The Whistle and Sextant

Accompanied by his siblings and various friends and relations in Yosemite

Julia, Megan Wine, Katie Wine and I went up to the Delaware Bay to see Horseshoe Crabs and Red Knots among other things.  Julia, Intern Extraordinaire, was asked to publish her findings.  And here they are! See the Blogroll for Luminations on Limulus and A Long Way From Home

Big Ben late at night, a little fog, across the Thames

A big basketball arena after an upset

The sounds of church bells rising up through the Lauterbrunen Valley with a dense fog closing in, eventually obscuring all view except the peak of the Jungfrau across the valley

The percussive urgency of the flock of birds that blew past me on Saturday

The happy peeping of a family of Red Cockaded Woodpeckers foraging together in the morning

Waking up to Howler Monkeys, calling to each other as dawn approaches

Vespers sung as the day ends in York Cathedral

The wonderful word, Daddy

Today at the end of the day in the office, I had a call from CJ- She was excited to tell me that today when she and roommate Veronica left for school they heard flowing water that they had not previously noticed. Rainy day or not, they went exploring and found a little creek at the end of their cul-de-sac, with just enough extra water flow to make the sound that attracted their attention. She sounded delighted to have found this, with its attendant birds and a tiny rapids/waterfall. That’s how to live in the here and now- alert to what you hear, curious enough to seek out more about your surroundings. You go, Catherine and Veronica!

In Raleigh, daytime temperatures are still in the 90s. Catherine is still lifeguarding. Max is still scratching from his allergies. Our air conditioner is still running regularly (though that may be more a function of a very perimenopausal family member- sort of an internal weather change). People are still wearing shorts. (The kids are also still in Rainbow Flip-Flops, but that does not count as that is required year round footwear.) Yet it is clearly early fall here. Read more…

Catherine and I were fortunate to harness up with Ben Fischer, Bob Bittner and the rest of the Mules to ride the C and O Canal earlier this month. It was a 4 day ride, with a lot of excitement and preparatory riding leading up to it. Catherine made having the days off a prerequisite for taking her summer lifeguarding job. We rode up with Ben and Liz Fischer, as well as Sarah and Teddie, met and stayed with Bens parents, and shared stories the whole 5 days.

This post is probably like one of those walking uphill through the snow both ways stories that people like to tell and that children roll their eyes at then promptly forget. As I sit in my house surrounded by a laptop, a tablet, a macbook, a desktop with a cell phone processor that does not need a fan, 2 traditional desktops, 3 cell phones and a “smart phone”, 2 iTouches, 6 iPods and 7 digital cameras, it is hard to think back to even when Catherine was born 19 years and 51 weeks ago and how different things were. Read more…