After getting the servers back up, I ventured out to get my third boost of the Covid-19 vaccine and got my flu shot at the same time. Now, it is just playing the waiting game with Mother Nature for that first fall cold front that feels like fall. With yesterday evening being the official start of Fall, it was 98°F. Not the Great Lakes Falls that I remember. One of those was sitting out on my porch in a part of shorts and a hooded jacket with the cat curled up on my lap. He loved cold weather too as I had my coffee right there with me.
With the Sahara dust now staying in the African desert, the Gulf has bloomed with a melody of different type of storms, but every kind could be found on the satellite view. Today, there was Hurricane Fionia; Tropical Storm Gaston; Tropical Depressions 9 & 10 and a Disturbance 2 off the African Coast near the Cape Verde Islands. An Atlantic soup of everything nature could offer for this Hurricane season.
The High Sierra Mountains were 75° by day and already dropping into the low 20's at night. That's a daily swing of 50° readings in one day and that is happening every day this week if you follow the National Weather Service daily pages for the region. The Aspen trees are almost fully turned for the ones that I watch. WOW, there is an up side and a down side to everything isn't there?
While walking from the bus stop yesterday to my drug store, some interesting things were found. One, was a well appointed shed that was filled with white doves and pigeons in a backyard up to the sidewalk. Never noticing it there before.The cooing could be heard, even with the traffic noise along the street. A bit further alone the sidewalk there appeared a long winding vine that came up over the eight foot high brick fence. Then it was a matter of being curious as to what the vine was. Looking up into the Crape Myrtle trees between the fence and the sidewalk, there appeared yellow blooms in the Crape Myrtle that were still filled with beautiful reds and white blooms and had started to seed. Then, it was a serendipity discovery. Zuchinni squash hanging in the Crape Myrtle tree. It was an interesting way to see how a wandering vine can be directed by a person or Mother Nature into such an interesting perspective.
After eating, it was a bit of a hike to the bus stop because of a large soccer field complex that is a private non-profit. So, taking it easy when there appeared a sign that didn't seem to make much sense at the driveway at the back of Braum's and Sonic. So, walking inside the large ice rinks that sits about where my bus stop is on the other side but that Soccer field is fenced and it was going to be a slow trip walking being the Kroger's store and the other shops that are part of the shopping center. Inside the ice rink, I ask the lady behind the desk if she would be kind enough to explain the sign out front in the driveway. She explained that the Soccer crowd tend to park in the Ice Rinks parking area and they were getting ready a pickup game on Friday (today). And others had ask the same question about the signs.One rink was totally empty and then at the other rink there was a couple that were practicing. When they stopped, holding up my camera and asking if it would be okay to get shots of them on the ice. Sure.
Upon leaving, the silver boot trophies that sat on a shelf in the rinks lobby shots were missed and it will be saved for another day. As I made my way around the side of the rinks, there was a second sign in the back parking area like the one in the front of the rink. Then it hit me. Silly, you were at an ice rink and the sign says no soccer parking. Nothing like feeling slightly foggy on readying the signs....and as the lady explained in the rink, it was a problem with a large soccer field complex (which I had seen that problem in the past, too) and a double ice rink hockey complex it was not something new to me as in the years before the land was developed behind my drugstore, there was a private street that every one used to cut through into or out of the shopping center that tied the ice rink and the soccer field together along the road.
Along the back of the Kroger's alley a UPS truck was parked in the shade of one of the big trees along the edge of the Soccer Field. It had been my intention of ask the driver if it would be alright to get a shot of the open back of the truck as he was re-organizing packages in the rack. He also had just serviced the UPS store on the corner of the shopping center where he had parked in the alley. Watching my time to make it to the bus stop before the bus arrive, it was also another item for another time and we bid farewell and my walk to the stop was a bit more swifter now. Making the stop on the far side of the soccer field, checking my phone app to see in real time how far away the bus was from the stop, an older couple with grocery bags were walking my way and they kept looking back over their shoulders watching for the bus. When they got there, nodding and pointing that the bus was a the light and that they had just made it in time. The lady ask about my app. Explaining it as the bus arrived and then on the bus as well, she looked at her husband and said, "we are going to set this up when we get home." Actually, helping an older couple that was probably younger
than me, was a good feeling. It made the heat,walking,and conversations all worth while.
