Neighborhood Scenes, 11/20/05

Bear with me here, folks. I'm experimenting.

Ever since the hurricane ate the laptop, I'm using a monitor that doesn't display photos very well. So I'm not sure what I'm putting on this blog.

But at least I fixed the problem that kept me from posting any pix at all. Not bad for a phobe, huh?

More later.

 

 

 

Here We Go Again

TS Gamma is heading our way.

Sort of.

Yesterday it was forecast to follow the exact same path as Wilma: come ashore around Naples, then head to Ft. Lauderdale. Also like Wilma - on a Monday.

Today, they decided it was going through the Caribbean instead. And probably as a tropical storm, never becoming a hurricane. Maybe Tuesday.

It sounds likely enough, and I sure hope it comes true. Still, we're not looking forward to this Tropical Weather Event, this thing that will, at least, probably dump a lot of rain on us.

The predictions are much less accurate than usual, simply because we just don't have much history of hurricane systems around Thanksgiving.

We're not done cleaning up from Katrina yet, much less Wilma. This also means the extraordinary electrical, telephone (land and cell), sewer, and water system problems are way far from being ready, even for "only" a storm.

Everything is unstable. What's left of our roofs are weak, they'll buckle under a heavy rain. Trash piles still litter every street. Most of our computers and telephones are only working intermittently or slowly; the juice has been going on and off, too.

Traffic lights still aren't back up at many intersections. The ones that are generally have only one set as opposed to several. They aren't timed right, either. It's surprising how much that throws us off, when the signal changing times at some familiar intersection are very different now.

Don't get me wrong, the crews have done a wonderful job. But we got nuked. There's only so much anyone could have finished by now. Really, people outside of Florida have no idea how bad conditions were, and still are. The news media appears bored of it all.

Many of us are just, just jittery today.

I was hoping to have the front yard completely finished by nightfall, all debris cleared, all rescue plants and wood in the back yard where they belong. I'm so close to done.

Instead, I stopped midday and did preps. Not that I needed much. A few more distilled waters. Mr. BabyCat's fave: Fancy Feast Grilled Salmon. Two of four prescription refills I'll need. Stuff like that.

And pictures. Just in case.

The rains have already started.

At the very end of my travels, the rain cleared and the sun burst out again, as it likes to do down here.

Suddenly I was driving under a huge perfect rainbow, arcing all the way across the sky.

The Plant Rescue Department Stinks

Literally.

Due to an encounter with an especially rancid batch of overripe oranges in a debris pile.

Easily remedied!

[bathe bathe bathe splash splash splash]

AAALLLL better!

Fred, You Took a Hit

Sunday I met neighbor Fred, who lives at the other end of my block. We've been watching each other's landscaping efforts for 9 years now, but never met.

He lost some beautiful palms in the storm, huge curvy coconuts and such.

But his neighbor was tossing out a very pretty lush youngish queen palm, maybe 10 feet high. He scarfed it as follows:

Neighbor is glad to give him the tree
A front end loader moving hurricane debris nearby agrees to give it a ride to Fred's yard
Fred digs hole
He pops in Ms. Queen Palm
Ropes her up to some other trees for support
Water water water

All done!

In South Florida we get Instant Tree like nobody's business.

I see Fred's got a sign:

FREE PLANTS AND COCONUTS

He likes the Plant Rescue Department. We seem to be thinking along the same lines here, huh? In a couple of months, when things are potted up and TLC'd and ready for new homes, he may bring a bunch of his little volunteer palm babies for the sale. I'm hoping the Plant Rescue Yard Sale will involve lots of my neighbors. I envision us swapping plants back and forth and bringing back some of our lost Green, and feeling so much better that we've got new life in the ground.

And some coconuts, too.

Looks Awful, Tastes Great

I'm about to eat my first blue corn tortilla chip of my life.

[crunch crunch crunch]

YUM!

Rescue Rescue Work

This weekend is probably the last really great one for ksquest Plant Rescues.

The Plant Rescue Department has been busy indeed.

The Debris Removal squads have been, too. Sometimes I'm only a couple driveways ahead of them at a really good pile of Neat Stuff.

So satisfying.

Yesterday I wandered into a part of my town where we almost bought when we were house-hunting. Nice character - true of virtually all of my town - and on the water. We finally decided against waterfront, partly due to cost and mosquitoes, partly due to hating the noise and rudeness and wanton beer can-tossing pollution of so many water travelers.

Going in there now, I saw that some fine huge cypresses had come down, and this always makes us sad.

Various neighbors were out working. The vegetation clearing is ongoing still, in a big way; you just can't do it all in a short time. They're curious about what I'm doing. I explain I'm a Plant Rescuer and, as usual, this makes them interested and glad. They point out various places for me to find air plants and beautiful cypress to mount them. We swap war stories.

One very sweet gentleman sent me around his house on a yard tour - another frequent occurrence. He was just a roomie, lived there a few months, so he wasn't as familiar with many of our tropical plants in his yard. But he sure recognized what he had, the quality of the homeowner's landscaping design.

They're on the water, and even had a few mangroves. Their stilt roots are a wondrous sight. Two big cypresses were still downed and uncut, just trimmed so far. Huge bamboo, gingers, a jillion great species of shrubs and flowers and all in a lush but walkable layout. It's hard to get that effect right, to do "lush" but not "intimidating jungle." I was really impressed.

We see this all torn up and grieve.

I picked up all their downed airplants, and taught them how to remount them, themselves. It's really easy. Most folks I talk to just don't understand how much vegetation they can save. All told, it's generally less labor and less time-consuming than chainsawing things and toting them to the debris pile on the swale.

I'm slowing down some. I'm feeling the physical strain of all this. So instead of collecting any wood I'm concentrating on just plants, which are less costly to me physically.

OTOH -- just as I was making my final run at the end of the day, I came across the tidiest stack of mixed oak and plumeria. They were cut into very regular smallish bits and carefully laid out. How could I walk away from such an easy stash? Into the Saturn they went.

Where they await me this morning.

Time to unload and head back out.