Water! Water!

As you may remember from yesterday post, the construction site next door to our house is alive and well, buzzing with life, lights, and noises at various ridiculous times, including early mornings and holidays. Because of something or other they were doing, the water was turned off for a number of hours today. After it was turned on, the pipes needed to be flushed. To accomplish this, the two water hydrants on my street were turned on.

Little Man was ecstatic. Apparently, running water is the coolest thing ever. While I appreciated his enthusiasm, I couldn't stop thinking about the thousands of gallons of potable water that were going down the drain...

Not only did he get to play in them, but then he got to accompany one of the gents form university facilities maintenance office in turning the fire hydrants off. It was quite an experience. And I got a blip out of it, so no complaints.

Husband Dear and I took a detour from watching design oriented documentaries, and are going through Stephen Fry's America. I find it amusing on two fronts: first of all, Stephen Fry is funny, eloquent, and endearing; second of all - I, too, am a stranger in the strange land here. I can relate to many of his comments and observations. A wonderful trip, indeed.

I have not been an exemplary citizen of the Blip Republic lately. Many of my pictures are backblipped; my commenting is scarce. I do look at your blips, though. The reason for this loss of form is a minor identity crisis. It has become clear, that I will not score a full-time teaching job at a university here, or in one of our preferred locations in the country, without a PhD. While a Masters Degree is a terminal degree in Landscape Architecture in the US, the current economic downturn left a number of people unemployed. People with PhDs in allied disciplines (architecture, urban design, planning) or tremendous professional experience in private practice, or teaching. No matter how great is my enthusiasm, I just cannot compete.

This realization messed with my head for a while, but I believe I might be getting over it. What I love most about university teaching - is teaching. Not research. Not the ego feed that may come to some from being perceived as a member of an intellectual elite (don't even get me started on this one). I just like hanging out with the "kids" in the classroom. I am grateful for and humbled by having an opportunity to walk along with them for a while on their path of becoming the best versions of themselves. And if that's the case, then there are many venues for me to do what I love. I just have to figure out what to make out of all this... And, I might add, how to fold photography into it.

Sometimes I wish my path was straighter, with more clear road markings. Turn here. Stop here. Proceed with caution here. Mine is narrow, windy, not very well lit in spots, with sudden ups and downs. But you wouldn't BELIEVE the unexpected views after some of these turns!!! And the company is exquisitely delightful :-)

Life is beautiful.

PS. Two backblips for your viewing pleasure precede this post.