Slowin' It Down

I got passed over for the Cheraw job, which is fine. If this opportunity would've come up 5 or 6 years ago, I would have put forth more effort, but the wife and I are looking to go ahead and put down roots that will not be severed, this time. I've lived in at least 15 apartments and houses in my life, so far, and I'm ready to really commit to a place. It may have something to do with a letter from a good friend the other day about wanting the growing season, friends, and other aspects of the town in which he grew up. On the other hand, I'm also ready to feel obligated to get more involved in my community; beyond the ephemeral efforts of my past.
I'm convinced that we have a hard time knowing when we are "home," anymore, in part, because everything has come to look so damned similar, and every nook and cranny (aka the alcoves...go see the movie "In Bruges") has become a feasible place to live. Just look at the book (or lesser PBS series) "Cadillac Desert," and tell me if you know what I mean. Just look at how many exits have the same suite of shopping opportunities that the last one had. The planet cannot handle a human footprint on every square inch, and we deserve the crises we are begging by living on barrier islands, in deserts, and on the tops of mountains if we do not change our rates and methods of resource use. Which is why, I think, my friend mentioned the Charleston growing season being an attraction. He is currently in one of the coolest possible places of which I've heard tell in these here Estados Unidos...Missoula, MT. However, he's also probably got a mere one-hundred or so days of real growing season with which to work. This is not a sustainable existence.
I can have that in Charleston. We live on a greenway that gives us traffic-free access to just about everything we need, and we can grow a good proportion of the food we eat on a small lot. If we need services beyond the greenway, things are really close, and there is always the bus for anything fairly distant. The beach is not that far, if we feel the need for surf, and there are plenty of salt marshes and rivers around for the occasional fishing expedition, though we've not yet overcome our justifiable fear of contaminated fish flesh (there are fish consumption advisories on nearly every river of our state). Yes, aside from the somewhat stunted political currents and the exorbitant real estate market (don't even open your mouth if you are a transplant and disagree...it's still expensive for regular folks), this place is seeming more and more like THE place.
Wow, that kind of sounded like a promotional video...sorry about that. I'll get some images up within a day or two that might help redirect my focus. Oh, and the lesson for the Master Naturalists went really well. I prepared way too little compared to how I used to get set, but things went off without a hitch. I really miss that job, sometimes. I really miss the life. Today's advice to self: go for a walk (not a ride) in the woods; take the camera and take your freakin' time.

Mountain Music

Built to Spill is one of the greatest bands ever to grace a stage, even if they do seem a little masturbatory at times (though not at this most recent show). I mention this, partially, because I am feeling older and older with each show that is listed as starting at 8pm, but winds up lasting until 1:30am or longer. Of course, I got on the road early that morning for an interview at Cheraw State Park, and driving long distances has always taken its toll on my sap budget. However, I think the overt commercialism of such shows has begun to put crinkles in my fries and sort of makes me feel like just getting out of there and away from the obviously well-funded and well-hydrated Orange Peel venue and back to the old skate park, no-stage shows of the past. Something of the love and patience of bands like Built to Spill is lost in a place like the Orange Peel, and I was ready to leave the second the last song was over. Never mind, I tried out the new camera on the auto settings and learned that I need to read up on ISO, so that I don't get such blurry things from future engagements. Oh, and we got patted down at the show entrance...you know those trigger-happy Built to Spill fans...I hear gun rights used to be really big in Idaho.

As for the interview, it sounded like the perfect job (lots of natural resource management and biological inventory work), but the site is pretty remote. There ain't a thing around for miles, aside from the beautiful town-proper of Cheraw (whole town is on the Historic Register!). On the other hand, it was one of those interviews involving multiple paragraphs of set-up before the actual question, so I responded organically, thinking my spontaneity might be impressive. We'll see if they were looking for something else. I'm sure I've got the experience and education, but there's bound to have been a recent graduate in the mix that can point to much more recent examples of having crunched data for analysis, etc.

Surly refused to warranty my frame, regardless of mentioning that they had not seen a rust issue like the one I was having. DO NOT BUY SURLY PRODUCTS! This company may have been something remarkable in the past, and they may still produce some really useful rigs, but this is bullshit. The best I was offered was a 15% discount on a new frame. This would mean much more if I could not get the thing repainted for less, but my biggest problem with such an offer is that it is not sustainable. Would you buy a steel bicycle if you knew you'd have to repaint it every three years (which, by the way, is the proclaimed length of their warranty period for paint finishes...I bought the damned thing in April of 2005!!!!).

We've got an open house tomorrow, so not much more for the moment. I'll be teaching a brief lesson on dichotomous keys for the Master Naturalist course at my former place of employment on Tuesday. Let's hope the students don't act too servile.

In the Dark (remember Billy Squire?)

I went out to my former place of employment to do a night hike last night. It was for a group of high schoolers from the Charlotte area that has been coming to Charleston for 4 or 5 years to do mark-recapture studies on Littorina sp. snails in the salt marsh at one of the other county parks. My replacement was off this weekend, and the instructor apparently enjoyed my past performance and requested that I do the program, though I'm sure my former colleagues are more than capable. It was incredibly cold and windy, but we did, at least, get to hear a barred owl and see some bioluminescent earthworms (Diplocardia longa, I think). These critters are noted to be fairly obvious after rain events, and, from further reading, I'm now wondering if this might have something to do with ozone-derived hydrogen peroxide, which is reported to be the catalyst for the luciferase-luciferin reaction. In fact, I'm wondering if the whole thing has any remaining benefit to the worms, or if it is simply a vestigial thing from their marine ancestors.
I did get to use the new camera, finally, but I've yet to get a USB cable or drive to get the photographs into the computer. I only took a couple of shots of a southern slimy salamander that I found under a log, but on the LCD panel of the camera, they look to have come out fairly well. I'll fix the situation, soon, since Spring is just around the corner, which, hopefully, means lots of blooms and bugs for the blog.

I'm heading to Cheraw, birthplace of Dizzy G., for an interview with the state park, there, on Tuesday. The job sounds much more interesting than the ranger positions that I've flirted with over the past year or so. It is centered on biological inventories of the site, and the site is nearly 8000 acres and in the sandhills! Man, if Cheraw was any less in the middle of nowhere, I'd be all over this, but we'll have to see if the job could compensate for the lack of amenities/culture that Charleston has to offer...the best record store in the state, 52.5, organic food groceries, Whole Foods and Earth Fare, great independent booksellers, Ravenous Reader, and so forth. Besides, I'm feeling a little differently about living out in the country after reading a recent article in "Conservation" magazine.
http://www.conbio.org/CIP/article10811.cfm
After the interview, I'm headed to Asheville to visit a good friend and take in Built to Spill with the Meat Puppets at the Orange Peel. What a nice way to blow off the steam from an interview.