A story about my father, from 2001 Parallel lines are lines that never intersect. For infinity. Or maybe they intersect in infinity, I can’t remember. So I ask my father. “The definition of parallel lines must consider whether you are in a plane or in three dimensional space,” he says. My father’s answers are never simple. My father is a mathematician. He...
Read MoreRiding the Joy and the Grief
Before we even got to the coast, I was thinking about getting a bicycle so that I could ride around the area right from our spot. Marika and I used to be avid cyclers, sometimes riding fifty miles in a weekend. But my twenty year old bike had seen its best days, so I left it with the rangers at Fort Pulaksi two years ago. The only bicycle store in...
Read MoreSnug in the Harbor
We have always planned our routes and volunteering gigs based on where the birds are. Once we choose an area, we check out nearby food shopping, restaurant options, and proximity to things to explore. Now, we also consider where Cody can get his acupuncture treatments. After we heard that our summer volunteering job was officially cancelled, we were...
Read MoreHeading North
It has gotten too hot, too soon here in southeastern Arizona. It’s going to be 101 today, with 90’s for the next week, at least. And it’s just too warm for us. But we are here, waiting, sheltering in place, until our next volunteering gig happens. And then I realized we have other choices. We could still go up to Oregon and PAY for a campsite. I...
Read MoreWhat I’m Learning
There’s always something new to learn and experience at our volunteer jobs. Usually the learning is obvious: we have to know facts and stories about the place, or the people, or the natural areas. We have to study, review, maybe take some training tests, so that we can share our new knowledge. But this job is none of that for me. Because I’m not going into...
Read MoreWinter in the Desert
If you know me at all, you know that my standard line has always been “I hate the desert.” And yet, here we are, volunteering at Kartchner Caverns State Park in the high desert of southern Arizona for the next four months. We are surrounded by mesquite trees and century plants and prickly pear cactus, and I am truly and deeply loving the landscape. ...
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