Nothing new under the sun

 Except all the smoke.  Yeah, it's here, in NJ.  The smoke from those fires out in the western states.  It smells like fire, and everything is hazy.  It's not good to breathe, and makes my eyes itch and water.  And the sun is sort of muffled, like you're seeing it through lace curtains.  Or smoke.

Don't believe those articles that are saying there's no low level atmospheric effect, don't worry, etc, etc.  Where I live, it's about as low level as you can get without getting wet.  And the smoke is down here, fouling the air we're trying to breathe.  

So we're walking as much as usual, just taking more naps between, and washing out my eyes every hour or couple of hours.  Plain water, thanks. I have eye drops for this, but those burn worse than the smoke.

Went to Pablo's Park for our midday walk today.  Nice in the woods.  And we learned that, because the whole park is "Greenacres," we can walk anywhere, they can't keep dogs out.  So we also walked about half the jogging trail, between the tennis courts and sports fields.  It's kind of spongy, covered with fine gravel, and there's nothing much I can trip over, which is always a plus.  Of course, there's almost no shade on the jogging part and sports areas, so depending on the day, good or bad idea.  Today, not bad, because of the smoke toning down the sun a bit.

I thought this was kind of funny, these signs are next to the little bleachers that are by any of the sports fields.  Baseball, soccer, whatever else they play.

 

I don't pretend to understand the thinking behind this.  But maybe it makes sense if you're a sports fan, which I'm most definitely not.

The other thing, which I didn't get a picture of, was the sign saying that the tennis courts are only for tennis or "pickle ball."  Never heard of that, I can't imagine what it might be.  I wonder if I'm missing something in my life by not knowing?

I much prefer the natural area, over the sports areas.  Though I might like to play tennis someday, I used to play, but have noone to play with anymore, and I lost my racket in the divorce, 22 years ago.  Along with my sewing machine and vacuum cleaner, if you can imagine that.  These things were so important to him.

Be that as it may.  The pond looked nice, even in the smoke.  While the leaves are still green.  

Lots of little froggie things, but no turtles.  With the dog, I can't get close enough to get a picture of the frogs, they jump into the water when they hear him coming.  Can't say I blame them.

Anyhow.  It's nap time.  

People are moving "back home"

More and more people I know are moving "back home" due to the pandemic, and how impossible it has become to have an actual life in a city under the present circumstances.  A lot of them are abandoning their former (pre-pandemic) lives, many in NYC, and moving on to other things.  But an awful lot are doing it in a going "back home" way.

Since I really don't like it where I am living now, there is no life for me here, I sat down and gave it a hard think.  While I have some family in the area, I have no friends here, no job, and no activities that interest me.  The local "culture" doesn't register as a culture at all, in my opinion, probably because the local "culture" is money, and that's something I don't have a whole lot of, particularly since I no longer have a job of any sort.  Here, people have connection only as long as they have kids in the schools, and I have none.  There's only the people I say hello to when I walk my dog, and those wouldn't give me the time of day if I didn't say something first, and if I wasn't walking past their houses with my dog, they wouldn't know I exist.

And some of the people I pass on the street are actively hostile.  I recently had a woman accuse my dog of biting her - he didn't even touch her - and try to follow me home, to find out where I live.  She's still stalking the neighborhood, trying to figure it out.  She made a huge fuss on Nextdoor about it.  Even put up a picture of her "bite," which looks more like a self-inflicted fingernail scratch, or maybe a mosquito bite that she'd been scratching at.  The cops, who I called because she was chasing me, said there was no bite.  The animal control officer said I have a nice dog, and there's no problem.  But still, this woman is stalking the neighborhood, looking for me.

Do I feel safe here?  No.  And it's not just this one woman.  There are more weird things that have gone on, which make me feel very uncomfortable.

So where can I go?

I looked on Zillow at the place where I grew up.  Wow, it looks nothing at all like it did when I was a kid.  It used to have street trees in front of every house.  There's only one tree left on the whole block.

This used to be an empty lot, with a very large mulberry tree in the middle of it.  It was a slight hill, and we used to ride our sleds on it.  Even the hill seems to be gone.

