weofodthignen

On today's walk ...

The lady who was always there at one end of the parking lot of a tyre place, standing under a tent roof with serving dishes, isn't there any more. I walked past at lunchtime and someone was parked there. I hope she's ok. (Yes, she had customers; much the same as the food truck at the filling station a few blocks away.)

The lady who likes to sit on the pavement/sidewalk behind a new low-income apartment building, on her phone, with her hair dyed vibrant green or red and her clothes equally vibrant, was back after I hadn't seen her for a week or more. Trousers with legs in two different prints, and the hair is now copper-red. Glad to see her again, wish she wouldn't smoke.

Next to a monster house that's slowly being extruded from the site of a little rent house (a corner site that was mostly hardscrabble yard; the prickly pears and the grapefruit trees are gone but the fig tree is busting out from the roots under the construction fence), someone has left a 3-foot plastic bunny. Looks like an Easter bunny, sitting up with ears erect, but they are poking through a faded red Santa hat and it clutches a small green wreath with a red ribbon. It's been there at least 2 days.

Summer in suburbia. At high noon, one of the nextdoor neighbours was firing a high-pressure hose at his car in front of his house. Sounded as if he was using a grinder. Later his significant other washed their other car in the street. I guess we don't have drought restrictions yet.

The park is almost back to normal. Heavy use of the play areas, tennis lessons, frisbee, volleyball, and joyful dog play on the playing field, sotball and baseball on Saturdays and basketball on Sundays, and parties at the picnic tables on the weekends, often with a bouncy castle if it's a kid's birthday. The Asian ladies' dance group has returned. The loud soundtrack to the basketball events hasn't come back, the volleyball is much less organized and with fewer participants (I think it was a "welcome to the new building" thing for the downtown condos that became a habit), there aren't as many tennis lessons as there were in 2020 and 2021 when team sports were forbidden or iffy, and the daily mass doggy play sessions have either dissipated or are at a time when we aren't there, but people new to the area must see a very well used park.

This morning when I emerged from the side door with recycling, Mama Violet was lying in front of the garage door. She eyed me balefully. It then got hot enough that this evening I heaved windows open in my room and the kitchen. I suspect we'll switch to a/c soon.

Mama Violet was extremely miffed when after putting down her breakfast, I went down the steps to get the newspaper instead of withdrawing into the house. It was hours before I saw her around again. No sighting of her kids, not even sitting on the fence or insouciantly devouring something under the car while I did some pruning, as Monty did yesterday ... until after my dinner, when I took out the recycling and they both materialised out of the dusk and sat side by side watching me. So they got provided with a plate of food.

Coming back from a walk around the park at lunchtime, we noticed a couple standing on the sidewalk/pavement with a baby in a carrier and a small child. The guy was talking on his phone and an older lady was talking to baby and mom. A car was badly parked in front of them with its hazards on. Looked like there might be a problem. Then as I stepped into the street to walk around the car, I saw the cop cars and wreckage at the crossroads, the one where we cross to get to the park. It has traffic lights but all too many people speed. I don't know what had happened, but there was a totalled car in the middle of the intersection. Crumpled front end, glass, a pool of transmission fluid, a torn off and shredded bumper or two, and to my surprise, a lot of polystyrene. Looks like they pack bumpers with the stuff these days? I suppose it's better than foam rubber. No ambulance, but police cars kept arriving and after we managed to get across (drivers were having to inch through a right or left turn), one of the newly arrived cops started trying to find someone who'd actually seen it, rather than just emerged from their house at the noise. So we went home rather than get in the way.

We went to the San Jose library. Traffic was surprisingly light both ways, and we found a spot in the nearby parking lot even though there was clearly some sort of event being set up a few blocks away: roads blocked off, glimpses of booths. In contrast, for a couple of weeks now our neighbourhood has been awash in out-of-state cars. Arkansas, New York, and Ontario were all represented on our block yesterday. (The New York is a hulking vehicle, a successor to the station wagon, indicating a large family). The Chron jobs section was fat on Sunday. I suspect the AI companies—mostly in SF—are drawing people who've decided to live either there or in Silly Valley proper, and we're convenient for Caltrain commutes.

I swept leaf-litter out from under the privet-like bush under the dining room window. Poor Mama Violet had been lurking under there and emerged rapidly then stalked off in high dudgeon.

Today was the last day of correct time for all too long. The only bright spot is after we adjust, we'll be more in sync with the dog's desire to be up and about and get fed when the sun peeps into the house.

The orange tree resumed dropping oranges after a short break. None yesterday, one waiting for me this morning, two during the afternoon.

I think the rainy season/winter may be done and dusted. Today was a fine drying day, warm with a stiff breeze. And whisps of cloud in a blue sky.

I think the dog spent more time lying on the grass than indoors.