I hope to visit there during the upcoming personal "long weekend".
This year we are not going to be able to return to Manitoba, which means we will not re-visit the amazing
Oak Hammock Marsh. I'm pleased by the prospect, if things work out, that we will still be able to go to a wonderful wildlife preserve. I love shore birds, marsh birds, songbirds and raptors. I'm an easy audience, though. I love the little "house sparrow" that stands on the front part of our roof each day, and emits his proud little barely-a-song.
We picked up my car from the car wash today, where it had gotten a complete make-over. The result proved amazing. I have always taken it for (too infrequent) periodic clean-and-buff treatments, but this "next level" treatment made me resolve to get "the works" every 25,000 miles or so.
Later, I hope to load up my "podcast" mp3 player with cool shows about science, so that during our trip I can lie in bed in a remote cabin, listening to stories about the building blocks of life and matter.
Last night I watched a couple of reruns of "Hogan's Heroes". Although the show is very odd in concept and execution, when I was a kid I loved it. I think that John Banner's performances were what did it for me--and, really, I love still any affable clown-like civilian. In many ways, actual clowns are less preferable than clownish characters. Yet I still love the sight of dozens of clowns emerging from a clown car.
The problem with so many thrills of childhood is that now they have costs. The circus and the zoo? Animal treatment issues. Hamburgers? Endless grams of fat. Letting a helium balloon go with a note attached to it? Hazard for wildlife who might eat it. Air flight? Carbon emission. Perhaps, though, this is not all bad--
but instead an invitation to observe, to listen, to lightly consume, to adapt.
