Dark heavy rain clouds of gray and black colors started brewing over Mt. Hamilton when I left work tonight at 17:00PM Pacific Time. The rain has not yet fallen as I came home around 17:30PM Pacific Time.
I saw lots of white specks of flying objects against these huge purple masses of puff. These birds are too far away to been seen by me as I drove home in my Mustang. These are birds, perhaps seagulls, and they ride the cold air.
The definite smell of rain was in the air. And later about and hour or so, the rain fell. Here is my take on how anything unusual or out of the ordinary in my reality should not be so annoying. These events are real and are in no particular order. And action!
Road Warriors-Take One:
Blue station wagon: The only unusual sight tonight was this broken down blue station wagon without at least one hubcap that didn’t belong to my neighborhood. The driver was fat and was driving very slowly past a cul-de-sac. I had to go around to its left to avoid hitting that car because I thought the car was not working properly. Then after two minutes from getting out of my car to stepping indoors to my home, he sped off fast in the opposite direction towards the railway intersection.
Light tan van: Last weekend, I saw a light tan colored van parked at that yellow fire hydrant and with a guy holding up his camera from the driver seat. He was about to take my picture from my second story bedroom window but I smiled to him, closed the blinds and mentally said, ‘No, Thank you.’ He sped off fast towards the railway intersection.
Small white car: This occurred on 11-24-2004 at 08:00AM. There was one small white car with a white man wearing sunglasses and sitting inside while reading a newspaper. Brat and I were about to leave for work in the morning. So I ran upstairs to grab my camera and noticed from my bedroom window upstairs that he tilted his head ever so slightly to his left in a kind of sideways fashion as if listening. I went outdoors to take a closer look but didn’t take a quick picture of his license plate holder with the word Oakland written on top. He sped off fast northbound after Brat opened up the automatic garage door.
Various: Dramas viewed from inside our house occur such as: lovers fighting and brawling loudly at the same intersection; domestic disputes across and next door to us; the big red fire engine sounding off a celebration of someone’s birthday (right after the September event years ago; parked cars with people inside looking at kids play (sickos) or watching other peoples’ houses (weirdos); big trailer rigs being moved every 48 hours along different parts of this stretch of road; numerous cars going in and out of this other cul-de-sac for over ten years now and accidents occurring as we look outside from our windows in amazement.
Noisy ones: Strange vehicles seem to want to make their mark in the world by making circles with their on my road during full moons. I saw one that drove a blue car and he looked Asian. Others are the artistic vehicles, such as cycles, riders and rockets, are museum quality and should be presented at those shiny car shows.
Sitting ducks: People inside their vehicles would park along my normal or other routes to work. They would pull out from their original position immediately leaving dust in their wake or slowly after my passing approximately one block away. They would follow not too far behind me, of course. I change lanes; they change lanes. They tailgate; I brake somewhat hard. It’s like a cat and mouse game. And I still wonder why they do that to me.
Other ducks: Workers on the road provide clear signals as I pass by their location. They’d flash their oranges services lights, blink their intention to move into faster moving traffic or eve put out their orange construction cones on the road. This would be fun to image that I’m popular without having to try. Maybe my Mustang is bugged over and needs a good car wash soon.
Air Waves-Part Two:
Jet planes: Jet planes are flying over way in the distance somewhere is heard and has been going on for the past fifteen minutes now. The lions roar from these engines is very distinct. These military activities happen when there are dark rain clouds above. I do not know why they would practice at night. And I’m not aware of any air show. They stopped their fly-bys around 07:47PM Pacific Time.
Passenger planes: Passenger planes operate almost directly overhead everyday. The closed windows provide some relief against the noise. SJC currently has noise-based curfew hours from 23:00PM to 07:00PM Pacific Time (for FAR 36 Stage II aircraft). This noise reduction curfew is good for the sake of both sleeping residents indoors and denizens outdoors.
Light Planes: Light planes operate almost everyday. These would fly over rain clouds and the distinct smell of metal would linger in the air. The humming noise of light planes reminds me of the Malathion spraying done by these planes over our neighborhood and other places during that fruit fly epidemic back in the 1980’s. That’s when these mysterious flu-like symptoms started appearing.
Helicopters: Flying black helicopters appear occasionally. The rotary noise is distracting but the new models could switch to silent mode. Sometimes these copters would hover over our house or pause about a block away. Usually these would fly around the neighborhood with their search lights at night looking for whatever or whoever was below the area.
Helicopter lights: Sometimes helicopters would acknowledge my location by flashing their bright light in my direction (without blinding me, of course). But I don’t recall getting their attention by jumping up and down in foolish excitement outdoors or by waving to them from our windows.
Passing By-Part Three:
Spare change: During our first few years here, we had a person come to our door asking for help and didn’t know what to do. I think he was lost too. It was daylight. My bio-units gave him some change and he was never seen again.
Two thugs: Brat and I were young and playing at night in the living room. Then all of the sudden we heard the doorknob rattle and some knocking. We stopped knowing Maw won’t be home until later past midnight. I looked out the window and to the right saw two white men in beards. I was scared and called Maw at work. Brat stuck his tongue out at them as I made the call. She called the neighbor and they came over. The two men were never seen again.
Smoking guy: Years ago-almost twice, I noticed this one guy walking towards the railway intersection. Each time he would light up his cigarette under this now blinking on and off streetlight next to the house across from us. The second time was at 03:00AM Pacific Time and this time there was a dog walking with him. I stopped to look down from the top of the stairways out the window and he looked up after successfully he lit that cigarette. The lights were off from inside the house because that is the only way I could see clearly outside into the darkness without the three light bulbs from the ceiling reflecting back from the upstairs window. There was no way he could have noticed as I stared from up there. He was never seen again.
Lost lady: A few years ago, there was this brunette-haired lady. It was daylight. My bio-units came home and had the garage door open. Maw came inside to the kitchen after talking to the lady and told me the lady was lost and the bus didn’t arrive. The nearest bus stop that I know at that time was a good fifteen minute walk. Maw said that the lady needed a taxi cab; so I call one and told the operator that this lady walked a quarter mile and ended up asking us for help. We waited for the cab. I “waved” my right hand at her and she seemed to have buckled forward as if she was about to fall. She got in the cab and was never seen again.
Epilogue:
I feel like a mother hen roosting on her nest of eggs as she watches out for any possible sign of potential danger in and around her neighborhood. Being a neighbor is a responsibility and called the emergency a few times when I could have called the information line instead. I get annoyed at myself for not knowing how to better handle situations that don’t always happen. It’s not so annoying though knowing we as helpers are always watching each other and the neighborhoods we live.
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Thursday March 9, 2006 – 07:45pm (PST) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
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