The other way

I'm standing in the same spot as I was when I took yesterday's photo, but looking the other way. Meanwhile, today is the autumnal equinox. The first day of fall! 😇 Next Sunday, our local hunting season starts. 👿 I hadn't noticed the emoji tool in the Blogger interface until this morning. Watch out.

Leaves are beginning to turn. Happy Fall!

We had some spells of sun yesterday, mostly in the morning. The next expected rain event is predicted for tomorrow morning. It looks like northeastern France will get more of it than we will.

Walking in the woods

A short post today. Typing and especially mousing (is that a verb?) are painful.

Walking in the Artsy Organized Neighbor's woods with Tasha.

 

Tarte aux pommes

It's the first apple tart of the season! I used six gala apples. Two went to make applesauce to spread on the bottom of the pie. I peeled and sliced the rest for the tart. As usual, the crust is a basic home made (with butter) short crust.

Glazed with mirabelle plum jam. We ate it all in two days.

As expected, the weather is turning. I saw some lightning in the distance this morning, but heard no thunder. And, also as expected, I didn't cut any grass yesterday. Don't want to make the arm injury any worse. There will be other mowing opportunities through October. I hope.

And we're off!

The last thing we had to do was to take the truck in to have the car trailer attached. Here we are, Ken driving the truck, me following behind with his car (a Subaru 4 door sedan). All went well as did the rest of the trip back to California.

Wow! Two VW bugs in the same shot! Our friend Peter took the photo, of course. Digitized color print, September 1986.

Today will be a perfect day to cut the grass. The only problem is my arm. And most of my right side. I don't think, with my injury, that I can maneuver the mower. And we're expecting rain over the weekend and through next week, so the next opportunity is a ways off. Arrrgh!

Ready, set, go!

The truck and car were packed and locks secured. We said our good-byes to Peter (who kept shooting photos, thankfully), to our Capitol Hill apartment and neighborhood, and to DC. It was a slo-mo departure.

Ken and me, with truck packed and ready to hit the road. One more stop to make on the way out...

Digitized color print, September 1986. 

I'll make this post short. I injured myself a few days ago falling over while either cleaning or trying to get something out from under the TV stand in the living room. It feels like I sprained my right shoulder/arm. It's very painful when I move a certain way.

Doctor, it hurts when I do this. "Well don't do that!"

Moving day

It was late September 1986, thirty-nine years ago. I flew from San Francisco back to Washington DC to help Ken with the final packing and loading up the rented truck. Our friend Peter, who we met in Paris back in 1981, came by with his camera to document the fun. These next few photos are his. Almost everything we owned back then was in the truck (except for what we took west in the car-top carrier back in August). Ken's car, a 4 door Subaru sedan, was converted to a greenhouse on wheels with many of our favorite houseplants wedged in. All was ready to roll. We attached the car to a special trailer (front wheels on the trailer and rear wheels on the road) and pulled it behind us back to San Jose. This time, we really did know the way.

The truck was pretty full (look at where my feet are). Digitized color print, September 1986.

I'm hopeful that the weather people are right and that the next few days will be warm and dry. I'll keep you posted.

Bath time

The day after our arrival in San Jose, we unpacked the car and gave it a good wash. I don't know why I didn't go to commercial car wash. There are lots of those in Silicon Valley. Anyway, the car looked great after. Ken would soon be jetting his way back to DC and I would take a short road trip down to LA to see some people I knew. Then classes started up and I was doing that horrific commute. I had never experienced freeway traffic simply stopping because there were too many cars on the road. Add a minor fender-bender and it's hell. Neither one of us commuted by car in DC (we could both walk to work), so if traffic was bad, we didn't really notice. I was grateful when a friend of Ken's offered to let me house sit at her apartment in SF for a week or two while she was away.

My 1982 Subaru hatchback, shiny clean. Digitized color print, August 1986.

 

It looks like we're in for a spell of nice weather as the week goes on. Yay! I may be able to mow before the weekend. Leaves haven't started falling yet, so we have that to look forward to. 

Arrived!

