We humans have used our brains and opposable thumbs to build the environments we live in and the various tools and toys we use to make our lives easier and more entertaining. Humans have designed and built machines that help prolong our lives, machines that process, store and cook our food, machines that transport us from place to place over land, sea and air (even space for a select few), machines that allow us to communicate. We even have machines that think for us. Many human inventions were designed to allow humans the time to relax while the machines did the work. And of course, there are machines designed to amuse us during our new found free time.
When one considers the incredible variety and number of the machines humans have built over the past couple of thousand years and how many machines we use every day (often without a thought about the wonder of such a thing existing at all) it becomes obvious that machines are as much a part of the human experience as war. (and they have machines for that too.)
But I have to wonder... are all these machines really necessary?
Do we, as a species, really need the leafblower?
Of all the needless and annoying machines in the world I think leafblowers are probably the worst. What exactly are they for anyway? To blow leaves around? Who thought building an oversized airgun was the way to make yardwork easier? How did that idea even come up? Was some design engineer raking his lawn one day and decided his time was too precious to waste scraping leaves into a pile with a handheld tool, he needed a machine to do the work for him? Or maybe he was just lazy, raking leaves by hand was just too hard.
Whatever the reason, the leafblower was invented and quickly put into use in neighborhoods across the urbanized world. If only there were some way to put that particular mechanical monster back into the box because it ranks as the most needless and annoying machine ever created. At least on my list.
Thinks about what leafblowers replaced... rakes and brooms. (Brooms because people discovered the machines could blow dust from sidewalks and driveways while waiting for leaves to fall from the tree) Rakes and brooms. Tools designed to be powered by the human body using them. Learning the various techniques of their use is easily mastered and they're an efficient tool for the task they were designed to facilitate.
Best of all... rakes and brooms are QUIET! The neighbors next door or down the street are unlikely to care about the gentle rhythmic swish of a rake or broom in use, if they even notice at all. Neither of those tools are likely to raise enough dust to impact a neighbor's hanging laundry or freshly washed car. Sure it may take a little time and some physical effort to rake a lawn or sweep a driveway but it's quality time. Time spent with your body and mind using a tool which enables you to do the task while thinking about whatever you want. (Something people seem to run from these days - quiet reflective moments alone with one's thoughts. It seems more and more people demand non-stop input no matter from what source or how dreck-filled it might be, as long as it distracts them from actually thinking.)
Leafblowers on the other hand are LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS! Not only do the neighbors next door know you're out there blowing leaves and/or dust, so do the people down the street... and the people in the next block... the whole darn neighborhood knows because the annoying noise leafblowers emit smothers the environment with its intensity and volume. All issues about leafblower users carelessly blowing crap onto the neighbor's yard, into the street, against someone's car, at passing pedestrians etc... all those issues aside, the noise annoyance factor alone is enough to warrant smashing every single one of those things to useless little bits.
I'm surprised nobody has started a campaign to ban the darn things. Seems like ban-happy zealots are everywhere these days, everything from plastic bags to smoking outdoors is under attack so why not leafblowers? Why is it ok for one person to blast a whole neighborhood with noise... useless noise... unnecessary noise just because they're too lazy or "too busy" to rake their leaves or sweep their sidewalk?
If I walked around my yard at 8:00 Sunday morning (or any day at dinnertime) screaming my best impression of engine noises as loud as I could someone would probably call the cops (or yell at me to shut-up) yet someone can walk around their yard making even more noise (and raising more dust) and nobody does anything to stop it because he's using a leafblower? Where's the sense in that?
And I'm not buying any arguments that carrying a leafblower around is any easier on one's back than raking or sweeping is. If your back is so bad you can't use a rake or broom it sure as heck isn't good enough to strap a leafblower on instead. If your back or physical limitations are such that raking or sweeping is impossible then hire some neighborhood kid to to the job for you. (I shake my head at the addled seniors who buy a leafblower and then hire someone to use it for them.)
Nope, there's no argument that legitimizes the use of leafblowers.
Here's another thing...
LEAFBLOWERS ARE BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!
