It is night. It is June. It is late. It is a Friday night, after 9 p.m. but before 10. The world is wet. The moon is uncertain. It is neither warm, nor cold, no breeze, and not my favorite feeling of when the temperature is the same as your skin. The weather, reposing in its usual state this month, hesitates before deciding if it wants to get torrential again. The street feels empty for being a Brooklyn street, mid-June. Even the children play quietly — those, like mine, from cultures or families to whom it doesn’t matter if they’re out late playing on the street. There are a couple girls, a boy, a ball. They’re maybe Bengali. A mother who stays quiet, standing guard between the children and the street, right at the edge, is near to the tree. She wears a sari, its bright colors muted by the night. I take my dog by leash, and walk into the street, wanting to pass by them uninterrupting. A sole car comes carelessly careening down this one way, lights bright for a quiet Friday night. There is an opening between me and the boy, who now stands just a little past the perimeter established by the woman of authority and the sole tree. He turns to me, wedging his way between the back of a car and a lifeless leaning motorcycle. Facing me full on, he says in a voice taken straight from the throat of Squiggy on Laverne & Shirley, “H-e-l-l-l-o-w.” I smile, grateful this starless night is interrupted.
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revelgardener 
Kind of sounds like when I was small. Air conditioning was virtually unknown, so on those hot summer nights people would sit outside and talk to each other! What a concept, actually talking to neighbors. Don’t get me wrong, now days with work and everything else going on I barely see my neighbors, and talk with them even less. But the image painted with your post just reminded me of those ‘times gone by’.
Glad it did – it did for me as well. But it just seemed like something was missing. Not sure how much of it is the weird-out weather, or if it’s a sign we’re all just too wrapped up in our own little shells, or all too damned busy to notice much of anything going on around us, or something else altogether entirely. The last few days, with their ample sunshine and absence of fits of rain, have made me breathe a little easier (although, honestly, a little less easier since allergies formerly foreign to me have been visiting as of late). I was able to get my hands in the dirt which always helps. Still things seem a long way off from what they used to be. I kind of hate the thought of turning into one of those continual lamenters of times past, but this time seems there’s some justification (and hopefully value?) to it.
I know this is off topic here, but I just ran across an interesting article that may be of interest. In fact, if anyone makes donations to charitable organizations you should check this out:
http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/
I saw this too! Useful to have reliable info collected on groups that are asking for your money. I have a friend/fellow blogger who got rather enraged at some of the seedier tactics used, and posted this awhile back …the blogger was miffed after taking the time to open unsolicited mail from the Smile Train and Operation Smile people, and sent out a call for donations from the presidents of the two charity organizations. I got a quick update from her — she never heard a word from them. Figures.
A number of times, one recently, I heard about taking small amounts of local honey (the real stuff, not store/ processed) to help get rid of or reduce the effects of allergies. Local collected is important since it will have local pollens, and starting with small amounts since it may trigger a reaction. I’ve never looked into this much but I am sure the internet has plenty of info. I think I last heard about this on a podcast with ‘Dr Bones and nurse Amy’. They were recently on TheSurvivalPodcast.com (I should get paid for how often I mention that site 🙂 talking about their new & expanded book. I have their original book which is basically what to do when there are no medical professionals around, or what to do while waiting for one.
I need to get some sort of basic medical kit together. The bottle of iodine I keep in my tool bag at work has it’s limitations!
At least for me, I think a good part of the problem of isolation is work. Over the years it has gone from an 8 hour work day to a hopefully only 8 hour work day, to hopefully 8 hours plus being on call. Luckily with last year’s work transfer there is now no standby and only occasional overtime. I still don’t seem to have a whole lot more time, but especially on weekends with no more standby there is less stress. When not working I don’t like doing things on a schedule, I guess I get enough of that at work.
I heard somewhere that when things get bad or stressful people tend to watch old TV shows from the 50’s and 60’s, the ‘good old days’ as they say. If that’s true things must be pretty bad since I’ve been watching some of those shows again, and even some silent movies. Some of those silent movies are pretty amazing.
So far I have 9 small stevia plants which I started from seeds. Still small, they are getting nice and once large enough I will move them for better separation. I keep them watered well and use another plant to partially shade them. I am trying not to kill them like last year! My attempt to grow wormwood from last year’s dried flowers produced nothing. I think I still have some seeds left over from last year to plant.
Already I can see the problem trying to rescue some of this stuff come winter with limited space for them to get enough sun. As plants get large enough to need bigger pots they stop fitting on the somewhat small window sills. All but one Red Ti plants are outside. Pretty nice now they have not been window sill size for quite a while and take up most of the prime winter sun space. Luckily a few things like strawberries have no problem being outside all winter.