3.14.21 Happy pi day, 2021, for those interested in irrational numbers.
How time flies during a pandemic. With so many restrictions on movement and gatherings one would think there’s plenty of time to contemplate life and get some writing done. Not so for me. I seem to have no trouble filling my time. Too many things to do, like reading up on pi. There’s much more to pi than simply the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.
The weather has turned nicer and Spring is most definitely on the way. Birds are molting into their breeding plumage and are starting to do their mating songs. The early Spring arrivals like red-winged blackbirds and meadowlarks are back. We had woodcocks doing their mating ritual in the field behind our house. There’s a bald eagle on the nest at Prophetstown State Park. Frogs are doing their choruses too.
Lise and I have been getting out for some socially distanced walking and birding. A week or so ago we went down to Goose Pond near Linton. When I lived in Indiana 20 or so years ago, Goose Pond was a failing farm area. Everyone that tried to farm the area went broke. Finally, someone realized that highest and best use of the property was not farming, but as a wetland wildlife area. I remember US Fish and Wildlife Service being interested in establishing Goose Pond as a wildlife refuge but it looks like the Indiana DNR is the agency that finally got it done. There was the predictable anti anything progressive noise about taking “good” farmland out of production. Even though everyone that tried farming the area failed. So now we have a 9,000 acre refuge that is a conservation success story. I can’t remember white pelicans or snow geese in south central Indiana when I lived here before. Not that a large expanse of flat drained farm fields would be of interest to migrating birds. Give them a reason to be here and now they’re regulars in large numbers. Goose Pond had tens of thousands of snow geese when we were there. Larger flocks than what I saw in coastal Delaware. If you build it, they will come.
Other than a few things like local trips, we are just plugging along day to day, waiting for COVID to die back enough we feel safe. Both Lise and I have had the first vaccination shot, and I just got my second one. We’re both ready to do some traveling without the hassles associated with COVID.
Personally, I’m still struggling a bit with relevance. Right now, my main purpose in life seems to be chasing squirrels off the bird feeders. I’m coming up on the two-year anniversary of my starting the Appalachian Trail. The trail took about six months to complete, and then there was another six months of transition. Things like coming off the trail, moving, getting my shop set up, fixing up the Delaware trailer, etc. Nothing monumental. But now it’s been two years and I don’t seem to have any particular direction or a plan. That’s fine for a short time. Everyone needs some time to aimlessly wander. But eventually one needs some direction. A year of COVID is partly to blame, but that’s too easy a cop out.
I’m thinking that the issue is a lack of focus. It’s not like I’m sitting around bored. I have plenty of things to do and have no problem filling my day. When I was gainfully employed, without a lot of spare time, I had to narrow my focus to a few things. Now it seems like the gift of time has scattered me too much. I want to do everything, but don’t seem to be accomplishing anything. I can’t point to anything I’m doing right now that’s making the world better. Well maybe my pledge to never vote for a Republican again. That’s making the world better, but that’s too easy. Kind of like drugs. Makes you feel good with no effort at all.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 