Date:                           November 10, 2009

Location:                    Daytona Beach, FL

0930

            I did not accomplish a lot yesterday.  As a matter of more accurate fact I accomplished just about nothing, but I will try not to allow that small fact stop me from boring the one or two people that might stumble on to my blog heaven.  I will, however, attempt to not delve into the dark dungeons of my opinionated mind.

            Our main chore yesterday was to mail a couple of letters.  For a retired couple settled into the sedated life of snowbird Florida this could be a moment.  For us it was not, but it needed to be done.  It was on our return to the campground that we noticed a collection of 8 or 10 egrets and herons in our campground retention pond.  It is worth noting that the retention pond is not retaining much water of late and birds were wading through a very wet swamp with barely enough water to cover their feet and certainly not enough to get their knees damp.

            I must admit that seeing a shallow pond surrounded by palm trees and blue sky is a beautiful sight.  Dot the wet landscape with a handful of white birds and one or two blue ones and the picture takes on a memorable tone.  It was this memorable tone and classic Florida landscape that I wanted to capture on my camera.  Connie and I hurried back to our campsite and I gathered my camera, my bike and headed off to pretend I was a photographer.

            The wind was blowing just a bit, or so I thought.  As a peddled down the street in our campground and made the turn toward the pond I was abruptly made aware of the fact that the wind was blowing quite a bit.  My old tired bike peddling legs found it nearly impossible to power my new bike forward.  The winds seem to push me back harder than I could push me forward.  I down shifted my bike, peddled a bit harder and pretended I was a Tour De France rider and leaned into the wind.  Camera flailing, legs pumping, and chest heaving with breaths of exhaustion I did make the pond pristine in its beauty and specked with the charm of long legged white egrets and heron feeding on what ever floated on the shallow pond surface.

            As I dismounted my ride and grabbed my camera for a collection of what I hoped would be awesome pictures someone must have called ahead to the lead bird.  In unison nearly every one of the idiots took to flight and showed me nothing but their tail fathers as they soared on the winds to ever increasing heights and well out of my camera’s range.  “Thanks a lot you pain in the butt birds.  I am too old to be breathing this hard just to snap a picture of an empty pond.  Do you have no compassion?”

            I was to realize the answer to my question was all too real.  They had no compassion.  I had no brains. And, my camera was to have few pictures.  I suppose if I were eating lunch in a secluded hideaway and some lumbering oaf came huffing and puffing on a machine toward me I might jump to the conclusion that this situation might lead to no good.  And I might opt to forgo any more lunch until the area returned to its solemn quiet.  Maybe the “bird brain” there was not in white feathers.

            I did get a few pictures although they were not quite as pristine has I had first imagined.  I did get to play with my camera.  And I did get some exercise on my bike. It was, by all thoughts, not a bad experience.  It even gave me something to add to my blog this morning.  It is not totally off the wall and probably will not anger anyone.  That is a pretty good combination.

            The moral of my story, if there could be one, may be that if you have the opportunity to capture one of life’s moments of beauty, do not let it pass with out making an attempt to accomplish the task.  As we have seen this morning you may not store away the memory that you had planned, but a memory will still me made and the beauty will live on in your soul.

20 DAYS to EMBARKATION

Wfdo2@wfdo2.com