A long, cold winter and hesitant spring have finally culminated in action.

Forty-odd heirloom tomato and pepper plants are on a fake-tan diet downstairs.

Recycled tire-and-shower-door coldframes and pallet-based composting systems have been built and installed in the garden.

Songs are being polished and recorded. Radical new theories of interaction design glimpsed. A potentially controversial new web business planned.

And, sitting in front of me, a return ticket to Quito that will likely only see half of its promise made good.

Once again I will not be here to help my veggie plot live up to its full potential. I forsee another summer of beseeching emails that contain the words 'mulch' and 'seed saving' many times over, and hopefully a modest harvest for my lovely family and our amused, well-heeled neighbors who sport a bizarre spotlight fetish when it comes to their trees.

But it feels good to solidify plans, to create dynamism and firm direction.

Experience smirks that my plans are hardly concrete, and are likely to befall all sorts of unexpected twists and turns, but so it goes! I like the unexpected.

That's where life happens. Between the lines.

But you know that! Edge, my friends. Hehe!

The permie site I'll be volunteering at in Ecuador? It's called <a href="http://www.juvilus.com">Juvilus</a> and is an orfanata/finca for kids with HIV. Lovely people, lovely country. This will be my first time back in Ecuador since 2007, and I expect to have my heart stolen once again.

Before I leave I have a few things to wrap up. Most prominently - a Wilderness First Aid course and a delicate courtroom brawl over a red light ticket given to me while RIDING MY BICYCLE IN NYC! A $270 fine! Amazing. No doubt that I ran a red light, but $270?! Plea bargain time, methinks.

Eh.

Whatever happens, life is good. Always. Perspective is everything. Onward!