Take to the sky

We’re in mid-August. Much of the Lower 48 is sweltering under record temperatures; the West is burning—literally—and in the environs of the District They Call Columbia, we’ve got a heat index in the triple digits. But it doesn’t stop here; Greece and Siberia are on fire and Sicily this week recorded 120F. Seems like the entire Northern Hemisphere is presaging Hell.

So today’s earworm is Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong covering “Summertime”. There’s a lot of Porgy & Bess that I find problematic, but this song really captures the season. We may have moved past "the livin' is easy" part, but I'm definitely here for rising up singing.

 

Mystery car

I’ve got an identification issue. Not flora, as per usual; vehicular.

My eye was caught by this front end on one of my walks:

It’s the no-name grille that I find so unusual. Also, actually, menacing. Something about those unbroken lines that makes me think “killer kar”.

So I walked around to the rear end to see what make it was. It says Honda, but I’ll be blowed if I can find anything that looks quite like that in their inventory. 

I searched on “big-assed Honda SUV”, but didn’t find the combination of the overhang thing, taillights and bumper. Their biggest SUV is the Pilot, but nothing on the web resembles this. I realize that the front end has been customized, but I guess the back end has, too?

STOP PRESS: I examined it on this morning's walk, and it in fact does say PILOT to the left of the rear plate. But it still looks weird.

So I’m stumped. But I wouldn’t like to meet it coming round the curve in a lonely road at dusk.

 

 

 

Daily motivation

As you may know, I get up at zero dark-thirty to get my daily walks in. Even so, it was 73F yesterday when I started with a pretty high dew point. It wasn’t as ghastly as when I went out around 1115 to buy new trainers, but I still came back with everything I was wearing soaked.

However, here’s what keeps me heading out most every day—the beauty you can see at that hour. Viz: the breaking sun's reflection on the clouds:

Also, this pair:

They didn’t seem too fussed by me, although passing cars disturbed the one. (Well, I get that—speed limit is 30, but my guess is that every vehicle on the road blows past that by 15 mph.)

But I wouldn’t have seen them five hours later.

 

Acting squirrely

One day last week I was at my desk, talking with a colleague, when I noticed activity in the Japanese maple tree in the front yard.

There must be something at the end of the branch that’s especially tasty, because I’ve seen them doing this at other times. I keep hoping they’ll fall off, but nope. They always manage to twist themselves around and scamper up the branch.

 

 

Gratitude Monday: PTO

My gratitude today is small, but luxurious: I have the whole week off.

I have no plans whatsoever, except to get my car’s annual inspection, see the dentist and have my regular yoga lesson. But I will not be checking in on work, and no one expects me to.

Yay.