Empty Mailbox

Posted on February 2, 2012 by TheJessicaness

Neighbors, whether 4 feet or 40 miles away, don’t want to live with them and can’t stand to live next to them. At least when they exhibit the behavior mine do. They live loud, smoky, and surrounded by trash – literally bags of it in front of their door. They smoke and throw their ashes and butts all over the stairs and grass in front. They have a dog that pees all over and a cat that poops in my plants.

After reminding the office of this problem I noticed an armadillo, tried to get a picture of it, and then hopped in the car to visit Talidra. Today was picture day and the kids were too overly excited but very nicely dressed. I sat through a fractions lesson while waiting for Talidra to finish a writing test. We enjoyed lunch outside while swatting away bees. The kids were noisy in the hallway and a teacher came out, scolded them, then made them apologize to me for making me look bad.

We went into take pictures and one kid had cried and another kid began to cry; it is obvious in the photo they took as well. I took the class photo with a Canon T2i, 17-85mm, f-4. The photographer had a Canon 5D, 17-40mm, f-1.4. Santa, I want a 1.2. Done with that and I get to help gauge the fourth grade’s ability to read some 200 words. On average they missed about five each.

I went to get in my car excited to get home and check the mail and find my USB to PS2 adapter. One of the substitutes noticed a boy at the other end of the parking lot. Apparently his mom was supposed to pick him up and somehow he had got left by everyone for 20 minutes. I’m sure if I was him I would’ve cried too. I get home and the mailman has just arrived.

I get up the stairs to quiet dogs and no husband. I start to think maybe I forgot he has duty. Lucky him, he got off work early today to go play Frisbee golf. He came home while I was walking the dogs. I checked the mail and what I saw was an empty box. After working on my tiny scrap of a computer for a week I should feel comfortable with it, but I don’t feel the same without my pictures.

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Jacksonville: A Portion of People

Posted on February 1, 2012 by TheJessicaness

Let's Roll

a three-man band scene

 

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My Resolutions Thus Far

Posted on January 31, 2012 by TheJessicaness

I still have time today to move forward with the goals I have set, but I can always count those towards next month. I got off to a procrastinating start – thinking, “I will have all year. There is no need to rush now.” Then I remembered that things happen that may cause me to be unable temporarily to work on my goals; I should attempt them when possible.

I have ridden 204.7 miles. I have read ten books for a total of 2,874 pages. I have my partly finished knitting project sitting next to me. I have learned a few vocabulary words, ex. comida – meaning food! I have jogged a half mile with the dogs, but Caleb has the tools to keep track of that and that goal was to ensure the dogs got exercise too – it’s working.

We have done nothing towards SCUBA certification and will now be moving sooner than we thought. Lesson learned: do something you want when the opportunity arrives, because by waiting you might never get the chance. We have our passports now and we’re antsy to use them; hoping to find a few opportunities this year.

The rest of the resolutions seem like fillers but I have my hopes up that I will get to do a few new things this year. They will have to remain a secret for now but I can tell you it involves learning, other people, and travel – some of my favorite things. I suppose a few details from what I’ve already accomplished couldn’t hurt. I’ve ridden 14 miles west in the shade and 15 miles south in the sun.

As for the books I’ve read: four short-stories by Jack London all about dogs and Alaska. Around the World in Eighty Days, and Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne about real and fictitious travel. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe about being stranded on an island after a sailing incident. The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux about three women and their love stories. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain; I love the language’s used and the sense of a history lesson wrapped up in his story. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls; another book about dogs, outdoors, and love. I see a theme here. The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason about a great historical book and their adventures through college. Double Vision by Randall Ingermanson; a love story involving quantum physics and danger. Then for fun I read James and the Giant Peach. It’s a children’s story for sure. It was short with some magic and the word ass, but also involved travel. I have a new reading list that now has over 200 books on it. I love reading books that inspire research and more reading.

Posted in Animals, Books, Cycling, Education, Family, History, Marriage, Travel | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Dream Bits

Posted on January 30, 2012 by TheJessicaness

creamdream

I’m sure everyone dreams, even though Caleb swears he doesn’t because he doesn’t remember them. Just because you don’t remember something doesn’t mean you didn’t do it, but we have yet to post dreams to YouTube. I dream all the time, but when I awaken I feel like I have just recovered from a movie collage; there is happy, fear, and weird all mixed.

I love being able to write parts of my dream that I think may make sense later. There is a mix of past, present, and future in my dreams. Sometimes I recognize people and places. Sometimes things are vague and others very descriptive and colorful. Here are a few things that I dream about:

The last one I came to was an old wooden plank tunnel.

We all run after it and I hear something squeaking.

Come to think of it, the reason I was in a hurry to go in the first place was because I couldn’t decide what to wear.

I didn’t want the water to get cold.

I had to write an English paper and I did it while stuck in a hotel somewhere with a 6-pack of beer.

As I am peeling her decrepit hand off …

I jog to keep up and get a break when we stop at the street light in the woods.

Sea bears can swim in the sea.

I step outside and a bunch of horses run by.

… and we go for a bike ride.

I laugh.

We continue driving until we get to a bend in the road with an old cafe-looking building on the left.

… the clouds coming together formed a gigantic heart …

… but I began to imagine the most starry night sky …

It was a song about hair.

… I can throw this one.

I turned corners where there were no doors until now. It was thick and heavy with no peephole, a little string doorbell, and chipped paint where many had knocked before.

… covered in years of dust and cobwebs.

I had messed up pigtails and sunglasses on.

I saw the beautiful sunlight and Caleb standing there peacefully waiting for me.

… and he was telling me about March of  ’89.

A million things are going through my mind as the march continues.

Posted in Animals, Cycling, Education, Family, Friends, Things | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Silly Sunday

Posted on January 29, 2012 by TheJessicaness

Cycling in the Sunshine State

Another post about riding my bike – imagine that! I wanted a change of scenery so we took to the coast today. The 15 miles south was great, so easy in fact that we didn’t realize how far we had gone. I wanted to go farther but the wind going home was blowing in angry spurts. We sat on some fancy manicured lawn across the street from a house powered fully by the sun with as many solar panels as we saw.

We enjoyed some donuts we had bought along the way; nothing like some good sugary carbs to keep me going! We were slow going at the start with all the new scenery but the wind on the way back cost us some time too. We approached an intersection with a car at a stop sign to our right. Behind them was a girl on her bike – texting while riding; she almost ran into the car.

She hears me laughing loudly and calls out as we pass that, “Perhaps I should pay attention!” It would have been great either way. She was going slow enough to not get hurt. I saw a video by Casey Neistat about walking and texting, here, and it too seems dangerous. I just can’t imagine what people are thinking when they text behind the wheel of a car besides, “I’m super rich and love Jesus and everything will go my way!”

We made it home and had to circle the parking lot to get our 30 miles. We made it in three and a half hours. For lunch I made a potato-blackbean burger-mango-garlic-broccoli mix; it was delicious and healthier than donuts. I’ve got two days left to see if I can get near the 250 miles needed for this month to reach my 3,000 mile annual goal. I have some other goals that I can update you on in another post.

Posted in Cycling, Food, People, Places, Water | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment