Haluški: FIVE SECOND STORIES

In the neighborhood:

9/24: A rainy morning:

All day, big towers of clouds moved around us.

We've had an inch of rain this week and everyone is breathing easier. I feel that stress has gone down but we're not out of the woods yet—we're at least an inch below normal average for this month and no rain in sight for the next 10 days. I mowed the yard for the first time in weeks and deep-watered Ms. Forsythia and Mrs. Krabappel while I was mowing. The month closes with lovely weather: temps around 80° with comfy evenings for good sleeping. Double-bonus: late season tomatoes! Both the mid-size and cherry toms are continuing to ripen. Yay!

Afternoon shadows and light. It's only 5pm!

C cleaned out the department frig again and added old pizza to a failed apple/vegan sausage and mash dish of mine on the buffet. M/M Blue Jay stopped by for the peanuts. I think they are a mating pair who will overwinter together. Jays mate for life and are known to give gifts to each other—peanuts, leaves for nests etal.

MamaC went for the mash!

The next morning, not a scrap remained!

MamaNutkin stopped by and had a drink. Gnomes Cyril and Michal are wearing their new forest gear:

I've been noticing small nuthatches at the feeder and on the Birch. I thought it must be one of this year's brood rather than a female and research seems to verify this. Usually, kids hang out with Mom and Dad until late Autumn when they go off to find their own territory and a place to live.

Another afternoon, and the Jays stopped by for some peanuts:

MomNutkin and child at the buffet:

The unwanted tangerine, who joins celery as top unwanted buffet items by our customers at the Diner:

One of LG's identifying marks are 2 dark bands on his tail:

A fine afternoon for Buddy to chill on a deck chair, while a BigTail noses around by the Callas:

All the Rose of Sharons are fenced in now. I removed the fence around the peonies as I read that their leaves have a bitter taste. Deer dislike them and rabbits and chucks may sample but end up saying "ptooey". We'll see how this works out. Potential for a challenge game where contestants vie for prizes on how much they can stand to eat. "Hot Ones", where celebrities eat increasingly hot chicken wings is the human version.

The peonies have been struggling since their transplanting. I'm hoping 2/3 will come up next Spring.

In the East Garden, nearly all the Sharons are reblooming, the butterfly bushes are still producing blooms. I only see the white cabbage butterflies around and occasionally, a small butterfly that is a bit bigger than a half dollar. I think it is a pearl crescent.

Long shadows in the Back 40:

While the front is sunny:

Our yard signs:

9/28-30: sunny with crystal blue skies all day long. Recently, we've had a string of nice days but usually by 1 pm, the bright white puffy clouds would begin to form.

Early evening out front:

A single red leaf:

Tomato harvest with more to come:

#cutebuddypics: he is well-known for making circles with his tail:

C paused a belly rub session in order to eat and Bud's lingering enjoyment:

A couple of Five Second Stories:

A Late Saturday Afternoon in the Fall

I was walking into the kitchen when I encountered a naked woman, who had just popped the cap off a n/a Heineken and with it in hand along with a paperback (C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader), was heading for a lengthy, florally aromatic, hot soak in the tub.

A Twilight Zone tale:

The Magic Fortune Cookies

Early in their marriage, a young couple began eating at a Chinese restaurant owned and run by a husband and wife. The couple quickly discovered that their fortune cookie messages always came true. These were not commercially made—the wife made them by hand. For over 50 years, the couple enjoyed not only good food but uninterrupted good luck in their lives. This came to an end when the wife died and her husband closed the business. From that day forward, the couple's good fortune ceased and their lives spiraled and collapsed.

A lesson from the Great British Bake Off: the curse of the extract. Use too much and the flavor becomes artificial resulting in a scolding by Prue and Paul. Sure, it's convenient but beware. Of special note: rosewater. Too much turns the flavor into a soapy mess.

Earlier this year, there was big excitement in Lansing for some folks, caused by rumors of a Buc-ees coming here. That's right, people are ecstatic about a giant gas station and it's expansive retail space featuring convenience store food such as Texas style BBQ, in-house made fudge, beaver nuggets—a sweet, puffed corn snack and a wide selection of branded merch. Buc-ees, a Texas-based chain is also prized for it's clean restrooms. Currently, the nearest one is over 400 miles away.

I was surfing YT the other day and I noticed many ads, presumably featuring some celebrity—either from film or sport—that I did not recognize. This brought to mind the old MAD magazine feature: You Know You're Getting Old When...you don't know or have heard of current celebrities.

There's a couple of storm systems in the Caribbean, one already a hurricane named Humberto, that potentially demonstrate the Fujiwhara Effect—a term I have never heard of. The Fujiwhara effect, sometimes referred to as the Fujiwhara interaction or binary interaction, is a phenomenon that occurs when two nearby cyclonic vortices move around each other and close the distance between the circulations of their corresponding low-pressure areas.

9/27: The concern is that they might meld into a giant storm and hit the US with devastating effect. Awful under normal circumstances but now, thanks the DOGE insanity and prevailing attitude by the administration that "you're on your own". Look at what happened to the folks who were hit by Helene a year ago this month. They are struggling just to get food into the mountains no less get damage cleared and begin rebuilding.

9/28: The forecast now is thinking Humberto, well out in the Atlantic as it turns and tracks East away from mainland US, will pull the other tropical system, which may form into a Catagory 1 hurricane named Imelda, to the East as well.