Thunderstorm @ MindSay 
rain
I guess being apart from him is like being apart from my best friend- he fills a part of me that nothing else does. But, its more than that.
Does anyone else find the smell of how it smells after it has rained amazing, refreshing, and endearing? That the air feels lighter, like it has just cleaned your soul?
And how the build-up to the thunderstorm that gives all the rain is one big, unbearable build-up, with a ton of pressure, where the humidity is so high that you cannot breathe?
That's him.
and what's more, that's how the boy smells, too.
Somedays, my soul cries out for rain, even when I know it will make other things horrid. A thunderstorm at night cures all ails.
And sometimes, when it occurs, I feel like he's next to me- a peculiar feeling, to be sure.
But, then again, everything feels better, and, just for a little bit, everything is right with the world.
It was a fragmented sky, not yet sure of its destiny. I thought to let it expand into itself, but when I turned around the wind had swept the potential to the side.
The vultures have returned. Spring has begun. Welcome to Life - now I wait with impatient eyes the bursting of the seams of the sky.... When will the rains come?
We left here on Thursday and arrived around 2:00 pm. We set up camp, ate some lunch then down to the river for a swim after hauling the mining equipment down the hill. The thunderclouds moved in in a hurry and then the wind and rain came with a vengeance. The six of us cuddled in the trailer and waited it out. After dinner, bed was a welcome thought and sleep came without issue.
After the storm ....
On Friday we both were anxious to get started but decided to walk up river to check out another area for possible exploration. It looked really good but we were set up down below and headed back for a fun day of mining.
Dave doing a final check on the gold separator that he built from snowmobile parts and other "junk" .... this machine works better than either of us could have hoped.
Dave panning out the first bucket for the test run .... he places lead shot painted red in different sizes to see where they fall while traveling through the different stages of sizing. The smallest being the size of a pin head. Yes, he recovered all.
Dumping buckets of freshly dug dirt / rock into the separator. I'm working very close to the machine .... Dave is bringing up stuff from the bottom of the river at bedrock.
Doing that mining thing ..... !
Pushing the freshly washed gravel into buckets to haul up to the trailer site for a really cool little patio that Dave is building around the trailer. I can honestly say my back has not hurt this much in a very very long time. But worth every bit of pain. So much fun.
Final stage of separation. The finest bits of gold will fall in this last bit of the machine in whats called miners cloth. This will be collected and panned at the end of the day or after a few buckets .... depending on how anxious I get to see whats there.
Bath time at the river. I've got my washcloth and my biodegradable environmentally friendly body soap (for all you fish lovers out there). Dave sneaked up on me here.
Coaxing the dog in. No stick or ball to tempt him with ... I'm just not enough for him to want to come in .... lol. But I did have baby fish nibbling on my legs, and a bull snake about 5 feet long swim by ..... not to mention the biggest bull frog alive swim by as well. All in the same swim. The snake scared the living shit out of me. I didn't see him coming and he literally was inches from my leg as we swam by.
Looking up at the trailer from the river.
My camping kitty. He is really enjoying this stuff. He now goes outside and wanders when we can watch him and he just loves it. Becoming quite the spoiled kitty.
Dave got up to go potty and came back to find his spot in bed gone. Petey is in here too at my feet. He made coffee ....
Sunset through the trees at camp.
Still won't come in ..... actually he had to swim to that side of the river to get to where I was .... but he won't come back across where I am .... he'll go back where he crossed first .... where its shallow and more sandy.
And that is it for now. There were so many pictures this time I just narrowed it down to this.
Dave left camp to come home for a few hours on Saturday and I made some pretty cool bead anklets but still don't have photo so will do that later. Trying to get laundry done and the house cleaned so that when I pull out of here on Friday things will be caught up. The river calls ....
Sunday was spent exploring the new area we found earlier with a few small pieces of gold showing their faces. But not like where we started first so I'm going to stay and work that hole for awhile longer.
Hated to come home yesterday but did .... got home around 8:00 pm. Today I'm tired ..... needing to go to bed early.
I'll do my catching up on my "? days to 50" posts tomorrow. Guess they will have to be done in groupings since I won't be here everyday. Will do what I can do. But really want to keep it up.
Have a good week all.
Peace. J.
I spent my last night in the dorms with a horrific thunderstorm. Montpellier has been so dry since I’ve been here that when they warned me there might be torrential rains, I almost didn’t believe them…almost.
The thunder was so loud that it woke me up in the middle of the night a few times and scared the crap out of me. I was already having a bit of trouble sleeping because I was so nervous to meet my new host mom the next day. The rain continued for a lot of the next day while I was in class and scheduling for my semester. After that I went back to my room and finished packing my things before meeting Akila, my new host mom.
We met in the lobby of the dorms, and she is the cutest lady ever. She is about five feet tall and weighs all of about 100 pounds, even though they don’t use pounds here. Her car is just as tiny, and I was worried that my two huge suitcases (which each weigh more than her) wouldn’t fit inside. They did fit after a little bit of cramming and some creativity. I had to sit in the front with a huge bag on my lap, and she was speaking rapid French to me the whole time. I thought she was telling me that I looked uncomfortable, so I kept saying “no, I’m ok.” Turns out she was telling me that I had to put my seatbelt on before we could leave. I felt like such a moron. Here I am refusing to put a seatbelt on instead of telling her that I’m comfortable. Woopsy.
Anyway, we finally made it to her apartment, and it is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. It’s a small two bedroom apartment, but there are balconies everywhere with tons of plants and the furniture is so interesting. My room is really nice and Akila gave me full rights to all the towels, dishes, and the refrigerator. I have to say that it has been really scary to only be able to speak French with someone and not be able to fall back on English every once in a while, but I think that it is helping my language improve tenfold. I was a bit sad to leave my friends at the dorm, but I can tell that this homestay is going to make the semester even more enjoyable. Here are some pics of my new apartment!!
I'm so fucking hot right now. Just came back from the shops.
Even after having a bowl of icecream and a glass of coke, I'm boiling just sitting here.
What's even worse, I have to work right now.
So much for the forecasted thunderstorm...
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