A few Pics

These pictures are all within 2 blocks of our house.

The storm last week is still on my mind. Two huge electric trucks stopped in front of out house, waiting for their next order. They were from Edwardsville, Il, several hundred miles south of here. ComEd is bringing in people from all over to clean up the mess. There are tree contractor from all over here too. Branches are still on the parkways, and many downed trees haven't been attended to yet. And tomorrow, more rain is promised, but not storms, thank goodness.

What the weather can do

Our immediate neighborhood took a much bigger hit from Thursday's storm than I originally thought. Driving around during the past few days I saw more uprooted trees and fallen branches than I have seen in 20 years. Tree trunks are on the ground, large branches, small branches and twigs too. It will take more than few days to clean up. There are caravans of tree people on the main streets, a truck with a cherry picker, a chipper truck and another several more for various purposes. Chain saws are heard everywhere, even today. Eventually the parkway trees will be replaced, but the village has so many limitations for new trees. Fast growing trees are often nuisance trees, or trees with short lives. Elms get fatal diseases, ashes get emerald ash borers. Poplars make a big mess in the spring, and are brittle and have limbs break off in storms. I wonder what they will pick out to replace what looks like several hundred trees?
My class started last week, I now have 18 students, a mix of men and women, and a mix of ages. Most are immigrants, and many speak another language or two.

Big, big storms last night

The storm of the year struck yesterday afternoon. I read a warning about the storm on Oakton e mail, but really didn't take it seriously. About 3pm, a little bit of rain fell, then it really started. The wind blew the rain horizontally, the trees were bending and the wind direction kept changing, moving in a large circular pattern. The rain kept coming down, hard. Then it let up. Our immediate neighborhood got off easy. I think that the worst damage was that my car's back window was hit by a branch and broke into a thousand pieces.
I decided to leave early for Oakton, since another line of storms was on the way. Driving to school, there were two large trees on the road, but I was able to get around them. There were many areas with no electricity. About 6:30, the second wave of storms hit. More thunder and lightning and pouring rain. In total I think we got over 4 inches. My larger neighborhood got hit pretty hard. Two blocks away, two catalpa trees were uprooted, one fell on a house, the other just missed it. On Forest Av, both sides of the street were covered with downed branches and large tree trunks. It will take several days to clean up the mess. Today, more rain is expected, but hopefully no more wind and thunder storms.

Is it fall yet?

Maybe it it. Tomorrow is my first class a Oakton Community College, and I am getting down to business, writing my lesson plan and preparing my power point. Last time I checked, I had 13 students registered. I do feel prepared.
Although I haven't been writing many entries recently, I still am on my weight loss quest. Today I weighed in and lost the same two pounds that I have been dealing with all summer. Gain one or two, loose one or two. My leader did have a good idea this time which I will share with you:
"The direction you are headed is more important than the time it takes to get there."

I think that I missed something great

Tanglewood Music Center concerts are broadcast occasionally broadcast on the web. I have tried to let people know about these concerts with little success. Sometimes the concert is on the NY station, sometimes on the Boston station. Sometimes they have been delayed broadcasts. So today, when Beethoven's 9th was performed, I checked the play lists on both stations, and found nothing. So I went to the gym and a yoga class. When I got home, my husband told me about the wonderful concert on the Boston station. So many curtain calls for the soloists, accolades for the orchestra. I feel just terrible. I feel like I let my son down, and I am so disappointed that I couldn't hear a live performance of one of my favorite pieces of music. One tiny consolation, I think that it will be delayed web cast on WQXR.com I will check into this.

A really hot day and a concert tonight.

August arrived with a blast of hot air. Nothing is going on in the neighborhood except the hum of air conditioning. This wave is expected to last into next week.
Another shameless concert pitch--my son David's orchestra has a concert tonight on www.wcrb.com at 8:30 est. This concert is part of the Tanglewood contemporary music festival. The opera was spectacular--better than I expected. I found a record set of Don Carlo in my basement, pulled out the libretto and followed along. Made a long opera more interesting. The caste was excellent, as was the TMC orchestra.