Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

This has been a very depressing year. Between the ongoing war on American prosperity and the Covid pandemic and loosing some really great friends—including the late owner and Publisher, L. Neil Smith , I’ve not had much enthusiasm for writing lately. Mostly because—I shamefully admit—I’ve allowed myself to be crippled by my own inertia and inhibitions. Especially ones home front where I’ve let single issues stall me and hold things up. I could have written a dandy installment of the Norseman’s Diaries on that. I may yet do that in the near future.

Currently I’m on medical leave for that hernia surgery I finally got around to having done a couple weeks ago. That went well and I will be good to go back to work the middle of this month. It’s been a nice break from Covid Land but not so much from the newsfeed that paints the picture of a dark world out there on top the shorter often gloomier days typical of this time of year.

It seems the only bright spot in it all is the Florida Room which I continue to tweak and perfect. Which brings to mind lyrics of an old song from the 80s that became the inspiration of a recent series of text messages and emails “I study nuclear science, I love all my classes. Have a crazy teacher—She wears dark glasses.” Actually the teacher in the original lyrics was a He, but took the liberty in a text to my dear friend Lor who is a nurse but originally she wanted to be a teacher and probably would have made an awesome one but I digress.

What made me think about that was the addition of a feature by the doorway with the burlap sack parody of a politically incorrect hemp brand to hang the UV safety glasses for myself and guests going into the Room.

Another of those incremental improvements.

The glasses are something I should be using when I have to lean out over the tub under the grow lights to mist or grab plants for care and maintenance—but maybe not as essential for guests who come in for a few minutes. The full spectrum LEDs are similar to sunlight and normally you don’t look directly at the sun unless you’re Galileo—or insane. So this is more an act of coolness and what could be more cool than donning shades to go into a basement growing area and reptile room!

It’s becoming an awesome work of art and right now it’s one of the things I’m capable of doing under current limitations on heavy lifting as I heal. So the last few weeks I’ve been busy ordering material to finish a few upgrades that don’t require any of that and building up a stockpile of horticultural and animal husbandry supplies and habitat enhancements.

Yes it’s a work of art. Which in a way makes me a social benefactor because that’s what an artist is. People marvel at the beauty of what I’ve already accomplished and there is still a bit left to do.

I broke ground on some of that this week and from here on I should just let the pictures along with maybe brief comments tell the story and give the readership something pleasant to look at and raise their spirits in these awful times. Which is a good function of good art.

Amazing what you can do even without federal funding.

The second cork tree

The fallen log

Vertical cage conversion kits for ten gallon tanks & Epiweb branches & vines

Remember these?

Improvements on the future arboreal alligator lizard cages

Life in the slow lane

The “Squares” & Green Swordtails feeding on algae wafers.

Striped Torch Bromeliad—Guzmania monostachia in bloom.

Guzmania lingulata var minor

The ledge garden with an assortment of small bromeliads, peperomias and a creeping vine fern.

tis the season for guzmanias! another lingulata minor clone blooms in the marsupial frog tank in my bedroom.

Think of something like this on a much grander scale inside a space habitat with spin gravity nested inside a protective asteroid. That’s what I see. If anything may this work inspire someone to do something like this someday. Never give up the dream.

El Neil told me on more than one occasion that he had a thing for trilobites. Sometime after I get caught up on ongoing improvements I want to get one—an actual fossil or realistic replica and with a little spray foam and appropriately tinted Drylok cement ; incorporate it into the rock face background in the Table Corner in memory of him.