Musings

Surprise! At least to me. Here we are well into September. And I very much enjoyed this morning’s cool temps and low(ish) humidity. My splits were 16’38” to 16’46”, which is darned zippie. Since I walk for an hour, I had to extend my loop (aww, too bad (sarcasm)) to eat up a few extra minutes.

This is the apartment building construction site I’ve been checking in on. Today they had this giant auger going. Foundations I assume, since they’ve already buried the large, concrete drainage pipes.

Posted at 7:13 PM | Comments Off on Auger + augur

Amplifications to old news…. Here’s the base of the Tree of Refuge from what became my adventure in Tuesday’s rain. I’ve added ovals to show where my feets were…. Those were the good ol’ days (hrrumph)….

And here’s some fresh hickory nut shell and hull detritus. Fast shot so no new material fell on me.

Posted at 8:54 PM | Comments Off on Tree details

This is not far from yesterday’s Tree of Refuge, and the parking zone (official? I do not think so) is at the bottom of a moderate hill…and the rain/deluge made the rides into a big blue metal pile. Abandoned property?

I think the slight haziness is my fault…a smear on the lens.

I was surprised to see that a cloud obscured some of the buildings…I thought it was clear, clear, clear.

This was after I cleaned the lens.

Posted at 8:33 PM | Comments Off on Plugging along

My app indicated 50% chance of rain, but I thought it was clear out the window. I walked anyway. Blithly. When the rain really kicked up I took refuge under a big, spreading oak. I was protected for a while, but the rain eventually worked its way through the leaves and branches. I did not realize that this oak was in a local low-spot. Yes, the curb had substantial drains, but so much water came down that even the middle of the street was covered with a couple of inches of water. I saw no cats. I saw no dogs. I don’t know how that saying came about.

Soon, of course, the rain slacked off so I returned to my route. Since I was walking on a sidewalk below houses, they had drains shooting brown water onto the…sidewalk. And driveways, the same. And the water was still coming, although the precip was not. Squish squish.

And, not long later, if I looked the right direction, the sky appeared positively innocent.

Posted at 8:36 PM | Comments Off on Probability bites

Two weeks ago (or so), on the 28th, I saw the first few hickorynut husk bits on the sidewalk. Then, the very next day, Sunday the 29th, I heard nut and husk bits falling everywhere and they were abundant on the sidewalks and streets.

Busy squirrels.

And, this holiday weekend, drifts of nut shell and husk shards. As hickories are taxonomic cousins to walnuts, the husk fragments become black and nasty after a few days.

More autumn evidence.

Posted at 8:59 PM | Comments Off on Hickorynut detritus

Of course, I have no idea the scientific name, but I saw this and thought: butterfly weed. It isn’t. It’s butterfly bush. And that makes all the difference.

Posted at 8:49 PM | Comments Off on I tried

We still have a few bills we have to pay in an addressed envelope with a stamp and the appropriate bells and whistles. Seems “so last century.”

“So last century” is a Guru phrase. Patented?

Posted at 9:21 PM | Comments Off on Today chore

I had to look this beauty up (as in: trigger my iNaturalist app). I thought surprise lily-ish, but not quite. And it isn’t quite.

It’s a Lycoris species, native to a big swath of Asia, as far west as Iran. One of its nicknames here in the south is hurricane lily, as it blooms during…wait for it: hurricane season.

Posted at 6:42 PM | Comments Off on Learn-something Friday

Too many huge, scary issues (Afghanistan, Ida, western fires, etc.) in this big world, so I’ll go micro here.

Accidentally dropped my phone on my (bare) foot yesterday afternoon. Don’t do that. Bruised my foot-knucklebone, and it became quite tender. Went to bed with an icepack and managed to sleep okay.

Re-activated stick-assisted walking when I went out this morning…slow pace, something like 23 minute miles vs my usual 17/18 minute miles. But I completed a somewhat shortened version of my (currently) usual loop—yay! And now, over 24 hours after The Phone Drop, and an evening application of ice, my bruise is much, much improved. So: yay and yay!

Posted at 9:08 PM | Comments Off on Happy trend

This morning I walked under the last of the cloud cover courtesy of Ida, and by afternoon we had clear, sunny skies. And unseasonably cool temps. Relatively speaking.

Posted at 9:03 PM | Comments Off on Autumn hints