Thursday, 26 May 2022
Slowly, slowly I’m getting back into my routine. I remember how I exactly make my coffee every morning, no longer forgetting the series and sequences of steps. It sounds mundane but it does brew a pretty good cup of coffee.
My morning walks have become a way to wake me up from my Benadryl induced sleep. It’s the only way to keep from waking and scratching the rest of the night. Typically, I’m one of those persons who, when they wake, become fully awake and functional before I get out of bed. The Benadryl makes me a little woozy first thing and for the first few mornings, things got out of sequence.
I have four main walks to choose from in my neighborhood and I alternate the walks. To add more variation, each of the four have a long and short version. My longest walk is 1.8 miles and is along Riverland Road – quite the scenic drive for Fort Lauderdale.
As I stepped outside this morning and started heading to Riverland, the first thing that came into view was the Royal Poinciana. May and June are the height of the blooming season for this Madagascar native.
It’s a neighbor’s tree and about two months ago it looked as though it were dead. It sheds leaves and very long leguminous pods just before blooming season. It’s a messy tree, very brittle which isn’t good for hurricanes, but you can’t beat it when it is in bloom. The flowers are very red and the sepals are very yellow on one side.
The leguminous pod is so tough the pod has to rot before seeds can be released and even then, the outer coat (aril) has to rot in order for the seed to germinate. I used to use them in botany class to show them how to sclarify the seeds to get them to germinate more quickly.
For the past several months, Riverland Road has been undergoing a make over. The city is putting bike lanes on both sides of the road and they are reworking the sidewalk on the north/west side of the road. I can’t wait for the bike paths to be functional. Right now they are just asphalt paving that’s waiting for the entire road surface to be repaved.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been walking down Riverland on the only sidewalk when a kid heading to the middle school comes up behind me and passes me on a bike with any warning. One time I was so startled I threw my arms out and almost took the kid off the bike. It seems no one teaches bicycle courtesy any more. As kids, our bikes normally either had a horn or bell that you would ring when passing someone. I don’t blame the kids right now for riding on the sidewalk. Riverland Road has become a major traffic throughway. I wouldn’t want to ride the road either.
Anyway, the city is also widening the existing sidewalk. The original was very narrow and two people would find it difficult to pass each other. In this era of Covid, it meant one of you would have to walk either in the swale or on the road itself.
In the construction process, they have blocked all drains on Riverland. The road is flood prone and with hurricane season start only a few days away, that’s a concern. There is no way they will be finished by the start of the season and I hate to think of a heavy downpour with blocked drains. There are places along the road that when it floods you cannot get your vehicle through.
On my Riverland walk back, I usually cut by the Boys and Girls Club, a couple of blocks from my house. It used to be my precinct until a few years ago when they moved it to the elementary school farther away. One of the reasons I like to cut by there is there are a pair of Golden Shower trees. May is also their peak season.
Don’t confuse this with the Golden Rain Tree (Koelrueteria paniculata) often planted as an ornamental in the U.S. However, golden shower and/or golden rain tree reminds me of the 1957 movie Raintree County. I was all of 9 years old when I saw Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Cliff, Eva Marie Saint and Lee Marvin star in this Civil War film. I must have seen it either at the Larmar Theater or the Paramount Theater in Jackson, Mississippi. It was probably the Paramount – the classier of the two theaters. My grandmother Ruby was a big fan of movies and she often took me with her. The movie was controversial in the south because of the idea Elizabeth Taylor going mad because she thought she might be Black.
I was ready to do yoga and swim laps in the pool but my neighbor Trevor chose that time to mow my lawn. I really appreciate him doing that. He does it dirt cheap for me. Since I swim au naturel I didn’t want to send him into shock so instead I made three bean salad for dinner and curled up with a book. That was much more pleasant than exercising, not withstanding the guilt for not exercising.
The sad news about the Ulvade shooting continues. It seems it may be like the Parkland shooting when police delayed entering the school. It will probably be months before the picture becomes complete.
Stay tuned!