We made it! Well, obviously. Our plan was to stay with friends who lived in eastern San José. After a couple of days, Ken flew back to DC to finish up his job there and I started taking classes up in San Francisco. That was my introduction to Bay Area commuting. Oh my. Later, I flew back to DC and we loaded up a rented truck with everything we had, hitched Ken's car to the back of the truck and did pretty much the same drive again. Ah, youth!

The evening of our arrival. The car top carrier worked out great. Digitized color print, August, 1986.

I woke up to rain on the roof this morning. It was a brief shower and now the radar shows it clearing off to the east. It's my morning to walk Tasha.

A pinch of salt

We left Salt Lake City and the Mountain time zone and continued west toward the San Francisco Bay Area. Google Maps says that the drive along Interstate 80 to our destination in San José takes about eleven and a half hours. A long drive to be sure, but the desert scenery was amazing. We drove through Winnemucca and Reno in Nevada, then up and over the Sierra Nevada mountains to California.

That's a lot of salt! Digitized color print, August, 1986.

It's raining this morning. And it's chilly and dark. The a.m. walk with Tasha will likely be shortened.

Of temples and tabernacles

When I was a kid, the only thing I knew about Mormons was that they sang. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir popped up around the holidays each year. And the Osmonds. That's still pretty much all I know about Mormons. I'm sure they prefer it that way.

The Salt Lake Temple and Tabernacle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Say that three times, fast.

Digitized color print, August 1986. 

I got the walk-behind mower out yesterday and did some trimming around the hedges and some other hard-to-reach places in the south forty. After I finished and put the mower away, I noticed a rather large spot that I missed. And it wasn't hard to reach. I missed it with both mowers. Sheesh. 

Another state capitol

We made it to Salt Lake City, capital of the state of Utah. I don't remember what I was trying to do here. From the looks of it, I wanted to get the capitol dome and the Temple/Tabernacle in the same photo. I emphasize the word "wanted." I mostly got the corner of what I assume is a parking garage.

Utah state capitol on the left, Salt Lake Temple and tabernacle complex on the right. Digitized color print, August, 1986.

Yesterday I cut the south forty. In the rain. I swear I looked outside before I started. I checked the weather radar on line. All was "go." Once I got the mower out and started it up, I felt a little mist in the air. Nothing to worry about, I thought. I started cutting. About halfway through the mowing, the mist had turned to rain. I kept going. In for a penny, in for a pound, I thought. I can tough this out. It kept raining. I kept mowing. When I was more or less done, I high-tailed it back to the garage, more or less drenched. Then the rain stopped and the sun came out.

A capitol idea

This is, if I'm not mistaken, the capitol at Cheyenne, Wyoming. Check another one off the list. The original photo is very over-exposed; this is the best I could do with software.

Yours truly, when I was 26 years old, and the trusty Subaru, in Cheyenne, WY. Digitzed color print, August 1986.

It's time to pick a few days and start mowing. We might have a rain shower today, but I'm thinking I could get out there and cut the south forty. In some years past, I have been able to mow right up to November. I hope this is one of those years. 

Red rocks

I grew up among several well-known mountain ranges (Adirondack, Catskill, Berkshire, Green), but I don't think I had ever seen red rocks before this trip.

Red rocks in Wyoming (I think). Digitized color print, August 1986.

The sun doesn't rise until 07h24 this morning. Compare that to 05h58 back on the summer solstice ( 21 June). And it's only going to get darker between now and the winter solstice (21 December). Joy.

Ribbons of highway

This land was made for you and me. Shirley, I jest.

It makes me feel small. Digitized color print, August 1986.

Ken and I caught glimpses of the eclipse event last night. We couldn't see the moon itself. There were some clouds and lots of trees in our way. But we did experience the light going all red for a few mintues, followed by a vibrant blue before the entire moon was eclipsed. Then everything was black until the moon started moving out of the Earth's shadow. That was worth the price of admission.

Sightseeing

I don't know why I took this picture. Maybe because it was hilly, beginning to get mountainous. We hadn't seen mountains since West Virginia. Who can say?