This was our house:

Doesn't look anything at all like it did.  Granted, that is probably a good thing, looks like the people who own it now are taking good care of it.  The window with the a/c in it was my half of a bedroom during high school.  It had just enough space for a twin sized bed and a tiny desk.  That was the whole room. 

I remember we had to measure how wide a car was before we could consider buying it, to make sure it would fit up the driveway.  It's skinny as it is, but then it has two drainpipes with concrete bases directly across from each other, so if you weren't really good at backing up straight, you'd get holes in the sides of your car. 

My grandmother and uncle lived downstairs, and we were upstairs.  Most of the back yard was garden, and we had a mulberry tree, too.  I doubt those are there anymore.  I know, trees die, and lately, it seems nobody bothers to replace them. 

So no, I'm not going "back home."  I've been away too long, and it's moved on without me. 

I've also thought about other places I've lived, and really, none of them are worth going back to.  So I'm kind of feeling adrift.  It's not a nice feeling.

Another face in the crowd?

Well ok, not exactly in a crowd of any sort.  This face is on a large tree.  It's not anywhere near the other trees with faces, and I think it's a different kind of tree than those, but I wasn't looking at it with that in mind.  I was just surprised to find another tree face.  This tree is in someone's yard, facing the street I was walking down.  The yard is attached to a house that appears to be occupied by friendly folk with a sense of humour, something that is hard to find these days.  I haven't met the occupants, but I might like to, one day.

Meanwhile, here's the tree face.

Enough with this weather, already

So after the storm I wrote about the other day, this week just ending, we had a tropical storm named something like Isaias.  I don't know where they get these weird names from, and I really suspect the whole naming thing is just so people get more worried about the weather, because once something has a name that resembles a human name, they take it more personally.

But I was thinking, as I sometimes do.  And having just been engrossed in another book by Haruki Murakami, which, if you haven't read his works, you really ought to....

Anyway, I was thinking.  Weird weather, all of a sudden.  What changed to make this happen? 

Well....It's been YEARS since I bought ice cream.  Years.  I don't normally eat ice cream.  I vividly remember my Uncle Joe always saying, don't eat ice cream, it's not good for you.

Guess what?  I bought ice cream last week.  I was having a thing where I needed something nice, and something different, because Covid, and boredom, and all that jazz.  I got myself a container of Friendly's Black Cherry Chocolate Chunk ice cream.

I wonder if that's what caused all the weather ruckus?  Did I open a portal to something nasty by buying ice cream for the first time in recent memory?  If I were living in a Murakami book, it would be entirely possible.

I finished off the ice cream while the power was out, the other evening.  So it wouldn't melt and make a mess all over the freezer.  I'm hoping that by finishing it, and throwing out the container, the portal will close, and the bad weather will go back to something more closely resembling normal.

I guess maybe Uncle Joe was right? 

Trees keep falling (but so far, not on my head)

A few days ago, we had a wicked bad line of storms come through here.  Some might even decide that there were tornadoes, or mini-cyclones, or whatever you'd like to call them, imbedded in the front, or the rear, or wherever in a storm line those twisters tend to hang out.  It's been 23 years since I lived in big time tornado territory, so I'm losing my grasp of the details, but I have seen them up close and personal.  Based on some of the trees, or what's left of them, I think there were tornadoes here.

Several were in almost a straight line, pointing to the coast.  One guy I talked to told me there was another one, further along the route, and, since he lives on the water, he saw waterspouts or funnels or twisters out there, too.

I also find it interesting that each tree, as it fell, is pointing in the same direction.

So here's the first I found, in geographical sequence.  Luckily, it missed the house, and the cars that were parked in the area.

Next, this one is a particularly hard type of hardwood tree.  Or, it was.  So far, they've left the trunk standing, after removing the fallen top of the tree.  This one took down the power lines, so I wasn't able to get in to get a picture until later in the day.

Next, a kind of conifer that is in the park near our local middle school.  It also missed anything vital, and the top actually landed just beyond the end of the fence.

And then the biggie, which is out of the straight line, but also obviously subjected to severe twisting to get it to fall.  It's in a graveyard, next to a church that to me looks like the stage set for Verdi's Stiffelio.  I took the laying down picture the other day, and today got around the end to see what actually happened.  Whole lotta twisting going on.  Again, it didn't take out anything vital, and I suppose the folks buried where it fell didn't even notice.

