The Worm Has Turned

Somehow I decided to do a search to find the source of the Fox River. It's the river that passes the house I live in. It's literally yards from here, maybe twenty or thirty? In the backyards of the houses across the street.

I had to think for a second about how I got onto that little quest, wanting to know the source. It started when I was reading a news story to Dexter, about the extreme winter they're having in Quebec. 'Parently, extreme even for Quebec. People be having fights over who's dumping snow in who's yard and who has the right to what parking space. Crazyness. One pile of snow is eighty feet high. Someone who's supposed to know these things said if it wasn't dismantled it would still be there next winter. I think that might be an exaggeration, maybe.

But I was wondering outloud to Dexter how all that snow would effect any rivers that started near there, snowmelt in the spring and all. Then I wonder how high our little river would get this spring, some years it's at the backsteps of those houses across the street.

From there I wonder where the river started. A person ought to know, these days, where there drinking water originates. So I tried Googling source of the Fox River and that got me nowhere. Different combinations of search words led me to a Google map so I hit upon the bright idea of just following the river up until it ended. Um, duh. Why didn't I think of that in the first place? I iz not so think as I smart I am.

Following, following, following...switching back and forth between terrain and satellite maps, ooh I love those satellite maps. It was cool. Seemed to land in the middle of nowhere, but there were buildings nearby. Street map view showed a large-ish town of Sussex close to said buildings. Search Fox River Sussex source...get a result that includes the terms Fox River headwaters...the source of a river is properly called headwaters. I did not know this, or maybe I vaguely did but didn't recall. That sort of makes it sound big, but river headwaters are actually quite small. Springs bubbling up out of the ground, making a sort of marshy area it seems to look on the satellite map and then collecting and heading south. Similar search returned a site on historical Sussex, search of that site proper showed the Lannon-Willow springs to be a part of the headwaters. Good enough for government work.

I was struck by a desire to go and see it. For some reason I wondered how late it was getting, turned to look at the clock. 7:23 AM. Shit, Dragon Baby still hasn't been roused for school! He leaves at 8:15 AM. So I talk him awake with explanations that he had to hurry because I got distracted searching for the source of the Fox River and how I'd like to go see it. He sleepily asks where it ends. I said it probably dumps into the Mississippi, most rivers around these parts do. I would think. Then I said I'd like to go see that too and he told me how he there were interesting monuments and museums about Robert E. Lee. He supervised serious river renovations there when he was with the Corps of Engineers. He'd seen these things on boy scout camping trips. I said I'd like to do that, see those things and was the camp site close to the river? Twenty minutes from the town, which was next to the river. Well, there must be other camping sites closer, says I. He'd already been there he said. But we could still go again I said.

He announced that one day he would like to take a trip to all fifty states. I said I'd like to do that too, but we couldn't take the time or money for it right now, so we had to focus on things we could do, and seeing the headwaters and the end of the Fox River was something we could do now.

I asked how he'd like to do that every state trip, would just driving through each state be enough or would he want to stop in each one? He thought for a second and said he'd probably want to stay at least overnight in each state. Maybe not the really small ones. He reckoned Rhode Island wouldn't be worth a night. I said it would take a long time, this trip, having to go to Alaska and Hawaii too. He said he'd do those last of course. I said it would be nice to take a cruise to Alaska, see all the gorgeous coastline.

I don't really approve of cruises, such a waste of time and money and resources, but that would be breathtaking. A tour of the Alaskan coast and perhaps you'd even get to see the Bering Strait, the place where once there was a land bridge and that's how people first came here. He stated, a bit tetchily, that he knew what the Bering Strait was. I said of course it was just water now, which he said he also knew, thanks. I wondered what it looked like, if it was a neverending ice floe and nothing much exciting and also what the distance was between Siberia, Russia and Alaska, U.S.

There was a slight derailment onto the beauty of the Northern Lights and how we'd been able to see them once right here. It was extraordinary, one of those things where you just sort of stand there, eyes open as wide as possible trying to see it all at once all the shifting colors. It is magic. Pure evidence of magic, don't give me any fucking science backtalk.

Also, while all this discussion was going on I was making hot chocolate and ramen for Dragon Baby. Breakfast of champions, that.

Then I wondered if I could see Bering Strait on Google maps too. And yep, you sure can. AND...there's an island there. Actually two islands, one on each side of the territory line. They're connected by an ice floe. I wondered if there were any science research stations there, and I went in closer and closer but could only see rocks. Meh.

Decided to find out more about this Little Diomede Island. Go to Wikipedia, where you can find nearly everything and hello, there is habitation on said island, a group of Inuit people on the west side. I didn't see that! The village of Diomede. Inalik in the native tongue. Means the other one or the one over there. Huh. If that's the other one...where's the one before it?

Another slight detour into whatever did they eat? There was no vegetation there surely. They ate only meat and fish? But probably they were now supplemented with other foodstuffs by the government.

Back to the Google map to check that and zoom in closer this time, if it could. The village was probably near the coast...well there it is! There were no streets of course, the layout followed the natural line of the coast, twenty buildings maybe. On my previous search I hadn't gone in quite close enough to see the straight sides of the roofs. Obvious the brought supplies in from somewhere, or the wouldn't have those building materials. As I said, the island is basically a ginormous chunk of ice and rock. I wondered why the people didn't move? Imagine living your life in a place so desolate.

"Um...yeah. Well, here we are. We're going to live here on this giant rock. Good whale fishing here!"--Inuit person One, who is boss, maybe.

"Hey...there's actually trees over on that big land mass!"--Inuit person Two, who is not so much boss.

"No, here is better. We don't need trees."

No, I'm sure there are much more intricate reasons. But I can't fathom them.

Now. How do you suppose they made fires, way back when, with no immediate source of wood? Yes, you can burn whale blubber, but it's awful smoky. And how would you do that anyway, if you had no...oil stoves? Did they invent oil stoves? Or did they just truck over to the mainland now and again and haul back big loads of wood? Huh.

I wondered if the U.S. is still spying on Russia (seeing as so much is going on in Siberia) and if they had a station there somewhere.

Now if I was Pinky, the ditzy mouse, to...somebody elses Brain, the super-intelligent mouse, this whole conversation would consist of two sentences. Brain, upon hearing of the treacherous piles of snow would think it would somehow be a integral part in a plot to achieve his never-ending nightly goal, trying to take over the world. Brain (somebody who is not me), thinking of raging river waters and how they might figure, would say, "Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" And Pinky (somebody who is me) would reply, "Yes Brain! But wouldn't they have moved those Eskimoes off that island first?"

Ha! I dare you to ponder THAT!

And now? More looking up of things (not really research, because really what would I use that information for) and doings and such on Little Diomede Island. Cannot nap today, must pick up Dexter at two o'clock. He won't remember to come out of class, so I hope the office won't get too testy with me when I call them to ask them to please call him down. When I called to inform them of the appointment they said I could just pull up out front and wait for him to come out. Yeah, not going to happen. Unfortunately I have no idea what class he'll be in.

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