Today, I did some errands, brought Marc lunch, did more errands, went to the old house to clean and pack more stuff and then went food shopping. It all felt effortless in the beautiful sunshine under a bright blue sky.
One interesting moment in my travels was this...
If you look carefully (as carefully as you can in my camera-phone photo), you'll see that the trailer in this picture looks somewhat bent. In fact, if I were able to get a shot from another angle, you'd see that its roof is torn off.
This truck remodeling is brought to us courtesy of a man who died years ago. His name was Robert Moses, a somewhat controversial figure who oversaw the development of many public works projects in the New York metropolitan area in the early/mid-20th century. For his work, there are things named for him, like Robert Moses State Park (truly a lovely place) and the Robert Moses Causeway which one may use to reach the aforementioned park.
So what does he have to do with the smashed truck? Well, take a look at that photograph. Notice the stone bridge? That's part of the story.
Mr. Moses wanted to protect Long Island's lovely beaches and parks for the more affluent folks who lived out here. Not that it's a cheap place to live now, but back in his day the people who lived here tended to be truly well off.
So how does one protect Long Island? One makes the parkway bridges too low for buses to get under. Voila! We're now safe from the city's riffraff who might otherwise try to make use of our beaches, parks, etc. :)
So, every now and then, some hapless trucker misses the "Passenger Vehicles Only" signs at the entrance to one of these parkways, and his truck gets a rather destructive haircut. It's entertaining to the rest of us, but I'm sure it ruins the poor trucker's day.
In other news, after running around all day, I decided that the day was too lovely to allow it to pass without some lazing about. So I got my hammock all set up near the red maple...
I took a book out there (I'm currently reading The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst) and proceeded to enjoy the afternoon breeze. About half an hour into my relaxation, I was treated to a sight that made it all perfect. Looking up at the tree above me, I saw a cute little woodpecker pecking away. He went from branch to branch, pecking at each one in turn. He was surprisingly quiet (usually, you can hear their pecking). Perhaps the smaller branches he happened to be attacking were softer and less prone to producing noise from his pecking. I don't really know, but I was delighted to watch him for a few minutes. Once he flew off, I returned to my reading.
Later, I moved the hammock across the yard, because it was getting too cold in the shade. When my other half came home and declared his intention to take a nap, I told him to use the hammock. That provided us with the opportunity for this lovely sight...
Alas, as he was wearing only a t-shirt, he soon declared it to be too cold, even in the sun, and came in here to finish his nap on the couch. That's where he is right now, so I believe I will go molest him, in order to wake him up. After all, he's napped long enough! ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment