Taal

Quick update:

The fireworks were a b s o l u t e l y a m a z i n g. Fourth of July isn't going to compare. I bet at least 10 million dollars lit up the sky last night. \o/


Last night's mind blowing experience, a Ricardo Caballer Ricasa production. If nothing else, at least check out the first two minutes, and the last minute of the finale.

I cannot wait until next year.



The new 2.5G tank is circulating; Davno's hanging out in her glass bowl next to my mouse pad. All considering, I don't think I've been happier with a tank yet. I can't wait to put her in. ♥

Next up: breaking down the Fluval and 20G tanks and sunning and separating the rocks to dry. Hopefully getting out to Petland to turn in some guppies. Will be trying to transition snails to the 2.5G as I find them. One by one. Woo.

Since my foray into fish husbandry seems to be becoming a pretty big thing for me, I'm going to try and not ramble so much about it here, and use my new blog instead.

The blog was supposed to be about 'finding myself' but since I never found suitable topics for individual posts, the blog will be how I find peace in a fish tank.

I just made my first post over there, wee!

https://lastofthewildes.wordpress.com/
https://lastofthewildes.wordpress.com/
https://lastofthewildes.wordpress.com/

I'm going to have to figure out how to use wordpress more.

I promise to try and get back to my usual posting and commenting schedule, but please.

Go check this out.
Linkkkkie ---> http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141016-your-life-on-earth

This is terribly humbling. It's a your-life-so-far-in-review.

As of typing,

My heart has beaten 1 billion times in my lifetime

on Earth I am 26, on Neptune I am 0
My next birthday on Neptune is in 50,468 Earth days

I've traveled 130,197,320,205 miles through the Milky Way

When I was 2, the black-faced lion tamarin was discovered.
There have been 126 major volcanic eruptions.
Ocean pH has decreased by 0.05

When I was 11, 157 fish species were listed as critical, now 424 are on the brink of extinction.
"There are virtually no Goliath groupers left in the world."

When I was 17, black rhinos were saved from extinction. There population exceeds 3,000.

Upsetting, fascinating. Reminding me how human I am and how much humanity is to blame for all the good and bad that happens in our world.

I want to bookmark this link and revisit it occasionally.

Every once in a while, I find myself caught in a memory, the nostalgia hits so hard and I feel a profound ache in my soul. We had an old mulberry tree in our side yard behind the garage. The wall was dated 1937 but we tore the garage down in 2011 and the tree came down a year before.

This tree was monstrous. Being borne from a single bush untended for over a quarter of a century, it grew to be twice the size of the garage, much taller in fact, with six strong trunks in the center. I couldn't hug a trunk and touch my own hands. Standing in the middle of the trunks, I could spread my arms out wide, spin in a circle, and not touch any part of the tree. It took months to bring it down. We're still using it's stump as bonfire kindling.

I remember pulling into the driveway one Friday night; I was coming home from university for the weekend. I had to stop my car as soon as I pulled into the driveway. All of that sky above the garage looked wrong. There was so much blue and not nearly enough green. To this day, I still harbor some angst at my mother for declaring that tree begone, an eyesore.

No, it was glorious. It was quiet, it was shade, and it was a part of home. I can't tell you how many times we cut and stripped the perfect mulberry branches to roast our marshmallows. Or begin to explain how the smell of the ripe fruit would blow in through the window on the breeze, always sweet but somehow despite the summer heat, never sour. Once, we even made pies. Every summer, we'd fish white and black berry pods out of the swimming pool with the skimmer and would have to scrub the liner from where they stained. And the songs of the birds that would nest year after year!

I pray, oh do I pray, that if I plant a mulberry bush at my next home and allow it to grow wild that it would grow to be an incredible tree just like ours was. And if my children or husband ever begged me to cut it down, I pray they listen to my defense. One day, they would look back, perhaps not as fondly as I, but they would look back and realize how lovely that once insignificant plant was and allow it to become more majestic.