Trees, trains, trials and tribulations

(Dec 18 2:06 p.m.)

Well.  I’ve been gone long enough that you may be wondering what happened to me.  What can I say?  I’ve been busy and distracted.  I’ve settled in the group home, and for months it’s been one change after the next, in staff, and loud laughter, and spontaneous clapping by a roommate who revolves around the living room TV, most often channel surfing music videos.  (It didn’t take long for him to wear out the batteries in the Roku remote.)

(Nov 22 12:07 p.m.)

And then you count the chores we’re all used to—e.g., doing dishes… but then cleaning up others’ messes, which is not something I signed up for.  And that includes staff leaving plates and utensils in the sink.  Sometimes people don’t learn to not put utensils in the garbage disposal sink; they fall in.  To top it off, some areas are never cleaned despite the obvious warning of mold and ants come summer unless I bother.  Can you sense my frustration?

(Dec 6 3:35 p.m.)

Oh, and now the staff knock on my bedroom door to “check up on me” at times, even if it means waking me.  And on program days, I’m awake anyway for the unpredictable Logisticare service that’s so awful one of its drivers, who was already late, pushed his hybrid car so hard it broke down on the highway, Friday, with fumes entering the car.  Other out-of-the-ordinary things have been happening in the last few days; I lost a receipt as if it disappeared out of thin air.

So I’ve been pushed and pulled around in many little different ways that add up, and it becomes not only frustrating but time-consuming on top of that day program I’ve been too timid to end.  (Still, what do I do if I end it?  Always out of the loop, I don’t have ideas.)

(Dec 5 8:13 p.m.)

One plus: I’ve learned to cook pasta pretty well.

Nevertheless, peace and quiet is harder to find.  And without good ideas and new ideas, or fulfilling relationships, I’m not satisfied enough to rest.  So after a share of social media and informative videos, I don’t get enough sleep and can’t find my voice or be bothered to write a string of words longer than a tweet or two.  But surely I could have posted here, right?

Cabela’s! (Dec 13 2:20 p.m.)

I blame Twitter.  Again.

It’s addictive or seemingly welcoming but to the point of being oversaturated, and in a way apathetic towards thoughtful blogging, even though the platform was intended for micro-blogging.  Today, you can find endless retweeting of one-offs that serve the warning that quality is not appreciated nearly as much as retweeting among tribes.  Like any social media, the more you stand out in the “wrong” way, the less you will be heard.  And it all happens in real-time, further manipulated by Twitter’s popularity algorithm.

(Nov 20 3:08 p.m.)

But I digress.

The rush of the holiday seasons was rather pronounced at the Goodwill in Biddeford.  Christmas trees and decorations were on sale over a week before Thanksgiving.

Like a Hot Dog in the Sun

Flowers in a vibrant green around the sand. (Jul 4 11:51 a.m.)

The year’s gone by too fast.  It’s already well in to summer.  So on top of the year feeling like it’s gone by too fast, the days are getting shorter again.

Dandies. (Jul 4 12:11 p.m.)

Before summer came, the trees were sprouting, and seedlings fell from the trees.  Once summer hit, hard winds and rain began to knock leaves from the trees— and it can be harsh, some days.  But there always seems to be some kind of flower patch somewhere throughout the seasons.

(Jul 3 11:34 a.m.)

And when the flowers shrivel up, the stems just continue to rise.  Plants will take whatever they can, and adapt however they can.

(Jun 20 5:40 p.m.)

Humans, however, don’t even like being out in the rain.  (Okay, some do sometimes.)

Getting around

At another part of the beach. (May 8 2:16 p.m.)

Things are moving… and some things are stalling.  Such is life.  I’m behind.  Not enough time, and not enough sleep.  The year has gone by so frickin’ fast.  One week away from summer… even less than that.

I’ve been meaning to post more often here but my internet access at home has been unreliable.

(May 15 2:33 p.m.)

I’ve been here and there.  And my transportation has been funded by… gulp… taxpayer money.

(May 15 2:33 p.m.)

Okay, so I’m being a bit dramatic.  I haven’t been everywhere and every day, and it’s nothing compared to the cost of health care… nothing compares to health care in America anymore.

Mackworth Island. (May 17 2:36 p.m.)

But you ought to make the best of each day, right?

Greening up

(May 30 4:20 p.m.)

