Hello and happy end of the month of May, and welcome to the start of another great summer. If you are geographically close to me, you'll notice it's odd weather welcoming us to summer, as cold rains have come, and even snow in some parts- but then, it's hard to complain when our area is in such a drought.
What's new in my life? I accomplished some more physical alterations to my network, and now not only is my server closet just a bit quieter and less power hungry, but much of my home network now runs on fiber- except for the actual ISP itself... still relegated to wireless, there, but despite wireless being a slightly disadvantaged approach to a wired one, I will gladly take about the same rate for speed with another company than give into the sleaze of a company that is Comcast. But I digress.
No, actually the main event this week should probably be my anniversary. It's a rather amusing thing to me, that now that we've hit the big 5 year marker, where most folks would take that landmark to celebrate a little more big, we scaled it back and enjoyed the most laid back celebration we've done so far. Where in years past we've planned vacations that have ranged from a few days to a week, this year, we just took a half day. We went out to an aquarium, and while the aquarium was kind of cool, by far, the strangest and coolest thing of all was something most people would probably not picture being "cool", and would especially not picture being something you would do at an aquarium, of all places. We were walking by some exhibits that housed tarantulas, and an employee walking by noticed us, and offered to let us hold a tarantula.
Now, I've held spiders before, and I'll be the first to admit, while they were very friendly spiders, I was quite frightened to do so for the first time, and I regret to say there does exist video evidence of just how afraid I was. However, this was another matter altogether- but probably in exactly the opposite way you are thinking. You see, unlike a small fighting spider in the Philippines whose legs are very small and creepy, a large tarantula has very soft and padded feet. What's more, this tarantula, at least, was very gentle and slow. So, as it crawled at a very slow pace from the employees hands to my wife's, and then into mine, it was by far nowhere near as scary as you might imagine. In fact, it was honestly more cute than anything else. Maybe it was just the fact that it was so large a creature that it didn't really seem like it fit into the same category as most spiders. But rest assured, my wife and I enjoyed the experience, and would highly recommend that if you get the chance, to take it! Tarantulas are remarkably friendly creatures to humans!
But aside from our attempt to become Spiderman (and Spiderwoman?) we did some window shopping at a mall, ate at a Red Robin, and watched a local community production (and a great one at that!) of The Scarlet Pimpernel. I guess if nothing else, it was nice to take a year, do something really simple, and remember that we don't have to go on a crazy awesome vacation to remember that we kinda really like each other a lot. Well, I say that, but we both also kind of counted the trip which I mentioned in my previous entry as part of our celebration, but still, the point stands! But boy, it sure is weird to think it's already been 5 years. I know it sounds like a noob thing to say, considering there are those who have been married well over ten times that length of years, but man, where did the time go?
And the other big thing this week was a bike ride that was meant to be simple, but turned out to be quite a fun adventure. I took to the hills that are just a mile or so to the East of where I live and went biking along a trail that would end up leading me over a less-than-ideal trail, into a secret nature trail that I didn't fully follow, higher up the hill, down through a canyon, back out to a beautiful outlook, and then back down the road to my car. I recount all of that in a simple here, there, and here- and yet it was one of the most beautiful rides of my life. I blame a good amount of that on timing, though. There I was at home, and I had almost talked myself out of going out to bike and instead take an afternoon nap, but I forced myself to go, and I was sore glad I did. It had rained that morning off and on, and by the time I went, the trail had dried up just enough to not be muddy, nor be dusty. But trail aside, the smells!
I don't recall if I've mentioned this before or not, but I have a slightly degraded sense of smell. And yet, it seemed that at no point on that whole mountain was there a moment that I wasn't smelling that sweet earthy, good smell that comes after a moderate rain has fallen. You smell some of the soil, and the rain itself, but also the growing flowers (perfect timing, as everything here is just coming into bloom, too!), the sage, and the trees, all of which are still wet with droplets abundant. Frankly, if I had suddenly been knocked in the head and forgot where I was, I might've thought I was in the loveliest pasture somewhere in the greener parts of Ireland (never been there, but the photos I've seen are so lovely!). It was green, it was lively, cloudy, slightly sunny at times, and- was just so gosh dang beautiful! I may well bike that trail many more times, but I'll be far more blessed than I deserve if I ever see it as beautiful again as I did this last Saturday.
And a thought to leave? Well, maybe this one. Have you ever found yourself having been devoted to something you've followed all your life, which is good, and you began to question it? Or, have you been striving to become a better version of yourself and leave behind the lesser part, only to keep going back to the same ways and faults? I've found myself in these places. And I recently remembered a very powerful and secret weapon that, at first doesn't make much sense, and that is words. I have found, in my experience, that when I am on the brink of walking away from a good thing, that the power of words- actual verbal words- have been able to save me from my own stupidity. What's more, by words, not only do I save myself from stupidity, but I actually increase my faith in that thing which was good, and gain more confidence. I would normally love to start tying this into religious faith and more, but I'll leave my thoughts mainly as they are. So remember, if you find yourself beginning to doubt a good thing, or falling into old faults, speak with faith, and with both the power of your desires and your words, you may find that you have more power than you really thought.
Until next week, have a good one!