Musings

Sports Saturday

Earlier it was college football time (in this half of the continent), and of all unexpected results to see: MSU beat Mich. Go Green. We didn’t watch; the score just flipped by.

Also, Georgia beat Florida (bound to happen).

Now, it’s baseball time. Third inning, with the other team in the lead 1–0. Nowhere near the end of the game. Or the series.

We voted

The election is Tuesday, and today is the last day, according to the city website, to drop your absentee ballot in the box. Interestingly, the ballot envelope indicated we could do that on election day. We chose to believe today at 7pm was the real deadline, thank you Republicans.

We looked at the list of drop-off locations. For the whole of Atlanta, and this is a sprawly city, there were about eight. The Guru chose the nearest location, up in Buckhead perhaps six miles away. Again, thank you, Republicans.

So we slogged through rain and traffic, past construction areas occupying a lane here and there to further obstruct the flow of vehicles, and avoided the latest out-of-service bridge from a vandal’s fire beneath (as I recall). And now we are once again good citizens.

Pulchritudinous thorns

I have been noticing the daylight becoming shorter. Also, I found backlighting beauty.

Good and best and good

I think I’ve noticed this before. Still, in this light and with all the bright green growth from this season, the corner 2-and-3 frames look fantastic.

Made a run to Little A-Town to see the Gray Sisters and their people. Lots of laughs and good times. En route home, we heard the first half hour of Game 1 of the World Series. Braves did darned well in the first inning.

21st century pondering

I’m guessing this is a Stereum species. They prefer deadwood, and this is on a decomposing stump. They prefer oaks, and the stump is oak-wood.

Autocorrect wants it to be sternum. Not the same at all. However, since I’m guessing, can I criticize autocorrect for guessing?

Southbound, continued

From northern Ohio, we pushed south, beginning while it was still full dark. Here’s a maple tree we found in Kentucky.

And its samaras.

Eventually we made it to ATL, with traffic problems here and there necessitating a creative route home. The Guru is stupendously good at serendipitous routing. I am unaccustomed to this view of downtown and some of midtown.

DIA visit

We visited the Detroit Institute of Arts this afternoon with friends. Starting with the Diego Rivera murals (1932) is an obvious choice. One section is of workers on an automotive assembly line. I thought this fellow has a modern hairstyle, or maybe I don’t know 30s hairstyles.

The first special exhibit we saw was Ofrendas, shrines for the Day of the Dead. They were multicultural rather than just the iconic cempazuchitls, or marigolds. BTW, the zuchitl or suchitl or xochitl suffix means flower.

Our main goal was “Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950–2020.” While there were lovely concept cars, there were more drawings, the kind you never see, that are only in offices and workrooms away from the public eye. A fun nostalgia trip.

Elsewhere, I was enamored of these three lovelies when I spotted them from across the room on a large ceramic vase.

I may be wrong, but I thought the title of this was “Three Tigers.” The eyes have it.

Goodbye bridged to hello

I said goodbye to the grove for this year. Notice how many leaves are hanging on.

I said goodbye to the barrel reflection, and dumped the barrel and rolled it inside for the winter.

We crossed The Bridge to return to extended temporary trolldom (trolls live beneath the bridge, ya’know).

And we said hello to dear young newlyweds at Farm Club, northeast of Traverse City and highly recommended. What a starter, no?

Always something

Just a few of these left…what an exquisite lacy silhouette.

Today was overcast, so this photo is from another morning, with early light on the upper branches of this, the Ghost Elm…ghost because it’s dead and the bark has sloughed off, and the wood is silvery, and it’s dead most likely because of dutch elm disease. [In elementary school, I did a presentation on DED; big hit with the kiddies, as I recall (sarcasm).]

Time to say goodbye to Ghosty, as we’ve begun a process to get the tree guy to down it strategically without also imperiling our electric service line. I think it used to be in the yard of the Red House, which burned in about 1960, barely within my memory.

Enjoying the moment

Such a gorgeous morning, I had to visit the beach and greet the sun.

Just me and the foam. Solitude. Peacefulness.

For the record, plenty of leaves are still on in the maple woods, and even green, but they are thinning.