So, I had something happen yet again today, something that has been plaguing me increasingly over the past two years or so. This something is a thing that saps my strength and completely prevents me from concentrating on anything else.
...Yes, it's love...
A spurt of loving pessimism (ha ha) that I have come to know as a "Florida Attack."
Sometimes these Florida Attacks can be good (such as when I strike inspiration in the swamp), and sometimes they can be bad...
Today's was bad, and, as usual, it happened at a bad time.
I stepped out of my 5th period class into a choking haze of smoke blown down from the land of Georgia (God help them.) As I began my daily walk outside toward my 6th/7th period block class, it hit me like a sack of p'taters....
I can't really descibe the feeling. Just thoughts like "Once it's gone, there's no turning back," and the likes of that.
I walked into my freezing cold chemistry classroom and immediately went back outside to lengthen my walk and to think.
...What I thought...I can't put on paper (er, keyboard?) right now, so you will have to wait on that...
However, it did succeed in putting me in a bad mood all throughout 6th/7th block, to the dismay of the people sitting around me (sorry, guys.)
When I walked outside to the parking lot after my Chemistry class period was over, I was beginning to cool off. I was just glad the school day was over and I could go home and have some time alone. Then I heard the THUD and BEEP, BEEP, BEEP sounds of construction (the developer's word for "destruction") behind my school, and this set me off on another loop. My school is currently situated in the middle of the woods, in the remnants of this once rural area of my county. That will not be true in a few years, as the expansive pine plantation surrounding my school are slated to be clear-cut for yet another development.
As these thoughts ran through my mind, I spotted a raccoon wandering in the palmettos just outside of the parking lot, and I thought Where is HE supposed to go? Where's a cracker supposed to go? I suppose we're both slated for extinction, just as that development is slated to destroy.
Just another day in the life of a Floridaphile.
Wow, this post was so horribly written, it ought to not even be posted. However, I must put it out there. This is the way we humans think sometimes.
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9 comments:
Sounds like you need to get out on the water again! Too much inside time... We took the canoe down a section of Moultrie Creek today, just south of St. Augustine - if you haven't been down it before, it's worth checking out. Saw lots of birds and a manatee.
sandpine - I've seen Moultrie Creek before (the lower portion near the ocean)...We have our SCV luncheons there from time to time. I'm sure the upper portions are especially nice. It's on my long, long, list of kayak destinations :-D
Sorry you had such a bad day.
paint - Oh well, everything's fine.
I know exactly of what you speak. You would think New York would already be entirely covered with development, but actually it is still quite open and lovely. However, it seems that every time we take a ride another beautiful field or woods is going under the blade...bulldozer blade that is... so another house can go up. You never get the land back no matter what. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. I hate it.
Good luck with those exams!
threecollie - You talking about New York State as a whole? That's some darn beautiful stuff in Upstate NY, for sure. I really like Upstate NY. You're right on...You will never see houses torn down to make way for a farm!
No, it's not horribly written. It's heartfelt and true.
Nothing horrible about that.
Development makes me sick. I live in South Florida, where concrete is the new green....how can developers and the %$#%$^ politicians they pay off sleep at night?
FC - Thanks a lot. I just wrote the thoughts as them came to mind...No editing there. But I guess that is the truest form of writing.
suze - Thanks so much for stopping by! I know how you feel...Fortunately, you still have a HUGE portion of the Everglades and the Big Cypress and that indian reservation (Miccosoukee?) to preserve some of what is left. But we all know it is still indirectly wounded by all the canals dug though it, but there's still a lof of very nice land down there. Stilll, though, it hurts to see south FL go down like it has.
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