Testing

I spent the day working on my test to send off today. I worked on it, did something else, and then worked on it some more. Since I don't know how the interview went, I figure the paper needs to be really great. I don't know which is better, having to be Johnny on the spot, write the paper, and get it over with, or having the time to research and rewrite and be preoccupied with the darn thing all day. I re-read it this morning and it looks good, so I am sending it off this morning so I don't have to think about it anymore. I am grateful that I have kept up my writing skills by blogging every day.

I did go out and buy the Sunday paper yesterday morning. I used to love Sunday mornings with the newspaper, but the paper isn't what it used to be. It does help me learn about what is happening in Boise and had some information I used for my test. Boise State creamed Wyoming and secured an ESPN Game Day spot. ESPN will be here Saturday for the opening home game against #25 Oregon State and the game will be on national TV. Season tickets are still available for $200. This is apparently way less than what single tickets for this weekend's game are going for on EBay.

Yesterday afternoon I set a Mum I bought to brighten up the front porch, which is still looking pretty empty, and talked to my next door neighbor for a while. She showed me her tomatoes and gave me one. I had no idea that there were so many kinds. The one I chose was huge with a red and purple skin. Several of her plants just sprouted up again this spring after dying off last winter. I will not grow tomatoes, I had a bad experience with them as a kid. One day I had beautiful tall plants covered with almost ripe tomatoes and the next day all that remained was a few stalks and a hundred big, fat tomato worms. Where did they come from? I did not see one tomato worm on my neighbor's plants.

It is feeling like fall is on it's way here and my neighbor said my front tree will drop massive leaves. I have a coupon for leaf bags and it sounds like I am going to need them. Boise does not do yard waste recycling, they do plastic and paper, and they don't do glass recycling either. There must not be enough money in it. In the Fall they will pick up leaves if you leave them out in these special giant paper leaf bags that you have to buy and in the winter they will pick up your Christmas tree. I saw on Fox News something about Boise being the recycling police and having computer chips in recycling bins to make sure you are recycling enough, but I cannot find anything about that here. Trash collection is contracted out and I don't know why a contractor would invest in computer chips to monitor recycling since there is no advantage for them. The contract says that whether or not the contractor makes money on recycling is their problem.

With that, the next enlightenment topic is Nature, with a poem by William Wordsworth,

O Nightingale! thou surely art
A creature of a "fiery heart":--
These notes of thine--they pierce and pierce;
Tumultuous harmony and fierce!
Thou sing'st as if the God of wine
Had helped thee to a Valentine;
A song in mockery and despite
Of shades, and dews, and silent night;
And steady bliss, and all the loves
Now sleeping in these peaceful groves.

I heard a Stock-dove sing or say
His homely tale, this very day;
His voice was buried among trees,
Yet to be come at by the breeze:
He did not cease; but cooed--and cooed;
And somewhat pensively he wooed:
He sang of love, with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;
Of serious faith, and inward glee;
That was the song -- the song for me!

The author only includes the second half of the poem in his book, probably because the first half did not suit his topic, but I don't think anyone should cut people's poetry in half to suit their own purpose. The birds I hear in Boise are mostly the honking geese overhead, but I do find the sound calming. Hiking through the Narrows in Zion, far enough in to be past the crowd, is probably the most spiritual place I've ever been. I do believe there is nothing more spiritual or therapeutic for me than a wilderness hike and it is probably a good time to go on one.