General Ramblings

I haven’t done a rambling post lately… It’s time to get things off my chest.

This morning when I went out with the dog, I noticed the crescent waning moon just above the eastern horizon. The sliver will appear again, in a few days, in the evening sky above the western horizon. I miss living in the desert where the skies were always clear. When my daughter was three, she’d look out right after dark and when the moon was new would run through the house shouting, “The moon is back, the moon is back.”

The songbirds are back. A sign of spring, more reliable than even the calendar, are the birds singing in the predawn hours. I first noticed them about a week ago.

If I’m not mistaken, there was a fawn in the field behind the house this morning… Maybe it’s time to throw a baby shower and put out some flowers, allowing the deer a change in diet. They sure did a number on the low branches of the evergreens this winter. Our deer enjoy a sheltered life, without any predators. They must have signed a peace accord with my dog, for he no longer chases them and they no longer run. They coexist. And because they stay within the city limits, they’re safe from the hunter’s crosshairs. The deer have even learned how to invade their only other serious predator, the automobile. Now, when crossing the highway, they stop, look and listen better than most 2nd graders.

I’ve had a sextant for a number of years, an unexpected gift from a friend. I’d once mentioned that I’d love to learn how to navigate with a sextant and then he found this one at a garage sale. For years, it has sat on a bookcase. My daughter has been asking me about it, so we spent time this weekend learning how it works. I got the jest of it figured out (meaning I think I can find my latitude at noon). I can’t imagine using it to determine my location at sea, on a boat that’s bobbing around.

Yesterday morning I had a dream that included my parents. They were at some unfamiliar place, which reminded me of Montreat, North Carolina. They were standing outside a stone-building. I came up to them and they were talking to strangers. My mom was going on and on, bragging about me. It felt so good to hear her praise. This morning, I was reading about how many adults struggle to know that they are cherished or loved by their parents and how they live their lives trying to please their parents. I can’t say that was me. Although I did not always do what my mother wanted me to do, I remember how she was always proud of me. She once saw a photo of me in the newspaper. I was in my mid-20s and making a presentation and she wrote me to say she was proud of me even though she has a hard time understanding that I’m now grown. I’ve often heard her brag about me to friends and when I woke up, I realized that it felt good to once again hear her praise. It’s been a few years since I heard it. Alzheimer’s is a terrible thing. These days she mostly doesn’t even know me. Some days she doesn’t even know my dad.

And to end on an "up note," it was nice to see our President picking Carolina to go all the way in the NCAA tournament. I hope he does as well as he did with the Superbowl!

After comments from Lisa and Murf, I decided to add the above picture of a sextant. I was afraid some of you were thinking I was talking about a mobile bordello--a sex tent--or something along that vein.