They run on gas, no? So that means they're spewing exhaust toxins into the atmosphere at the same time they're polluting our ears. Is the ecological trade-off worth it? It's okay if leafblowers pollute the air, contribute to the continued use of fossil fuels and add to global warming because they make doing yardwork easier? Seriously?
Leafblowers suck.
That's the truth of it.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
"A Hero's Call" - An Endorsement.
Before I get to adding blog entries created under my newly recognized urge to write I'd like to take a moment to talk about a different blog worth checking out...
Remember me mentioning the gazillions of blog and other things uploaded to the web each day by its millions of users, and how random it might be that anyone would stumble upon one specific blog? It's a crowded place, the internet is. It's easy to miss some excellent stuff amid the plethora of choices. (Most of them bland, narcissistic, paranoid, anarchistic, boring, judgmental or derivative of a billion others posted last week)
"A Hero's Call" is a blog you don't want to miss. It's written by Jon McCausland, the co-founder of what once was Canada's greatest independent pro wrestling company... UWA Hardcore Wrestling
Now, before you go running away in a panic at the mention of pro wrestling... relax. While "A Hero's Call" does chronicle the creation and rise of UWA Hardcore Wrestling, at its core is the story of a young man's climb to maturity, the struggle to attain a childhood dream in the face of discovered realities about himself and the family and cultural environment around him. "A Hero's Call" is more a story about the human spirit than it is about pro wrestling. I seriously recommend you check it out. It's a heck of a read. Find it through the link below.
A Hero's Call
For pro wrestling fans and fans of real-life as entertainment Jon's blog is a piece of a much larger project, a vision that will take pro wrestling to never before seen levels of entertainment and fan inter-action. "Echoes of the Ring" will provide fans a pro wrestling entertainment experience as real as life itself because its core strength is the real life drama and passion of the UWA stars. Inserted within and around those stories are multiple layers and characters adding their energy to the fullness and diversity of the "Echoes of the Ring" experience.
Echoes of the Ring teaser videos and more can be found here
Take a few moments to introduce yourself to "Echoes of the Ring".
Read Jon's blog... It's my first stop when I log onto the internet. (and he's on a brief hiatus to recharge - a great time for your to catch up from the beginning.)
I'll be kicking off Dew On The Newts new direction soon but in the meantime and in-between time, check out A Hero's Call and through it "Echoes of the Ring". There are some exciting things on the horizon... entertainment that matters... entertainment with soul.
Peace
Remember me mentioning the gazillions of blog and other things uploaded to the web each day by its millions of users, and how random it might be that anyone would stumble upon one specific blog? It's a crowded place, the internet is. It's easy to miss some excellent stuff amid the plethora of choices. (Most of them bland, narcissistic, paranoid, anarchistic, boring, judgmental or derivative of a billion others posted last week)
"A Hero's Call" is a blog you don't want to miss. It's written by Jon McCausland, the co-founder of what once was Canada's greatest independent pro wrestling company... UWA Hardcore Wrestling
Now, before you go running away in a panic at the mention of pro wrestling... relax. While "A Hero's Call" does chronicle the creation and rise of UWA Hardcore Wrestling, at its core is the story of a young man's climb to maturity, the struggle to attain a childhood dream in the face of discovered realities about himself and the family and cultural environment around him. "A Hero's Call" is more a story about the human spirit than it is about pro wrestling. I seriously recommend you check it out. It's a heck of a read. Find it through the link below.
A Hero's Call
For pro wrestling fans and fans of real-life as entertainment Jon's blog is a piece of a much larger project, a vision that will take pro wrestling to never before seen levels of entertainment and fan inter-action. "Echoes of the Ring" will provide fans a pro wrestling entertainment experience as real as life itself because its core strength is the real life drama and passion of the UWA stars. Inserted within and around those stories are multiple layers and characters adding their energy to the fullness and diversity of the "Echoes of the Ring" experience.
Echoes of the Ring teaser videos and more can be found here
Take a few moments to introduce yourself to "Echoes of the Ring".
