Connie's Corner

Just thinking...

I finally got around to fixing my hummingbird feeder, but no sign of Mr. (or Mrs.) Hummingbird yet. I'm mezmerized by the bright, strawberry-red water. It reflects everything around it, only upside down, a twinkling, sun-drenched red teardrop.

I'm trimming the shrubs out front one at a time. It's all I can stand in this heat. The rain gave them a huge growth spurt. Plus, I have to check in on Jim every few minutes. Eventually, I will get them done.

Two homes across the street from me are empty, vacated by tenants, repossessed by banks, I think. Oodles of work is being done on one of them. I remember the original owners of that one, named Misconi, Irene and ?, not sure of his name. One was Iranian and one was Iraquian (sic), a funny combination that stuck in my brain. Irene and I were neighborly acquainted. She was a librarian, but they have been gone a long time, moved somewhere around Daytona, I think, in the 90's. The house has changed hands several times, a little farther downhill with each new owner. During one bad hurricane, water covered the front yard and nearly swallowed the mailbox. The house sets close to the entrance of my development, and the street was so flooded, we had no exit to the main street beyond. The golf course next door was kind enough to allow all of us to exit and enter across their golf cart trails. That was interesting....very narrow, one way driving. But it worked while necessary and everyone was very appreciative. People can be really nice, polite, and courteous when they want to be. The emergency brought out the best in most of us.

The worst thing I remember from that storm was the noise. The neighbor to our left had a generator (our power was out three days). He positioned it just outside his garage door (with the door down of course do he could not hear it as well). His garage was next to our bedroom...ugh....I can still hear it. It ran constantly.

We had fallen pine limbs upon pine limbs to wheelbarrow and haul out to the curb to be picked up...mountains of them. They could be no longer than four feet, and we had to saw many of them into smaller pieces. But the smell was amazing...fresh pine rosin in the air for days afterward. Actually, it's very unusual for hurricanes to affect us much since we are in the center of the northern part of Florida...hope we never have another.

until next time....c