The trees at home are finally filling up like other parts of the bloomin’ state.  And it seemed to happen quickly given just a week ago:

(May 22 10:41 a.m.)

Leaves have left the immature and soft stage, and entered the developed and glossy stage… with insect bites.

Apologies for the iPhone’s persistence in making the brown leaves gray. (May 30 4:21 p.m.)

Mar 22 2:37 p.m.

The little purple flowers have popped up, as well as tiny white.

Cool spring

(May 8 11:30 a.m.)

Spring is already half-over.

(May 18 3:40 p.m.)

Which makes it odd that many of the tree leaves near home are still in early development or just budding, whereas trees in Biddeford and Portland have already bloomed.

(May 17 10:31 a.m.)

Of course, snow makes everything take longer.  (Not to mention, planted trees, flowers and grass are treated differently.)  It’s been cold for May— temperatures in the 40s (°F) versus “normal” numbers in the 60s.

Here are some photos of the progress so far.

(May 4 6:39 p.m.)

The leaves, of course, were buds.

Toes in the sand at Old Orchard Beach

Pier and a pigeon. (Apr 17 2:48 p.m.)

It had been many a year since I visited this beach.

Closed until summer. (Apr 17 2:50 p.m.)

I remember visiting the Old Orchard Street— lined with stores, rides on the side… and pizza.  And more pizza.  I remember playing at the arcade.  The last time, however… I sat in my mother’s car parked along the street, and didn’t get out due to self-consciousness.

(Apr 17 1:49 p.m.)

On Wednesday, most everything was closed, and will remain closed until summer, of course.

(Apr 17 2:40 p.m.)

Even the pier was closed.  A parked truck blocked the entrance… I vaguely remember that being the case way back when too.

Spring is here! …mostly.

(Apr 11 5:05 p.m.)

Yeah, it snowed again, about a week ago.  But that’s Maine for you.  It can snow “unexpectedly” in Spring.  That isn’t to say we’re the only state that gets snow in April.  Some parts of the U.S. got blizzard conditions.  (And Texas got a dust storm.)

(Apr 13 4:31 p.m.)

But, with rising temperatures and rain, it soon began to clear up.  The white stuff vanished in two days, save a few patches.

(Apr 13 4:32 p.m.)

The mini-lake in the driveway is depleted, but some of the ground is still saturated.  Squish, squash, splosh.

Winter update

(Mar 14 8:15 a.m.)

Yeah…. it snowed again.  And unexpectedly; it wasn’t supposed to look like this Thursday.  The forecast temperatures for that part of the week were above freezing…. But “supposed to” is a fallacy.  Us humans can’t tell the weather what to do; we can only predict it.

Supposedly, this was in part due to a “bomb cyclone.”  The weather across the U.S. has been a bit crazy this month.  Very low temps this winter.  Tornadoes in the south.  Over a dozen fatalities in the midwest alone… and that’s just January.  Fierce winds and fallen branches.  Hail …in Britain.

(Mar 6 10:47 a.m.)

Here?  Some winds.  Cold.  Nothing much happens in Maine.  But so many blue sky days.  And I’m talking bluer than these photos here.

…And then the clouds roll in.

Iced, slushed and sugar-high

(Dec 28 2:42 p.m.)

Tis winter and a new year, and places have been closed for the holidays… due also to road conditions.  But the white stuff melted throughout winter.

Pre-bad path conditions. (Dec 23 10:00 a.m.)

Until it snowed again.  1.5″, and sleet and…

Bad path conditions. (Dec 28 4:15 p.m.)

…slush.  At its worst, the daily walk can become an obstacle course, sometimes with mini-lakes in the driveway, and sometimes with this kind of mixture you wouldn’t dare put your shoes in.  I’ve walked the sidelines… in the snow, instead of the path that’s… made so you don’t have to walk in the snow.

The end is nigh … for 2018

Pink. (Nov 21 6:39 a.m.)

Winter’s approaching fast, and the snow is… significantly evaporated since the scene above.

(Dec 10 9:09 a.m.)

Dirt is exposed once again.  Freezing rain and sleet made for something mushy then icy.  But days of precipitation in southern Maine have been few.  Brine has been put on roads as a precaution.  But unlike other states, we just haven’t seen any more snow.

(Dec 10 9:15 a.m.)

Blue skies.  The kind of blue & sun that makes the snow look purple.  Sunny all week.  But cold.

(Nov 21 6:44 p.m.)