Read Jon's blog... It's my first stop when I log onto the internet. (and he's on a brief hiatus to recharge - a great time for your to catch up from the beginning.)
I'll be kicking off Dew On The Newts new direction soon but in the meantime and in-between time, check out A Hero's Call and through it "Echoes of the Ring". There are some exciting things on the horizon... entertainment that matters... entertainment with soul.
Peace
Friday, August 24, 2012
Changing Arranging
In the time since my last post I've been doing a lot of thinking about writing. I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go with this blog. I'm still not sure if I have that question answered yet but it doesn't really matter in the face of something else I discovered...
I had very little time to put toward the task. If I didn't have the time to write, what difference did knowing what I intended to write about make?
Putting aside all the internal arguments about whether anything I might write was of any real importance or had any entertainment or other value that made the time it took someone to read it worthwhile I had to first ponder the question of whether the urge to write was strong enough in me to find the time to make it possible to do so.
Turns out it is.
That wasn't an easy decision. In order for me to write I need the time to do so. Since I can't add extra time to a day that writing time must inevitably be taken from something else, some other part of my life must be put aside each time I sit and write this blog, for as long as it takes each entry to be created.
So, I will be continuing this blog.
As to what exactly I will write about I can't yet say. I have a lot of options (and even more opinions.) My life has been interesting, full of wildly divergent experiences. My interests in things go far beyond my already stated passions for photography, birdwatching and pro wrestling. Like most people, I have strongly felt beliefs about humans and their behavior, the universe and our place in it. All of it is potential material for future editions of this blog.
I promise nothing except this: I will try to avoid being a negative-spewing jerk using my blog to spread sarcastic, bitter personal judgments across the web. There's enough of those people already. That's not to say I won't write things which some may find offensive, distasteful or ludicrous.
And of course... I do this knowing each entry to this blog joins millions (maybe billions) of other things loaded to the internet on any given day. Odds are "Dew On The Newts" won't be noticed by many people however, it is my hope that those who do stop by find it time well wasted. If not, oh well. It is my urge to write. Whether there's a reader ultimately doesn't matter (but it would be nice.)
I had very little time to put toward the task. If I didn't have the time to write, what difference did knowing what I intended to write about make?
Putting aside all the internal arguments about whether anything I might write was of any real importance or had any entertainment or other value that made the time it took someone to read it worthwhile I had to first ponder the question of whether the urge to write was strong enough in me to find the time to make it possible to do so.
Turns out it is.
That wasn't an easy decision. In order for me to write I need the time to do so. Since I can't add extra time to a day that writing time must inevitably be taken from something else, some other part of my life must be put aside each time I sit and write this blog, for as long as it takes each entry to be created.
So, I will be continuing this blog.
As to what exactly I will write about I can't yet say. I have a lot of options (and even more opinions.) My life has been interesting, full of wildly divergent experiences. My interests in things go far beyond my already stated passions for photography, birdwatching and pro wrestling. Like most people, I have strongly felt beliefs about humans and their behavior, the universe and our place in it. All of it is potential material for future editions of this blog.
I promise nothing except this: I will try to avoid being a negative-spewing jerk using my blog to spread sarcastic, bitter personal judgments across the web. There's enough of those people already. That's not to say I won't write things which some may find offensive, distasteful or ludicrous.
And of course... I do this knowing each entry to this blog joins millions (maybe billions) of other things loaded to the internet on any given day. Odds are "Dew On The Newts" won't be noticed by many people however, it is my hope that those who do stop by find it time well wasted. If not, oh well. It is my urge to write. Whether there's a reader ultimately doesn't matter (but it would be nice.)
Saturday, June 2, 2012
On The Balcony and The Birds.
I spend a lot of time outdoors but not always does that outdoor time involve adventures away from home. Much of the time, those outdoor moments come right at home, on the balcony. More and more in the past 6 months.
I have discovered that much of what I need cannot be found indoors.
