One Moment in Time.....

Wednesday, September 21st I stood up to close the blinds in the family room....the setting sun was coming in and reflecting off the TV screen. Within moments I moved outside onto our apartment's small deck. The view is to the west and the colors painted by the setting sun were just amazing.

As I turned from south to north and snapped a few quick pictures the colors changed but the beauty continued. Sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time and Mother Nature gives you a priceless gift. 

So glad someone invented phones that take pictures! If I had to go and find our camera and get outside the moment would have been over. 

The Big Guy in the Neighborhood....

Fenway and I have our "normal" routes when we walk. Usually head two blocks east and walk around a "triangle" park and then head home. Or we go two blocks west to another "triangle" park....or sometimes up Stowell Avenue two blocks and straight back. Once in awhile we head the five blocks to the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. 

One day Dave came back from his turn with Fen and told me to check out the tree just northeast of us. He said it was one of the biggest trees he'd seen in a long time. So yesterday we went north on Stowell for one block before turning west to the first corner. And there it was!

This beauty towers over the house and takes up the whole front yard. It must provide wonderful shade for the whole house on hot days! I didn't get close enough to check out what kind of tree it is, but the trunk must measure six+ feet around. Look how tiny the cars look parked just below it's branches!

It really is the Big Guy in our neighborhood!

Back Off....

I left the garage mid-morning to run a few errands at stores just north of our apartment. A familiar route, I go through some nice neighborhoods and drive along the lake. On the way I pass some really huge homes with frontage on Lake Michigan. Usually all I can think is "I wonder what it takes to heat that place.' But, then again, if you can afford to buy the mansion and live there, the cost of heat probably never enters the equation.

This trip my eyes remained glued on the vehicle just in front of me. I had some concerns when this small truck met me at a four way stop and pulled out ahead of me. 

Maybe his "collection" was well anchored but it certainly looked a bit "iffy" to me. There was no way to safely pass him so I decided that caution would be the better decision. I slowed down and stayed well back of the truck. Within a few blocks he turned a corner and I felt a sense of relief as I sped up and moved more quickly to my destination. 

Maybe there were a lot of hidden bungee cords holding everything in place?

And So 13.....

We brought him home when he was eight weeks old....a handful of black and white cuteness.

Our first "small dog" after owning a boxer for more than 11 years. We loved our boxer, Daisy, and it broke our hearts when we had to say goodbye to her. It was many years before we decided to get another dog to add a little activity and laughter to our home. We felt we needed to "downsize" so decided on a Boston Terrier......and brought home little Mr. Fenway Underfoot Woodard.

All these years he's provided smiles and laughter and made us exercise. Walking Fenway everyday is just really "fun"....watching him stop to sniff a tree, or a pile of dead leaves or a stick. What is it on that stick that attracts his attention and makes him leave his "mark" behind. We can walk the same route day after day, but following Fenway's back leg criss-cross walk just makes us smile. 

Today is his 13th birthday! 13 years of this extra little personality in our home. So yes, we loved our boxer, but his guy.....this guy owns our hearts. Dave and I both get teary-eyed when we even think about having to say goodbye to him. 

Happy Birthday Favorite Fenway.....stick around for a few more years....please, please, please!

We Take It For Granted....

I enjoy my first-of-the-day walk with Fenway....it's quiet outside, not too much traffic, a few other walkers. We usually make it out the door about 6:45 or so. As we go east we have to wait for the automatic sprinkler to spray the ECP corner garden near the gazebo so we don't catch the last of the spray on the sidewalk. A few seconds pause and we are on our way again.

Today we continued straight east toward Lake Michigan, about four blocks away. A short walk along the top of the bluff and then we head back west toward ECP for Fen's breakfast and my first cup of coffee. There are some nice houses and gardens in the few blocks of our route. Historically the east side of Milwaukee has some of the larger homes lovely and interesting architecture. As I passed close to one house I thought maybe a water pipe was broken because water was streaming down the driveway and into the gutter at the curb.

As I got closer I realized that it was another sprinkler system aimed at their yard and the lovely flowering bushes along the driveway.

Goodness knows I enjoy walking along and noticing everyone's colorful blooms this time of year. I know that in only a few more weeks these bright spots will be replaced with a fall palette and then the white-grey of winter. We never had an automatic sprinkler system in any of the houses we owned. We watered the flowers with our hose and had one of those automatic go-back-and-forth-and-move-it-periodically sprinklers for the lawns. (The kind the kids used to love to jump and run through in their swim suits when they were young.)

I don't envy my neighbors, or fault them in any way. But just for a brief moment, watching that clean water run into the street and down the gutter Jackson, Mississippi flashed in my mind. Areas in our Country and around the world suffering crippling, deadly and long lasting droughts made me look at the water in a different way. 

We take it for granted....turn on the taps or set the timer and the water comes. I wonder how much longer before my city's infrastructure begins to fail or the Midwest climate changes so much that we need to carefully monitor every drop. Probably sooner rather than later.....and most likely after I'm dead.