Our noses are in the wind and there appears to be an air of expectancy up there – like Big Bend residents waiting for Helene to make landfall.
Bad news from back in that part of the country as we Californians soldier on in the face of much milder weather, the occasional police pursuit and bouts of periodic wildfires.
We’ve alluded to the “Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop” sentiment we’ve gotten out there, and it’s still heavy in the air, and we’ll just continue to make The Rounds until something comes to fruition – whatever it may be.
Locally, we’ve determined our resident population of Invisibles is up and on the move as various agencies and municipalities clear many of the more established encampments in the area. Unsettled settlements are coming into more frequent contact with “civilians” as a result and those contacts don’t always end well. Shoppers have been treated to seeing wanderers huffing nitrous oxide out of the whipped cream cans in the dairy aisle of supermarkets and others have been battered vocally and visually by the unhoused – who continue to seek something from us, but may not know how to express it.
As much as it pains us to say, other creatures are suffering locally, unfortunately under human hands. Our photographers – animal lovers all – were chagrined to hear that someone had abandoned a Great Dane on a remote stretch of Franklin Canyon Road, doing their best to make sure the animal was in the hands of a Good Samaritan before leaving, but still feeling low. As bad as that was it was eclipsed by news out of Pleasanton and the wrenching loss of a black dog that had gotten out onto an apartment porch in 100 degree weather and was unable to re-enter the apartment while the owner was away – the dog eventually succumbing to the heat. We see human tragedy on a regular basis, but there’s something about the innocence of an animal and its loss that makes our collective heads spin.
Such loss, though we’re by no means strangers to it, makes us turn inward and leads to introspection. We found ourselves fascinated by the engineering acumen of a grass-carrier wasp, genus Isodontia, which has taken to exploiting the tracks of a sliding glass door to build its nest. Fearsome looking fellow, but harmless unless riled. Since taking up residence, he’s left carefully shorn bits of grass, worms and paralyzed tree crickets stashed in the frame. Fascinating to watch him work.
It makes us feel better.
Not warm and cuddly, but I get it. It’s a local doing its best to fit in and providing valuable service to the community one dead cricket at a time, and just as important, giving us a window into the world of tiny things all around us.