{"id":324,"date":"2015-09-29T22:12:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T22:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/2015\/09\/29\/september-update-we-start-with-monty-python-then-move-on-to-trees\/"},"modified":"2015-09-29T22:12:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T22:12:00","slug":"september-update-we-start-with-monty-python-then-move-on-to-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/2015\/09\/29\/september-update-we-start-with-monty-python-then-move-on-to-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"September update: we start with Monty Python, then move on to trees"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jaynecravens\/21633619999\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" title=\"eric idle replies to me on Twitter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"eric idle replies to me on Twitter\" height=\"238\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/693\/21633619999_7194c47fc9.jpg\" width=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>\nYeah, so, that happened. I finally got the attention of a member of Monty Python. At least it wasn&#8217;t followed by a restraining order.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<b><span style=\"color: red;\">* &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; *<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<p>\nI have no nostalgia for the homes of my childhood, no desire to return to any of them. But curiosity got the better of me recently, and I decided to have a look on Google Street View at the house I lived in longer than any other in Henderson, Kentucky. And I was stunned: all of the trees in front of that house, and most of the trees on that part of the&nbsp;street, are gone. The street was shady in my childhood, with many of the trees heavy with blooms in the spring. I remember the smell. I remember the shade, providing relief on scorching hot days. I remember the birds, sometimes overwhelming in the noise they made in the evenings. The street now looks barren &#8211; and cheap. I wonder how much everyone&#8217;s air conditioning has gone up without all that glorious shade. It&#8217;s just another ugly street in the USA now.<\/p>\n<p>I live in a historic neighborhood now, in Oregon, covered in trees. People are out walking through it all the time. There&#8217;s a house near us that isn&#8217;t historic, isn&#8217;t all that attractive, on its own. Probably built in the 70s. But the three gorgeous Oregon pine trees out front made it beautiful, cozy&#8230; sweet. I&#8217;d look at it as I walked by and think, it&#8217;s amazing how these trees make this place look so appealing.<\/p>\n<p>The long-time owner of the house died recently, and the new owner moved in almost immediately.<\/p>\n<p>And those three trees are gone. The trees weren&#8217;t hurting the sidewalk, nor the foundation, and were oh-so-healthy.<\/p>\n<p>The tiny, sweet front porch that looked so inviting now looks like the cheap tack-on that it is. The shady sidewalk I sought out all summer now bakes in the full sun for hours. The house looks like just a cheap pre-manufactured home.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<b><span style=\"color: red;\">* &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; *<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<p>\nDid you enjoy my travelogue for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/travel\/2015aug.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">our 16-day trip to the Yukon and back<\/a>? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/coyotetrips\/albums\/72157655953532653\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Or the photos<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Where to next? Not sure. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/travel\/motorcycle\/plans.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lots of dreams&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>What about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jaynecravens\/albums\/72157658813448602\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">chalk art festival photos<\/a>?<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<b><span style=\"color: red;\">* &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; *<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<p>\n&#8220;Portlandia&#8221; was filming this month at a store very near us. If I&#8217;d known, I would have stood outside with a sign that said, &#8220;Rose City Rollers storyline NOW!!!&#8221;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<b><span style=\"color: red;\">* &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; *<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<p>\nI&#8217;ve now lived in Oregon longer than any other state in the USA except Kentucky. I&#8217;ve lived in Oregon for six years, longer than I was in California (five years, 11 months), Texas (four years, three months), Connecticut (almost two years), Massachusetts (two summers) and New York (two months).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m a gypsy. I know, it&#8217;s not the politically-correct term, but I love it so much more than the term that&#8217;s in vogue now: <i>nomad<\/i>. The longest I&#8217;ve been at a job is just over four years. The longest I&#8217;ve been at the same address since I was 22 was four and a half years &#8211; that was in Sinzig, Germany.<\/p>\n<p>I love getting to know a new community, starting a new job, etc. I&#8217;ve always loved it. It&#8217;s been a much more affordable way to see different places in the world than continually traveling. But&#8230; I&#8217;m also so tired of moving. Since my time at university, I&#8217;ve moved more than 15 times. I&#8217;d like to keep traveling as long as I can &#8211; travel is in my blood &#8211; but I&#8217;d really like to stay here in our home for a while, at least longer than I&#8217;ve lived at any other address, which means I&#8217;d like to stay put at least through July 2017. 10 years would be January 2023. I&#8217;ll be 57. How frightening&#8230;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<b><span style=\"color: red;\">* &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; *<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<p>\nOn the night of the lunar eclipse, I did an interpretive dance with a tennis ball to illustrate to Stefan the difference in a New Moon and a lunar eclipse. He did not applaud at the end.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<b><span style=\"color: red;\">* &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; *<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<p>\nFrom my living room window, I saw a guy last night sitting on the steps of a nearby church, frantically swatting away imaginary bugs crawling all over him, or putting out tiny imaginary fires all over his body. I debated what to do. Call the police &#8211; because he was tripping and who knows what he&#8217;d do next, he might hurt himself, he might need medical attention&#8230; don&#8217;t call police because he isn&#8217;t bothering anyone, he is obviously in a very vulnerable state and could be harmed by others and needs to be alone, he has no where else to go, I&#8217;d rather him be there than in someone&#8217;s back yard&#8230; I ended up calling. Police arrived, the bugs immediately disappeared, they talked, they drove away, he walked away. Problem in no way solved, situation in no way improved. And I&#8217;m still debating.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<b><span style=\"color: red;\">* &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; *<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<p>\nOff to Kentucky in a few weeks&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yeah, so, that happened. I finally got the attention of a member of Monty Python. At least it wasn&#8217;t followed by a restraining order. * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * I have no nostalgia for the homes of my childhood, no desire to return to any of them. But curiosity got the better of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotebroad.com\/blawg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}