

Anyway, I’d taken my camera out for a neighborhood walk. Lots of plant-and-flower photos, a handful of “wildlife” shots: couple turtles, a short-and-skinny black snake, that sort of thing. Mostly, I was just walking. And sweating like a sonofagun after 45 minutes or so in the heat and humidity, in a branch of the network of streets I’d never driven on…

And that’s when a couple — probably in their 60s, so a young couple (LOL) — pulled up in a Jeep beside me.

Now, in case I haven’t told you before: I am determined on this road trip that I’ll be better than I ever have been before about talking with people: not ducking my head and looking away, practicing a guileless smile, etc. So maybe I was on a bit of a hair trigger, too eager to talk… and also a bit nervous about the fact (as I imagined it) of being accosted in rural Florida while walking the streets of a neighborhood with a camera — and clearly otherwise Not Fitting In. I started, in short, to babble:

“Hi, I don’t live here. We’re just staying with my stepdaughter over on the other side” — *waving vaguely towards the other side* — “just admiring the lovely foliage, it’s all so photogenic…!”

I’m not even sure they’d rolled down a window yet, let along gotten a word in edgewise. (You can probably imagine The Missus’s eyerolls at this part of the narrative.) But they just smiled, waved, said something reassuring and drove on.

Five minutes later, there they were again: still in the Jeep, headed in the other direction. As they drew up alongside, the guy rolled down his window and handed me a can of “Pibb Xtra,” an “artificially flavored spicy cherry soda” that I didn’t even know existed. (Plain old Mr. Pibb, sure: I knew that one okay. Just not this tarted-up variety.) “You looked like you could use this,” he said, “but I’m sorry, it’s not very cold!”

“It’s colder than I am!” I said, laughing.

The guy kind of saluted me, and they drove on.

It’s not a kind of soda I’d select for myself. But, y’know, even after I’d gotten back to the house and gotten nice and comfortable, I couldn’t bring myself to just discard it…

…and as of this afternoon, I can report: it goes well with cheddar-filled-pretzel Combos.

__________________

P.S. For what it’s worth, we will probably — probably — be on our way to the next destination sometime this week.

Pausing the Road Trip, Not the “Vacation”

by Leave a Comment

Found this appropriate photo (which I did not take) over at Flickr, and doctored it up a bit until it felt right. The photographer says he was unable to proceed while out driving a few years ago, in Northern Ireland; his path was blocked by this big old lumbering — and unexpected — beast. After the guy on the ground had wandered around the behemoth a bit, without explanation — “Inspectin’ ‘er, Gov,” you know how quaint the folk there are — he just returned to the locomotive and then the train was on its way. I don’t actually have to explain the metaphor here, do I???

Admin Note: please be careful how you respond to this post — at least, here on the site. As this is, for now, publicly visible, I’ve intentionally omitted many details of the “pause.” If a comment crosses the line into territory that I’ve avoided, I’ll delete the comment without asking for permission. (I will, though, let you know via email that I’ve done so.) Naturally, all comments about the “pause” — or anything else — are always welcomed with gratitude, from any of you… via email, text message, etc.!

As it happens, we’re staying put for a while more, here at the House o’ Canines. Not of course what we planned, especially in the wake of the earlier pause *shakes fist in Elsa’s direction*. But I don’t really want to talk about that stuff, because we are, after all, still Taking It Easy — and who wants to ruin things when you’re in a soft-rock frame of mind?

Besides, there’s so much more, well, important stuff to consider while we’re cooling our heels. Stuff like:

But the pictures? What about the pictures?

Since The Missus got me the “real” camera three years ago, amplified especially by the pandemic lockdown, I’ve spent a lot of time taking what might be politely called “still lifes”: photos of everyday household objects and such. So yes, I think I’ll have plenty of opportunity to continue and expand on that practice.

Taking deeeep breaths; trying (?) to develop some good, healthy habits

Without many of the comforts and conveniences we’ve gotten used to, we’l be forced to improvise new (preferably better) habits and patterns in our daily lives. I speak of comforts and conveniences like:

  • Doing whatever the hell we want to, within decent limits, without worrying about other folks’ schedules and needs of the moment.
  • Waking up in the middle of the night and staggering down dim-lit, familiar hallways to the darkened kitchen “just for a snack,” knocking over empty plastic containers and other noisy objects on the counter… In The House o’ Canines, even if you yourself drift like the wind, you might as well be leading a brass band at 3 AM in the morning.
  • Watching hours of fitness videos instead of actually, y’know, getting fit. (“But the fourth or fifth rewatch of the original Star Trek series is even better than the third or fourth!”)

…while solidifying some bad (but at least trivial) ones

You cannot even imagine how many TV series and films I’ve been wanting to watch for the first time… you cannot imagine how many TV series and films I started but lost track of in the flurry of all the other stuff… and how many of those long-open pop-culture chapters of my life I can now close.

→←