Emily's Excellent Excursion

This morning my niece drove off to begin a new adventure. She has quit her job and will be driving around the country with no real plan or schedule, just to see what she can see and learn. She's been preparing for quite some time, and I've been passing on all the hints and tips I could think of from my own adventures on the road.

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It was exciting and sad at the same time to watch her climb in her truck and head out into the unknown. I'm excited that she has this opportunity, excited for all the amazing things I know she will experience. But I'm sad that I'm not going on -- or even planning -- an adventure of my own. It feels as if I'm passing the torch...retiring from the role of adventurer and letting someone else carry on...the end of an era that has spanned almost 10 years.

Emily will be posting photos and her impressions of the trip at Emily's Adventures Around America. Everyone is welcome to follow along and offer encouragement.

Have an awesome adventure, Emily!!

Time

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Time has just evaporated since I got home, and especially since I started to work. I've only been to work one day, and already my spirits are drooping. I see my life slipping away as I hang out doing piddly work for someone else eight hours a day. I'm exhausted, and there's no time to pursue my own fledgling online business. The car I was expecting has not yet manifested, so I will be spending another couple of hours each day commuting by bicycle. And today I have 50-degree rain to ride in.

I always enjoyed working at the print shop, but it's not the fun and happy place it used to be. It's depressing. As soon as employees walk in the door, we see a hodge-podge of unorganized miscellany. Nothing resembles the shop as it was when it was functioning well. There is just a skeleton of useful machines and supplies; the rest is junk. It looks as if they've just moved in and haven't gotten things put away yet, although they have been there for years and I remember how it used to be. Just being around the flotsam and jetsam is very unsettling to my psyche.

Settling In

Image by lisacchamberlain via Flickr

I've been home a week now. I was excited to be coming home, but it was hard to leave Culebra. I was okay as I squished myself into the little plane with seven other passengers. I was okay as we climbed above the harbor. But as the plane banked and I looked back at the little town, I suddenly felt as if I were leaving home. It was different from when I arrived in January. This time I recognized landmarks and could name them. There's the cemetery on the road to Zoni Beach...there's Flamenco Beach...and there -- as I twisted in my seat and looked over my shoulder -- there's Luis Pena Cay and Jose's roof and Tamarindo. And as the island faded away into the haze, I cried.

I've been doing seasonal work for six years now. I never cry when I leave home in the fall, but I almost always cry when I leave where I've been over the winter.

I spent that night in San Juan and left for the States in the morning. The first leg was boring over the water, but after changing planes in Atlanta, I watched out the window for landmarks. I saw Fontana Dam (over which the Appalachian Trail passes) and the Smokies. The next thing I could identify was the Ohio River -- and I recognized the bridge at Portsmouth. Then I-70, and then the clouds blocked the view. We approached Cleveland by circling over Lake Erie. That morning I'd left the sparkling aqua waters of the Caribbean; I was landing next to the drab green-brown water of the north coast.

So I've spent the past week settling in and catching up with an old friend. I can't seem to get rested. I start work in four days, and I still don't have a vehicle to get there. I can ride with my sister on some days, and I have the bicycle on hand for other days. But it's 12 miles, and it's been windy and a little rainy. But I get through life by pulling strings and doing what I have to do, so it will all work out somehow.

Pinot Grigio Dreams

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Rapid-fire flashes of unrelated scenes while I am half awake and half asleep...

Sneaking into my ex-husband's house to get something

Meeting Bo Duke of Dukes of Hazzard

I keep thinking of him as John Larroquette, even though I know that's not right

Riding with Bo on a motorcycle

Suddenly driving the motorcycle myself with a group of people

The motorcycle has a knob on the handlebars to shift through 10 gears

Despite the knob, I shift with my foot

It's backwards -- shifting with left foot and throttle on the left

Mom is on the back of my motorcycle

Mom pulls up beside me driving a chopper

I'm in my uncle's milk house

My uncle joins the motorcycle group, but he's driving his John Deere lawnmower

The lawnmower is faster than all the motorcycles

Somewhere I acquire a tiny kitten...

I only had one glass! I still have some wine left. What can I dream tonight?

