March 26, 2007

I have been busily packing preparing to leave on Friday this week. The weather here is absolutely grand. Warm but breezy. The breezy part makes it challenging to ride a bike any great distance. Tomorrow the bike club is riding to Lover's Key which is a 20 mile ride. I know we will have to buck the wind one direction or the other. We are each bringing a bag lunch. It will be our final long ride of the year. Lot's of people have already left or are leaving this week so I don't know how large a bike group we will have. Last week we had an amazing number of riders. We present quite a picture with our bright neon yellow shirts.

Two of my dear friends were involved in a frightening auto crash on I 75 near Miami this weekend. Thanks be to God and the Angels, they walked away with cuts and bruises as did the other folks involved. There car is a total wreck but they will be coming back today with some friends. As many of you know, I don't like driving on these interstate highways. I prefer the quieter, slower secondary roads. I don't have to be anywhere in a hurry anymore. I am grateful for that.

I have trying to deal with a resistant flea problem with Sebastian. Apparently, after all the years of use, the fleas are now immune to Frontline. There are new products on the market now but we had not experienced this problem before this year. Looks like a trip to the vet for Bash. Poor guy is itchy and not sleeping well.

I did finish my income taxes. Yeah! It always feels good to get that out of the way. I wish the gov't hadn't selected the April 15th date. I would rather not deal with taxes in the Spring when it is a happy time of rebirth and rejuvenation. I think fall would have been a better time.

Last night as I walked Bash, I had such dega vu. I heard the Chuck's Will's Widow's calling in the fields to the East of us. That sound took me right back to a happy time in my life. I was sitting on my screen porch at night high above the marshes overlooking Broad Creek in North Carolina. I would lie in the hammock, close my eyes and just fly with that sound. If you have never heard them, you are missing out. They are in the Whiporwill family but very different. Night birds hunting and feeding at night. I had one sitting in a Red Tip bush right near my porch one night. I grabbed a flash light and shone it in the general direction and there staring back at me with those red eyes and long whiskers was the Chuck's W.W. Wow! What a treat! In fact, my first exposure to this bird was before my NC house was built. I had borrowed a class b camper from a friend and gone out on the vacant lot to camp. The windows were open. The area was totally dark and isolated when suddenly as I lay down in the bunk, I heard that sound that seemed to come from everywhere. I crept outside to investigate. I had never heard any night bird like it. It wasn't until I made inquiries the next day that I discovered the source. Now hearing them last night here in FL was like a reunion with old friends.

Remember "Love is the Absence Of Fear"