myretroperspective

I find December 31 a good time to take stock of what happened in my life in the previous year.  In some ways, 2011 was very different for me, and in other ways it was the same.  As I did last year, I will share some of these remembrances with you. I spent the first two weeks of January 2011 finishing up my stint at Anahuac NWR.  One of my proudest moments came when I was honored with The President’s Volunteer Service Award.  I still have that letter signed by President Obama.  The middle of the month found me at Thibodeaux’s Premiere RV in Scott, Louisiana, having my new residential fridge installed and some other work on the rig.  Little did I know that this would start a theme of residing in repair shop parking lots this year.  While I was waiting I tried my first shrimp po-boy, and toured a number of places in this Cajun area. Then it was on to Gautier, MS, for a three month volunteer stint at Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife...

As I gazed out the window above my bench table this morning, I was surprised to see a cowboy in the field rounding up the doggies.  That could only mean one thing.  It was time for a cattle drive.  I was hoping I would get to see another drive before I leave. About an hour later, three mounted cowboys trotted past the rigs, and not far behind… came the herd.  My estimate was about 300 head were being moved to greener pastures. Since Emma was going berserk, I put her inside the rig and went out to the fence to watch the parade go by. As the cows flooded the road, I could have reached out and touched them.  There were upturned horns, and downturned horns, and no horns at all.  And last, but not least, was the rear guard cowboy making sure no cattle wandered where they weren’t supposed to. A cow herd of this size doesn’t move very fast, and they certainly pave the road with lots of cow pies in their passing.  I waited another...

I received a thought provoking, for me, email today from one of the readers of this blog.  I’ll include a portion of it here: Hello Judy, Mice, mosquitoes, wind storms, few visitors at the VIS, wet, cold and dreary days. You really don't make Anahuac sound like a nice place. Yet you have returned 5 times! Is this all part of your plot to make it sound bad so that no one else will go there and you will always have an open spot? :-) Seriously, why do you keep coming back? I can assure Grant that it is not a plot to turn people away from volunteering here.  Each refuge, or national park, or state park or hatchery that I have volunteered at has its own set of challenges for volunteers to overcome, but these challenges have never detracted from the overall enjoyable experiences that I’ve had at each assignment.                            ...

this december has been surprisingly cold outside. when we first came to korea it was cold but we were told not to turn on the floor heat in the apartment because the cost of it was so high. (apartments here have heated floors instead of central heat) so we plugged in an electrical heater and thought nothing more of it. turns out, it was just as expensive if not more so. our bill was the highest in our building (something i'm slightly proud of) and a government official was sent to our house to find out why we were wasting so much electricity. i guess we know better for next year. we were debating whether or not to get a tree but the holiday season just doesn't seem the same without one. we went to homeplus (the local supermarket) to look for one. we saw a lot of decorations and decided to come back the next week to pick some out. by the time we got back to the store, around the 10th of december, everything was sold out. they had a sad looking fake tree and some bulb ornaments l...

Aw shucks!  It was another wet, cold, and dreary day today.  That makes six in a row.  I find I am less and less interested in doing anything the longer the dreariness persists.  I’ve only taken three pictures in the last three days, so tonight’s photos are retreads from my time here at Anahuac.  My original ‘Plan A’ was to leave here today, and take my time getting to Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR (MSCNWR) by the end of the year.  I scrapped that plan several weeks ago. ‘Plan B’ was to leave this coming Friday and caravan with my friends, John and Diana, to MSCNWR.  They will be volunteering there also.  It turns out that Diana has to stay in the area longer for some physical therapy, so I scrapped that plan too.  In the meantime, I made an appointment for Emma to have a spa day for a bath and nail trim for tomorrow.  That meant I had changed my plans once again to leave on Wednesday.  That would be ‘Plan C’. Well ...

It’s been wet and overcast for days now, so this weekend was pretty laid back.  I actually spent yesterday afternoon watching the entire Lonesome Dove mini series to the sound of rain on the rooftop.  That’s a pretty boring day for me.  Emma has been so bored that she ripped apart her stuffed duck.  She’s had that for a couple of years, but it’s in the garbage bucket tonight.  I think even the wild barn owls are tired of this weather.  One of those owls sits under the eave of the community building and coughs up its pellets onto the cement area in front of the door.  These pellets are usually like small compact eggs consisting of indigestible bones and hair.  Well, this morning’s deposit was a only slightly digested mouse.  Yuck!  Bill and Carol saw a barn owl sitting on a post just next to my rig last night.  I wonder if that’s why I’ve had a decrease of mice in the rig this week.  I hope it perches there each night. At le...

I don’t know about the rest of you bloggers, but for me my time outside with Emma in the late afternoon is a good time for me to review the happenings of the day in my mind.  It’s also the time when I decide if the day is worth blogging about.  Sometimes, my biggest challenge is coming up with a title for the post.  Today was one of those days.  Quite a bit happened, and yet, none of it was earth shattering.  I also want to say that it has been very enlightening to have fellow bloggers staying here for more than an hour or two.  I have really enjoyed reading about Roxanne’s and Annie ’s  perception of our shared experiences.  It just reinforces how each of us in this world perceive happenings through our own personal window on life.  Anyway, on to today’s little adventures… This morning, the Good Luck Ducks joined me for part two of the wildlife refuge tour.  We visited both the VIS and the new Visit...