What a crazy little mushroom, just hanging out in Rock Creek Park. It definitely looks poisonous, but I am not much of a fungus expert, so I’ll probably never know. An orange mushroom Flickr search lands some really cool pictures though.
hmm, who is to blame here — Did the tree eat the fence, or was it unwillingly engulfed? Either way, I think that nature is winning here.
My dad is turning 61 (years young) today! Happy Birthday, Pop.
My commute was rather long this morning, and I just found out why. There was a grenade found in Rock Creek Park, just off 16th Street. Obviously this picture has nothing to do with it, because I couldn’t get anywhere close to the scene… and also it’s not that autumn-y here yet. But anyways, where does a grenade in the park come from???
It’s a chilly morning, and the first one where I truly wished that I was wearing a sweater when I walked out the door… Try not to hurt your eyes looking at this picture.
Today I have no picture to offer, only a story and a link to what the picture may have looked like had I been calm enough to try and document this experience.
I get into my car yesterday after work, and I’m on my way home, down 16th street, the same way I commute home every day. I’m close to the Carter Baron tennis place for those of you who know where that is. I look over my shoulder to change lanes around a slow car, and then OH HOLY CRAP WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!!!!!!?????
Now I’m swerving off the road, driving forward but still staring into the back seat to make sure it’s not moving towards me. Possibly the most unsafe 30 seconds of driving I’ve ever done in my life, since I usually prefer to look out the front windshield. I throw the car into park and jump out, arms flailing (maybe a slight exaggeration) and leaving the door wide open. I am starting to hyperventilate.
This is the closest picture I can find online to what I was looking at in the back seat, approximately 10 inches from my face. PLUS, it was in a gigantic web that stretched from the back of my headrest all the way to the rear of the back seat.
And so I start frantically looking through my trunk, trying to slow my breathing down, and looking for something like a 12-foot pole to scoot this creature from hell out of the car. At this point, cop #1 rolls by and asks me if I’m ok. I can only guess that he saw my antics flying out of the car and/or was about to give me a ticket for reckless parking lot driving. I tell him, “I’m fine, but there is an enormous spider in my car.” He starts laughing, probably thinking “silly woman” …I tell him to come look at it, and even he is surprised. He radios his other cop buddy, nearby in the park, to come look. They both think it is nasty.
In all honesty, the web might have been the craziest part. I’m desperately hoping that thing wasn’t there when I drove to work in the morning, and that the huge orange spider was working his web-building hiney off all day long to make that thing. Anyways, cop #1 finally whisks it out for me. shudder. All I can think of now is that I wish my friend Lazyeye had been there, because she probably would have thought it was cute and petted it, and then saved it for her bug collection.
Now, I’ll bring you back to the title of the posting for a second because it is actually relevant. My mom used to always tell us the story of when she was driving when she was younger, and a little black spider came down on its string from the front windshield. And she freaked out. And we always made fun of her. But i’ll take it all back now, because I’m guessing that’s where I got my reaction from… And I will say that finding a weird orange spider chillin’ out in your car is scary. I suppose he crawled in from the edge of Rock Creek Park, which I park adjacent to every night. I will be doing thorough spider inspections in my car when I get in from now on…
Feeling the urge to do something “naturey” with our long weekend Lori and I bravely headed into NE DC to visit the Kenilworth Aquatic Park and Gardens. I save bravely because, no way around it, you have to pass right through a fairly decrepit looking housing project to get to the parks gate and deal with about the most confusing traffic detour in the world to get to said project. Once parked and out of the car it was very much worth the minor headache. The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is set on the Southern/Eastern banks of the Anacostia river across from the much larger National Arboretum. As the name indicates the park consists of a large swamp/marsh area with a boardwalk that reaches out into it and a series of smaller ponds which you can walk around (no fences or rails either, almost fell in trying to take a photo). It was worth the trip to see the giant lilly pads. These things were a good 6′ across. Crazy big.
I’m thinking next spring we will try to come back and visit again.
The Potomac is pretty to look at, right? I suppose that’s hard to disagree with. But now it’s exactly 1 month until I will be swimming in that water for the Nation’s Triathlon, and I’m getting just a tad bit nervous… especially since I’ve heard the Potomac mentioned in the news in the last 3 days, regarding things like toxic algae and dead bodies. Super!!
And then I remind myself that I’m doing this for a great cause and in honor of my grandfather, so won’t you please help me with a DONATION to DO NATION’s (Matt came up with that, I wish I was so clever…) and help fund blood cancer research ?
Great picnic spot = a grassy patch near the Potomac, just down past the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge. Good for: sunsets (see above) and boat watching. Pairs well with PB&J sandwiches, wine, a blanket. Bad for: gnats, seeing loch-ness monster things jump out of the Potomac.
Since 8 is my lucky number, I consider today the coolest and most potentially lucky day of my life. And it will never come around again. Until 2088, when it will be even more cooler/lucky. Strangely enough, I just had to sit and consider if I could live long enough to see that day. That’s a weird thing to think about, and I guess it’s a stretch — I’d be 105 years old — but who knows, it’s not entirely out of the question.
Anyways, assuming today is the only 08-08-08 of my life, I’m thinking I should buy some lotto tickets or something, and hopefully I will have more luck than whoever discarded these un-winning tickets in a tree-stump trash can.
Eight has been my lucky number ever since kindergarten, and I specifically remember the day. We were on some sort of farm field trip and it was time to go home. This was back in the day when everyone’s parents had those station wagons that you could sit facing backwards in… you know, and look out the back window and it was so so awesome to be going backwards. Anyways, Mrs. Peggy was driving the three of us home – me, Charles, and Tammy, and we all wanted to sit in the back seats. But there were only two seats, so she told us all to guess a number between 1 and 10. So I guessed 8, and lucky me! that was the number. Woo! I got to sit facing backwards. Ever since then, it’s always been my favorite number… true story!
And as an added bonus the Olympics start tonight (!!!!) at 8pm. YAY!