It hit 106 degrees in Corvallis today. Only one person I have met remembers anything this hot. Out here it was a couple degrees cooler, it might have reached 102. Last night it cooled off to the low-mid 60's. In town people said the air was stagnant. Really speaks to living with a lot of green around. It also helps that we are on a slope and there is the flow of hot and cooler air happening between the Valley floor and the Coast Range. The heat that gets trapped in the concrete and asphalt just stores all that thermal energy and then releases it into the world. When I walked through a parking lot today it reminded me of being in a Phoenix, Arizona gas station in July. It was like a blast from a kiln. The difference is that the humidity (43% today) is higher than Arizona.
Last night I put the inflatable bed out on the deck to sleep. It was great to see the first quarter of the moon hanging between the trees as it sat behind the coast range. The stars are so prominent out here... there is very little light pollution. When it is overcast, we get the glow from Eugene. But on a night like last night it was stars, stars, and more stars. As the daylight faded the bats and the Nighthawks came out. These were the first Nighthawks I have seen, where have they been. They were making their high pitched calls. I remember the male birds making their deep, basal calls when they make their swooping mating runs into the sky and back down.
Nighthawks is also the term used for one of the more famous pieces of American art by Edward Hopper. ( Here is a link to a Wikipedia page about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hopper). This type of painting, done in 1942, remind me of my parents and grandmother. The diner is the type that my mom and grandma worked in for years and years.
Another term for Nighthawks is a term I was introduced to in The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. He describes the business of x-rays and other images being read by professionals in Australia and India while the people in North America sleep. Then the report is available the next morning, when the nighthawks have gone to bed.
The flying nighthawks and bats had disappeared into the dark by the time I settled down for a night's sleep... looking up at the vast panorama of stars. I lay there and drifted, then would wake to look at Mars rising in the south, then doze. Then the first buzz of a mosquito and it would disappear with a bit of my blood. Then the dogs started barking, not real loud. Probably barking at a deer, raccoon, skunk... or some other mammal. It is possible it was a coyote, bobcat or cougar. Bear wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. Well, they started barking, the mosquitos kicked in with a high toned violin.. pretty soon there was quite a chorus. The idea of a nice night in the cooler evening outdoors soon turned into a night of not sleeping so deeply.
When I worked with Outward Bound I had around 800-900 days in the field. That is a lot of time to sleep in sleeping bags on ensolites (and later Therma Rests). That has been many, many years ago and sleeping on the ground still has a cachet with my romantic memory, but I do like the thick air mattress on the deck. Comfortable bedding treats this body easier.
The turkeys haven't been around much. I've quit feeding the doves with millet on the ground... the very thing the turkeys have been eating. The creek is down to a small trickle. The water is dripping into the pool beneath the bridge, but the surface creek is dry. There is some sub-surface water that is trickling down. This is the home of the Rough-Skinned Newt.
From Aisling, a good night.
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