As a Midwestern transplant to the East Coast, it actually hasn't taken me that long to feel at home here in southern New Jersey. You see, just outside my future in-laws' cul-de-sac are corn and soybean fields. Being away from the plains of Iowa was actually harder than I knew it would be while in the Army.
Now some of you may be saying, "Seriously Russ, you were in Missouri, it was still the Midwest, surely there was corn". I'm sure there was...somewhere further north, but mostly around Fort Lost in the Woods, it was red dirt, rocks, yards full of garbage, trees, and Ozark "mountains". An area where you really start to hear that banjo from "Deliverance" if you go too far. I need a clear and level line of site for at least a mile before I feel comfortable.
I've been running about every other day since I've moved out here along the road with the fields and stopped to watch the farmers use a really old Case IH combine to harvest. Buy a new John Deere combine people (my baby bro Al works for JD and better get me royalties for that free advertisement). I may see at least five cars during a three/four mile run whereas in rural Iowa if you see that many going one direction you start to assume there's a fire or a party, maybe both.
But if I run a mile in a different direction, the fields are replaced with houses, gas stations where it is illegal to pump it yourself, restaurants, tanning salons, yoga studios, jug handles so you can turn left (illegal to turn left in some places), busy highways, and et cetera. Luckily, there is an Iowa State alumni group in the Philadelphia area and hopefully I'll get together with them to cheer the Clones to a win over the Squawkeyes in basketball soon.
I'm not asking for someone to clear out all the people, traffic or bulldoze any trees out here. I'm getting comfortable with the way it is. I'll still be able to visit the great plains of Iowa when I need to get away (see you all for the week of New Years Eve). You can take the boy out of Hanover but you can't take the Hanover out of him. Trying to take a few patience pages out of Papa Dwaine's book in an entirely new environment with just enough similarities to make it easier for a guy to feel at home. Still running through cornfields and learning as I go, just doing it in New Jersey now.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
A Memory of Home
I am
walking through a cornfield. It's late fall and the ground is just tilled after
the harvest. The scent in the air is cornhusks, soil, and oil from the tractor
I was just driving. It idles while I stretch my legs and appreciate God's own
work.
It's the time of year when I wake up to a bone-freezing chill and put on layers of clothes. By the afternoon, I'm down to a baseball cap, long sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and steel-toed work boots to keep cool. The evening comes quickly and my favorite Iowa State hooded sweatshirt keeps the cold at bay.
The fresh turned soil pulls my heavy boots down, making every step an effort. I'm walking towards the terrace where the wind blows the long grass, making me imagine the open prairie that was originally here. Maybe there were buffalo once cresting these gentle hills, and geese flying in V-formation in the sky like they do now.
The scenery moves me as it always has: white cotton ball clouds moving steadily west to east across the sky as if to war, the miles of fields being prepped for the winter by men who know and love this land better than I ever will.
They've put blood, sweat, and tears into this land. The previous generations have made it easier for each of us who came after. The work still wears down our bodies and takes its toll, but not quite like it used to. Back-breaking work developed this farm so we could continue it and put in effort to make it our own. My family, including myself, has done much to make this as much ours as any who came before us.
I kneel and pick up a hand full of the rich, dark soil, letting it sift through my fingers. It gives me strength in the knowledge that it will be here and taken care of regardless of the next time I see home. I know this is home, but I've always had an urge to travel further and experience more.
I raise my eyes to the west where the sun is sinking down under the horizon, calling an end to another long day. The sky has changed to a myriad of colors: yellows, reds, purples and oranges. The eastern sky darkens earlier each day and brings with it the first clear and bright stars that I know so well. I return to the tractor and climb back in so I can turn it off for the night.
It's parked and resting near the end rows where I'll start in the morning, after the hog chores are finished that is. I climb into my Papa Dwaine's work truck with that familiar and comforting scent. He started this farm from money he saved while in the Army in Korea. And now, I will soon leave to begin my military journey. I look back one last time and pray that it doesn't change too much while I'm gone. This memory will have to sustain me for a bit until I come home again. It might be a while.
It's the time of year when I wake up to a bone-freezing chill and put on layers of clothes. By the afternoon, I'm down to a baseball cap, long sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and steel-toed work boots to keep cool. The evening comes quickly and my favorite Iowa State hooded sweatshirt keeps the cold at bay.
The fresh turned soil pulls my heavy boots down, making every step an effort. I'm walking towards the terrace where the wind blows the long grass, making me imagine the open prairie that was originally here. Maybe there were buffalo once cresting these gentle hills, and geese flying in V-formation in the sky like they do now.
The scenery moves me as it always has: white cotton ball clouds moving steadily west to east across the sky as if to war, the miles of fields being prepped for the winter by men who know and love this land better than I ever will.
They've put blood, sweat, and tears into this land. The previous generations have made it easier for each of us who came after. The work still wears down our bodies and takes its toll, but not quite like it used to. Back-breaking work developed this farm so we could continue it and put in effort to make it our own. My family, including myself, has done much to make this as much ours as any who came before us.
