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June 01, 2006

A Taste of Freedom and a Bit of Midnight Gardening

A Taste of Freedom
It's only a couple more weeks before I'm finished my government job and dedicate myself to consulting. Yesterday afternoon, since I was caught up on everything else, I went home to do my contract work. After a quick lunch and a bike ride with Nanuq, I took my laptop outside, sat on the swinging bench in the backyard and proceeded to work.

Oh, what a wonderful feeling that was! It was such a beautiful afternoon, and for once I was not spending it cooped up in an office where the sun streams though the window and gives me tan on only one side of my face.

What a wonderful feeling it was to listen to the birds singing instead of listening to the sounds of passing traffic and a clicking keyboard in the office next to me.

What a wonderful feeling it was to rock back and forth in the swinging bench and feel a soft breeze in my hair instead of the dusty air that streams through the window in my office or the frosty air that gets forced through the ventilation system.

I could feel a happy, glowing feeling inside. It was a taste of freedom. It was nice. It was productive. Definitely something I could get used to.

A Bit of Midnight Gardening
Later in the evening, after a visit with my neighbour to visit his friend, see some horses, and collect some plants, I decided to do some gardening in the backyard greenhouse.

The greenhouse needs some repair work, but I was more interested in getting the beds ready for some planting. Our neighbour gave us two little pumpkin plants that need a new home.

After a couple hours, Fawn joined me and helped clean the narrow pathways while I churned the soil in the beds. The soil was dry and crusty and it took a bit of work. It was with an odd sense of satisfaction that I looked at the new blister on my hand and the nicely churned soil - you don't get that pounding on a keyboard!

I didn't enjoy gardening very much when I was younger. It just seemed like manual labour. My mom gave the orders and that's what I did. Now, I am the master of my garden and the labour just becomes time to think, like a sort of meditation.

It was close to midnight when we finally stopped.

I was rewarded at the end of the gardening session when I took a look at the outdoor beds. A week or so ago I planted some turnip and lettuce seeds, and they were coming up in rows of little shoots. It looks like I'll be doing some thinning in the near future.

Because I was covered in horse dust and dirt, I figured I should take a shower before hitting the sack. Maybe I should have been wearhing a face mask when I was churning the soil, because when I blew my nose, it all came out black. With about the same consistency as dirt. Yeah, gross.

In the immortal words of Derek Zoolander, "I've got the black lung, Pa."

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