Western-looking hills and a little, tiny cloud. Digitized color print, August 1986.

Today will be nice and warm. Then tomorrow, as fitting for a Monday, high temperatures will begin to drop. As for the moon, what can I say. Today's line up includes (get out your score cards) a full moon, a total lunar eclipse, a blood red moon, and a corn moon. All at the same time. I've never heard of a corn moon. Something's corny all right.

Blue skies

At least partially. The interstate took a brief turn north toward Wyoming along the way. I think we made it all the way to Salt Lake on this leg.

Poles and fences. Digitized color print, August 1986.

According to our thermometer, it's 11.6º (about 53ºF) out there this morning. That's why it's called Septembrrrl!

Go west, young men

We left Nebraska and the plains behind us and headed to Wyoming, following what was left of the weather system as it moved off toward the north. The state capital, Cheyenne, is along the interstate and I hoped to get a photo. On the way, we noticed the landscape changing. More elevation, more rocks. Westward ho!

Are these "mesas?" Digitized color print, August 1986.

Our weather is expected to warm up a bit starting today. The cold rain we've been having lately is more like fall than the end of summer. A little bit of heat will feel good. The grass will probably need cutting again in the next week or so.

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

The storm passed and we moved on. I don't really know where this is, but Ken and I've narrowed it down to somewhere around Lincoln, NE, or between Omaha and Grand Island, anyway. The storm had passed and a rainbow came out. Get it? Rainbow? Came out? Never mind.

We're obviously off the interstate in a parking lot with more dumpsters than cars. Digitized color print, August 1986.

Speaking of storms, the wind really kicked up yesterday and blew a gale most of the day. There wasn't much precipitation, but we had enough wind to make us worry about losing trees. Fortunately, the wind stopped in the late afternoon and all seems well. 

Stormy weather

As we continued on across the plains, we encountered this. It was so big and a little bit scary. I worried that the car-top carrier would not survive it, so we found ourselves an overpass and parked under it while the storm moved through. I remember a lot of lightning and thunder. Mighty impressive.

We think this was somewhere in Nebraska. Digitized color print, August 1986.

I forgot to mention... the grape harvest has been underway for about a week now. The younger vines are being harvested by hand and the older grapes are getting machine-harvested. Soon the vineyards' leaves will don their autumn colors. And we've still got nearly three weeks until the equinox. 

Jurassic parking

According to Wikipedia, Sinclair Oil's famous mascot is a brontosaurus, not an allosaurus or a diplodocus as some have written. The internet is a bit unclear on this topic. I grew up thinking "brontosaurus," and so it will always be to me. Us pre-Jurassic Park kids weren't all that familiar with the many varieties of "terrible lizard." Like their mascot before them, Sinclair filling stations, if not already there, are on the road (as it were) to extinction.*

Those gas prices are as extinct as the dinosaurs themselves. Digitized color print, August 1986.

It rained on and off most of the day yesterday. Nothing serious. We do have a rain gutter issue to deal with. We have a blocked downspout, resulting in a gutter that overflows. We can make it flow with a bottle (or two) of liquid drain cleaner, but that means leaning out a window to pour it into the gutter and watching as it makes its way to the downspout at the corner of the house. I will not get onto a ladder to reach the downspout on the second story. That's work for the pros who are younger and more nimble than moi.

* Wikipedia tells me that the company went defunct in 2022, broken up and acquired by other corporations. Or something like that. It gets complicated.

Back to skool

Today's the first day of school for most of the kids in France. Summer vacations are over. Temperatures are dropping and we're losing daylight at the rate of about three minutes a day. I'm hoping we'll have some "Indian summer" type weather before November.

Des Moines' skyline has changed a lot since I took this picture. Digitized color print, August, 1986.

This is the state capitol in Des Moines, IA, as seen from the interstate. Being from a state capital myself, I'm always curious about what the others look like. For instance, Iowa's capitol building has a dome, gilded no less. New York's capitol is one of the few that doesn't have a dome. I've never made a project of seeing all of the state capitols. I should count the one's I've seen. One of these days. And, yes, I consider speeding through a capital city on the interstate as "seen."