As "homes" go, ours has proven to be an ok place. It's a one bedroom unit in a 11 story apartment building situated about midway between downtown's newly renovated City Hall and the base of "the escarpment", a vertical geographic feature which divides this Southern Ontario city of just over half a million souls. We (myself, my wife Tammy and our chihuahua Isabeau) can walk to either City Hall or the escarpment in about 10 minutes, more if Isabeau decides to stop and sniff more than usual.
Our apartment is on the 7th floor and looks west. Our Balcony is about 20 feet long and is accessed through a sliding glass door at one end of what we call "the living room". (because it has the TV set and is the place where we entertain company because it's the only space in our apartment big enough for any extra people to fit alongside us.)
The view from the balcony stretches off to the west but a large chunk of it in the middle is made up of the middle floors of another apartment building on the land beside us. It is one of almost 20 other apartment buildings visible from our balcony. That sounds bad but it really isn't. those other apartment buildings, aside from the behemoth across the alley, blend into the overall scenic view, interesting islands amid what is essentially a forest of trees overseeing block after block of old red-bricked houses.
Trees for as far as the eye can see. Not bad for a downtown apartment in a city of half a million people. Not bad at all. With those tree come an amazing variety of birds. I see lots of birds from our balcony. There are the city regulars of course, the pigeon, starling, robins and various gulls that one would expect in a welcoming city habitat of trees, parks and gardens.
Birds love the trees, parks and gardens but our neighborhood also boasts brush & bramble thicket filled gullies, untamed back alleys, railroad lines, overgrown derelict buildings and vacant lots... and of course, the towering city-wide and miles beyond natural wonder that is the Niagara Escarpment. Because of all these bird-friendly environments in our neighborhood (and much of the rest of the "old" part of the city) there are numerous bird species to be seen from our balcony.
Red-winged Blackbirds, Blue Jays, Mocking Birds, Red-tailed Hawks, Cormorants, Peregrine Falcons, Cardinals, Mourning Doves, Chickadees, Great Blue Herons, Goldfinches, Yellow Warblers, Cowbirds, Canadian Geese, House Sparrows... and then numerous sparrow and finch species as yet not specifically identified and numerous other mystery birds have all been sighted from our balcony.
I love watching the birds from our balcony. I'd rather be out there watching those amazing creatures go about their lives than inside on the couch watching TV or sitting at the computer.
From my own perch, a 4 ft wide, 20 ft long slab of concrete 7 stories above the ground watching the birds...
I can sense the edges of the patterns
that bind all things together
that make sense of being
that lead to balance.
I have discovered that much of what I need cannot be found indoors.
As "homes" go, ours has proven to be an ok place. It's a one bedroom unit in a 11 story apartment building situated about midway between downtown's newly renovated City Hall and the base of "the escarpment", a vertical geographic feature which divides this Southern Ontario city of just over half a million souls. We (myself, my wife Tammy and our chihuahua Isabeau) can walk to either City Hall or the escarpment in about 10 minutes, more if Isabeau decides to stop and sniff more than usual.
Our apartment is on the 7th floor and looks west. Our Balcony is about 20 feet long and is accessed through a sliding glass door at one end of what we call "the living room". (because it has the TV set and is the place where we entertain company because it's the only space in our apartment big enough for any extra people to fit alongside us.)
The view from the balcony stretches off to the west but a large chunk of it in the middle is made up of the middle floors of another apartment building on the land beside us. It is one of almost 20 other apartment buildings visible from our balcony. That sounds bad but it really isn't. those other apartment buildings, aside from the behemoth across the alley, blend into the overall scenic view, interesting islands amid what is essentially a forest of trees overseeing block after block of old red-bricked houses.
Trees for as far as the eye can see. Not bad for a downtown apartment in a city of half a million people. Not bad at all. With those tree come an amazing variety of birds. I see lots of birds from our balcony. There are the city regulars of course, the pigeon, starling, robins and various gulls that one would expect in a welcoming city habitat of trees, parks and gardens.
Birds love the trees, parks and gardens but our neighborhood also boasts brush & bramble thicket filled gullies, untamed back alleys, railroad lines, overgrown derelict buildings and vacant lots... and of course, the towering city-wide and miles beyond natural wonder that is the Niagara Escarpment. Because of all these bird-friendly environments in our neighborhood (and much of the rest of the "old" part of the city) there are numerous bird species to be seen from our balcony.
