#when i went to a meeting about a new bike lane in this horrible stretch of traffic and the engineers were like

[nalgenes]

i do want to have a career that is related in some way to environmental/urban planning because that is something i do have a real interest and passion in… however… the rate at which things get accomplished in those fields is actually horrifying to me. everything i’ve heard from people who work in those jobs is like

“we have this great plan that would be really amazing for literally everyone. it needs to be reviewed by 6 separate boards who have a waiting list of 9 months, redesigned after each review, voted on by the council at least 5 times, and we won’t get funds unless we POSSIBLY get a grant that is offered once every 5 years. and at any point the state could reject it entirely. we hope to start construction in 2040”

[fatehbaz]

When the G0lden C0rral burned down. (Edit: By the way, I am completely serious about the town’s appreciation for G0lden C0rral, and fighting hard to install a Chil!’s, and being deliriously in love with @pplebee’s to the point of writing letters to the editor about the joy of happy hour deals. And I definitely remember one woman did explicitly mention @pplebee’s in the context of “why we need a Chil!’s.” These events took place in years before the internet eventually targeted those franchises as the punchline of jokes about the dying of quintessential Middle America iconography and “tradition.” So, looking back, it seems like an eerily-appropriate hallucinogenic vision of the decline of Americana, custom-made to service mid-2010s jokes.)

When I was in high school, the staff received news that the town’s local G0lden C0rral buffet was currently on fire and might be destroyed, and this was evidently a big deal because this town was dying, and everyone was painfully aware of the fact. And the town had obsessive, truly obsessive, nostalgia for its heyday in the 1940s, when they had become vain, intoxicated by money from coal, natural gas, the US military, and corporate monoculture growing grains for expanding 1950s cereal brands. But by the time of the fire at the restaurant, all of that was gone, over, done. A sadness hung over the town. The major events reported in the paper in the recent decades were: UFO sightings, businesses closing, more UFO sightings, racist assaults, drunk driving accidents, and gruesome murders. People got off work, drove (speeding through residential roadways) directly home, locked their door, made sure blinds were closed. (To this day, when I meet people also from that area, they will offer unsolicited comments about their relief for having escaped “the black hole.”) And so at various restaurants and business and homes across town, there often hung black-and-white photos of “the Good Days” and the polished cobblestone walkways of the still-living downtown district. (Meanwhile smoke rose from the campfires at the shantytown on the hillside, where “non-desirables” were sentenced to live. One time, at a small art museum, I saw a photo of a wealthy white couple in the 1950s, very well-dressed, taken outside of a fine restaurant, and the columns of smoke. I asked one of the museum curators about it. She said “oh, that’s where the Native people lived” because the city wouldn’t lend or rent to them.) And so the town cherished gaudy mid-20th-century Americana, and they couldn’t bear to lose a G0lden C0rral.

I biked everywhere, all day, though I did have a vehicle. They shouted slurs at me all the time, and I had full beer cans and liquor bottles thrown at me by vehicle drivers multiple times for having the audacity to ride a bike. The year after the fire, when the town was offered “free” financial assistance from the state to install bike lanes, at a public comment session, there was a line so long it extended out the door of the city council office. People had all kinds of antisemitic and strange violent things to say about how “the Californians want us to install bike lanes” and “the New World Order is trying to impose this hippie bullshit” and “it’s a plot against coal and oil and gas to diminish vehicle use.” I’m dead serious, those comments were recorded in the paper. Around that same time, the town was also deciding what to do with a nice empty lot in the only relatively successful commercial center. The options were: (1) Install a complex with a locally-owned taqueria, a bistro using produce only from local farms, and some other quaint business. Or (2) bring in a Chil!’s franchise. People were stoked about the potential for a Chil!’s. It was a Big Deal. Once again, and I am not making this up, the line at the public comment session was so long that it stretched out the door. After many angry comments (again, not making this up), the town chose to install the Chil!’s, with at least one article in the paper quoting someone who advocated for the Chil!’s because the local @pplebee’s had recently ended some deals and began closing earlier.

