Places To Go, Streams To Monitor

Last night we had a storm. Two buildings, a church and an apartment building, were struck by lightening closer to the downtown area. I got 1.4 inches of rain on my tiny deck. I decided today would be a good day to monitor my streams. I am getting ready to go when I see my neighbor mowing his lawn wearing flip flops. "Dude," I think to myself, "Wearing close toed shoes would be good when mowing your lawn." I gather all my stuff, rain boots, rain coat, short list of things I need to buy, a cozy sweater and I head out. Across the street in the newly mowed lawn are two tables and one shelf filled with hand blown glassware. Glassware is not on my list of things to buy today. But I go look. I see beautiful glassware. I see one giant vase and in my mind I see a $150.00 price tag on it, at minimum. I look anyway and I see a piece of green tape that reads $8. My mind was blown. I talk to Alisha, my neighbor, about a glass. She says it's 2 bucks. I say it's 5 bucks. She read it upside down. I only have 4 bucks. She takes 4 bucks. The cup is clear with blue and green. In the picture it looks yellow but that is because it set it on top of my wet car. This glass is so heavy and beautiful and will make my Duluth water taste even better. What a deal I got here. Then I go to Walgreens to buy calcium tablets and to break a twenty dollar bill so I can buy vegies from my farmer. After my first monitoring spot on the Cloquet River I go to the farm with a ten dollar bill to buy tomatoes and squash. I must have tunnel vision laser focused on the tomatoes because I don't see the farmer waving at me from the corn field. He looks like Santa Claus if Santa wore bib overalls and carried a hoe. I wave back. A bellow behind me makes me jump. There stand Elsie the cow with her sweet brown and white face standing there with her boyfriend, Elmer. I just walked past two ginormous cows and didn't even see them because I love tomatoes that much.

O

Turkeys in the hay, turkeys in the way, turkeys in the straw, haw, haw, haw!

If you were an apex predator with color blindness, these turkeys would really blend in. I bet these birds were freshly hatched this year.

What did the angry turkey say to the other turkey?

Go pluck yourself! At my second river the water was much higher but not high enough to say the level was high. I marked it as normal because I have seen this entire road covered in water. Some turtles just hatched here and I could see their shells. These could be snapping turtles or maybe some other kind. I brought my nippers along because I want to make a fall bouquet. I snip off some maiden hair ferns, some fireweed stems, some balsam boughs and some sassafras stems. I also use my nippers to clip off some invasive tansy to make up for what I take out of this public forest. This will make a nice bouquet. I start to head home. I stick to my plan and just buy what is on my list. No more impulse buying for me. I get home and bring my things inside. I kept one dollar to repay the neighbor. I go to the neighbor's house again with my dollar bill and only my dollar bill because I am not going to buy anymore glass no matter how beautiful and how valuable.

I meet the Dude who mowed without shoes. His name is Jake. He blows glass at Canal Park and I have always wanted to take a class there. He says I can ask for him when I sign up for a class. He says he sold $400 worth today. He says he wants to get rid of his inventory. He says he will trade me for something. I eye the olive oil dispensers. His olive oil dispensers are gorgeous and functional. I mention I am infusing olive oil with garlic, peppers and orange peel. He says he will trade me, my olive oil for his olive oil dispenser. I run home and grab my olive oil which is actually delicious but it sitting in a $2 bottle I bought at Savers. He takes my spicy olive oil. His girlfriend is making lunch. This will go good on his sandwich. He asked me if I grew the peppers and dried them. I say no, I bought the peppers but I did peel the orange. He goes inside to get his sandwich and says to me, "Take what ever you want on the table. You don't have to take the olive oil dispenser I pointed out." I take the one he pointed out. I thought it was pink but in the sun it's orange. OMG!  Win/win bargain here.

I take most of my tomatoes and all the squash I bought from the Santa Claus farmer and bake them with onion, garlic cloves, plain olive oil, salt, pepper, and basil for an hour. I eat a quick lunch and go for another walk to get some exercise. I walk through the University campus. I monitor the Tischer Creek for the city of Duluth. Tischer Creek is at .4 inches. Even though we got all that rain, the creek is still very low. I would guess all the critters  who live in this creek are breathing a sign of relief that we finally got some rain. Football players are playing football. Baseball players are playing baseball. Tennis players are playing tennis. The campus seems to be coming alive again after the pandemic. I think back to my freshman year of college. I lived off campus. I would not be watching football, tennis, or baseball, I would probably be hanging out with other girls I see sitting in hammocks by the music building. These girls are sitting cross legged in hammocks jabbering away. I can't sit cross legged very long anymore but I can do it for a couple minutes. My right hip can tolerate that position longer than my left hip. Maybe I should buy a hammock? I keep walking. I have never been a big sports fan so I just walk through the crowds humming a song in my head (Nancy Sinatra-these boots(sandals) are made for walking), eager to get home to drink water out of my new glass.