Crossing the Mississippi

This view no longer exists. From what I can tell, the twin suspension bridges were demolished after a new set of twin bridges, modern through-arch spans, were completed in 2021. Here's what they look like. That photo is from Wikipedia and was taken before the old bridges were demolished.

The I-74 Memorial Bridge over the Mississippi River at Rock Island. Digitized color photo, August 1986.

The party yesterday was nice, as was the weather. We stayed through lunch and into the evening. It was mostly a family affair with many familiar faces, But we, as neighbors who don't see them all that often, had a hard time remembering names. I felt like an outsider looking in. We were introduced to a lot of people we didn't know (and some that we did!) many of whom we're not likely to see again. After all, it was a 90th birthday party. It's a big family (the guest of honor is the oldest of eight children), and all the generations were well represented.

Marching to Peoria

Well, maybe not marching. But we may as well have been. Look at that traffic up ahead! Looks like we were merging down to one lane for construction or something. I think we just drove through town on the interstate without stopping.

Peoria. The weather looked pleasant enough. Digitized color print, August 1986.

Today is party day across the road. We had stormy weather on Friday as predicted. Today looks pretty good, so far. Dry and relatively pleasant. 

We missed our chance

This curious sight is Jumer's Castle Lodge, a Bavarian-themed resort hotel in Bettendorf, Iowa. Or, at least it was. The hotel, built in 1973, was demolished in 2016. More's the pity.

I had no idea what this was when I snapped the picture all those years ago. Digigtized color print, August 1986.

I woke up to wind and rain this morning. Poor Ken has dog-walking duty. It'll be a short walk, I'm sure. Tomorrow we're invited over the road to a neighbors' 90th birthday party. They're expecting 100 people. The family have two party tents to put up today. The forecast for Saturday is for a dry day, but stormy weather won't be far behind. Fingers crossed.

The roads not taken

It was near this point that I finished the roll of black and white film and replaced it with color. We did not head north to Chicago on this trip. Nor did we venture south to Memphis. We were heading west!

Like Dorothy stepping into Munchkin Land, we enter the world of color. Digitized color print, August 1986.

I walked in the rain this morning. A light rain fell during our walk, but it wasn't enough to deter us. Not long after Tasha and I got home there was a brief downpour. I'm glad we made it home before it happened. 

Spittin' image

I don't think I ever tried chewing tobacco. I did smoke cigarettes for a few years when I was young, especially during that year in Paris. But I quit in 1982. Thankfully, I was never attracted to the just-as-addictive alternative to smoking: chewing tobacco.

Mail Pouch was among the most popular brands of chewing tobacco. Their barn-side advertisements linger to this day.

Digitized B/W print, August 1986.

I did some "strimming" yesterday along the road outside our hedges. I put that in quotes because I think that is the British word for what we Americans call a weed-eater or weed-wacker. I'm guessing that "strimmer" is a contraction of the words "string trimmer." At any rate, those pesky weeds have been "strimmed" away. Until they grow back.

Guardrail

I understand that these are lacking in Washington, DC, these days. I know where they can get some.

Without them, one might tumble into Ohio. Digitized B/W print, August 1986.

Our mini heat wave is not as hot as we thought it would be. It's all over now. The weather gurus are hinting at some rain later in the week. We shall see. In the meantime, I got the north forty and outside the hedges cut yesterday. Mostly weeds and wild carrot. The rest needs some rain before it will need cutting.

Onward!

If indeed these photos are in order (or something like it) in the album, this one would have been taken somewhere in eastern Ohio.

Riding along the interstate. Digitized B/W print, August 1986.

We're expecting a mini heat wave today (high of 32ºC). And perhaps tomorrow. I will try to get the mower out. Not so much to cut since it's been dry, dry, dry, and nothing is really growing. More to keep the battery charged up. At the end of the mowing season, the battery will come out. I'll keep it charged over winter with the charger we got last fall.

