A "Whiter Shade of Pale"......nearly primed and ready...

A "Whiter Shade of Pale"....nearly primed and ready....and in one of my favorite colors (other than Black Fox)....."Pure White". That will be the color of the walls and of the container ceilings in the areas which don't have cedar-wrapped ceilings. Pure as the driven snow.

Jason and Michael have been taping and papering the windows and floor and using a newly acquired Craig's List paint sprayer to let 'er rip with the primer and paint.

The pictures seem a bit puny.....not nearly as exciting as sheetrockers on stilts or sparks from a plasma cutter....but definitely another step closer to "happily ever after" and a realization (with the pictures of the spider, the moth and the butterfly) that almost every phase of this operation has been accompanied by some form of flora or fauna. And I'm not just talking poison ivy, ticks, and good-looking, intelligent, hard-working men.

And, speaking of flora and fauna, we've certainly seen the seasons change during this building experience...and I don't mean that facetiously......I mean that in a reflective way. Having the crane deposit the containers on that cold day in January...driving through snow and ice to take pictures and check on things....watching the river rise to flood stage after detouring around the closed roads...seeing the red bud trees blooming where I didn't know there were any...pulling up to the house to see the same rabbit over and over again...hearing about the eagle who visited a nearby tree a few times when the framing was going up....blue heron from the nearby rookery squawking back and forth....the weeds and stinging nettle that keep growing in the path down to the river.....the search for relics around the house after the bulldozer was there....an owl in the afternoons when all is quiet....those baby wrens Michael rescued from the air vent.....the gigantic black snake that inched up the gigantic tree....eating lunch on the gravel bar and feeding Cheetos to the minnows and fish (who now EXPECT me)......watching a lowly armadillo root around the house site.

And the joys of hearing what other people have discovered and told about on their trips to check on the house......a bobcat sighting at the end of the driveway.....the lunar moth that was pointed out by friends who noticed it sitting on the window sill....nor would I have noticed the swallow- tail zebra butterfly without the help of a trained professional....much less known what it was called.

Not exactly what I'm used to here in the middle of Springfield. Practically all of my flora here was planted by a friend (who was appalled by the fact that I refused to have even a house plant) while I was away for a weekend....lots of mint, lots of horsetail, a very few flowers and the stupid yard that always needs mowing. As for fauna, that's mostly squirrels, stray cats, dogs on leashes, some real good neighbors, MSU field hockey team girls across the street, and a low-cost, record-breaking, watch-'em-grow, thrill-a-minute year for ants. And that's about it for the urban life.

What was my point here? Maybe that a person can start out talking about primer and pure white paint, can have a Procol Harem flashback, know people who are smart enough to find a bargain paint sprayer on Craig's List and download photos on a blog, but........you always need to keep your eyes and ears open to the world around you.....and watch where you step.

****Footnote: According to my hyper-research, Luna moth adults "do not eat or have mouths....emerge as adults, solely to mate....and as such, only live approximately one week.....and are more commonly seen at night."

That'll make you think.