It never fails to astound me what humans are capable of if they get up early enough. Or go to bed late enough in my case.
Sometimes, I get bright ideas. Or, at least, I think they're bright ideas at the time. Like right now, after I typed the sentence "What goes on in a city of 10,000 people at 3:00 a.m." I suddenly wondered what was going on. Like that episode of Growing Pains where Chrissy is convinced that everybody is having fun and partying after she goes to bed, I suddenly had to know what was occurring outside. My inner J. Jonah Jameson was bristling at the idea that I would make a statement without being able to back it up. Did J.J.J. not attempt to find evidence to back up his claims that Spider Man was nothing but a web slinging menace? You bet your spell-checker he did!
And that, dear readers, is how your humble diarist found herself standing in the doorway of Fort Awesome at 3:30 in the morning wearing a thin pair of hospital scrubs and a smile.
It was cold, obviously. A few days of nice weather do not a Chinook make. Yesterday, it was +2, shirtsleeve weather, really. But the nights are still cold and every morning, I watch from the warmth of my duvet as my mother trundles outside to scrape the layer of frost that has formed on her windshield before driving to the window-less prison of her job.
The powerlines hummed above our house and I wonder if one of them carries the electricity I'm using to type. A train rumbled past as I stood there, and it's funny, I can't ever recall not living near a rail yard. I grew up in this house and the rumble of the trains and their lofty, mournful whistles would sing me to sleep. There goes a whistle now...
Before, while I was at the door, staring into the chill night, trying to discern what was happening in my neighborhood, a car full of teenagers drove by and its occupants flung half-full McDonald's cups out the windows. And I resisted an urge to shake my fist at them. Tomorrow, I will trek out to the middle of our street (which must be the only one in the city that is still lined with gravel and not asphalt) and pick up the detritus of these half-wits.
The human pre-disposition to waste is really magnificent. I feel as if I have witnessed a 180 degree turn in thought from the time, just ten years ago when schools were still actively preaching those three simple Rs. No, the ones that actually start with R. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. So many commercials I see today are for items of convenience. Use it once and throw it away! One clever skin care company that rhymes with "Royal of Omay" is even using the "throw it away" line as part of their ad campaign. "Women everywhere are throwing away the secret to clean and healthy skin." Those foaming face clothes that are so popular. Am I missing something? I thought we were in the midst of global warming and pollution and depleting the ozone layer! I thought we were trying to stop that. Is there something wrong with a bar of nuetrogena and a wash cloth? What happened to those Noxema girls? Did they all get noticed? (For something other than being drunk drivers, I mean) Do you feel like you're pampering your skin because you're only using that foaming cloth once? Gah!
Yesterday, I went for a walk in the grassland behind my house. They have a nice trail system set up and are in the process of linking to the Cross Canada Trail. I was thinking to myself that I should bring my camera out, because everything was so beautiful I'd like to capture it on film to cherish and show to the children that I am relying on other people in my family to have so that I don't have to deal with the little ankle-biters. But as I walked a little further, I thought instead that I should have brought a trash bag.
So much garbage! Styrofoam cups ripping over the prairie like non-bio-degradable tumble-weeds, plastic bags tangled in the young branches of the trees recently planted as windbreaks, brightly coloured boxes from the confectionary I used to get those giant pixie stix from when I was a kid, some still holding their Everlasting Gobstoppers. God, it makes me sad.
Make a geek happy and pick up a piece of garbage today, huh? The crying indian thanks you, as do I.
The other I saw when I looked outside was blessed, unrelenting space. I love the mountains, and whenever I head to B.C., I feel like I am visiting a long-lost friend. But the best part of me will always live here, in the land of the living skies, where the sunsets stretch out over the prairies and kiss the golden wheat as a mother kisses a child. If you should ever visit this fair province, you might make the same crass jokes that have been repeated a hundred and ten thousand times by touring bands and people from places other than here. You might make mention of watching a dog run away for days. You might talk of the "gap" between Manitoba and Alberta. You might think it flat, and boring and quite stupendously windy, but I think it's grand. Saskatchewan is like voluntarily holding in a breath of air; it swells at its straight, smart borders and it leaves you a little lightheaded when you think of the incredible size of it all. It is my home. And there will always be something going on here for me. Even at 4:30 in the morning.
Geeklink of the week:
You know I may just be a really big nerd, but I think this is just awesome. Probably what happens when literate chicks and science nerds mate. Check out the entry for Zinc. Clever fellow.
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