Like a bridge

Bridges are fascinating, aren't they? Works of art to enjoy while on a road trip. Marvels of engineering. Of course, unless we stop, we don't get to see much. Our lives would be very different if bridges didn't exist. Some bridges are for walking, some for driving. Some are for cars and trucks, others for trains. There are even bridges for boats. I could go on.

This may be in the vicinity of Wheeling, WV. Digitized B/W print, August 1986.

I haven't done enough sleuthing to determine where this bridge is, let alone its name. One candidate is the Fort Henry Bridge in Wheeling, which crosses the Ohio River there. We were driving either on I-70 or I-470 through southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia, based on where the photo is in the album. 

Lover come back

I couldn't not take a picture of this.

Lover, Pennsylvania. Digitized B/W print, August 1986.

Curiously, there wasn't a line at the exit.

Curious sights along the way

I'm guessing this is a water tower, but it's unlike any I'd seen before. Maybe it's a leftover ship from the War of the Worlds, although that happened in New Jersey and, if I read Wikipedia right, the site of the original novel's invasion was in Surrey, England. But, I digress.

I can't read the road sign, so I don't know where this is. Digitized B/W print, August 1986.

Our mornings feel quite autumnal at the moment. And the sun comes up later and later. Let's cross our fingers for a little more summer weather before pumpkin weather moves in.

UPDATE: I found it! Google Maps helped me to find this location. It's Chapel Road at I-470 in Wheeling, West Virginia. Cool!

Mountain Mama

Our route took us through Wheeling in northern West Virginia, not far from Pittsburgh, PA. Ken drove for a while while I snapped photos out the window.

Wild and wonderful. Digitized B/W print, August 1986.

I've decided to continue with these photos in sepia tones. The black and white versions feel a little cold to me. I like the warmer sepia.

On the road again

We left Washington early one morning after having packed up the Subaru, including a car-top carrier that we got for the move. If memory serves, we drove out to the Beltway then up to I-270 toward I-70. Then it was onward to our first destination: Champaign, Illinois. Ken went to grad school at U of I Champaign and had friends in the area.

My 1982 Subaru three-door hatchback with a car-top carrier and a bug net on the front grille. It was a good little car.

At a rest stop, somewhere on I-70, going west. Digitized B/W print, August 1986. 

Yes, that's my faithful 1982 Subaru hatchback. I bought it, used, in DC (I still remember the name of the woman who sold it to me) and it served me well through the mid-1980s on multiple trips to upstate New York and my home town. Now it was taking us to San Francisco! I remember replacing the in-dash radio with a new radio/cassette player and speakers (in the back). I did the install myself, in the street in front of our apartment. I wouldn't know how to start doing that these days. Although you probably can't buy a car now without internet and digital music software built in. LOL

Same photo, with sepia treatment. Closer to the actual color of the car.

 

Gathering under the dome

These people look like a group, but of what? Tourists? Constituents? Protesters? It's anyone's guess. They are 39 years older now. Yikes!

Going to see their representative or to attend a committee hearing, who can say?

Digitized B/W print, August 1986.

I think I heard thunder this morning. There are wet spots on the deck, so we had some rain. More rain is predicted for Wednesday and Thursday. Our heat wave is officially over. 

Library of Congress

Across from the US Capitol's east front, on the House side, stands the Thomas Jefferson Building, the oldest of the three main buildings that house the US Library of Congress. It's built in the Beaux Arts style of architecture. At the building's entrance is the Court of Neptune Fountain, completed in 1898. I didn't take any photos of the Adams or Madison buildings on this walk. However, they are equally impressive in their own architectural styles, Art Deco in the case of the Adams Building and a more contemporary 1970s style for the Madison.

The western façade of the Jefferson LOC Building. Digitized B/W print, August 1986.

By the way, most of the info about these buildings comes from the LOC's Wikipedia page. 

It was chilly this morning. I wore jeans and a sweatshirt (!) on my walk with Tasha. Is there a hint of fall in the air?

Cannon or Russell?

