Giving thanks

Third day of the heat wave on the east coast, and I'm here listening to and watching a rollicking good thunderstorm which (a) chased everyone off the beach, (b) dropped a little rain - so far - on my parched tomato plants, and (c) sounds as though it started a fire somewhere on the other side of the bridge, there is emergency equipment still rolling fifteen minutes after the alarm went out.  That's not so unusual, actually, the emergency personnel around here generally have so little to do they jump at any opportunity to suit up and go to an event, whatever that event might be.

So it got me to thinking, some days it isn't all that bad to live at the beach.  The entertainment is free - I got to watch people run like heck to their cars when the thunder started sounding serious.  I got to hear a couple of guys exclaiming about a sting ray they saw in the water - and I'm pretty sure they weren't referring to an old Corvette.

The interruptions can be irritating, like the fact that the power went out about five minutes ago (between the last paragraph and this one), but thanks to some sort of switch that resets itself most of the time, we're back online already.  Some days technology is pretty cool.

So, where was I?  Hmmm.  At any rate, the power coming back on seems to have stimulated the rain to do more, so maybe the plants will get a good drink after all.  Among the new additions to my yard this spring, I have four day lilies that were just planted on Sunday, a hydrangea, and a butterfly bush.  Tomatoes are an annual labor around here, some years more successful than others.  This year's tomatoes are courtesy of Alice, one of my best train buddies, which is another thing I was thinking about today, before the power blipped.

I wonder if train buddies are specific to the North Jersey Coast Line, or if they happen elsewhere?  I can see reasons they might be specific to our line, we have the longest run in the NJ Transit system, and I see a lot of the same people every day, some of them in both directions.  Over time there develops a bit of espirit du corps (some days we really need it), and sometimes we even trade names, and even better, get to be friends.  We say hello to each other when we cross paths in places other than the train or one station or the other, and sometimes socialize or help each other out.  Another of my train buddies, Jeff, came home with me the other evening to help put the air conditioner in my bedroom window, since it was going to be in the 90s and I hadn't even thought of getting the unit set up last time I had someone with muscles here to lift it for me.  I think that's awesome, to help out someone you barely know, just because you "conversate" (a NJT coined word - as in, if you are seated in a quiet car and wish to conversate, please move to a different car) on the train some mornings.

So I think I'm counting train buddies as one of the things to be thankful for, and yes, it is a part of living at the beach.  If I didn't live here, I wouldn't be riding the train with such nice people. 

Other things to be thankful for, which are definitely a part of living at the beach, include my lunch today (and dinner the last two days), which I was enjoying before the thunderstorm arrived.  One of my neighbors stopped by the other evening with a large baggie of crabs, cooked and cleaned and ready to eat.  Crabs are probably my favorite food on the planet, and it's awesome to be handed a sack of them, free of charge.  Even better to not need to spend the rest of the night, after getting home from work after 8.00, cooking and cleaning them.  And what bliss to park myself at the table and enjoy the zen of eating crabs, poking and sucking every last bit of meat out of the shells, and especially on a Friday afternoon, when I ought to be in the city working!

 Another thing to be thankful for is neighbors like the people next door to my Mother, who sent over freshly caught fish this morning - I think it's stripped bass - and also as needed babysit Pablo.  Pablo, if you haven't visited here before, is my Chihuahua, who was so melted this morning he hopped in the car to go spend the afternoon with Grandma, who has the a/c on.  Here's how he looked before she came for him:

He couldn't decide if the floor in my office was cooler than the tile floor in the bathroom, so he was going back and forth between them, splatting out on one floor or the other.  I always thought Mexicans liked hot weather?  A friend of mine who grew up in Mexico loves hot weather.  Maybe Pablo is really part Husky, or something.

So, the storm has passed thru, it's somewhat cooler now, though still pretty humid, and gee, there goes the thunder again....but the birds are back to their singing - there's a colony of mocking birds here, and they make the most glorious racket at all times of the day or night.  The bird with the most songs gets the girls, you know.   I think it was Alvin Ailey who said that's not noise, it's part of the music of life.  Hard as it is some days, I'm trying to think that way, too.