Visually, the snow— while it lasts— can make for some remarkable photos.  There are days where the mixture of snow and moonlight make for scenes you have to see in person… especially if the camera can’t handle low light conditions very well.

Dark at 6 o’clock at night. (Nov 21 6:48 p.m.)

(Nov 20 7:50 p.m.)

Maybe you can see a bit of what I mean by remarkable moonlit snow scenes.

(Nov 20 7:52 p.m.)

(Nov 21 6:47 p.m.)

First snow was on Nov 16.  Nothing over half a foot, so far, as measured by the yard stick.

(Nov 22 4:07 p.m.)

First pumpkin pie was on the 22nd.  And it was one of those store brand pies that had a bit of pecan and coconut in the flavoring… which makes it kind of special, come to think of it.  Mashed potatoes, stuffing, and a bird… an understated Thanksgiving that went by too fast.

(Dec 3 7:27 a.m.)

The days are still for the most part ordinary, but colorful sometimes.  Last Monday morning was foggy/misty.  When the fog lifted, the overcast sky had a bright tint of blue until the yellow of sunrise.

Red-headed woodpecker, just below center of frame. (Dec 8)

Some animals are still out.  I saw and captured a woodpecker on video; I’ve seen a chipmunk using our stick pile as shelter; and today, I saw a herd of deer from our kitchen window, before they entered the woods.

(Dec 2 8:37 a.m.)

As for the holiday season, the tree is up.  First ornament, from a close friend.  See if you can spot it. 😁

(Dec 3 10:24 p.m.)

A few more ornaments added since.  The basic cellotape doesn’t do a good job of holding up the star.

(Dec 3 10:30 p.m.)

The lights went up first.  And as always, bright light sources don’t pick up well with most cameras.  The little incandescent bulbs, for example, aren’t very bright, but a basic camera will make their light a big bright blur.

Low ISO, higher exposure time. (Dec 3 10:27 p.m.)

To the naked eye, the hot filament in a clear bulb looks like a hot filament.

Low dynamic range… but low noise. (Dec 2 8:34 a.m.)

Adjusting for the outside in LDR (so the out isn’t washed out in blurry whiteness), you get the opposite effect: the foreground is too dark.  For conventional cameras, the required dynamic range is too high for an accurate photo.  (It’s even more difficult when the sun is in frame— a much higher DR.)  Long exposure is necessary to reduce noise with the iPhone SE… not a professional camera… so I digress.

(Dec 10 9:15 a.m.)

The climate has been dry.  The kind of dry that you get static shocks when you least expect them.  Even with faucet water.  (An odd sensation.)  Skin has cracked and fissures have formed.  My hands don’t look too great right now.

The cold has all but kept me indoors.  And the fact that it’s now the last month of the year, that had gotten me to look at 2018 in review.  But since the restoration of our cable— as Spectrum killed off the analog channels in our area, forcing us to replace the degraded line to get any channels at all— much of my indoor time has actually been spent watching BBC America… which reruns Star Trek: TNG and The X-Files.  I’m a fan of those shows, so… yeah, the TV has been on in the overnights.  I even checked out some Dr Who with Doctor #13, played by Jodie Whittaker.

Uneven LED backlighting decay. (Oct 13 12:23 p.m.)

And this increased use of the TV comes despite backlight discoloration.  The photo above was taken in October; it’s worse now.  LED backlighting isn’t so great after all— at least during this crappier stage of LED panel design to lower prices.  Two color temperatures for balance and control …and two temperatures that decay unevenly.

…On the matter of lighting, incandescent light bulbs may make a comeback.  Using infrared trapping, MIT has managed to make an efficient tungsten bulb.  Nothing commercial as of yet.  But imagine the natural light of classic light bulbs, but about as efficient as LED. 🙂

(Dec 2 6:01 p.m.)

Well, that’s it for now.  It’s been kind of a struggle to write as it is.  Writer’s block… or vegging out with the TV and/or YouTube… it seems I need to get back to nature to write anything.  And sleep.  I can never seem to get much done, and I always need more sleep.  We are addicted to our screens, and so are our kids.

Having gotten up at 2-something in the morning, I am a bit too tired to continue to stare at screens right now.  So I will bid you all adieu.  Have a good night, morning, or afternoon— wherever you are in the world. 🙂

Until next time…

(Nov 20 11:28 p.m.)