Monday, November 10, 2014

Man proposes, God disposes

I started the day with plans to go and finish installing the Visichart monitor at Rigsby store and then maybe ride my bike for a while, come back home and work on my car with Junior's help.

I did completed the installation sooner that I thought  it was going to take me, I had Steph getting me a drill and a small drillbit and had the anchor on the wall in no time.

I left store 3279 and headed for the Espada Mission end of the trail to bike there, I went into a parking lot on the entrance just off the Loop 410 access rd and it was empty, as I was about to park I noticed broken glass, like the one froma car's window or windshield, so figured is was a safe place to leave my car for couple of hours, and left for the one on the other side od the Mission, there was more activity there, people walking and other bikers going up and down the river crossing.

Next I uloaded the bike and decided to install a set of brake pads in the rearm the old ones were already down to the metal rivets. I was done in about 15 minutes, test drove it and satisfied, put all my tools and cleaner and chain lubricant back in the car.

Then I made a decision that in my bewilderment, I have not figured out what propmpt me to leave my backpack in the car.

I always take my backpack with me, weather I go walking, biking or to work riding the bus (lately). A number of reasons I have it with me is, I carry a binder with some paperwork from work, like sales goals, drafts of my associates work schedules, and some of my book that I like to read on a rest stop (while riding my bike), or on a long stretch of road while on the bus. Also when I leave my store and have to take a long lunch break to cut short my work hours, I just read and read, and read some more.

It just came to mind that besides my set of keys to the Vision Center were there, as well as my sales binder, my new glasses, about 7 or 8 dollars in ones and loose change.

Khalil Gibran's The Prophet was there both versions, in English (given to me by a black man that was in my store awhile ago) and another in spanish that  I had just recently bought. I had also just started to read "La sombra del viento"





I did reported it to a Park Ranger from the National Park Service, who was very sympathetic about my situation. She mentioned that the amount of car break-ins in the area "is so ridiculous".

First she asked me to call the park police because the area where we were at that moment was outside her jurisdiction, I told her that my phone was in the backpack, that my work keys were there and also my glasses. After about 15 to 20 minutes she desided to file the report herself saying that if my car was on that other side of the river crossing, then it was her area of jurisdiction, so she would take care of it. After asking me for my ID and to list my missing items and typing them down on her computer, she gave me her card with a case number, her name and number, I gave her mine "just in case we come across your back pack, some thieves discard them after taking what is of value to them".

When I got home I started an argument with Junior and Anamaria, but I feel that  they didn't recognize my need for some empathy. I didn't want to hear "Can you learn from it? Have learn anything from past experiences? I shouldn't be mad at the burglars, I should be mad at myself (Ana) for leaving the backpak in plain view."

 That's it, just a little "oh I'm sorry you went through that", "... Is there anything I can do or get for you?" even without really meanig it, just a few comforting words. Better yet no words at all, silence sometimes can be more comforting than a tirade of questions and sermons.

But oh well, I'll get over it in no time, as it was before, at the moment I feel violated, my sanctuary -my car- was entered by a stranger and that's sacrilegious, a desecration, disrespectful to the core.

I reason that neither Junior or Anamaria were able to discern my state of mind at that moment. But I don't blame them; I am not easy to understand, people, in general have from time to time, difficulty understanding my way of communicating.

Here I am in another Bike trail, last year. (2013)
 And so to finish this writing, althought my original plan for the day didn't pannned out as plan, I could not blame God for the outcome, but the meaning is the same; "Man proposes and God disposes"

If there's a message hidden there is that, sometimes is better not to make any plans ahead for the future but just "wing it", go with tle flow and act on the spur of the moment, or is it? Wait a minute, acting on the spur of the moment got me in trouble before, damn it! here I go again, analyzing avery single thought. Get over it!

Anyway, I will need to get me another copy of Khalil Gibran's masterpiece soon.

Latersssssssssss.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Gray Fox sighting and the beauty of The Creation

This a first for me. A Texas Gray fox near home. What a beautiful specimen, I mean I had never seen one before outside a zoo. It reminds me of the time I saw a female coyote guarding her two pups. (I wrote about it, and actually the photo at the tittle of this blog is exactly where I encountered  the momma coyote.)
This past mid-September riding my bike on Eleanor Ave, I saw the silhouette of what looked like a furred animal. At first I think that we both starled each other and stop at the same time, it was about to cross the street 20 to 25 feet ahead of me. We eye each other and as I fumbled with my pockets looking for my iPod Touch (with which I like to take photos of just about everything I encounter during my outings and sojourns), all the time I was searching in my brain for what could that be, It was not a cat because it had a small head, pointy ears and a long and fluffy tail, it was not a dog either, a coyote maybe? Nay, I have seen coyotes up close, damm it! the tail is agive away but my brain works slow these days, as I kept brainstorming (all in a matter of one and a half minutes approximately, it turned around and did one of those jump-and-dive motion as seen in old cartoons. And as I saw that, bingo! it's a fox I told myself. But then I second guessed myself and didn't tell anybody. I was not sure that a Fox would have an habitat in this populated area. When it jumped up and dived under the chain link it went inside Fort Sam Houston, I thought well, maybe is a domesticated fox that escaped its owners and is just roaming around.
Well the day before yesterday, driving on my way to work, just before 7AM, in the dawn of the day, I saw it again and this time I saw it clearly. Lo and behold,  the Texas Gray Fox in all its magnificence was just trotting on the outside the same fence parallel to the road, as I saw it,  I pulled to the side to try to take a picture but while the fox seem not to be in a hurry and oblivious to my presence just a few feet away, it took too long for my phone to get it ready for snapping pictures and I did click on the shutter at the last moment. It's barely distinguishable but it's my proof.
That was an exciting experience, just as it is when I am in exploratory mode riding my bike in paths not so beaten. Feeling in touch with mother nature and the beauty of the creation.
I'm going to include a picture not mine, found in the net, for demonstration purposes for now.
Texas Gray Fox on the prowl.