9/9/2021: Submerging myself in the bath tub around 10 pm, I was watching a show over the cell phone, when I heard a rumbling sound, a sound in my distant memory that resembles thunder. I turned down the cell phone, and asked him in the next room if he heard something, and if that was a thunder, a very rare weather phenomenon we ever experienced here. My suspicion was soon confirmed as another deafening thunder banged afar. I was scared and hurried out of the tub, putting on clothes as if cladding myself with protections. Quick rain soon followed, but it only lasted for a few minutes. But the lightning lingered in the sky, flashing amid the dark night clouds.
9/10/2021: However, the rain did not relieve us as expected and the monsoonal weather continued. Friday night, I dozed off in front of a TV, and when I woke up, I heard muffled music floating in through the open window. Was there a concert or a party somewhere? Alone in a T-shirt and a short skirt, I walked out the door. It was almost 10 pm. The day heat abated to the cool night air, and it was moonless. The neighborhood was quiet, except for the buzzing sounds the lawn sprinklers in the common areas were making as they oscillated and gushed water to thirsty lawns and bushes. I walked to the direction of music, stepping down occasionally to the driveway to evade the possible spider web under the low-hanging trees. As I turned around the corner, a row of myrtle trees in the central divider greeted me with their blooming bright purple flowers. Though no other people were seen outside at the hour, cars were still on road, whisking by to and fro. The street lights lined up uniformly on every porch or post shone the dim lights. Walking in a safe and familiar community somehow no longer made me feel safe, however inviting a serene night like this was. I turned back home after a few blocks’ walk.
9/11/2021: I woke up before 7 am in the morning, as I remember to call my brother in China. He was relentlessly on the business trip, weekdays or weekends. I rarely contact him nowadays, but tasked with some inquiries that dad entrusted me with, I had to make the call for some information, so that answers could be given to ease Dad afterwards.
After a late breakfast, I suggested going out for some fresh air, as we holed up at home for so long. We drove to a bay not too far. The sea breeze was soothing, so was the sight of people kayaking on the narrow bay. But as we hiked along an inland trail, bare and blisteringly dry, our enthusiasm soon fizzled. Later we found that it was 93F outside, and obviously we chose a wrong day to go out.
回复 '7grizzly' 的评论 : Thanks, my friend, for your visit. I actually did not know the word "everted". Your vocabulary is way above me. Yes, the trunk is very interesting. Hollowed as it is, the inner structure is intact. The knots are like bones of an animal body:))
The thunders were very frightening the other night, as if to split the sky. The weather here cools down now. Actually when I am sitting in front of an open window, I feel cold without a jacket:)) Let's hope that rain will come in due time and that the rainfalls are bountiful enough to quench the parched land. Thanks again, my friend.
7grizzly 发表评论于
The last picture looks like an everted hollowed trunk. Very interesting.
The memory of last summer's incendiary dry storms still fresh, we are lucky to have had none so far in the Bay Area. In fact, we are promised some rain in a few days. Cheers!
