It’s ironic that I’m about to move again, because I just moved into this place a month ago. But this job offer is too good to pass up. I’m excited. I’m dreading loading up my stuff again. And I have GOT to get rid of things. I can no longer lug long playing records from pillar to post when I don’t even own a record player anymore. Why do I need reference books when I can get all the info I need on line? I’ve got so much to do.
But when I stop to catch my breath, I look around at this house and think about how much I like it. Even though I’ve only been here a month, I feel like I could really have made a nice home here. I feel safe here. I like that I can hear the neighbors roosters crowing, even though I’m in the middle of the largest city by land mass on the planet. I like playing in the yard with the dogs. I can see a future here, but I’ve chosen to forego it.
I sometimes think about the various futures I’ve chosen not to pursue. It’s not really a feeling of regret that comes over me, even though some of those futures might have been wonderful. It’s more like a feeling of awe. There are so many possibilities out there. So many paths I can take, or could have taken.
Every life on this planet is unique. Imagine that. We are each the architects of our own evolution. Every single choice you make opens up a whole new world to you. What a gift. What a precious, precious gift.
Okay, as a bridgetender I just have to throw in a little editorial comment here. It’s one thing to say that nothing is impossible. It’s quite another to do something really stupid that will get you killed. People die on drawbridges all the time. Kids, seriously, do NOT do this at home, so to speak.
The View from a Drawbridge 
Is that a Scherzer bridge in the picture? Is it one you can identify? Reason I’m asking is it looks like the spanlocks are the jigsaw-puzzle kind that those often have. Excuse me if I’m mistaken.
I have no idea which bridge it is, unfortunately.
Ha… I like your warning at the end, because that is the first thing that I thought when I saw that picture. And a rolling stone gathers no reference books…
That photo sets my bridgetender teeth on edge.
Mine too. The teeth of someone who isn’t big on heights, and who has read a story of someone being in the operator’s blind spot due to trusswork protruding above the deck, and falling into the gap and being crunched like I crunch a nut in my jaws. We have some half-thru trusses here, and there is a legend from some decades back of someone getting a ride they didn’t expect, although not being hurt in that case. Now I think there’s video monitoring of all the obscure spots.
I hope that your move and adjustment occur without any problems. Refresh my memory again, which city is it that you will be taking your leave from, and which bridges will I look up on Google Maps as those you have worked on?
Leaving Jacksonville. I’ve worked on the Ortega River Bridge, the soon to be defunct Sisters Creek Bridge, and the Main Street Bridge. I’ve also worked on the Ben Sawyer Bridge in Mount Pleasant, SC.
Like a kid sticking his head in a lion’s mouth.
Yes, and a million pound, hydraulically powered lion, at that.
Those are the ones to watch out for.
They’re hard to miss, but you’d be amazed.
yeah… I would be
Welcome back Art, I. Missed the repartee.
Me too.
Me three. 🙂