Maybe a few minutes since I've posted on here. Sometimes you go out and have an adventure, and sometimes the adventure grabs you by the collar and drags you along at a pace you can't even tell people about it.
August of last year I got hired onto a new job with a company called Gama Engineering /Jet East down in West Palm Beach doing service hub maintenance for a major private jet carrier there. The contract company I was working through provided a hotel room as part of my compensation, and the hourly pay on top of that was pretty good. I was down there by myself most of the time, and by myself I'm not a huge beach goer,
and so I decided to take some online classes to help pass the free time since I was working Wednesday-Sunday. 14 credit hours may have been a mistake. Despite this I managed to go home, or the family came to Florida about once a month. I made it to Kentucky for Thanksgiving/Christmas, and we made it through the Keys once (I believe I'll make that a post all it's own in the coming weeks).
West Palm Beach is a beautiful vacation destination, and everything wrong with America. The "middle-class" housing runs 400k-800k. The poorer neighborhoods are super rough, especially since the authorities seem to make sure there are no panhandlers/homeless in the nicer parts of Palm County. Its easy to think that everyone is a millionaire that can afford security and doesn't need guns when you think the "poor" people live peacefully in nice neighborhoods where the houses start at 400k. I'm not jaded against rich people, and I don't support wealth redistribution. I only wish we did a better job at taking care of our fellow Americans.
WPB wasn't all corruption, wealth, poverty, and drugs. On the contrary it is, behind the veil of a vacation destination, a very diverse gem (albeit stupid expensive) with some of the most interesting adventures to be had within 2 hours of driving, and some within five minutes of driving. I only went down to WPB beach once. It was a little too ritzy and busy for my taste. Usually I would drive up to Juno and Jupiter and enjoy the lighthouse there, the food, the inlet, the parks, and the beaches. Here's a gallery worth of poorly arrange images from our time in and around Florida.
The water there is clear, crystal clear, a deep blue that you have to depart the coast to find near the Carolinas. The area has plenty of history, wildlife, and mostly friendly people. The food, while expensive, is fresh and delicious as one might expect in a coastal town. I watched a Space X launch from here. Walked the Juno Dunes Natural Area, and met a Gopher Tortoise. I walked the winding waters natural area loop trail of roughly 8 miles, and saw more water fowl than I could ever record, and a few alligators. In October or November we drove down to highway 41 that runs through the Everglades and drove the "Loop Road Scenic Drive" in Big Cypress National preserve and saw 30+ alligators. These living dinosaurs are something to behold in their natural habitat. We went fishing a couple times, without any luck. At the beginning of Covid 19 and by the grace of God and soaking in the sun (very distanced from everyone), and updosing Vitamin C and Zinc way above and beyond normal, we got through with minimal issues. In February I was interviewed and hired permanent by the AOG side of the company. AOG maintenance is transient maintenance that goes to the airplane instead of the airplane coming to you, so a lot of traveling. It would have me back home every other week instead of every 4-6 weeks, and the pay and benefits were much better. In March I tried a head boat fishing charter, and again, no luck. I was due to start with the AOG side in April, and so wanted to attempt to hike the entirety of the Florida Trail: Ocean to Lake Trail. It's about 60 miles long, and I made it 43. If not for it being my last week there and needing to pack, I might have finished it, but that really needs to be it's own post.
I started working on the road in mid-April, and have been in either the central/east Texas areas or around the Great Lakes every other week since. I love it. I've seen a lot of the country and experienced more American sub-cultures in the last 10 months than I have in much of the rest of my life, and I've been by no means isolated to my county for the first 33 years of my life.
So as this blog continues to grow I'm hoping to do a weekly or bi-monthly dump on here of restaurants and locations I go to, updates on the garden, and share about my job, at least as much as I can without disclosing too much about the operators and owners that contract us for work.
As far as the home front goes things are... a bit chaotic. I built 13 3'x6' garden boxes of cedar 2"x4"s and cedar fence posts, and then we put dirt and compost in them; only to find that we had dirt/compost contaminated in Grazon.
Grazon is a broadleaf herbicide that has become broadly used in recent years to treat fields used for feed for livestock. It's been found to stay intact and pass through the animals in the manure, retaining it's toxicity to broad-leaf plants (like tomatoes, beans, an a lot of vegetables). There has been research done in the last year or two on how to detox contaminated soil, and that's what we're working on now, that and isolating whether it was the top soil or the compost (money is on the compost) that is contaminated. This is done by planting test bean plants-beans because they grow the fastest and are sensitive. Once we're sure we're going to run everything into pots and work on detoxing the [compost, probably] for next year. I will try to keep things updated on the matter.
A young puppy of unknown origin was also dropped in our lap. I'm hoping this is the family/livestock guard dog I've been praying for. We've got to get him checked out, but yeah. Angel was at the local Tractor Supply Co for cat food and a lady walked up and asked her "this might sound crazy, but would you like a dog?" And Angel told her how we had been looking for once, but hadn't found one yet. The lady said this puppy who looks to be, maybe German Shepherd and.... something? We put some feelers online to see if anyone is missing a puppy, because it's a sweetheart, but with no collar and no chip... this guy seems to be a gift from God at a moment that seems... manageable. Regardless of breed I'm planning on spending a lot of time training it, unless it claimed in the next week or so, and even so, until then, and if now then during my home weeks I'm going to try to spend about 30-60 minutes working with this little guy who can't be more than 10 weeks old at the moment. My hope would be a dog I can trust not to kill chickens, can guard the yard, the house, and would be down for some adventures too.
I think that mostly catches everything up. I need a breath and a break, but what parent doesn't? Some have said I need a vacation, and they're not wrong, but the rest I need is the kind of slow down that involves stopping, and just taking in-everything. Somewhere secluded where I can be still and listen to creation praising the Creator, and can reflect on 12 months of a wild emotional ride that I've been experiencing and taking on as fast as I can. I've been listening to some of Jordan Peterson's writing and previewing John Muir, and while not perfect men by and stretch, I cannot help but feel the tug in my mind "Into the forest I go, to lose my mind, and find my soul"-John Muir.
I'm overdue for a true sabbath. In America, and especially in the church we trick ourselves into take a day or two off from our 9-5, maybe we go to church (or whatever your faith meets at), maybe we go to a sporting event. Maybe we veg out in front of a screen all day. I've tried all of this, and it was satisfying in it's own respect, each of those. Yet never have a felt so restored, fulfilled, calm, content, and close to the Creator in all His 3 forms than in the moments and days where I stopped, slowed down, and listened for Him, and thought about the blessings He's given me, the work I've accomplished because He's placed me on the path that I'm on, both at home, and at my job. Jesus tells us in Mark 2, that "the Sabbath was made for man." Indeed a merciful and loving Creator knew we would be terrible at stopping once we get going, and created us to need that healing and restoration that comes from being "still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). So that's what I'm looking for right now, a sabbath, not a sabbatical year off, and not a day of vegging out on a screen or in church, but a day to remember Who made it all, Who has brought me this far, and to glorify Him for adopting me, despite the reality that I can never live up to His standards He gave in the Bible.
Comments