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mallorys_cameraTrue, the weather forecasters had called for pounding rain, but at 2pm, it was just byooo-tee-full—blue skies, full sun, 80° temperatures.
My new resolution is that whenever it is sunny, I will get out of the house. No matter how lazy I feel. (Which is usually plenty!). I will store up full-spectrum sunlight! I will have a profitable new sideline renting myself out to circuses as “The Human Battery.”
Headed out to one of my favorite six-mile loops. Some of the trees were turning color, but most of them looked like this:
Also, pine trees seem to be losing their needles this year:
Shed pine needles littering the ground:
Now, I’m not the world’s most observant person plus I grew up in a big city, so the ways of Nature are ever mysterious. (The first time someone took me camping in Yosemite so I could witness the true glory of the night sky, I exclaimed in ecstacy, “Why it’s just like the planetarium!”)
Nonetheless.
Pine trees aren’t supposed to lose their needles, are they? I mean, they’re called “evergreens” for a reason, right?
###
Speaking of being unobservant, I was on the one-mile home stretch, prancing along to George Clinton and Parliament. We’ve got the funk! Party, party! You don’t got it, we’ve got it, and you’re a fucking idiot (okay, I was improvising the lyrics there) when I happened to glance up and—Man, that sky was dark!
Out of nowhere, a wind blew up.
The brown leaves, the shed needles, began dancing before me in gusts of some 30 miles per hour, and the sky grew ever darker.
Reader, I ran that last mile to my car! In record time!
I even turned off my phone lest thunder and lightening ensue and the phone battery attract lightening strikes. I mean, I don’t know if phone batteries actually do attract lightening strikes, but it seemed logical at the time, and I wasn’t taking any chances.
The rain broke when I was still some distance from my car, but the hard rain held off till I was safely behind the driver’s wheel.
So, I got soaked but not drenched.
At the casa, an impromptu party was taking place that included Mr. and Mrs. Neighbor Ed who had also gotten stuck in the rain albeit at a different hiking spot. We ate pumpkin pie and dripped all over the furniture together.
Then I retired to bed where I watched Todd Haynes’ documentary on the Velvet Underground.
I was not and am not a fan of the Velvet Underground.
In particular, I was not and am not a fan of Lou Reed.
But man, that documentary is genius though I don’t have time to describe it at all since shortly I must dash out to catch the Parade of the Llamas, Alpacas and Fiber Goats at the Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival.
My new resolution is that whenever it is sunny, I will get out of the house. No matter how lazy I feel. (Which is usually plenty!). I will store up full-spectrum sunlight! I will have a profitable new sideline renting myself out to circuses as “The Human Battery.”
Headed out to one of my favorite six-mile loops. Some of the trees were turning color, but most of them looked like this:
Also, pine trees seem to be losing their needles this year:
Shed pine needles littering the ground:
Now, I’m not the world’s most observant person plus I grew up in a big city, so the ways of Nature are ever mysterious. (The first time someone took me camping in Yosemite so I could witness the true glory of the night sky, I exclaimed in ecstacy, “Why it’s just like the planetarium!”)
Nonetheless.
Pine trees aren’t supposed to lose their needles, are they? I mean, they’re called “evergreens” for a reason, right?
###
Speaking of being unobservant, I was on the one-mile home stretch, prancing along to George Clinton and Parliament. We’ve got the funk! Party, party! You don’t got it, we’ve got it, and you’re a fucking idiot (okay, I was improvising the lyrics there) when I happened to glance up and—Man, that sky was dark!
Out of nowhere, a wind blew up.
The brown leaves, the shed needles, began dancing before me in gusts of some 30 miles per hour, and the sky grew ever darker.
Reader, I ran that last mile to my car! In record time!
I even turned off my phone lest thunder and lightening ensue and the phone battery attract lightening strikes. I mean, I don’t know if phone batteries actually do attract lightening strikes, but it seemed logical at the time, and I wasn’t taking any chances.
The rain broke when I was still some distance from my car, but the hard rain held off till I was safely behind the driver’s wheel.
So, I got soaked but not drenched.
At the casa, an impromptu party was taking place that included Mr. and Mrs. Neighbor Ed who had also gotten stuck in the rain albeit at a different hiking spot. We ate pumpkin pie and dripped all over the furniture together.
Then I retired to bed where I watched Todd Haynes’ documentary on the Velvet Underground.
I was not and am not a fan of the Velvet Underground.
In particular, I was not and am not a fan of Lou Reed.
But man, that documentary is genius though I don’t have time to describe it at all since shortly I must dash out to catch the Parade of the Llamas, Alpacas and Fiber Goats at the Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-17 05:43 pm (UTC)I found this, about tree leaf colors:
https://blog.nature.org/science/2018/09/24/fall-foliage-when-why-and-how-vibrant-will-the-maple-leaves-be/
And here's what I found about pine needles:
https://newswire.caes.uga.edu/story/3956/Evergreens-shed,-too.html
no subject
Date: 2021-10-17 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-17 11:04 pm (UTC)And now we know!
no subject
Date: 2021-10-20 03:23 pm (UTC)... I was making up a story about pine needles the other day... wonder if I'll find time to write it down...
no subject
Date: 2021-10-21 01:05 pm (UTC)(My old mentor, Lucius Shepard, used to bare his teeth at me from time to time and lecture, "You must learn to be cruel". )
no subject
Date: 2021-10-21 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-22 11:00 am (UTC)I figured he would stay for a month. He ended up staying for a year and a half. 😊
no subject
Date: 2021-10-22 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-22 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-22 02:10 pm (UTC)I wouldn't want anyone to model themselves after me! Seriously.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-22 02:08 pm (UTC)Lucius dedicated a book to me. Two Trains Running? I think that's what it's called. It's non-fiction, chronicles his fascination with train hobo culture—which a cousin-by-marriage turned Lucius on to while he was squatting in my guest room.
I keep waiting for some showrunner to pitch Lucius's Dragon Guiaule cycle to HBO and for HBO to do a series. They'd make an excellent GoT-ish show. And then Lucius would become famous, and I could write a drippy, sentimental monogram, I Remember Lucius, and become a minor footnote in sci-fi history. 😊