"Never Better"

My ultimate cleat.
I made a miraculous discovery on my cleats today.

Grass.

I don't mean marijuana. I mean good old fashioned, lay in and get itchy, grass. One of the first people I showed it to did not understand why I was excited. They have only been here a few weeks. However, everyone who I showed it to, who arrived with me at mainbody or earlier at Winfly, was immediately taken with it. None of us have seen any non-food plant life since we left Christchurch. To see something that is quickly becoming just a memory is exciting. One person even asked if they could touch it.

Now that they closed the greenhouse, there is no virtually no living plant life here, just a few algae and mosses. However, those are rare and hard to even see. They just don't compare to plants. I can't find the words to explain it. Try to imagine what deprivation it would take to make something so common place be exciting again. If people find common pests, like slugs and spiders, in the galley while prepping the fresh fruits and vegetables, they sometimes take them home as pets! One of my friends received pressed and dried leaves for Christmas. She was lit up for a week.

The feeling loosely reminds me of a brilliant man down here who lived in the Eastern Bloc under Soviet control. I don't know his full story, but I've heard it alluded to that he was in a mining work camp for a decade. Ask him how he is and he will always answer 'Never better.'


Mt. Discovery in October.