It was pretty fascinating to hear about your adjusting to getting your other hand back. Initially, I was thinking that maybe you should continue to use your opposite appendage as much as possible just to actually become ambidextrous. All things considered, it's a handy skill to have. I guess it would be a really tough struggle, though, since you'd be going against a lifetime of internal programming.
They were all idle thoughts, of course.
BTW, you're right. I am damn/dang lucky to live in such a picturesque and biologically splendiferous part of the world. I don't think I fully appreciated it, oddly enough, until we went to Mexico. We rode 3 hours on a bus across the Yucatan Peninsula from Cancun to Merida and the whole time all that could be seen out the windows were short gnarly hardscrabble bushes all around. No hills to break the horizontal monotony and no sights off in the distance to counter the feeling that what you see is all you will get all directions. It was actually kinda claustrophobic even though it was outside.
Gotta admit, though, that being able to tack Denver, Colorado on the bottom end of ones address isn't three day old leftovers either. Having mountains as part of your everyday external wallpaper would be, for me, only 3.5% less cool than looking out first thing in the morning to see the water and listen to the valium-esque hum of the waves.
Strangely enough, when I wuz a kid, one of the things I wanted to be was a lighthouse keeper. I figured it would give me lotsa time to read and let me live on the water in a quiet and uncrowded setting most of the time.
One early autumn day around that time, when my dad and I were down getting some fresh fish at Port Stanley on Lake Erie, (a 45 minute drive from our home in London, Ontario) I got to venture out on the concrete pier during a healthy storm. Hearing the thunder of the waves and feeling them make this massive concrete pier shudder underfoot made me realize that H2O, plus mother nature being moody can be terrifying at times.
After that, living my life in a lighthouse got crossed off my list.
Our jaunt about the islands at Fathom Five last week left me curious about a number of things. Trees were top of the list, after seeing those scraggly 1300 year old conifers clinging tenaciously to the rocks. So I did what any person with internet access would do. I went to Wikipedia and grazed about in the trees section. Found out some interesting stuff about them, too.
First thing I learned was that the " theoretical maximum height " a tree can reach is 426 feet. Hmmm, how could that have been arrived at ? The tallest tree on our dirtball at the moment is 379 feet ( unless it's grown since the entry was accepted, of course. ) What do you suppose would happen to it once it reached 426 feet and still felt like growing ?
Next wakeup fact was that a 1300 year old specimen isn't a senior citizen in the tree world.. There are trees that have been alive for much longer than that. That scraggly item to the left is, according to an article in National Geographic News in 2008 the oldest tree on the planet and lives in Sweden of all places. It has been alive on planet earth for 9,550 years ( plus 6 now ) It is a clonal tree however so when the trunk succumbs to old age the root system continues and simply shoots up a new trunk. The oldest continuously standing tree is about 5000 years old and hangs out, like all cool things, in California.
The silver medal for tree longevity goes equally to trees in two pretty diverse locations, Iran and Wales. The pic below is of the one in Wales. Both trees have been living for over four thousand years.
Can you imagine what it must be like to stand under that canopy and realize that the organism that it's part of was alive about the time Stonehenge was being created and before many of the Great Pyramids of Egypt rose up from the sand?
One other fascinating item about trees that I happened upon and stuck with me had to do with what I used to call " pet trees " . Bonsai trees have been around for who knows how long. My mother had a Bonsai tree for all of the 20 plus years I was at home and tended to it assiduously. I can only remember one time when it actually sprouted something during that period.
I think one of the few times she actually lost her temper with me was when I contended that this tree wasn't really alive since it never seemed to change and that what she actually had was the tree equivalent of a pet rock ( I was thoroughly awash in my smart alecky teen phase then - I must have been a major pain in the gluteus maximus ) Well, apparently the oldest known Bonsai tree is over a thousand years old. It lives in, of all places, Italy.
Now, I sure wish I had had the perspicacity to have kept it after she died. It would be a living link. Chances are it's alive somewhere, though.
Okay, now I'm down from the trees and I've brought with me something not seen in these here parts for awhile - a riddle. Feel free to have a whack at it when time permits, Carolyn.
Within its leaves lie, say some
Serenity and, if carefully observed, the future.
When Commonwealth clocks strike four
It's savoured even more.
.... Feels good to get back to the riddlin' thing.
Hopefully your undertakings, like the universe, unfold as they should this week.
Don
All images sourced from Google Images
Fig. 1 - www.texasenterprise.utexas.edu
Fig. 2 - www.iasglobal.org
Fig. 3 - www.printingaustralia.com.au
Fig. 4 - www.lovethesepics.com
Fig. 6 - Wikimedia Commons
Fig. 7 - Italian Bonsai Museum "Crispi"
Fig. 8 - Wikimedia Commons
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