I kneel and pick up a hand full of the rich, dark soil, letting it sift through my fingers. It gives me strength in the knowledge that it will be here and taken care of regardless of the next time I see home. I know this is home, but I've always had an urge to travel further and experience more.
I raise my eyes to the west where the sun is sinking down under the horizon, calling an end to another long day. The sky has changed to a myriad of colors: yellows, reds, purples and oranges. The eastern sky darkens earlier each day and brings with it the first clear and bright stars that I know so well. I return to the tractor and climb back in so I can turn it off for the night.
It's parked and resting near the end rows where I'll start in the morning, after the hog chores are finished that is. I climb into my Papa Dwaine's work truck with that familiar and comforting scent. He started this farm from money he saved while in the Army in Korea. And now, I will soon leave to begin my military journey. I look back one last time and pray that it doesn't change too much while I'm gone. This memory will have to sustain me for a bit until I come home again. It might be a while.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Can't Sleep So I Read & Write
Hey world, it's Russ. Been awhile. Anyways, started pushing myself to run, lift, and sauna every day recently but still can't sleep easy. Pain in my neck just won't let me get comfortable enough to fall asleep. So here I am bored and tired, yet can't sleep so I read and write. I may actually post this, who knows.
Went looking for information about one of my favorite author's (George R. R. Martin) progress on his next book, and found something interesting. He's written three novellas in The Song of Ice & Fire universe that were published in three different compilations of short stories and essays by numerous authors. They all follow two characters around 70-90 years before Game of Thrones and the following books' plot lines. It also looks like HBO is planning on making them into a prequel tv series if the author doesn't finish his next two books before the original series overruns what's already been published. He also has said there is potential to publish at least six more novellas along the prequel plot line at some point. Hope he gets it all finished and published into one book I can add to my GRRM collection.
Truthfully, I'm more worried the guy will kick the bucket before he finishes the story at the pace he writes and he has said no other author would be allowed to finish the story. Been reading the series since I received the first book as a freshman in high school for a Christmas present. A Dance with Dragons (book 5) was published in 2011 so I will hope for 2015 for the next installment, The Winds of Winter. Suppose 2018 is too much to ask for book seven huh? So many questions remain in the series. Do the Targaryens gather what is left of the Valyrians in the Free Cities? Who are Jon Snow's true parents? What happened to Eddard Stark's wife? Or all of the Stark direwolves? So many characters that could get more flushing out with motives, backstory, and current plot actions. By the end there will still be plenty of questions as to what the hell is going to happen but I suppose we'll find out a little bit at a time.
So if you ever wondered what a guy like me thinks about when I can't sleep for any apparent reason, there you go. Books I've read so many times I lost count. Oh, and HBO's third season of Game of Thrones starts on March 31. Check out the first two seasons on DVD before then. Even my baby bro reads these books after watching the first season. I bet even some of my hometown friends realize the show is about those books I was always reading in HS on the bus to sporting events. Who has two thumbs and was ahead of the curve again fellas? This guy! Ow, that motion didn't feel good on the neck.
Forewarning though, the author doesn't keep everyone you come to love alive or in a happily ever after situation. Love it or hate it, makes the storyline a bugger to follow or predict.
Went looking for information about one of my favorite author's (George R. R. Martin) progress on his next book, and found something interesting. He's written three novellas in The Song of Ice & Fire universe that were published in three different compilations of short stories and essays by numerous authors. They all follow two characters around 70-90 years before Game of Thrones and the following books' plot lines. It also looks like HBO is planning on making them into a prequel tv series if the author doesn't finish his next two books before the original series overruns what's already been published. He also has said there is potential to publish at least six more novellas along the prequel plot line at some point. Hope he gets it all finished and published into one book I can add to my GRRM collection.
Truthfully, I'm more worried the guy will kick the bucket before he finishes the story at the pace he writes and he has said no other author would be allowed to finish the story. Been reading the series since I received the first book as a freshman in high school for a Christmas present. A Dance with Dragons (book 5) was published in 2011 so I will hope for 2015 for the next installment, The Winds of Winter. Suppose 2018 is too much to ask for book seven huh? So many questions remain in the series. Do the Targaryens gather what is left of the Valyrians in the Free Cities? Who are Jon Snow's true parents? What happened to Eddard Stark's wife? Or all of the Stark direwolves? So many characters that could get more flushing out with motives, backstory, and current plot actions. By the end there will still be plenty of questions as to what the hell is going to happen but I suppose we'll find out a little bit at a time.
So if you ever wondered what a guy like me thinks about when I can't sleep for any apparent reason, there you go. Books I've read so many times I lost count. Oh, and HBO's third season of Game of Thrones starts on March 31. Check out the first two seasons on DVD before then. Even my baby bro reads these books after watching the first season. I bet even some of my hometown friends realize the show is about those books I was always reading in HS on the bus to sporting events. Who has two thumbs and was ahead of the curve again fellas? This guy! Ow, that motion didn't feel good on the neck.
Forewarning though, the author doesn't keep everyone you come to love alive or in a happily ever after situation. Love it or hate it, makes the storyline a bugger to follow or predict.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)