When I worked in DC back in the mid-1980s, I was in the Cannon House Office Building on Independence Avenue and 1st Street, SE, a stone's throw from the House in the capitol. It's twin, the Russell Senate Office building, is located on Constitution Avenue and 1st Street, NE. The buildings are nearly identical and I can't tell from the photo which one this is. I think it's the Russell Building, but I wouldn't swear to it.

The Russell SOB is almost identical to the Cannon HOB. This is the former; I worked in the latter. Get a load of that station wagon!

Digitized BW print, August 1986.

Our heat wave is showing signs of breaking. The mornings are getting cooler and the afternoon highs are getting lower. It's still hot, though. 

Memory Lane

Set the WABAC Machine to August 1986! Ken and I lived in Washington, DC, on Capitol Hill, just a short walk from the US Capitol. That month we were packing up and otherwise preparing for our big move to San Francisco. I had a roll of black and white film and decided to use it up, first for this stroll around the capitol and later during the first leg of our drive to California. I'm digitizing most of those photos now, to have if I somehow lose the originals. I'll share a few of them here.

The East Front. Funny, I just noticed that I have a paperweight on my desk with this exact view on it.

That's the US House of Representatives on the left, the Senate on the far right. Digitized BW print, August 1986.

This, as most people might recognize, is the US Capitol building. I worked in a nearby building in the office of a member of Congress (now deceased). I took a short walk around the buildings, kind of a good-bye after our four years in Washington. I know a lot has changed since we lived there, but it was fun while we were there. I've been back for fun and for work a few times in the decades since. Good memories.

Chicorée sauvage

Wild chicory is plentiful out in the margins of the vineyard parcels out back. I've featured it here many times. So here it is again, photographed as the sun rose, before their characteristically blue flowers opened for the day.

Wild chicory.

Today's a holiday: l'Assomption, the Assumption of Mary. There are two weeks left in the summer vacances scolaires; September 1 is back-to-school day for the French kids. Meanwhile, the heat goes on. Nothing new weather-wise. 

The fig tree giveth...

... and the fig tree taketh away. Well, not really. But what it gives is harder than igneous rocks and inedible. By humans in any case. Insects and birds seem to enjoy it all.

They sure look tasty, but they're inedible.

Eyeglass Chronicles, part 78. I had an appointment to see the ophthalmologist yesterday, but when I got to the medical building, the lights were off and the place was locked up, more or less tight. Turns out that they made my appointment at their other offices, about 40 kilometers away. Why they would think I wanted that, I cannot say. The appointment was made for late in the day, after their phones went off line, so I couldn't even call them to let them know (no voice messaging available after hours -- that's helpful). So today I've got to ring them back* to let them know what happened. All they know at this point is that I was a no-show. Will this never end?

* Chose faite (done). No problems. 

The ants go marching two by two

It's easy to see anthills in the vineyard road. The road is covered with gravel of different sorts and colors, most frequently white limestone. The soil beneath that gravel is red clay. The ants dig down into the clay and carry it out of their nest before dumping it around the entrance.

Red clay marks the entrances to this ants' nest.

Our weather forecast predicts highs in the upper 30s through the week and morning lows above 21ºC (about 70ºF). That, after three days of the same, is officially une canicule (heat wave) in our part of France. Ugh. We won't be able to complain that we didn't have a summer this year. August has turned out to be a scorcher, even if it started out cold and rainy.

Stuff it

Before I tore out the half-dozen or so grape vines in our back yard, we used to harvest the leaves for that famous Greek dish called dolmas or stuffed grape leaves. I kind of miss making them, but I don't miss those old vines at all. They did produce some grapes, depending on the year. Before we moved in, the vines had been neglected for a while. They were, as in the larger vineyards, supported by stakes and guide wires that formed a barrier across the yard. They were planted in the shade of several large trees, so they never got the sun that they needed. They were likely planted before those trees got huge. Three of them are gone now, too.

We don't eat the leaves from the vines out in the vineyards. For one thing, they don't belong to us, and for another, they get treated with chemicals to prevent fungus. Yuck.

I got up around midnight last night and noticed that it was raining. It lasted about five minutes, then the moon came out again. This morning the sky is clear. It's going to be another hot one today. 

