Most mornings I walk with my two Jack Russell Terriers. We have several alternate routes – Quarry Lakes Regional Park is walking distance from our house, the Alameda Creek flood control channel has walking trails, and from there we can walk into the Niles Community Park and into the “downtown” of Historic Niles. The dogs have no apparent preferences – happy with whatever route we choose. Walking is also a time to stop and talk to friends. Dogs sniff each other and roll in strange stuff that smells good to them. I deeply love the colors and smells of fall, the crisp mornings, the ripe fruit. This is the only season that we see sundogs when the sun is just at the right angle on the cirrus clouds. The earth is like some strange wonderful mechanism as it slowly makes its way around the sun and generates all this slowly emerging of seasonal changes.
And here it is the election season once more – back in the time of Lincoln – elections were about having debates – standing on stumps or on the back of train platforms -talking about the issues … Now its sound bites, endless advertisements, phone calls, mailings… I don’t think this is what the founding fathers had in mind when they envisioned “government of, by, and for the people) –not when 4 billion dollars are being spent for a midterm election (and this at a time of economic hardship?). That just seems too much like someone buying an election. After the election I never know what to do with all the political signs that we put up in our front yard… Some of the heaviest and best I turn inside out and use for projects until the next election.
To keep everything in perspective I go out, now and then, to check the progress of the persimmons – they are beautiful, as they turn orange. We have two kinds: the Hayashi (Pointed) and the Fuji (Flat); also my favorite Granny Smith Apples are just about ripe. This is all well and good – but the neighborhood Raccoons and Possums (to say nothing of the Scrub Jays) are beginning to show up to check things out. I built a kind of tree skirt out of wire fencing that the Raccoons and Possums haven’t figured out yet how to climb over … lets hope.
No rain yet…
