Stilling

It has been 12 weeks since my 5 month soujourn brought me here for another romp through the river confluence region of central North America. It isnae as large a region as the political state boundaries imply. I remain unable to concede huge diffs between one river shore and its geophysical mate. It takes a politician to believe one shore of a river is radically different from the other shore of the same river. It is a singular ecosystem. That's okay. I find it as hard to see the diffs between political parties as politicians have seeing the connectivity of river shores.

It has been a shade over 5 weeks since I spent my first night here in the current base camp. "Home" remains a vague concept to me. My name on the deed to the property is more political than personal. It gives me squatter's rights and a mailing address. The notion that a building can hold my life remains as absurd as the notion that one shore of a river is radically separate from its matching shore.

And still my senses stand ready and even crave to be called "Home" to the maternal duties and expectations which have shaped my life since 1979 when my first pregnancy derailed my collegiate engineering studies. Is there life after motherhood, even after The Kids are middle aged?

The next piece of my aeroponics fantasy arrived this week while I was working through the tedium of making contact with contractors to handle the lab building. A water distiller. I kicked it into action yesterday afternoon and it's a noisy bugger. For this particular morning, I find the hum of its cooling fan rather comforting. It lets me know the works are in active progress. I only need 20 gallons (75+ liters) to fill the tank on the Tower Garden. 3 gallons down, 17 gallons to go. . .