Among the vines

Here's a recent look at the newest vineyard parcel out back. I think the vines are busy growing roots. They have no grapes this year, and likely won't next year, either. Later this fall, the leaves will turn and drop and the vines will resemble little more than sticks in the ground. The leaves will sprout again in the spring (as leaves do) and the stems and vines will get stronger and longer. I'm not sure when the first pruning will happen.

New grape vines, planted last spring, about a foot high now.

As usual in hot weather, our windows and doors are opened in the early morning to allow cool air into the house. There's no wind, nary a breeze outside today. But if you stand next to an open window or door, you can feel the cool air creeping in. Until mid-day when we close up to minimize solar gain and keep the hot air out.

Nutty

It's that time of year. Acorns are forming and falling. I'm sure they're good food for many wild critters like deer, squirrels, and birds.

Acorns are called les glands in French.

We're expecting a high today of 32ºC, close to 90ºF. The hardest part of the heat is how it affects sleeping. Not in a good way, that's certain. It's such a relief in the morning when the cool air comes in. By mid-day, it's time again for closed windows and shutters.

Signs and portents

I didn't really see any portents. Thank goodness. What could S A mean? I'm guessing "Saint Aignan."

Signs in the Artsy Organized Neighbor's collection.

They're forecasting a heat wave for the next week or so. The forecast also includes cool mornings, so that will help make the heat bearable. Highs are expected to hit the low to mid 30s all week, going up to near 40ºC (104ºF) by mid-week. Yikes! 

I can see clearly now

The blur is gone. Well, almost. Yesterday's foray into the optical shop was interesting. I saw the third optician in four weeks, so I had to tell the whole story from the start. Fortunately, she was very nice and patient and quickly understood what I wanted done. She asked a few questions before replacing the old lenses with the new prescription and made a few adjustments to the fit. Suddenly, or so it seemed, most of the problem I had  (blur and distortion) was gone. She said that all she did was to change where the glasses rested on the bridge of my nose, but it seemed to make a difference. I don't really know how or why.

Hollow terra cotta bricks.

I'll see how it goes until my appointment with the doctor next week. I thought about cancelling, but decided it would be better for the doctor to have a look sooner rather than later. I wore the renewed glasses out of the shop and drove home with no problem. I could see and read the road signs again. And I can see the computer screen without tilting my head up to the sky.

Log in

The stacks of meter-long logs among the Artsy Organized Neighbor's collection of mysterious things are impressive. The stacks are piled roughly two-plus meters high and the logs are crisscrossed at each corner for stability (something I do on a much smaller scale here at the house).

Logs.

A couple weeks ago, I was trying to figure out what to do with my new eyeglasses. It felt to me like my vision was worse with the new glasses than with the old, even after a generous adjustment period. The woman helping me at the optical shop said that the first thing to do was to see the ophthalmologist about the problem. Then she offered to put the old lenses back in their frames for the interim. Better than nothing, I thought, and agreed, and have been wearing them since. My world has been very blurry of late.

Well, I can't stand the blur any more, so today I'm going back to the shop to let her know that I'm seeing the doctor next week (appointments are hard to get, especially during the summer breaks) and to ask her to put the new lenses back into the frames just in case the doc wants to see them that way. This will be a challenge for my language skills, if only because situations like this tend to make me very nervous. Wish me luck!

Oil spill

Here's the last of the oil barrel (or drum, if you prefer) photos. I call it "The Last One."

The Last One. Oil on steel. Maybe.

We're losing about three minutes of daylight each day now. It's most noticeable (to me) in the morning. The sun used to be up when I get out of bed. Yay summer! Now it's dark when I rise. Happens every year.

Drowning her past regrets

Another piece in the "Oil Barrel" series. I call it "Coffee and Cigarettes."

It's an obscure reference. Did you look it up?

Not much to report today. I got the south forty cut yesterday, so that makes the mowing done in three stages. There's a lot of trimming work to do, but not today. A rain system is blowing through as I type (7h20) and things might be a little damp after it goes.