Creepy crawlies

We’re on the cusp of Halloween, so I thought I’d check in on how people are preparing to impress their neighbors for the occasion. As you know, in the past, there have been quite the elaborate yard decorations, from zombies to a couple of dozen skeletons. From what I’ve seen in the past few weeks, inflatables have begun to take market share for the holiday, and bones are big.

Entire yards have been turned into graveyards—rendered with greater verisimilitude on account of the residents letting the grass go brown in the drought.

Your usual skeletons and ghouls (with the addition this year of snakes):

And this unique skeleton—recycled, as befits a house with one of those three-wheeled electric cars attached to the power mains in the driveway:

A few witches, including this one in a tree swing:

And I rather liked the glow-in-the-dark bat (one of many hanging in a tree that trick-or-treaters will have to pass to get to the Snickers):

Spiders seem to be hitting their stride this year—I’ve seen them in all sizes and colors, and it's a good thing arachnids don't bother me, or I wouldn't be able to leave the house:

 

And, finally, one house that pretty much tries to do it all.

Own the dark, people.

Up--and then not

You gotta love America—in what other country in the world could the story of the day be about a military blimp breaking free from its moorings in Maryland and making a run for it to Pennsylvania?

First of all—who even know we still have military blimps? That look a whole lot like the barrage balloons that were deployed during WWII? (They’re called Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, or JLENS, which doesn’t even make sense.)

As if that weren’t bizarre enough, a couple of F-16s were dispatched to follow the blimp’s flight—that would be fighter jets trying trailing a lighter-than-air craft that…drifts. Think the OJ chase but in the air.

Twitter, as you might imagine, went, uh, ballistic. E.g.:

And there were memes about first responders on the ground:

They weren’t that far off the mark, because Jimmy May of the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise got the money shot:

The rogue blimp eventually came down in Pennsylvania of its own accord. There were no fatalities, but it did not go gentle into that good night. It knocked out power to a large number of people in the area.

It turns out that JLENS program costs a lot of money, and has apparently been troubled. So somebody got some ‘splaining to do.

On the up side—there’s an opening for a blimp monitor. No lie; it’s on LinkedIn.

Also—“Rogue Blimp” would be an awesome name for a rock band.

Property ladder

It doesn’t take much to sell real estate in the Valley They Call Silicon. Putting out a sign in front of something that vaguely looks like it was intended for habitation is generally sufficient to get several offers.

For a while I noticed this one in front of a condo complex:

The “Honey, stop the car!” bit was a first. Whether it made a difference I don’t know—this was a three-bedroom flat listed for $819,000. (As an aside, four years ago units in this complex were selling for around $450,000. It’s a little over a mile from the new Apple headquarters.)

But a couple of days later I noticed this:

So something worked.

Not the mean streets, the other ones

You know, just driving around the surface streets of the Valley They Call Silicon you can find enough material for several novels. Because in California, your transportation module is so much more than a ride. It’s your platform for informing the world What You Think.

I recently shared the statement that hovered between Star Wars and slugs. Here’s a more modest vehicle with a bit of a flourish:

But something I came across just yesterday required me to sidle up to the truck (looked like a landscaper or gardening service) to read and then reflect upon the meaning.

Gratitude Monday: Bits and pieces

For Gratitude Monday I’m thinking small today. I’m feeling grateful for the things around me that don’t always grab my attention, but make my life good.

A weekly walking meetup with a few stalwarts who show up every time, and new people who cycle in. There’s always something to talk about, and the leader sets a bodacious pace.

Comfort food—making a batch of individual cottage pies and freezing them for future dinners. Having a freezer big enough to be able to freeze a bunch of individual cottage pies.

A city park (well, all of them, really) filling up on a Sunday morning with kids playing soccer, every bit as intent as Man U or Madrid Réal.

Clean, warm bedding that prevails against chilly autumn nights.

Quiet places, in the midst of the Valley They Call Silicon, where you can find stillness if you look for it, where hummingbirds and woodpeckers speak solace.

Music—all forms of music accessible from multiple sources.

Clean, potable water—even after four years of drought.

Sharing coffee with a friend, a smile with a stranger.

Small things. Yet both individually and in the aggregate, cause for thanks.