A Very Long Day's Night

I had forgotten that the lunar eclipse was last night until just before it started so I hadn't taken a nap or otherwise prepared and was pretty well wiped out by show time.

Nevertheless, my brother and I took my telescopic Christmas present outside and spent some time alternating between the Moon and Mars. Mars, although much smaller, was brighter and a lighter, cleaner, friendlier red. The Moon was angrier, mottled by the intrinsic difference in brightness between the maria and the highlands. As the Moon darkened, Spica, which is currently just south of it and invisible in the glare of fullness, became temporarily prominent.

And then, once more, just as with every other astronomical event I try to watch, the clouds slid in. Thin, high cirrus, not thoroughly blocking naked eye viewing but destroying any chance of seeing through the telescope. Just before totality the Moon was obscured and Mars followed shortly. My brother went inside. I stayed out for a while and there were, indeed, moments where gaps allowed me to see a beautiful deep red eclipse but they were few and fleeting.

I packed up, finally, about 4 a.m. and went in. My brother had fallen asleep. I went out a couple more times without the 'scope but, although there was clear viewing off to the west, the clouds were coming up from the south and continued to hide the Moon and Mars.

I turned on NASA TV and tried to watch there but their music was awful and, in any event, clouds (perhaps the same high cirrus. Does NASA film from Kennedy Space Center?) soon swept across their shots, too.

Eternally optimistic, I now await the Leonids on Thursday. They should be coming right out of Mars. Unless there are clouds.

UPDATE:
Rain all afternoon and into the evening, frequently heavy. Clouds all night and today. Rain forecast for this afternoon and evening.

No Leonids meteor shower for us.

At the Sisyphus Garage

I've mentioned before my redneck brother's tendency to shop by price alone, hence his willingness to patronize WalMart for the slightly lower price without noticing the slightly smaller package size and slightly lower quality, but this series of truck repairs can not be blamed entirely on his choice of barely competent mechanics just because they charge less than his old one.

His truck was in and out (mostly in) the shop last week for headlight problems. Specifically, he didn't have any high beams. So he took it in for what should have been a simple replacement.

Tuesday: They put in new lamps and managed to disconnect the low beams. He brought it back.

Wednesday: They reconnected the low beams and managed to disconnect one of the new high beams. He brought it back.

Thursday: They broke the grill. He left it there overnight.

Friday: They installed a new grill. They double-checked all the connections and the alignments and guaranteed everything was in working order, which it was. My brother took it to work where one of his co-workers backed into him denting the grill and breaking one of the lamps.

The bozos at his garage got a big laugh out of that because, hey, at least it wasn't their fault.

This time.

Telling Time by the Pint

It's hard to believe I've been down here in Florida this long. The blood center at the hospital just sent me my seven gallon certificate.

At 8 pints per gallon, figuring in a donation every four weeks (next one is coming up on Thursday), allowing for maybe not starting right on the first month I got here and missing a few scheduled sessions because of either forgetting to stop my aspirin in time or complications (infiltrations, a collapsed vein, etc.), I'm still coming up on five years down here.

And the worst part is, I'm getting used to it, too. A lot of the redneck behavior is starting to seem more-or-less normal. I'm beginning to understand (although, thankfully, not yet sympathize with) the local politics. The endless procession of identical sunny days. 65F seems downright chilly, now, when the sun is behind clouds.

I may have to move back to someplace with seasons.

One of the Inmates May Be Making A Break For It

Neighbor Mike may be serious about moving.

First he had someone come in and officially delineate the property line between him and us. Shortly after that a family with a young daughter was wandering through his back yard. Last week a fat old beagle, answering to the name "Jersey," came snuffling around our lanai and two gentlemen I have never seen before came from behind Mike's house, apologized, and guided him back to their side. I suspect the parties in both instances may have been potential marks casing the joint.

This weekend there were a number of vehicles parked in Mike's driveway and along the side of the road in front of his place. Either they were friends/relatives there for an impromptu (and very quiet) daytime party, or he was holding some sort of garage sale to unload stuff he has no intention of packing when he goes.

He's being very discreet. There is no Sale sign in front of his place. So, no gawkers. Interested parties only, and through an agent.

I have noticed a number of new For Sale signs popping up around town in front of houses that are obviously occupied and well-tended so, apparently, the market is finally coming back up pretty near the lip of the crater that was the aftermath of the 2008 crash.

