Daystar adventuring
I was feeling a shortness of vision, which is different from a shortness of breath, or of time, though it can lead to those conditions if left untreated.

I went out to recapture my horizons, but I live in Iowa.

I live in a valley of trees.

If the horizon is where sky starts, I have to get out from under a tree and look up. If I walk a ways, to a field, I can see across that. Nothing more, nothing less. If you want to see the horizon, where the earth stops and curves around... only the highways and interstates go there. No other options. The hills are covered in trees.

So I took off my glasses. I'm nearsighted, and this lets me strain those peepers a tad. Plus, it calls so much attention to the distance I can see, it doesn't feel so claustrophobic. Plus, for me, it's a 3d experience like no other.

Sure, I spend my days near computer screens. But the difference isn't just that. I have very different focal lengths on each eyeball. The net effect is that not only do I get blurry shapes superimposed... the degree of blurriness is different for each eye... and that makes it VERY easy to tell how far off an object is. It's still triangulation between two points a few inches apart, but I get to use focus to augment my depth perception. Or fake it.

Which also tells me how wildlife gets by with lousy vision. You just need to avoid trees and see things near you... the bonus 3d effect can be a bit of an aid too.

Then a guy bikes past me, and I realize I couldn't tell you his age, if he had glasses... a face... details. So vision helps a lot with social identification. At least when you can't go by smell...

Nature decided to give me a couple things to see as I walked through muggy shade, avoiding direct starlight and solar radiation... mostly. Sweat will be hosed from my body by the time you read this.

At the river, I saw a fish eat a tree. Well, not quite. Little feller couldn't get the whole thing. But I saw this black shape resubmerge and the limb shake... guess that one spindly stick poking the surface of the water got the feller riled up.

But long before that was the unique bit, where a deer was napping by the driveway. Neighbor's "front yard" is uncharted wilderness, and in the country, that's fine. Their real yard is by their house, and this is like having a hedge about a hundred feet thick before the treeline.

I didn't know there was a deer in there. The deer didn't know I'd be walking on the path. I think I woke it, because I don't usually hear deer scream.

So much for our natural world being observant.

My dad, meanwhile, picking raspberries, trumps me. Two little things had been running full tilt in the yard, and one stopped, and the other ran into his foot.

The one that stopped was a cat. Some of 'em around here are leary of people.

The one that didnt, that was a very young rabbit. Ran smack into his shoe. And sat there. 'till the cat lost interest. Then *bam* gone.

Dunno if there's a trend there, or a lesson to be learned.

But I got some exercise, and need a shower. Yaaay.