You'd never know it, but I had intended to send this post out into the world about a week after the last one. Obviously that didn't happen. Apparently, I blinked and missed February. Even with an extra day this year the month seems to have come and gone before I could even register that it was here. I guess it's a good thing that I didn't have any hot plans for the month then, otherwise I might've been disappointed.
Originally, this post was probably gonna be about as long, if not longer, than the first one. But, for reasons that I'll get to in a second, it'll most likely now be more of an abbreviated version of what had been planned (lucky you!). I might've even skipped it altogether had I not already said that I'd be doing a second part, but I did, so here we are...
• I don't want to spend too much time on it, especially since I just touched on it in the last post on my card blog, but I did start off part 1 with some health talk so I might as well provide an update on that. The good news is that my suspected occipital neuralgia seems to have gone away. Unfortunately I'm still having trouble with my equilibrium. I don't know if the neuralgia triggered something else, or if this is just something that decided to get going about the same time as the neuralgia. And before anyone says anything, yes, I'll be going to see a doctor. This issue is really effecting how much time I can spend on the computer, as the act of typing seems to be causing the most problems as far as the vertigo is concerned; which I'm assuming has something to do with my eyes trying to follow the rapid movement of my fingers. At the moment, I can do about an hour's worth of typing in the morning -- which does cause problems, but nothing I can't deal with -- and maybe thirty more minutes at night. This has made it difficult to get very many posts out, and/or keep up with the posts from my blogging friends. And on top of that, a few of my normal issues have decided to act up all at the same time, which is a bit unusual, and that's made things a bit more difficult as of late too. But, as I just said in an email the other day, a lot of people out there are much worse off, so with that in mind I try not to complain too much. I'm sure that all of this will pass, I just need to continue to weather the storm in the meantime.
• A couple of days ago I opened up the patio curtain around dawn just in time to see a coyote cutting across the backyard, which isn't an unusual site, but it did remind me of a mildly funny encounter that occurred last summer. Most summer nights I go out and walk around the house sometime around an hour or so before it gets dark. Sometimes I have a reason to, like if something needs to be picked up and put away for the night, or in last summer's case it was often to just go out and talk to pair of friendly bucks (and by friendly I mean, didn't wig out when they saw/heard me) that were out there most nights, but sometimes too it's just to go out and get a few more minutes of fresh air. Anyway, on one particular night I was going to lock up the shed and about halfway there I turned my head to the right only to see a coyote approaching on a course that was sort of parallel to mine, sort of like we were working are way up both sides of an inverted "V". The funny thing though was that the coyote had been looking away from me, and didn't see me until the exact same time that I saw it. We both stopped when we saw each other. I'd say too that we were about 25 feet apart at that point, but would've been meeting at the top of our "V" pretty quickly had we both continued to be looking in the opposite directions. Right after we stopped, and my brain could process this odd encounter, I said "Where are you going?", which prompted the coyote to turn, go back about 10 feet and crouch down behind some slightly higher grass. I then said "I can still see you", the coyote then, after about five seconds, stood back up, and then turned and ran back into the woods. Aside from the unexpectedness of the brief encounter, I was most surprised by the size of this particular coyote, it was noticeably larger than the average coyotes around here.
It's strange too, because when I first moved here, I'd hear large groups around the house almost every night. Now I only hear them maybe once every couple of weeks or so. On the flipside though, I've seen more of them, especially during the day, in the last 2-3 years than I had in the previous 6-7. I suspect I know why I've been seeing more of them, but don't have any solid proof; which leads me to my next bullet point...
