Two cars parked next to each other at the People’s Republic library branch last week has Things to Say:
The driver of the red car came
out while I was taking pix; she looked like Republicans’ core Democratic enemy
trope—middle aged, grey hair (not blue, tho), dressed for her own comfort.
She’s someone I would
personally not want to piss off.
Didn’t see the other car’s
driver.
©2026 Bas Bleu
The other morning I was walking around the former corporate HQ park campus (for the past three years a construction site for 82 four-story townhouses on five acres). I came across this guy, on the wrong side of a fence around one of the ponds.
He might eventually have found
his way back to the water, but I decided to help him. Having had experience
with Testudines from my time in grad school at William & Mary, when I
regularly rescued them from the middle of major highways (and earned the
epithet “[Bas Bleu], Redeemer of Reptiles”), I was prepared for him to pee on
me. I made sure I was standing well behind him and holding him at full arms’
length.
He in fact let loose a gusher—must
have been holding it in for a while—but it missed me. And he had unobstructed
passage to the pond to fill up again.
©2026 Bas Bleu
Took a walk outside my cluster yesterday morning. Quite a bit of damage in the greater ‘hood, beyond my cluster.
The golf course cleaned up the
one tree that was on the third hole fairway, but there’s still a lot of major
damage in the rough.
W&OD Trail was okay,
because Dominion Power razed the sides last year. But Old Reston Avenue looked
like a cyclone had passed through.
The Bowman Distillery
apparently escaped damage, but both in front and behind both tall and short
trees were down or de-limbed.
Temporary Road park had minor issues:
But the basketball court is out of action for a while:
Really, just don't mess with Mother Nature..
©2026 Bas Bleu
I’m guessing that one of the members of a neighboring household was away for a while. Really sweet to see this walkway o’ welcome for their return:
©2026 Bas Bleu
On one of my recent walks on the W&OD Trail, I noticed a woman spreading what looked like seed from a pouch she was carrying onto the base of an electricity pole.
I asked, “Are you feeding the birds?”
She said she always carries food for them and went on her
way.
Well, when I saw it was raw rice, I was a little dubious.
But it turns out that birds can indeed digest uncooked rice, so some of our
feathered friends got quite the feast.
©2026 Bas Bleu
Came across this on my walk the other morning—one of the benches along the W&OD Trail, which overlook the Hidden Creek golf course.
Two different branches of the entitled,
littering asshole species.
There’s actually a trash bin
in the Asplundh parking lot about 20 yards across the trail.
©2026 Bas Bleu
So, there I was, walking down the W&OD Trail, minding my own business, when I saw this coming at me:
©2026 Bas Bleu
We here in the environs of the District They Call Columbia have been in a Seattle weather pattern for nearly a week. It’s been completely overcast since last Friday; Friday and Saturday it rained all day; every day since has seen at least some sprinkles.
(The rotting Kleptocrat cited "bad weather" when he moved yesterday's Cabinet meeting from Camp David to the White House. Right after returning from Walter Reed, where he got his third "annual" medical check-up since taking office 15 months ago. I mean...)
So of course the mushrooms are loving it. This crop is just
from yesterday morning, when the weather was 71F and soupy at 0800.
I did not harvest any. I just let them live their best
lives.
©2026 Bas Bleu
I came across this on my walk Monday morning:
It was alongside the W&OD Trail, near absolutely
nothing; closest office building 100 yards across Sunset Hills and closest
residential enclave beyond the third hole of the golf course. So I don’t know
whether this is some kind of statement, or a prank, or what.
But it was gone yesterday morning.
©2026 Bas Bleu
I noticed this after one of our recent rain storms. It seemed beautiful to me, so I took the photo.
It’s all around us, if we look.
©2026 Bas Bleu
I’ve noticed in my walks around The People’s Republic that street signs at intersections sometimes seem to get turned around. But this one:
I mean—okay?
©2026 Bas Bleu
It’s been a while since I’ve don an installment of vanity plates, and boy-howdy, they do pile up. So here’s a batch for you:
©2026 Bas Bleu
Last Wednesday I posted about the new tag on the American Dream Way bridge.
Thursday morning it had been removed.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
©2026 Bas Bleu
I don’t know what it is about Trader Joe’s parking lots that makes people just lose their minds. It may be that they tend to be relatively small (unless the store is in a larger shopping center)—the lot in the original TJ, on Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena, had maybe 20 slots, and very limited on-street availability. Come the holidays it was not unusual to see people in BMWs and Benzes come to near-blows over a space.
The lot in The People’s Republic is larger than that, but
still—I’ve learned not to go there between about 1115 and 1330, and again
1630-1830 on weekdays; I stay away altogether on weekends. People in SUVs just
camp out in the limited driving lanes, waiting until someone comes out to load
their car and leave. The SUVs block everyone behind them for however long it
takes.
Well, the other day I saw this (wouldn't you know it's New Jersey):
You can believe I submitted it to the “Park like an asshole”
Reddit sub.
©2026 Bas Bleu
Some time ago I posted about a grafitto in the gap under the bridge over the W&OD Trail near me. Since Dominion Power razed all the shrubbery along the trail there, a new tag showed up on the abutment:
On that stretch of trail, I almost exclusively walk from East to West, so after I noticed that art, I checked the abutment on the western side, which I never see. No tag, but signs that something had been erased.
Yesterday morning I noticed that the original work has now
been sanded away:
Artists get so little respect.
©2026 Bas Bleu
