A Few Days In

Just a quick note to say howdy. This morning I felt like I had finally come out of what I call my Richmond Coma. Generally whenever I visit here, at least the first two days I have to fight the urge to sleep for 16 hours at a stretch, often being up for less than four hours at a time. Sometimes I don't fight said urge. I'm not sure what it is; maybe it's just as simple as being away from all the city noise and light pollution. Maybe it's knowing I am truly on vacation. Whatever it is, it knocks me out unless I know in advance that I won't be able to indulge it (I'm here for a short visit, where lots has to happen, say), in which case I just keep that internal hamster running on his little exercise wheel any way I can. Usually after two days I feel human again, but this time it took almost four. Of course Mary and I spent almost the entire morning drinking coffee and watching the various birdfeeders she and Tony have in the backyard (one can't see the three feeders in the front yard from the dining room table; one has to relocate to the living room for that), so it's not like I'm out running marathons now. Not that I ever do. But I no longer feel comatose.

Mary and Tony have seven feeders in the backyard, including a thistle-feeder (finches), one for mixed nuts (jays, starlings, grackles, woodpeckers), and a nectar feeder (hummingbirds). At one point there were three goldfinches, a blue jay, a red-bellied woodpecker (Dad, we think, there is also a female and a juvenile), a hummingbird and roughly about 493 sparrows. Heaven.

This isn't counting the family of raccoons, pair of possums or trio of skunks that show up to dine on birdy left-overs in the evening. Quite the wild kingdom here.

I've been going through photos of my folks, the family, all sorts of shots from the last 50-70 years. Mom asked me to create a display for the party on Saturday, and it's been fascinating and fun to go through them, but there's an odd melancholy that crops up sometimes too. The best I can describe it is feeling a nostalgia for something I never experienced. Something tells me I'll have more to say about the photos at some point. I was born on my mom's 30th birthday, and graduated from her alma mater also 30 years after her, again to the day, I believe. Periodically I'll compare (or rather, contrast) what I'm doing with what she was doing at the same point in her life. She got married at 22. Dad was 24. It was a different world in 1958, I don't regret where I am or what I'm doing... I just find it an interesting exercise.

Okay, I'm starting to write the post before I know what I want to say, so I'll stop here. Need to go put the finishing touches on the display.