• People are moving here in droves! It's been happening for the last few years now, but I've really only been noticing it since last summer. It's not good. My quiet rural setting is getting considerably less quiet, and seemingly more so on a near daily basis. You don't have to go far either to see this boom, just drive down any road, or the local highway, and you'll see multiple properties being built on. Of course too, even if you couldn't see where the homes are being built, you'd know that the population is increasing just by the amount of traffic that there now is. It's had to have increased ten-fold since I got there. Of course too, when it's just a steady stream of dump trucks, log trucks, and flatbeds carrying large earth movers of various kinds, that's a pretty big indicator as well. Supposedly Californians and New Yorkers make up the largest majority of these recent immigrants (I can't imagine why anyone would want to leave those states 😵), but former Floridians, Texans, and Virginians are amassing as well. I don't think it would bother me as much as it has been if it weren't for the already mentioned additional noise and traffic. Although, considering a lot of these people are coming from places that are all in on the global warming/reducing your carbon footprint thing, they don't seem to be practicing what they've been preaching once they get here, as it seems like the first thing these people do after buying acreage is to clear cut it and put up a big ugly house that people can see from miles around in all directions. Seriously, these houses are fucking ugly, and do not blend in with their surroundings in the least. To me, they're abominations. And I think my soul dies a little bit more every time I see a large wooded area being cleared. Of course too, this is obviously having a very negative impact on all of the animals as well, as they're being forced to move or adapt to areas that they normally wouldn't be found in. I know that none of these people care about that, but I do. It getting so bad, and apparently will not be slowing down anytime soon, that I've even been thinking of potentially moving. I moved here to get away from people, and their noise (and their craziness), and it was great for a few years, but now it's considerably less so.
I realize too that this might come off as a "only I should be allowed to move here" sort of thing, which it isn't, it's just me lamenting about all the wrong kind of people ruining my little slice of solitude.
• I've decided somewhat recently that I'd like to learn how to play the banjo. I couldn't tell you why exactly other than that I just like the way they sound. And supposedly, the banjo is easier to learn than the guitar. So, if I ever wanted to take up guitar afterwards, I'd already have a bit of a head start. I've also kind of been jonesing to try my hand at the violin. That would require considerably more practice, and the given the cost of even a slightly decent violin, I'm not sure how doable this particular interest will be to try. I do feel like I should give both of them a go though. And with the violin I wouldn't even care if I never got very good (ala Jack Benny the character, not the real person, who was quite accomplished) just the act of playing it would probably be enough. One of my great regrets is not taking up piano as a kid. I suspect that I might've been pretty good at it, but am not sure that I would've been able to stick with it, especially if it meant giving any playing time outdoors with friends. That was pretty important to me at the time, and looking back, the memories are even more so now.
• Here's a not-so-hot-take: I hate politics. I hated them before I was of voting age, and hate them even more since. I know a lot of people say this these days, but still end up playing the game, if you will. I on the other hand have never let myself get caught up in it, this being evidenced by the fact that I've never voted in any election, local or national. I know that some people would lose their mind over reading that, blah blah civic duty and so forth, but for me it's simple, I've just never been one to buy what politicians are selling. I bring this up because, while I try to steer clear of all things "news", I do occasionally listen to an FM station (music) that does a news update at the top of each hour; which I do, unfortunately, hear from time to time. Not surprisingly, most of that since the beginning of the year, has just been sound bites from the current president, as well as all of the various hopefuls. And every time I hear one of these all I can think is "I really dislike all of these people" and "Is this really the best we have to offer?". Now, to be fair, the latter is something that I've thought since reaching voting age. It just seems mind boggling to me that we can never get any better options, and from I've observed, are options continue to worsen every four years. This isn't a new thought, I realize that, but often times people who espouse such things will also say that they're voting for so-and-so because they're the lesser of two evils. Well, I don't cotton to that way of thinking. Give me someone worth a damn, or don't give me anyone at all. I have no interest in supporting less evil, even less so when I no longer even see a "lesser evil". I'm often quite thankful that my mom didn't give much creed to politics, and that after his time in Vietnam, my dad didn't trust anything that came out of a politicians mouth, so I was able to grow up in a politic-free environment. Of course, back then politics hadn't permeated everything like they do now. I feel very sorry for today's kids. I've got plenty more to say on this, but I know that you're all gone get a shit-ton of this kind of talk by year's end, so I'll spare you any more (for now).
• My mom mentioned the other day that my oldest cousin would be turning 35 today. I haven't seen him in probably 25 years, and it just doesn't seem like he could be that old already. I still remember when he was born (there's plenty of photos of us together when he was a baby), which to me, does not seem like that could've been 35 years ago already. I don't think I'm ever gonna get comfortable with aging, and hearing things like this just makes it worse.
I had a few more things that I wanted to get to, but I think that I'll save them for another time. It's taken me a few days just to get this far, and I'm really running out of gas. I went to McKay's about a month ago, and I think I'll cover that stuff in the next post. After these last two posts, it'll be nice to get back to one that's a bit more picture oriented.