Red-winged Blackbirds, Blue Jays, Mocking Birds, Red-tailed Hawks, Cormorants, Peregrine Falcons, Cardinals, Mourning Doves, Chickadees, Great Blue Herons, Goldfinches, Yellow Warblers, Cowbirds, Canadian Geese, House Sparrows... and then numerous sparrow and finch species as yet not specifically identified and numerous other mystery birds have all been sighted from our balcony.
I love watching the birds from our balcony. I'd rather be out there watching those amazing creatures go about their lives than inside on the couch watching TV or sitting at the computer.
From my own perch, a 4 ft wide, 20 ft long slab of concrete 7 stories above the ground watching the birds...
I can sense the edges of the patterns
that bind all things together
that make sense of being
that lead to balance.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
The Truth is Out There (There being Outside)
When I posted my last blog entry on May 8th I thought it would be easy to post a new entry every couple of days. I have free time now that I no longer spend hours each day working on a website and there are certainly lots of interesting things going on in the world and my place in it to inspire a more frequent output. I have lots of opinions and I'm not shy about sharing them, nor do I sidestep asking difficult questions of that world, the people in it and of myself.
Heck, I might even write something worth reading some day... if, that is, I get around to actually writing something.
I've thought about writing since my last entry of May 8th, lots of times. I just haven't until now, actually sat down to write anything. In fact, I've hardly been at the computer, let alone online, for the last few weeks.
I've been at work of course but all of my free time, the time I could be writing a blog that maybe, just maybe someone other than my Mother will read, the time I could be on Facebook doing... well, nothing usually, or the time I could be working on re-sizing past photo albums... ALL that free time I have spent doing something else.
I've been outside.
Outside, both in the literal sense of being outdoors and the ethereal sense of being outside MY bubble - thoughts, feelings and choices that are borne of an instinctual need to be the center of one's own universe - and instead offering that time to my family... my wife (who I fall in love with again every day) and our dog (the world's cutest Long-haired Chihuahua)
Oh, and I suppose the cat too.
Anyway, THAT kind of time, time spent with and about family... as much as possible in the great outdoors...
That kind of time trumps anything the internet can offer (or TV, movies, video games etc).
So, that's why I've been derelict (again) in posting entries in this blog but seriously, with all the gazillions and gazillions of things added to the internet every day I'd be kidding myself thinking anybody would stumble across it by accident and read it this far but if you did....
Here's the good part...
Going outside instead of online is a good thing. Get offline, get up and get outside.
Seriously. It's Spring. Wondrous things are occurring everywhere. I will write of some of the things I have seen and what I've discovered in these new lightened days which illuminate the path to whatever future awaits me, in this life and beyond.
So stop by once in awhile and see if there's anything new. And it should be once in awhile. Hopefully you're spending most of your free time outdoors, with loved ones and family, with God because if one did get the chance to look back at life at the moment of its ending it would be those times remembered for their richness and regretted for being discarded in favor of other less gratifying to the soul that provided a truth too late discovered.
The truth is out there.
Outside.
Heck, I might even write something worth reading some day... if, that is, I get around to actually writing something.
I've thought about writing since my last entry of May 8th, lots of times. I just haven't until now, actually sat down to write anything. In fact, I've hardly been at the computer, let alone online, for the last few weeks.
I've been at work of course but all of my free time, the time I could be writing a blog that maybe, just maybe someone other than my Mother will read, the time I could be on Facebook doing... well, nothing usually, or the time I could be working on re-sizing past photo albums... ALL that free time I have spent doing something else.
I've been outside.
Outside, both in the literal sense of being outdoors and the ethereal sense of being outside MY bubble - thoughts, feelings and choices that are borne of an instinctual need to be the center of one's own universe - and instead offering that time to my family... my wife (who I fall in love with again every day) and our dog (the world's cutest Long-haired Chihuahua)
Oh, and I suppose the cat too.