During the same year period as the fire at the buffet, I had been sitting at a pleasant neighborhood park when multiple cop cars showed up, suddenly. Cops swarmed a pick-up truck, with shotguns aimed directly at the head of a teenager, high school student. More than 10 cops, all guns drawn. I was sitting 3 meters away. I immediately asked one cop if I could leave, and they told me “no,” and so I got to witness the dialogue. The cops had tracked these kids, hunted them down, because they threw a plastic Peps! bottle out of their window earlier that afternoon, but they made the mistake of doing it in the wealthy neighborhood. And so a woman thought the bottle might have been made out of glass, and therefore “threatened the life of her dog” (if the dog ingested glass I guess?). She immediately called the cops, hence the military occupation of this nice little park, and that was the excuse for terrifying these kids with the shotguns. Coincidentally, the G0lden C0rral itself was only a few blocks from where a younger me had watched the draining and destruction of my favorite vernal pool and frog pond. So I had despised development, the destruction of the prairie, and the Hallmark-Card-wannabe posturing of the town for years, always disturbed by the horrible violent past (and present), etc. Had been repeatedly talked to by school district administrators and “concerned parents” of fellow students and “ex-friends” for activism and related “political stunts” from the time I was like 13 onward. And after spending years in this place, watching the town destroy all the native prairie for Chil!’s franchises and watching the townsfolk yell about the Jewish plot to install bike lanes to defeat the Beloved Gas Industry, I was ready to witness what fate had in store for this classic buffet franchise.

So when news came of the fire at G0lden C0rral, I stood up, and straight-up walked out of the room. Skipped class. Got in my vehicle. Drove directly to the burning building.

Firefighters had set up a perimiter, so I parked as close as possible. (About 50 meters or so.) I was sipping loose-leaf tea from an insulated water bottle. And the place did burn down. The firefighters had apparently determined that there was no salvaging the place, and so they let the fire take its course. It took about 30 minutes, but the fire eventually reached gas lines in the kitchen, and there was big explosion, and some glass panels blew out while part of the roof erupted into smoldering wooden shards.

It was a sunny day. Immediately afterwards, I went home and took a nap. I slept well. Moved away from that place within a year.

[sussex-nature-lover]

Thursday 14th May 2020

Come on Better Weather please

It’s strange making a resolution to write a blog every day and keeping going even when there doesn’t seem to be that much to write about. It’s also strange writing and ‘publishing’ your thoughts when A) you’ve only ever written business communications or to friends before and B) you don’t know who your audience may be, or even if you’ve got one.

I said that to someone yesterday, but actually I overlooked the fact that I do write a monthly column for a local magazine. I run our village Neighbourhood Watch Scheme and over time it’s morphed to include some of the next village along. I don’t hold meetings, just communicate by email and phone and update people as and when anything crops up. I send out reminders of crime prevention advice and local trends just so people stay vigilant. It’s not an area where very much happens, some break ins and thefts from garages, sheds, stables and quad bikes etc. can be vulnerable, which is a nationwide trend.

My own ethos for Neighbourhood Watch is based on Community Spirit and also that you never know who might be about, so remember to be on your guard and not casual about your possessions and home security -  and so it is with wildlife.  I always maintain that just because you haven’t seen it, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there, which brings me back to last evening.

Yesterday I titled my Blog ‘Indoors’ and just before dusk, I had to snatch up the camera from the seat beside me and grab some shots. We had Intruders!

The lamp was lit and reflections obstruct the view, but there they are, two FALLOW DEER

There’s not a lot to say about the visit except that they were larger than they look here and that at one stage they found the big branch of the damaged tree and had a snack from that. So I shall just post my photos for you to enjoy.