Attitude

I've been in a strange mood for the past several days. Just really blah and unmotivated, and today I feel very sad. I know this must be hormones, because I'm actually excited to be going home soon. I just don't feel the excitement. It's cloudy and drizzly, but that's not the problem, because I'm happy for it to rain here...when it rains, it's only 82 degrees instead of 85. Of course, the humidity is 80%. I'm always dripping.

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I'm finding it very hard to make myself go out and work. I don't know if I'll manage to fulfill my hours this week or not. I did go out and do some landscape work this morning -- pulling weeds and trimming bushes -- in the drizzle. I got really annoyed with the dirt all over me and the prickly stick-tight seeds and my sweat-drenched hair hanging in my eyes. And after 20 minutes of burning ant bites, I just wanted to scream. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and quit.

This next week will be hard to drag myself through. This is one reason I keep doing my epic adventures. I can always look back to a time on the trail or to that 21st day in a row of bicycling in the rain and remember that I have it in me to keep on keeping on, no matter what. If I said I'd do something, I know I can see it through. This just isn't as much fun as hiking or cycling.

And, no, I don't know the people in this picture. I have software that suggests and provides photos for my blog...I have no idea why it thought this one was appropriate. But it struck me as funny and made me smile, so I added it.

Birdwatching

Each of our rental rooms has a clothesline strung under the porch roof. Yesterday when I went to paint the front of one room, there were some grasses hanging on a group of three clothespins on the line. The way the wind blows things around here, I didn't think much of it, and I knocked the grass off.

Image by mostevens via Flickr

It wasn't long before a pair of little yellow and gray bananaquits fluttered in to land on the clothesline with grass in their beaks. Oh. I know they thought it was a fine place for a nest, protected under the roof like that, but it would be no good for them to build it there, and I told them so. I explained to them there would be people coming and staying there and sitting on the porch and having lunch at the table right under the nest.

They didn't seem to understand, and persisted in bringing nest materials. They started with with something sticky, which was probably gathered-up spider web. They attached it to one clothespin, then snagged it on the second, and then the third. Then they brought grasses and arranged it just so.

I hated the thought of them putting so much work into a nest, only to have it knocked down by the housekeeper next time a guest was expected. I moved the three clothespins far apart, hoping that would discourage the bananaquits and send them looking for a different nest site. But they were adamant that this was the place. Even while I was painting just three feet away, they continued to bring spider web and grass, puzzled over why they couldn't connect the clothespins like before. Fine. If they were going to be that persistent, let them build the nest. I put the three clothespins back together, and they cheerfully began building again.

When I checked this morning, they had made some progress, but not much. It seems to me a tricky place to hang a nest. I've been watching another bananaquit nest down the hill. They build a hanging nest with a side entrance. This other one is hanging in a small tree and incorporates several branches, so it seems more secure than hanging on a clothesline.

I didn't know what these birds were at first. I thought they were goldfinches, but the beak isn't right for that. It took me a long time to figure it out online. It's hard to find a site where you can type in "little yellow bird with gray throat and curved beak" and actually get an answer. I found it at www.whatbird.com. They have a good system for narrowing down types, colors, and traits to find the answer.

Party's Over

It's been fun, it's been educational, it's been an adventure. But it's time to move on. Hey, what did you expect from someone who has been a seasonal worker for six years?

Image by selkovjr via Flickr

I gave notice this morning, and I'll be leaving the island at the end of the month. The boss said he's sad to see me go. I know come winter, I'll probably be wishing I was back, but I'll just have to remind myself that this isn't the kind of job I want anymore. I'll miss the geckos, the iguanas, the beautiful vista outside my front door.

Don't be sorry that things didn't work out for me. That is not at all how I see it. Things worked out perfectly. I needed a job, and it was a job. I wanted to be in a warm place for the winter, and I was. The experience was exactly what it was supposed to be and just what I needed. I've learned a lot -- about myself and about a great place to go on vacation -- and I added a new friend to my list of friends all over the world.

I'm anxious to get home. There are some things in storage I've been wanting to have in hand. I won't be idle, for sure. I have a job lined up filling in at my former employer's print shop for the summer. I'll be bicycling a lot and maybe hiking, as well as continuing to build my online business. And I'll be busy outlining the next chapter of my adventurous life.

I hope my blog doesn't get too boring now that I'll be back in the midwest. Just stay tuned because, as many people have learned, you never know what I'll do next.