Can't keep from cryin'

Practically the entire lower 48 is expected to be under what meteorologists call a “heat dome” all next week. Basically, as I understand it, that means we’re all going to cook, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above normal.

But climate change is a hoax, right? Right along with the pandemic in which we’re spending our second summer. Yay, science deniers!

Anyhow, I sort of feel that Linda Ronstadt’s take on “Heat Wave” is appropriate. She's talking about a different kind of heat, but still.

I hope you can enjoy it in a climate-controlled environment. Also: hydrate.

 

Solomon in all his glory

Well, I spent an hour of my day yesterday listening to a customer moan about how our product is terrible, and whenever someone suggested an approach that would answer one of his issues, he batted it away with, “But it doesn’t solve ALL THE THINGS!!”

So here are lilies from my neighbor’s garden.

 

Taking a bike

The “sharing” economy is truly permeating the People’s Republic. As witnessed by this bike-share installation I found on last Friday’s walk:

It’s across the street from a small park (tennis courts, picnic tables and baseball diamond; also a drinking fountain that I really need by the time I hit that point in my circuit), on a street otherwise relentlessly residential. No shops, no businesses, just single family houses, townhomes and one multi-occupancy building of half-million-dollar condos.

Also—it was decidedly not there on the Thursday, so it was installed in a single day. That must have been a thing.

I saw on Monday that word has got out, as the configuration of available bikes had changed:

 

Swell

It turns out there’s something called “swelling battery/keyboard” on laptops. I found this out because someone posted it on the business unit Teams chat and told us to be on the lookout for it. The latest victim was on a Mac, but evidently this is not unknown to the HPs that the company uses for Windows-based machines.

Someone said that when it happened to his HP, the first signs were the touchpad and shift key rising, preventing him from being able to shut the laptop. Well, I use an external keyboard, so I have no idea if keys are sticking, but that machine has run hot since the day it was issued to me in September 2019. I mean what-the-hell hot.

Well, when I looked at my laptop, here’s what I saw:

That didn't seem good. Then I looked again:

Well, crap. I sent pix to IT and they’re shipping me a new laptop. Evidently Li-on batteries are not something to mess around with.

I have to say that this is a first: I mean, I’ve had colleagues who wanted to kill me, but this is the first time a laptop tried it.

 

 

 

Gratitude Monday: unexpected beauty

I get up between 0500 and 0530 on weekdays in an attempt to get my morning walk in before the heat and humidity make that suicidal. On Sundays, I haul myself out of bed around 0630, but on Saturday, well, I need a break. I’ve discovered that the day after a typical yoga lesson my muscles tend to want to know what the hell I’m thinking. So I get up later and don't push for 10K steps. Thus, my walking circuit is shortened.

This past Saturday I strolled through the corporate HQ, which I haven’t visited for at least a month. And I found the Sacred Lotus in bloom.

Here’s what I also found: bees love the Sacred Lotus.

Today’s gratitude is that a change in my morning walk brought me close to this unexpected beauty, and that I’ll be carrying it with me through the coming days.

 

 

Lady luck outside the door

A friend of mine has decided he wants to be a drummer, so he switched his home office to a different room because his old office was the only room that would hold his drum set. I’m not a particular fan of the craft, but when we were chatting the other day, I told him he had to watch Michael Shrieve’s solo at Woodstock. That got us on Santana, and he in turn recommended “I’m Winning” as being a slight dogleg from the band’s usual Afro-Caribbean sound.

He’s right. This is extra primo good. Crank up the volume. 

 

Oh, deer

My “office” is set up in what the cluster developers were pleased to call the “family room”. It’s more than half of the kitchen space, badly laid out and pretty uncozy. But the point, for purposes of this post, is that my desk faces the front of my house, overlooking the cluster parking lot, with some cluster-maintained landscaping. Moving from the back of the house to the front has literally given me a different view of the world, and I’ll talk about that another time.

Mostly what I see are cars coming and going, and (to a lesser extent) people walking—either to/from work or the shops, walking dogs and/or children or just getting some steps in. But Tuesday I noticed some movement to the side of my monitor, looked up and saw:

Well, that’s a thing, innit? I’d have expected wildlife to appear in the back yard, which is not open to vehicular traffic. But this guy nosed around, then munched on some of my neighbor’s shrubs and I caught him as he paused a couple of houses down. (Sorry it’s out of focus.)

The toddler of another neighbor started over to greet him, and he hightailed it.

Now, I was a little concerned because it’s half a mile from my ‘hood to any kind of woodland, some of which requires crossing fairly well-trafficked streets. I wondered if the heat or some lack of food was behind his foray, and I don’t know what kind of food to put out for deer.

Except for whatever shrubbery my neighbor has.

(And yes, I know that deer are very destructive to people's gardens. I am not actually going to put out deer chow.)

Okaybut—on my morning walk yesterday, I was about halfway round my circuit when I startled this guy, who’d been very still behind a large bush:

Again—we’re talking serious suburbia here, and I just don’t know.

But then, I was on a People’s Republic path that goes past my Gift Fairy’s house and a baseball field, and there was another deer making tracks. That’s more woodsy, so I felt better. (The deer was too fast for me to capture on video.)

But the day wasn’t over—about 50 meters up the path, I noticed a father and toddler standing still, looking over to some shrubs. I very slowly approached, and sure enough: this time a fawn. (Sadly—I thought I got some video, but user error.) We all four of us stood absolutely frozen for some moments; then the fawn melted into the bushes and disappeared immediately.

So—ducks and foxes in the backyard, deer in the front. I do appreciate them dropping by and sharing the neighborhood with me.

 

 

Nature's mysteries 4

Time for another round of plant identification. By way of update, these are hellebore, which I think I would like in my garden; these are winter aconite, Eranthis, which are in my garden; and these are wild azalea, and I definitely want them in my garden.

Today’s #IDme looks like it may be related to hydrangea, but I dunno. It comes in multiple colors—pink, white and blue (which I don’t seem to have caught). The petals only appear around the perimeter, which seems un-hydrangealike.

Help me out here.

STOP PRESS: I found the blue ones on this morning's walk:

 

Redneck landscaping

The People’s Republic has restrictions on pretty much everything, except on high-rise development. I’m pretty sure, for instance, that if I put up a clothesline and hung my laundry on it, I’d incur the full force of the Reston Association, with my own cluster association's aesthetic outrage piled on top.

So I was amused to find this in front of one of my neighbors’ house:

It didn’t stay there long (couple of days at most), but even so it was clearly an abomination to God and man and probably lowered property values for a while.

I also found it interesting because it wasn’t left in the parking strip, as though for pick-up. Nor was it in line with the front door. No—it was tucked next to the shrubbery as though the owners wanted to pretend that no one would notice.

 

 

Gratitude Monday: morning companions

This being the environs of the District They Call Columbia, I have to start my daily walks no later than 0600. Even so, by the time I get back, I’m soaked. The best five minutes of my day is my post-walk legs-against-the-wall pose and guzzling sparkling water.

But I’ve noticed that by going out at the early hour, I see a somewhat different ecosystem. It’s quieter, more tranquil, and creatures that stay hidden when the runners and cyclists are around come out. Twice I’ve spied a fox looking like he’s headed home after a night on the tiles (both times he was too far away for me to capture on video). And one morning I caught a glimpse of a couple of deer crossing a creek:

(Naturally, the instant I pulled out the camera, one disappeared, but I did get one.)

I don’t know where they hang out the rest of the day, but I hope wherever it is, they’re staying cool and hydrated.

And I’m grateful to share the early morning with them.