Anyway, THAT kind of time, time spent with and about family... as much as possible in the great outdoors...
That kind of time trumps anything the internet can offer (or TV, movies, video games etc).
So, that's why I've been derelict (again) in posting entries in this blog but seriously, with all the gazillions and gazillions of things added to the internet every day I'd be kidding myself thinking anybody would stumble across it by accident and read it this far but if you did....
Here's the good part...
Going outside instead of online is a good thing. Get offline, get up and get outside.
Seriously. It's Spring. Wondrous things are occurring everywhere. I will write of some of the things I have seen and what I've discovered in these new lightened days which illuminate the path to whatever future awaits me, in this life and beyond.
So stop by once in awhile and see if there's anything new. And it should be once in awhile. Hopefully you're spending most of your free time outdoors, with loved ones and family, with God because if one did get the chance to look back at life at the moment of its ending it would be those times remembered for their richness and regretted for being discarded in favor of other less gratifying to the soul that provided a truth too late discovered.
The truth is out there.
Outside.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
The End of an Era - OWIE's Demise
It's been awhile since I posted anything in this blog, a regret I hope to change in the days, weeks and months to come. For a long time I've devoted my internet time to working on my website devoted to covering and recording the independent pro wrestling scene on Ontario. What started as a hobby grew into a monster, in the end it was demanding all of my free time to keep up.
Maybe I shouldn't say it demanded anything. It was my own sense of duty that drove me to exhaustion and caused me to neglect other things in my life (this blog among them.) Ultimately I had to make a choice... continue that website or walk away from it completely. Both choices had an upside and both also brought some negatives. After some serious thought I decided to pull the plug on it. The site, "Ontario Wrestling's Indy Elite" no longer exists. "OWIE" is no more.
It caused a bit of a stir in some circles, many people in the local wrestling community took it in stride and wished me well in my future endeavors... Others were quite bitter about it, almost like they felt I didn't have the right to walk away from a "job" that consumed literally hundreds of hours (and hundreds of dollars) every couple of months... a "job" I did for no monetary compensation and often no thank you from those I helped make famous.
Yea, I helped make people famous. OWIE helped put the Ontario indy wrestling scene in front of the whole world. The site was read be people in over 70 countries and in its 6 year existence over 1,000,000 unique viewers stopped to check it out. No other website served the Ontario wrestling scene like OWIE did. I built it and although I had some amazing contributors who submitted content over those 6 years it was me who did the bulk of the work.
I loved doing it but somewhere along the way the fuzz wore off the peach (so to speak) and it became increasingly harder to find the motivation to devote time to the site, especially when most of the feedback I got from those within the wrestling community was either negative or demanding more. The FANS who enjoyed OWIE made it all worthwhile and I still get messages from around the world asking what happened to the site.
I tell them the truth. It's gone and it won't be coming back.
I don't regret a thing.
Life requires balance and OWIE demanded too much time, energy and money. It was time to devote those things to what's really important to my life... my family, my health and my spirituality.
It is my intent to return to this blog to feed my need to write. I'm not sure what I'll write about or how often I'll do it and I don't know if anyone will notice or care that "Dew on the Newts" exists. It doesn't matter if someone comes along for the ride or not because for me, it is enough that I do what I do. If I needed reassurance or a pat on the back for doing something, OWIE never would have made it past its first year.
Balance is key.
Maybe I shouldn't say it demanded anything. It was my own sense of duty that drove me to exhaustion and caused me to neglect other things in my life (this blog among them.) Ultimately I had to make a choice... continue that website or walk away from it completely. Both choices had an upside and both also brought some negatives. After some serious thought I decided to pull the plug on it. The site, "Ontario Wrestling's Indy Elite" no longer exists. "OWIE" is no more.
It caused a bit of a stir in some circles, many people in the local wrestling community took it in stride and wished me well in my future endeavors... Others were quite bitter about it, almost like they felt I didn't have the right to walk away from a "job" that consumed literally hundreds of hours (and hundreds of dollars) every couple of months... a "job" I did for no monetary compensation and often no thank you from those I helped make famous.
