Herding

After all the drama yesterday, with Fort Hood and the guy in Irvine who, after being served with eviction papers, decided to hole himself up in his apartment with guns, and caused a city and county law enforcement frenzy, I spent the rest of the day "herding". I tried to reach out via phone and online, to make sure everyone I know is OK. Never thought I would end up being the human equivalent of a sheepdog, but there it is.

I also "herded" after the 35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. I spent two days trying to call people I knew to make sure everyone was OK. Amazingly only 13 people died in the bridge collapse, and I am grateful I did not know any of them. Sad for the people who did lose someone in that preventable tragedy.

In other news, K has had to do a nightly moon observation. We are on week three of four, and we have been walking to the neighborhood park every night to get a better view of the night sky. On our way, every night, we pass a flowering shrub, which is beautiful, and smells like lilacs. I miss lilacs, they do not grow well here because of the lack of a dormant season. I have been trying to figure out what kind of shrub this was because I would like to plant one or two in our yard. One of my friends on Facebook, after seeing the photos I posted of the shrub, identified it for me! It is a variety of Plumeria, likely a dwarf, since apparently, Plumerias are usually trees. Yay, Lynne, you rock!

Here are photos of the Plumeria.