Dammit, it's autumn. It's official now, so far as I'm concerned. The top photo shows a wave of dark non-summery clouds sweeping into downtown today, right around sunset. Soon it'll begin raining in earnest. No more of this overnight drizzle nonsense; it'll be coming down in buckets, for days, no, for weeks at a time, and I'll have to keep explaining that, yes, that really is a color photo, it's just that everything here is grey. What, grey isn't your favorite color? Is that what you're trying to tell me?
At least we get a bit of fall foliage first (photo #2), although it's nothing like what you'd see in New England or upstate New York. Somehow we make do.
I realize I've been wringing my hands about the seasons a lot lately, as if there was anything I could do about it, I mean, other than buying a monstrous CO2-belching SUV. And with all this blabbering on about foliage and the seasons, I sound like I'm 70 years old, which I'm not. That, or I'm acting like I've never seen any of this before. Somehow having a digital camera and a blog makes you notice the little things more than you otherwise would. I categorically reject any suggestion that I've taken an interest now because I'm not a spring chicken anymore, or that I just don't have anything better to do. And shame on you for even thinking that. Bad! Naughty!
Creatures with a bit more sense than us (oh, and wings) will be migrating soon. And on a not-entirely-unrelated note, it turns out that our fair city is the "Retail" Birthplace of U-Haul. Who knew? There's a historical marker and everything, although you have to trek out to 88th & Foster to find it. (Or so we're told, anyway. I just found this on the net, and that's all I know about it.)
On a more unrelated note, I've finally figured out something that's been puzzling me for months now. At several spots along the streetcar line, and at other locations in the Pearl, there are these motion-sensored spotlights with solar panels attached, aimed at the sidewalk. Sometimes they trigger and click on when you walk by, which can be a little surprising. There's one on SW 10th around Stark or Alder or Washington that clicks on and illuminates a manhole cover in the sidewalk. The first time I saw this it startled me. I thought it must be some sort of inexplicable homeland security measure or utility maintenance aid or something. Turns out the spotlights are part of an art installation titled More Everyday Sunshine, by Harrell Fletcher. It all makes sense now. I had a feeling it might be art, but it isn't labelled anywhere, and the equipment for each light is quite utilitarian, so it was hard to be sure.
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