Meanwhile, in other areas, a lot of power lines were knocked down, and in some areas, the cable lines came down, while the electric stayed up.  Crazy business, these storms lately.  Climate change, indeed.

Nothing much happened at my house.  Couple of small branches landed in the yard, and the doggo took care of those.  He considers them crunchy veggies.  And my gutters need to be cleaned out, but try and get someone to come do that.  They're all too busy with real work to be bothered.  So that will have to wait.

Today it's rainy, in instalments.  We're expecting some kind of tropical storm coming up the coast in the next few days, but that's not where today's rain is coming from.  And it's finally a bit cooler, but you'd really never notice, because the humidity is so high.  We're turning tropical, or sub-tropical, at least.  Yuck.  Maybe I ought to move to Canada, if that's ever allowed again.  Something to consider.

A view from the bridge

Well, not a bridge, exactly.  The creek goes under the busy street via a culvert.  There are railings along the sides of the sidewalks on both sides of the street, so you don't just fall off and into the water.  They're practical, around here.

I don't know where the creek begins.  But from here, and we're looking downstream at it, from this side of the street, it meanders thru a lot of residential areas, crosses under another busy street, then joins a marsh, which broadens and becomes a bigger creek, until it looks like a river, and actually empties into a tidal river, which is an estuary, if you want to get technical about things. Then the estuary goes into the bay, and the bay connects to the ocean.

This water just happens to take the long way around, to get to the ocean.  If it could hop into a car, it could be at the ocean much quicker.

In a particular place, some distance from this spot, this stream is joined by the other stream, the one that just suddenly appears out of nowhere, that I probably talked about some number of posts prior to this one.  They meet up in the marsh, sort of.

I kind of figured out that the other stream, the one that just suddenly appears out of nowhere, is part of the storm sewer system around here.  So the water that falls from the skies and goes into the sewer grates along the streets ends up becoming a stream, which then joins the bigger creek, and on into the really big water.

It's all connected.  Which is how, when you throw something dirty and polluting into the street, it ends up fouling the ocean. And a lot of territory betwixt and between.

We are all connected.  All of us who inhabit this planet.  Which is why it's so important to look out for one another, and take care of each other.  All of us.

It's hot

Sure, not hot hot, like some places are having.  But hot by my definition.  Probably because of the humidity, which is hanging somewhere near or above the temperature, you can sweat even if you're not doing anything.  That kind of hot I have trouble with.

There's occasionally a breeze.  And last evening, a big thunderstorm passed right by here, without stopping or dropping a drop of rain, or even cooling things down at all.  I had hopes for it, but all for naught.

We usually don't get this until early August.  It's still June.

So, trying not to exert myself.  Trying to stay away from bugs.  Something bit me on the knee a couple of days ago, and while it's not swollen or anything, I can see the bite mark, and it itches like mad.  Mosquito.  I guess the neighbors' mosquito control spray isn't working this year.  They all get their yards sprayed.  I don't, because of the dog, and because I have a reaction to the spray.  Nasty stuff.

So here we are.  We've altered our walkies, cut it down to three a day from our usual four, by eliminating the before dinner walk.  So we go out pretty much at 7am, noonish, and after dinner.  Last couple of days, we've been having our usual noonish route for the early morning tour, and the other two walks in the neighborhood across the busy street.  More trees there, so it's a tad cooler.  Or at least, shadier.

And sometimes we go to Pablo's Park, it's open again, and if we get there at just the right time, it's not too busy.  Not heading for the bigger park, because that one is always busy.

Meanwhile, my nopales are blooming, I think they're early.  I have tomatoes on my tomato plants, and I have peppers on my pepper plant (a first for me, I've never had any success with peppers).  And I just noticed this morning that the butterfly bush out front has started to show purple blooms.

Things progress whether I'm out there sweating or not.

I'll be happy when summer is over.  It's never been my favorite season.  Except for the flowers.  Those are always nice.

They're back!

In the neighborhood across the busy street, where you wind up after going thru the rabbit hole, there's a white house with red shutters that has been for sale for a long time.  I've been sorely tempted to look at it, but really, the price was a bit beyond what I could manage, so I didn't go look.  No point in wanting something I can't have.

