We order stuff from Amazon.
We shop at Wal-Mart.
Shoot.
Sometimes, when we get our package from Amazon, it’s a really small item in a big, big box.
That’s crazy.
It’s worse than McDonald’s with the packaging.
So much stuff to throw away after unpacking my ink cartridge or pack of pencils.
More stuff to throw away recycle after I consume whatever I’m buying.
I guess that I’d rather shop at Amazon than work for Amazon, though.
That’d be kind of bad to work for Amazon.
New calf in the field on the drive home….fresh, but already tagged, the tag huge on its new ear.
This is an unusual breed….maybe not so common, but we have a field full of them on the way from Hendersonville to Saluda.
It rained hard today….but not as hard as it must have rained on the coast.
We’re not subject to the kind of hurricane weather that the folks on the coast get.
We get the “leavings” of all that bad weather.
We get the tail end of all the badness.
Still, it’s energizing to see the giant trees bending in the wind high on a mountain road when the weather gets strong.
There’s something about being small in the big space that makes me feel most alive.
Weather reminds me of that every time.
Pulled up to a box yesterday and noticed all the ripe persimmons littering the ground around my Jeep.
Behind the mailbox was a giant persimmon tree, one of the biggest I’d seen.
I didn’t have the time or long enough arms to reach any of the fruit still on the tree, and that’s kind of a shame, because a ripe persimmon is good.
Of course, if you don’t time your eating right, a persimmon can be a mouth-puckering mistake.
I am really settling in to enjoying this new route.
Saw a doe and a really young fawn up on the highest part of the mountain today.
The fawn still had spots….so I guess it was a young one.
It’s ears were big.
All this stuff that happens around the periphery of my job are the good parts.
It’s good to be out in the country.
Every day, I’m responsible for driving a bunch of mail through this graffiti covered tunnel.
How cool is that?!
I could put it on a résumé if I was willing to leave such a cool job.
If I wasn’t willing to leave, why would I need a résumé?
Now that I’m calming down about finding all the mailboxes, I’m noticing all the interesting things I pass by and through on this new route.
I’m starting to really enjoy being in a “new” part of NC.
It has to be a well-kept secret, though.
If anyone found out that I like to drive around in the woods and listen to a good radio station, they’d stop paying me to do this.
I need a job that pays money….no matter how much fun it is to drive around and open all the mailboxes.
Don’t tell anyone that it’s fun to drive through the tunnel.
I need to get paid.
This guy fascinates me.
Lloyd Kahn has featured him in most of his books…and deservedly so.
What imagination!
What energy!
Something to shoot for, for sure.
Sun Ray Kelley!
Google “Sun Ray Kelley” and do an image search to see a kaleidoscope of crazy free-form building.
I know that building codes are with us for a reason. If you didn’t have the skill and the vision that this guy has, you could end up with a pretty horrible hodge-podge of bad (and dangerous) structures.
But….why do you have to be a renegade to do something really interesting?
And…could I find the energy to finish the treehouse after working a 10 hour shift delivering mail?
Surely, there has to be a way to do that?!
Sun Ray looks older than me.
Surely I can rise to the challenge of finishing the treehouse if he can build all this wild stuff?
I don’t even have to stomp around in the mud to do a treehouse.
I can do it.
Here’s another Sun Ray video…
Working for a living is OK….but, I could be spinning on one of these things.
That’d be kind of cool in a weird way, too.
(Hah! Here’s one of the comments from the YouTube site about this video: “You are crazy so the Indians won’t scalp you.” Hah!)
Man.
All I seem to be doing these days is working.
Not running….just working….and recovering.
That’s goofy.
What a tradeoff….but, once I settle in to the new route, it will be old hat again.
I’ll be able to do some of it in my sleep.
Then I’ll be able to catch up on my rest.
Change is hard on everybody, though.
New routines are pretty hairy until they become….routine again.
It’s kind of tough on the whole family.
How about Jackson Browne?
“In ’69 I was 21….”
What does that make him? 68?
We’re all getting older.
Everybody….except me.
I take vitamins.
But….I’m not running.
I have some budding engineers in the family and a lego obsessed younger son….so this is right up their alley.
Legos.
Playing guitar.
Legos playing guitar.
This is pretty cool….but I still like seeing the people play the guitar more.
Still…..this is pretty cool.
Who saw this one coming?
I did the rear brakes this afternoon on the Jeep.
Man, what a bugger.
It’s a pretty straightforward process that is hard because you have to put all these springs back in the right order….some keepers that are spring-loaded and that have to be twisted under pressure so that they hold the shoes on….and get everything seated correctly so that it all goes back together “right”.
It’s important that you’re “right” when you’re talking about bringing a heavy vehicle to a stop.
Some of the stuff that the “real mechanics” did was kind of goofy, though….so I think that I did a pretty good job.
The drums were really hard to get on though….even with the brake cylinders depressed and the self-adjuster backed off all the way.
It was tough.
When I called the parts store, the guy who’s helped me before told me that he’d had troubles with drum brakes, too….and suggested sanding down the shoes a little and maybe the drum would go on.
Of course, all the time I was doing the sanding, I was trying not to breath. I thought that I might be giving myself cancer….and being cheap is a crappy way to get cancer.
I found out later that the shoes didn’t contain any asbestos.
(I read the Spanish on the wrong side of the box and didn’t understand what “sin asbestos” meant.)
I’m glad that I didn’t give myself cancer from this part of my life.
I guess that the tight shoes will loosen up as they wear?
A 75 mile rural route is a great place to see if it’s going to work out.
Right?
“bad brakes” Cat Stevens
I’m learning a new route in a new place that I’m unfamiliar with.
Now, after a week of driving this new route, I’m more familiar with the places and faces that brought me worry before, and it’s all coming together.
It’s funny how bound up I can get when I’m struggling to get to familiar.
I fear the new.
That’s weird….”I fear the new”.
I fear it….but I hunger for it.
I need new….but it makes me nervous when I’m trying to figure out addresses when the bulk of the mailboxes seem to be either unmarked….or….marked badly.
Maybe “new” without responsibility is a little easier to take.
Wacky stuff.
This new route is rural and right in town.
Saluda is a unique place….you can go a couple of hundred yards outside of Main Street and feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere.
It can feel pretty darn rural pretty darn quick.
That’s kind of fun when you start to get used to it.
I am a survivor.
That’s good to remember.
Starting to figure out how to do this new route helps me remember that.
Maybe surviving the things we fear is all that really lets us grow?
“lesson in survival” Joni Mitchell
I’m tired….and this is easy.
David Wilcox at Furman…..doing a TedTalk.
Why’m I so tired these days?
Thank goodness for YouTube…..but YouTube isn’t good blogging…..and….why’m I so tired?
It’s good to be sharing something good, though.
This is good.