Local Notes

This will be just a bunch of observations about stuff I've noticed around town. Like how, now that the dayjob desk faces the bit window, I can watch pelicans flying by outside. None so far today that I've really noticed, but there were seven of them yesterday...

There were Lots of birds out when I went walking yesterday morning--without the granddog, who loves chasing birds so much, I wouldn't have had a chance to see them so well. (She only likes chasing birds when she can chase them into the water...) There were the usual laughing gulls, and willets and pigeons. I saw a few ruddy turnstones, and a one-legged sanderling that was almost as fast hopping on its one little leg as its flock-mates on their two. It wasn't quite as smooth, hopping up and down, but wow, it was fast! It did take to flying quicker than they did, and landed sooner. I tried to keep enough distance from it so the poor thing wouldn't feel it quite so necessary to fly. The seagulls were flirting. The males--slightly smaller than the females--would give off a rhythmic squawk, as if singing to their chosen lady, while the females stood aloof--but listening. I also saw a pair of tiny terns. Little sparrow-sized fellas.

And then, today, I had to take a cell phone back to its owner who forgot it in my car, and while driving to work, I saw this house that I always think is the neatest thing when I see it, and promptly forget about it once I've passed by. It's an old raised cottage, vintage 1920 to 1940s probably, with the main floor upstairs and the garage below. The downstairs has vertical siding and the upstairs has horizontal--and every slat of the siding, both upstairs and down, is painted in a different bright color. Maroon, blue, yellow, green, orange, pink--every color you can think of. It might have been seriously garish when it was new, but the paint's pretty battered now, especially since Ike, and it just looks...happy. Even battered and peeling. The house always makes me smile when I drive down 39th Street and see it.

After I turned onto Broadway to head toward the causeway (the paper is at the very last exit before you leave the island), I passed by one of the older cemeteries there at 40th St. inside its cast-iron fencing. And it was all dressed up in its Maytime colors with coreopsis blooming like crazy. They cover every grave, crowd up to the headstones and make it look so bright and cheery--believe it or not--with their flashy yellow blossoms. So the cemetery made me smile too. I'll have to go by and take pictures, won't I?

So--yeah, I have lots and lots to do, and I'm not actually getting a whole lot of it done, but the birds are flirting and the flowers are blooming and the weather is gorgeous and... It's just nice to be here. :)