Another Day In The Life

Typical day in north central Florida: While driving to work, see the alligators and the cranes, and the herons and anhingas on the Prairie; notice the snakes on the sides of the road; smell the aromas of the country air; see the early morning clouds scudding across wide skies, then arrive in the cluttered city only to negotiate road repair detours and the extremely inconsiderate drivers that converge like piranhas upon a lone and unsuspecting swimmer. Finally on the job, work frantically as both a ground-level consultant on citizen tree issues (hurricane season has officially begun and everyone has a neighbor with a terrifying tree that has suddenly turned them into jittering insomniacs) and as a minor government official making quasi-judicial decisions regarding County development approvals in public meetings subject to Florida's Sunshine laws. Quasi-judicial essentially means that the "clients" in such reviews and meetings are increasingly more frequently represented by attorneys who prefer to launch into aggressive trial mode without testing the waters first. I do not like dealing with attorneys who think every issue is an uncooperative battle that needs to result in a conviction via a thorough trouncing of the opponent. They don't realize it (or, perhaps, don't care a whit), but these attorneys frequently embarass themselves in the public forum by their over-the-top behavior in a non-trial venue, as if they only know how to emote in one way without assessing the situation or being in possession of any sort of context-dependent finesse. Quasi-judicial means they need only to act in quasi-lawyer fashion - not like Johnny Cochran in blustery full-trial mode. Of course there are the experienced exceptions who are, dare I say, a pleasure to deal with. Then home at the end of the day, to see the white herons and ibises flocking to their willowy roosts, the bobwhites skittering across the narrow lane into the open lands beyond, and to feed the household animals who have learned to wait regally and patiently for the golden hands that feed them.

I'm eating lots of melon here lately. The Clog-wife doesn't eat much fruit other than the occasional banana or flavored yoghurt, so this week I've been able/required to eat a whole canteloupe and most of a watermelon by myself. With fresh localy-grown blueberries, which she doesn't eat either. I'm not complaining about her food preferences; I just feel bad my other half doesn't enjoy these fresh fruits in season like I do. I mean, sheesh, eating them in such quantities makes one feel so virtuous, like one has just scaled the treacherous north face of the great Food Pyramid or something! So of course, I think everyone should feel that way too.

Sometimes I realize that not everyone thinks/(eats) like I do. Its always a surprising revelation.