Fall migration

Saw several pairs of sandhill cranes last weekend in Wisconsin, so decided to feature them as my Instagram theme. We supposedly have them here, though the only cranes I see in town are at the burgeoning construction sites.

First day of fall lived up to it's billing: cool and overcast all day, with winds picking up and threatening clouds rolling in at take-down. No rain, though, for which I was relieved and grateful. Lots of it overnight, though, and all day Sunday, which effectively canceled Denise's book group meeting, planned for the backyard to make paper. Think it may be time to take the paper station down entirely soon.

Was pleased to see that the city had mostly finished reconstructing our corner, but didn't quite get my usual space back. They'd managed to remove the corner space entirely, and took two inches off the next square. Sonia, from Market, said that two boothholders down the way were on leave of absence, so we could move down, and set up two inches off of the mark (the sidewalks are divided into 8-foot squares, so we use them as space indicators). This bugged me incredibly, for some reason--perhaps a touch of OCD?--so when Danny came in earlier than usual, we figured out that he could set up against the east line and bump two inches over into the more-than-wide-enough walkway. That allowed the rest up us to use the sidewalk units again, though my reserve space is now one square east of the spot I've had for 27 years. Eh, I'll get used to it in another decade or so.

UO students were back, which was good; although there was a Duck game at noon, which meant the place cleared out considerably after lunch. Made some sales in the morning, maybe $300 by lunch, and I figured that would be it, but people trickled by in the afternoon, and I wound up doubling that by closing.

Talked with a bunch of new students, some with parents; also talked shop with a couple of groups of freshman girls who had pottery experience, and was able to direct them to the Craft Center to get their throwing fix. It's a non-academic space in the student union with facilities for clay, woodworking, jewelry, sewing--basically a Makers Space, but at 50 years of age, it pre-dates the term by a good deal. I taught there for ten years, after grad school, so have a great appreciation for their facility.

Smarter than me

We get a rental car when we fly back to the midwest, and every time they get more complicated. Sometimes too complicated; I remember the first time we got a keyless ignition fob and had no idea how to start the car.

It seems every time, I have to learn a new bit of tech. In May, we got a car with blind spot indicators on the side mirrors that lit up when a car passed us, and alarmed when I used the turn signal if it thought a car was too close. I also discovered that cruise control is now a variable: If I get behind a slower vehicle on the interstate, the car automatically slowed down to maintain distance. Which is all lovely, except if I'm not paying attention to the speedometer, I can find myself doing 50 mph in a 70 zone when I could just pull out and pass the slow-moving truck I'm pacing.

This time, we had all that an more: specifically, a heads-up display projected onto the front windshield, showing my speed, the speed limit, the setting on cruise control, and, on surface streets, stop signs and other highway indicators. I honestly found it distracting, and was relieved to discover that polaroid sunglasses filtered it out.

I also discovered, driving at night, that the headlights automatically switched from high-beam to low when they sensed an on-coming car. And when it started raining? The windshield wipers automatically changed speed with the intensity of the rain.

Witchcraft!

ETA: Almost forgot: the side mirrors automatically folded down to the door when you hit the fob to lock up. And then opened like butterfly wings when you unlocked.