Note for S, if you read this I don’t know if they’d visited you too but they went off in the opposite direction

It’s funny how I’d only said the other day I was looking across the lane from a bedroom window to see if there were any Deer in the fields. I do know they roam freely though as apart from our own spottings, last year at least half a dozen new DEER warning signs appeared along the length of our lane and not before time. Sadly we’ve witnessed a couple that have been struck by cars over recent years and indeed our own car was struck by one that took a flying leap over a fence and ran into the rear driver side. The bang was enormous but the only real damage was fright, to us and I suppose to the Deer, who, pride wounded only, carried on its journey. Car at a sudden halt, we sat stationary for a few moments, me with hand on heart, both relieved that it hadn’t been any worse.

With my Neighbourhood Watch hat on, I’ve read that it’s estimated 74,000 pa Deer are involved in collisions on the road. Here is Government advice for drivers LINK which is worth a read. Speeding and not paying attention to what else might be on the road is something that makes me so angry. The amount of road kill you see in such a small area is very distressing indeed.

In short I’d say that it’s important to familiarise yourself with known Deer Routes and crossings in your locality and always remember that an initial runner in the road, or a straggler, is not alone. If you see one, take care and look out for more.

Not that this was the case when we were coming home after work one early evening and a woman had stopped her car in the lane ahead of us. We were coming up to a T Junction with one of those left-right splits...a little grass division with a fingerpost sign in the middle. Ahead of us was a huge, magnificent Stag, just standing there alone and a bit bemused. It was a delicate situation, as behind him was the main road, albeit a B Road, it’s a thoroughfare and on a straight stretch where motorists ignore the speed limit. OH and the other driver stood in the main road to flag down traffic (luckily none came along) and I walked very slowly and carefully towards the Stag, who after some confusion turned, ran and leapt like a racehorse over the hedge on to the cricket field. Afterwards I felt a huge sense of relief and a teeny bit heroic - shouldn’t admit that really, but I did feel it was a job well done (that had potential to go horribly wrong in more than one way)

It hasn’t happened for ages, not least because we’ve not been out and about, but we do seem to encounter wildlife in a fix: I wouldn’t say I’m a natural by any stretch of the imagination, more that I’m fearful of what might happen if they’re left. Twice I’ve untangled sheep from hedges

Twice I’ve guided sheep off the road back into their field. Once I managed to herd some cows back to their field after a gate had been left open (even though I’m quite nervous of cows: I always feel a sense of disquiet as though they may suddenly marshal themselves and stampede (it’s not unknown though is it)  Luckily all of these encounters were in very quiet locations and no harm had been done.

Another time I alerted the farmer to a calf who’d got the remnants of a burst balloon and string - you can just see it in red in the photo below.

That’s another thing that makes me angry, sky lanterns, balloons, all let go without any thought of the eventual consequences and Litter! Absolutely astonishing the amount of trash liberally distributed around the environment and I don’t only mean fly tipping (which has happened in our lane. I reported on line and our Council were very quick to deal with it, thankfully) 

Apologies, I started with nice photos of Deer in the garden and ended up having a bit of a rant. It’s all important stuff though isn’t it, I was brought up with principles of cleanliness and tidiness ‘KEEP BRITAIN TIDY’ remember that? Well, it’s never gone away and they now have a #lovewhereyoulive slogan as well, see HERE

That reminds me, for many years when we were commuting through the next village we’d see an elderly gentleman picking up litter. Whatever the weather he’d be out by 8am patrolling the main street with his stick and his carrier. He was utterly dependable and public spirited...an inspiration too as we always take a plastic glove and a bag when we go out walking. He may not be around any more, but his example has left a mark on the world.

Hopefully something good to come out of the Coronavirus pandemic will be higher standards, more hand washing, more frequent clothes washing, no feet on seats, take your rubbish home with you (or dispose of properly) less waste, less pollution and importantly - more care and thought. We can but hope.

Anyway, got all that off my chest and so to

NEST BOX WATCH:

Side Wall: House Sparrows - plenty of noise, plenty of activity.No sign of fledging as yet.

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