Collectables

I have a lovely friend on Live Journal, with some rather artistic inclinations. This is one of her wallpapers:

Sugarpine

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She creates icons and wallpapers, mostly based on astronomic images and themes. She's an astronomy buff and her talents are on this website, for all to see and share:

http://community.livejournal.com/solstation/

I'll hope you'll visit and take advantage of her wonderful works!

I drove home in a roaring thunder storm, inundated with sheets of rain so heavy I could see only the pair of back lights ahead of me. There were long, jagged bolts of lightning every 2 - 3 minutes and thunder that crashed through the sound of the road as I drove. Either that or the sky lit up with distant lightning like a light bulb being turned on and off.

It was a stressful and difficult ride, made worse by a migraine that had pounded through my head all day. My head was as ready to explode as the world around me. I drove slowly and tried to avoid the washed out parts of the road.

I came home to a scene of ruin in at least parts of my garden. Several of my snapdragons had been ripped out literally by the roots and lay flat against the ground. One was either dead or nearly so. A few survived, but I think most of my snaps are goners. Everything else is drenched and beaten down. No hail, but horrific nonetheless.

This should not be happening: not here, in the American northeast. We get rain, of course, but not like this and not accompanied by incessant - and violent - thunder and lightning. Tampa, Florida, okay, but not Boston, Massachusetts. We don't get that kind of weather and neither or eco-system nor our physical infrastructure can take it. This is not a tropical region with regular hurricanes and storms. Plants do not get ripped out by the roots here. It just doesn't happen.

Well...just didn't happen, I guess.

IMG00046.jpg

Blown Asunder.jpg

Snapdragons Down.jpg

The Survivors.jpg

More storms, with hail. My husband said there were huge chunks of hail raining down from the sky. Good God, what is going on here?

Here's what I came home to today:

I'm Drowning!.jpg

And talk about flat:

Flattened Flowers.jpg

I just had my first sip of iced tea, made from a chocolate mint plant. The plant does have a mild aroma of chocolate about it, but I wasn't expecting anything beyond that.

But, to my surprise, chocolate mint actually TASTES like chocolate mint! There's no sugar, of course, but the after-taste has definite chocolate overtones.

Man, this is fun! I also have a pineapple mint. Will that taste like pineapple? I'll be finding out soon enough!

But...cool!

Will somebody tell me? It's been pouring, soaking rain in Boston for the past few days - like you'd get in a southern climate with daily downpours. But, that's not supposed to happen in Boston. This afternoon we had another roaring downpour, after another one yesterday and one predicted for tomorrow.

My husband said there was hail in Arlington, where we live. My plants are flattened! I've never seen anything like this. We're not supposed to get monsoon rains in the American northeast!

Global climate change? Who can look outside and see what's going on and then deny that?

Holy cow. This crap scares me.

George Carlin died today, at the ripe young age of 71. Too bad. He was a rough-edge guy, but managed to put a spin on things that very few others could. I still remember his monologues about growing up Catholic and howling over it in the 1970s with all my relatives!

Here's one of my favorite skits of his, which displays the genius he had for taking the mundane and making it hilarious!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz4qm_george-carlin-common-experiences_family

Football and baseball. Only makes sense if you're from the US! But...funny!

I had too much fun making this one tonight not to show you!

Look before you leap!