Who wants to be our neighbor? Can we get you to mow our side of the line, like Mike did? (Bonus: He tended to use our mower which he often borrowed without asking. We took his ladders. We're all kind of a commune that way.)

Otherwise, Yeah, It's Been Pretty Boring Around Here Lately

I find it hard to believe the geography on the other side of the road is that much different from our side but, apparently, it is because the sidewalk construction crew is improvising on the fly as they work their way back north.

Our side proceeded in a strict linear progression. I took a look at the other side as it moves closer and they're all over the place. There's about fifteen feet completed at the beginning of the project followed by a section where the forms have been placed but nothing poured, followed by another completed section, followed by a long scraped area interrupted by several driveways (at least one of which they have already rebuilt), followed by another completed section and ending up close to our place in a long patch with the forms installed.

It would seem there are some significant but otherwise not very noticeable low places that require filling in for which they were not prepared. There are a number of semi-buried drainage pipes along that side of the road. Perhaps they are afraid of altering the water flow. In any case, the work zone looks extremely haphazard and not nearly the model of managerial co-ordination that swept past us last month.

Large dump trucks keep dropping of mounds of dirt in the empty field across the way and the front loader shuttles back and forth carting the stuff away again but I see no more finished sidewalk than I did two weeks ago.

Miscellanea

We're still officially in the middle of Dry Season. (We are also in the middle of The Season, and High Season, both involving tourists from up north and the money they bring with. We have lots of overlapping "Seasons.") So, of course, tthe first big thunderstorm of the year arrived at noon, exactly as predicted, and my brother announced that his truck was dead. Fortunately, just the battery, so we spent a few minutes in the pouring rain using my new battery to jump his.

The sidewalk construction is over (directly in front of us, anyway). Tuesday morning a gang of six or seven came by with the front loader. It was carrying a stacked cube of lawn turves, each like a large flooring tile about two feet on a side. When the scraper went through at the start of construction, the path it made was more a suggestion of where the sidewalk could go rather than the exact line it would take and so the scraped area was a couple times wider than the ultimate installation. This bunch was filling in the divots, as it were, walking along beside the front loader as it crawled down the street, pulling turves from the stack and plopping them in place on both sides of the sidewalk. It was absolutely the largest crew I've seen working on any aspect of this project. When they were gone, the guy with the leaf blower came down the street again al by himself, pushing their dirt and droppings off the road, cleaning up after the parade. Today the cones came down and we are officially out of the construction zone.

The mango tree is covered, engulfed, smothered in blossoms. If even one per cent of them survive to become fruit we are going to be buried this summer. We gave away half our crop last year, ate mangoes every day for six months (mango ice cream, bowls of mango and mixed fruit, pancakes and French toast topped with mangoes, chilled mango salad, sweet potatoes with mango glaze, mango salsa, mango lassi, mango chutney, . . .), and we still have stocks in the freezer.

Progress Passes By

And we have a sidewalk.

On Friday, the workers came by and poured a slab about half the distance along our property. Unlike the old days where they would pour each small (maybe four foot long) section individually, they made one big long pour. Maybe they still do it the old way up north where there is danger of expansion and contraction while the concrete is curing but down here that doesn't seem to be an issue. Yesterday morning they came back and poured the rest in an equally long section.

While they were laying down the second pour, a guy with a stone cutter saw worked on the first, now mostly dry, section and carved little fake section lines crosswise at regular intervals so it looks like a traditional sidewalk. When they were done pouring, one guy came back with a squeegee broom and carefully brushed the concrete level texturing it (also crosswise) while two other went down to the end at the intersection between the sidewalk road and our little street and laid down a bright yellow, knobbly textured plastic mat to mark the end of the walk for the vision-impaired and tamped it down to road level eliminate and curb effect. They stood on it for a moment and then placed custom designed weights on it and left them while the concrete set.

Today, they were back one last time. The stonecutter sliced his lines into the second pour, which was already dry enough to walk on, They pulled the metal guide rails out of the entire strip and a guy with a leaf blower went up and down the bike lane blowing all the dust and debris back off the road. Now they're all across our street, working away along Neighbor Dan's place. They're almost to the end of the road and might have the west-side sidewalk completely in before St. Patrick's Day.

Then we get to watch the rest of the summer while they move back north working on the east side of the road.