§ Last Sunday Caroline and I went to the zoo for an event organized by her school to “celebrate” (commiserate prior to) the impending start of the academic year.
You might remember we went to the zoo together last month for the opening of their lantern festival too although we didn’t get the opportunity to see any animals at the time. Other than that, I haven’t been to a zoo since high school? Middle school? The black squirrel monkeys were particularly fun, the sloths were silly, the ghost jellyfish were a surprise hit.
§ The vegetable garden is beginning to bounce back from all of the deer chomping that occurred while we were out of town. Still no ripe tomatoes yet but the plants all have new growth and flowers. A far cry from the sad spindly stubs they were a few weeks ago.
§ I was hesitant to watch Fallout because video game spinoff media is generally pretty bad and, unlike Last of Us, I’ve never played any of the Fallout games. Well Matthew Sheret reminded me it exists and gave it a good review so I thought I may as well give it a try.
I don’t know—and I’m not sure the writers quite know—whether they are aiming for a serious drama or irreverent comedy. The tone sort of just bounces around from scene to scene.
As with Last of Us, the set design is incredibly impressive. In this case, again, it can be kind of jarring to see live actors in such an over-decorated cartoony environment—it gives off 21st century Who Framed Roger Rabbit vibes at times.
All of this isn’t meant to say that I didn’t enjoy Fallout. It has a great cast that had me asking “what do we know them from?” multiple times each episode. I think season two has the potential to be really good especially if the writers manage to strike a balance on a consistent tone.
§ On Tuesday during my commute home my notifications lit up with half a dozen tornado warnings in quick succession. I pulled into my driveway under clear blue skies but within fifteen minutes the clouds darkened ominously enough that Caroline and I shepherded the cats with us into the basement.
Huddled underneath the basement stairs we watched the lights flicker on and off before the electricity finally gave up. Cellular service quickly followed leaving us in the dark listening only to the growing wind outside and the tornado sirens as they made their way up and down our street.
Finally, after a half hour or so, we received an SMS from a friend saying that the storm had moved past our area so we went outside to survey the damage. Our tall tomatillo toppled over, our hammock somersaulted halfway across the yard, the most shocking thing was seeing the polycarbonate roof of our greenhouse in a neighbor’s tree. I managed to retrieve and fix it in a frantic dash. Overall, we were super lucky.
Electricity throughout our neighborhood remained out all night and into the next morning. Finally, more than 24 hours later, power was restored. Internet service came back later in fits and starts.
Later, the National Weather Service confirmed at least four tornadoes touched down in the area.
I’m not going to use this as an excuse to buy an anemometer although I’ll fully admit I’ve been tempted.
§ On Friday morning I noticed an electrical transformer and telephone pole actively on fire at the end of our street. As you might imagine, we lost power again soon afterwards.