Anyway, in the last couple of weeks, the house sold.  Someone was there, throwing out old stuff.  I got the feeling that it was owned by an older person, and the stuff left behind was just old stuff, due to be thrown out.  I hope whoever cleaned the place out put anything good to good use, but that's not for me to know.

Seems like now the new owners have moved in, or are in process of moving in.  They've done a ton of trimming up of the overgrown yard, the piles of trimmed out branches and such are tremendous.  And someone has been digging thru old stuff in the garage.  Which brings me to my point, here.

Back a few years ago, when I had just moved to this area, and had Pablo to take on walks, we found the rabbit hole, and liked to explore the neighborhood on the other side.  The white house with the red shutters wasn't for sale then.

That part of that street has a line of huge sycamore trees along the street - that's why it's nice to walk there, they have shade, which doesn't exist on my side of the busy street.  On my side, all the street trees were torn down when the town put in sidewalks.  Which is a whole other discussion, and we're not going there right now.

So, near the house in question, there are three of these huge sycamores, right in a row.  And, walking with Pablo, I noticed that those three trees had faces.  Maybe silly, maybe a tad creepy.  And one of the faces only had one eye. 

And then, one day, the faces were gone.  I have no idea where they went, or why.

But I bet you anything the faces were taken off and put in a box and stashed in the garage of the white house with red shutters.

Because they're back! 

On our morning walk on Monday, I was looking at the huge piles of trimmed out branches, and happened to look up a bit, and voila!  The tree has a face!  And so does the next one!  And the one after that, but it's face is missing one eye!

That made me ridiculously happy.  So of course, I had to take pictures of them.  And here they are.

I don't know if they have names.  I'll see if I can ask the new owner of the house.  But I'm very glad to have the faces back.

Finally!

My red roses are finally open!  There are literally zillions of them!  And the apricot ones are all over the place as well.  I'm frankly amazed that the wild thunderstorms we've had the last few days haven't knocked the blooms all to pieces.  It's been kind of like monsoon season with flash bang effects thrown in for "fun."

At least Bandit doesn't appear to be bothered by the noisy weather.  As long as he's not out in it, getting wet, he's ok with it.  Pablo used to be scared any time there were loud noises going on outside.

Now, if it would kindly be a bit less hot, I can maybe get outside and do some cleanup in the gardens.  But I can't if it's as hot as the last couple of days have been.  And I still have a few things I need to move/replant out there. 

We've walked a bit less, the last couple of days, between the heat and dodging downpours.  Got caught in a shower this afternoon, my hair is still damp from it.  And Bandit is laying out in the back yard, taking in the late in the day sun.  He loves just being out there.  I guess that goes back to his having been a street puppy before the rescue picked him up.

I've always been more of an indoor type.  So it's nice that he doesn't mind being out in the yard by himself.  And he knows I check on him thru the back windows, and sometimes talk to him (usually to tell him to not chase squirrels) thru the windows.  More surprisingly, he even listens, tho he doesn't consistently act on what he hears.  Kind of like having a kid, I guess.

Are pinecones like acorns?

Do tons of pinecones mean a harsh winter, similar to how tons of acorns indicate that?  If so, we're going to be in for a doozy.  Look at the pinecones on this tree!

I'm also wondering if there is any way to turn them into food.  Marinate and barbecue?

Meanwhile, on the next block, the white roses have opened.  Kind of looks like a wedding or something.

Lots of lavender around the area, too.  I'm surprised it really doesn't smell like anything, tho.  Ornamental lavender?  Is there such a thing?

It's nice that the irises match.  Everybody's irises are blooming like crazy this year.  Except for mine, which have done almost nothing.  I think I had two flowers, and they're long gone.  Not sure what the problem is.

These are (maybe) Siberian Irises....or some related variety.  There are some that I know to be Siberian Irises on the next block, but they are a lot shorter than these.  Same flowers, tho.

People around here do pretty gardens.  Or more likely, they have their services do pretty gardens.  I doubt many of the homeowners actually have much to do with it. 

Which is probably why I'm not up to speed with a lot of them.  I have to do it all myself, and honestly, a lot of the time I hurt too much to do much outdoor stuff that involves bending and kneeling and lifting heavy things.  So it mostly doesn't get done.

But I can still enjoy the fruits or flowers of other people's labor.  Best thing is, it's all free to look at.