Yea, I helped make people famous. OWIE helped put the Ontario indy wrestling scene in front of the whole world. The site was read be people in over 70 countries and in its 6 year existence over 1,000,000 unique viewers stopped to check it out. No other website served the Ontario wrestling scene like OWIE did. I built it and although I had some amazing contributors who submitted content over those 6 years it was me who did the bulk of the work.
I loved doing it but somewhere along the way the fuzz wore off the peach (so to speak) and it became increasingly harder to find the motivation to devote time to the site, especially when most of the feedback I got from those within the wrestling community was either negative or demanding more. The FANS who enjoyed OWIE made it all worthwhile and I still get messages from around the world asking what happened to the site.
I tell them the truth. It's gone and it won't be coming back.
I don't regret a thing.
Life requires balance and OWIE demanded too much time, energy and money. It was time to devote those things to what's really important to my life... my family, my health and my spirituality.
It is my intent to return to this blog to feed my need to write. I'm not sure what I'll write about or how often I'll do it and I don't know if anyone will notice or care that "Dew on the Newts" exists. It doesn't matter if someone comes along for the ride or not because for me, it is enough that I do what I do. If I needed reassurance or a pat on the back for doing something, OWIE never would have made it past its first year.
Balance is key.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
My Spirit Soars Like a Hawk
I live in the middle of a good sized city, 1/2 a million people on the shore of Lake Ontario. My wife and I rent an apartment just a couple blocks off the core strip of downtown businesses and attractions. There are a number of apartment dwellings in my neighborhood, an easy half dozen are visible from our balcony.
We're lucky in that our neighborhood is still very green despite its high population density... lots of trees & shrubs that support a large number of various songbird species. (and the buildings are home to pigeons of course) As smokers, we're out on the balcony quite a bit and have seen numerous different species of birds from there. It's a pretty cool place to live. Everything from blue jays, to sparrows, to peregrine falcons have flown by our window.
Last summer a red-tailed hawk began cruising the skies over our neighborhood. After a few days of fly-bys he started sitting on the top-most ledge on an apartment building a couple blocks to the south of us. He looks real impressive sitting up there surveying the area and when he flies! Wow. How can one's own spirit not soar when privy to such a beautiful sight as a red-tailed hawk on the wing.
In December of 2011 he was again on his regular perch but had another hawk perched nearby. This is pretty exciting stuff! Could this be the start of a relationship? Is it possible our original hawk neighbor has decided his building is a good place to raise a brood and he brought a potential mate to check it out?
How awesome would that be, having red-tailed hawks nesting within site of our living room?
With neighbors like that, who cares what troubles the world. To see such a magnificent creature from the warmth of my own home makes my spirit soar.
Enough to return to this blog which I've ignored for months just to tell someone, anyone about it.
2012 is gonna be a great year!
We're lucky in that our neighborhood is still very green despite its high population density... lots of trees & shrubs that support a large number of various songbird species. (and the buildings are home to pigeons of course) As smokers, we're out on the balcony quite a bit and have seen numerous different species of birds from there. It's a pretty cool place to live. Everything from blue jays, to sparrows, to peregrine falcons have flown by our window.
Last summer a red-tailed hawk began cruising the skies over our neighborhood. After a few days of fly-bys he started sitting on the top-most ledge on an apartment building a couple blocks to the south of us. He looks real impressive sitting up there surveying the area and when he flies! Wow. How can one's own spirit not soar when privy to such a beautiful sight as a red-tailed hawk on the wing.
In December of 2011 he was again on his regular perch but had another hawk perched nearby. This is pretty exciting stuff! Could this be the start of a relationship? Is it possible our original hawk neighbor has decided his building is a good place to raise a brood and he brought a potential mate to check it out?
How awesome would that be, having red-tailed hawks nesting within site of our living room?
With neighbors like that, who cares what troubles the world. To see such a magnificent creature from the warmth of my own home makes my spirit soar.
Enough to return to this blog which I've ignored for months just to tell someone, anyone about it.
2012 is gonna be a great year!
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