Thursday, April 11, 2019

The Grass Is Pretty Green On This Side Too

Usually when I come back from California it's a good week of sulking before I come to terms with my home environment, but this time around it's been fairly easy, possibly because it's spring.  But also, what's so great about California?  What do they have that we don't?

Fires, you say?

We've got those, too!


I rode into that one just a few miles north of the city line on the South County Trailway the other day.  It must have been a big one, too, because you could smell it all the way to Hastings-on-Hudson. 

Apparently there was some mismanagement going on at a waste management facility:



The two-alarm fire at 325 Yonkers Ave. started shortly before 10 a.m. and was still burning as of noon, Yonkers Deputy Fire Chief Daniel Flynn said.

Smoke filled the air around the property, which is surrounded by a car repair shop and a two-story commercial building.

Firefighters arrived and found heavy flames in a garbage pile. About 60 firefighters responded, Flynn said.

And you thought the only flaming garbage pile around here was my blog.

Then the next day I went to go pick up THE CAR THE BANK OWNS UNTIL I FINISH PAYING THEM BACK and went like 20 miles out of my way in the process so I could ride on some dirt:


As I mentioned, a dealership was replacing my Exploding Takata Airbag of Death, and here's footage of them disposing of it:


Come to think of it, that might explain the fire.

Here's the aftermath of that fire, by the way:


I often stop to urinate on that wall, but now the fire seems to have burned away much of the foliage that served as my cover.

Only now am I realizing what a catastrophe that blaze really was.

And then today a longtime reader of this blog accompanied me on a ride, and we saw a bald eagle:


It's there, I swear:


I never would have seen it at all if it weren't for my riding companion; even though there were a couple of people there with telephoto lenses trained on it, I just assumed they were taking photos of the glorious Yonkers skyline across the river.  Come to think of it, I'd been regularly seeing cars idling in that spot and had no idea why.  And now I know why.

Evidently I should turn my head occasionally.  Alas, tunnel vision is a serious side-effect of Fredness.

So yeah, we've got fires, mixed-terrain routes, and exotic wildlife sightings.

What more could you want really?

19 comments:

  1. I want a podium for once this season.

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  2. how about getting a drone for that footage.

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  3. "...tunnel vision is a serious side-effect of Fredness."

    If tunnel vision is all you got, you ain't no real Fred.

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  4. Cool to see a bald eagle on a bike ride! Yesterday I got rid of another one of my bicycles, I think I'm down to six now.

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  5. Rats...missed it by THAT MUCH! (the Podium that is). Didn't know you had bald eagles up (over?) there...very cool! We don't have them out here in CA (at least I've never seen one, and I ride solo mtb in some pretty remote areas a lot)...but we do have a LOT of vultures. Must be a lot of road-kill to keep that many vultures alive. They kind of look like a bald eagle until you get closer and see that they are actually bald, unlike bald eagles which are not bald. Kind of confusing.

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  6. I thought your orange one said all the bald eagles had been killed by wind turbines...

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  7. Some guy from upstateApril 11, 2019 at 8:44 PM


    Back-to-back posts with Python video clips! Approved.

    I was in San Diego some years ago when there was a fire in the hills above the city. There was ash everywhere and the sun was dark red all week. Conversely, camping in the 'Daks last summer, there was a ground fire on the island we were camped on. A couple park rangers came with a hand pump and shovels to put it out. And it was a really dry summer. California wins the fire contest against New York hands down.

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  8. You'd really know that there was a bald eagle there is you saw a car with the sons of a famous American politician pulling some high powered guns from their trunk.

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  9. "I often stop to urinate on that wall, but now the fire seems to have burned away much of the foliage that served as my cover."

    That had to hurt! There are less painful ways to manscape.

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  10. death awaits us all with nasty big pointy teeth

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  11. I used to piss on that wall, but it's a wasted effort now that the fires have been put out.

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  12. Due to radio overplay in my youth, I see grass is green and think Green grass and high tides

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  13. Hopefully all this Bald Eagle talk won't result in River Rd. bird watching pandemonium.

    BIRD RIOT

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  14. I grew up in CA - they have four seasons there: Fire, Flood, Earthquake and Riot. Happy you missed all of those during your visit.

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  15. It appears what you got there Snobbie, is not just a bald eagle, but a bald eagle nest. Late doors.

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  16. Matt in CA: Go North (really North, not just San Francisco pseudo-North.) Trinity and Siskiou counties. Plenty of Bald Eagles up there on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

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  17. Man come on, I had a rough night, and I hate the fuckin eagles man.

    Fun fact, eagles sound totally woosie. Hollywood studios tend to dub a hawk sound in instead.

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