Cop Car's Beat

Rude awakening

Not since 1976 have I set an alarm to waken me. That rude awakening I can live without - especially since I have an internal alarm that wakes me at the "correct" time, no matter whether that is 3:00am or 6:00am. You can imagine my surprise, this morning, when a voice woke me at about 5:30am. Hunky Husband was my alarm. His phone had awakened him with a tornado warning and the emergency warning sirens were blaring in our neighborhood.

Quickly, I arose; donned my gardening clothes (old jeans cut off below the knees and an old tee shirt); put on a pair of eye glasses; put our valuables in their emergency hidey-hole; and put my jump boots, a hatchet, and two large screwdrivers (1 blade, 1 Phillips) into our own emergency hidey-hole. Only then did I join HH in the living room to watch the radar returns being shown on television.

By the exterior lighting on our house, we could see cottonwood limbs strewn all over the back yard - including our patio. The television reports soon indicated that the tornado danger that had been indicated for our area had moved on to terrorize other areas east of us; but, evaluation of the damage would need to be made nearer to sun-up when there was sufficient light. By 6:40am, I went outside to the serenade of chain saws, up and down our street, wielded by neighbors whose trees had sustained more damage than had ours.

The sun is not yet up; but, I'll post a few photos of our yard. Our damage was due to straight-line winds that probably gusted to about 70mph.

Our gingko tree in the front yard, planted in 2001, stands tall, straight, and proud. It shed but one small limb.

CORRECTION of 6/23/2019 4:03pm

So far, no one has corrected me (including the family members to whom I emailed a copy of this posting) in saying that our gingko tree had lost a branch. As anyone who looks at the photo can tell: that is no gingko branch, but another of the hundreds of cottonwood branches. It had to have flown over or around our house to end in that position! Sorry if I mislead you.

But two limbs were broken from the cluster of small redbud trees in our front yard, planted in about 2004.

The sugar maple tree in our front yard, planted in 2001, may be sick but it shed no limbs! The large cottonwood which, in any weather, is prone to shedding hundreds of small branches per month, shed all over the back yard. You can also probably see in the background that the creek is up - not out of its banks, but high. (The creek is visible to the right of the table, on which I note that the rain gage was knocked over by the wind.)

Fred's fence took a beating. Since the fence had already met its life expectancy before Fred moved in three years ago, and since one of the connections between sections has repeatedly failed, it wasn't a surprise to see a section of the fence down - plus another couple of boards a foot or so to the right of that section. The only thing on which it fell that I care about is a small red maple tree that I've been cultivating for Dudette.

I came in from taking the photos, without doing any yard work, because I was getting rained upon. I think it has stopped, so it's time for me to get back to work. Below is the section of the Planting Bed along the driveway in which I weeded and spread mulch, yesterday - with leaves added by the storm. Guess what yard work I'll be doing, today? HH has volunteered to help. Yay! Real muscle to apply to the task of cleanup.

More from Slashdot.com

In the late 1980s, while working on development of a flight control/autopilot system for a new military aircraft, I fought to keep control in the hands of the pilot(s). Although it wasn't my only reason for doings so, I know that when I've nothing to do, I have a tendency to want to go to sleep in the cockpit and I didn't feel myself to be unrepresentative of other pilots. It seems (what a surprise!) that automobile drivers have the same tendency - as reported at Slashdot.com.

People Keep Spotting Teslas With Snoozing Drivers On the Freeway (arstechnica.com) 16

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday June 22, 2019 @04:34PM from the asleep-at-the-wheel dept.

"In the last week, two different people have captured video of Tesla vehicles traveling down a freeway with an apparently sleeping driver behind the wheel," writes Ars Technica.

Iwastheone shares their report: Both incidents happened in California. Last week, local television stations in Los Angeles aired footage from viewer Shawn Miladinovich of a Tesla vehicle driving on LA's 405 freeway. The driver "was just fully sleeping, eyes were shut, hands nowhere near the steering wheel," said Miladinovich, who was a passenger in a nearby car, in an interview with NBC Channel 4. Miladinovich said he saw the vehicle twice, about 30 minutes apart, as both cars traveled along the 405 freeway. The driver appeared to be asleep both times...

Another video of an apparently sleeping Tesla driver was posted to Reddit over the weekend -- this one from the San Francisco Bay Area. The Reddit user who posted the video, MiloWee, said that she tried "several times" to wake him up by honking. "It worked, but he fell back asleep," she wrote....

Last month, police in the Netherlands pulled over a Tesla driver who appeared to be asleep and intoxicated. Another video posted in January appeared to show Tesla drivers asleep at the wheel. In an incident last November, it took police in Silicon Valley seven miles to pull over a Tesla car with an apparently sleeping driver. He was arrested for driving under the influence. Another driver in early 2018 was discovered passed out behind the wheel of his stopped Tesla vehicle on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the man "attempted to reassure arresting CHP officers onsite that the car was 'on autopilot.'"

 

Another tendency I've observed in myself that I think finds a home in many people is thirsting for information - addressed in the following posting from Slashdot.com.

 

How Information is Like Snacks, Money, and Drugs To Your Brain (berkeley.edu) 53

Posted by msmash on Friday June 21, 2019 @01:30PM from the dopamine dept.

A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business has found that information acts on the brain's dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as money or food. From a report: "To the brain, information is its own reward, above and beyond whether it's useful," says Assoc. Prof. Ming Hsu, a neuroeconomist. "And just as our brains like empty calories from junk food, they can overvalue information that makes us feel good but may not be useful -- what some may call idle curiosity." The paper, "Common neural code for reward and information value," was published this month by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Authored by Hsu and graduate student Kenji Kobayashi, now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, it demonstrates that the brain converts information into the same common scale as it does for money. It also lays the groundwork for unraveling the neuroscience behind how we consume information -- and perhaps even digital addiction.

What in the hail?

For the past several days I've been getting myself out into the yard to do yard work at about 6:30am - avoiding the heat and the sun that come later - to work for one to three hours. My primary activities have been centered on the planting bed that resides between our driveway (to the southwest of our house) and Fred's yard. Since taking out the overgrown junipers in about one-third of that planting bed (More tree work done), it is a lot more work for me - mostly pulling weeds and mulching. Each morning I've weeded enough to allow spreading four to eight bags of mulch (my car trunk easily accommodates eight 3-cubic-foot bags, when they are dry). This means I've had to work around our spates of rain (about 5 inches so far in June) to buy mulch that hasn't been drenched, letting the mulch "dry out" in our garage for a day or two, and laying the mulch.

This (below photo) is what six bags of mulch look like while drying out in the garage. The garage accommodates about a baker's dozen of the bags (without their being in Hunky Husband's way and my catching an earful of swearing). That configuration includes another six bags between HH's car and mine, leaning against two more ladders plus one or two bags in the garden cart.

As of this morning, I've completed pulling weeds and mulching about 2/3 of the planting bed, having spread 40+ bags of mulch.

            

 

 

             

 

              

Notice the white on the ground of the above photos? The next photo shows the white stuff coming down.

Below is a closeup of the white stuff on the ground.

As one may plainly see in the closeup, the white stuff is not hail but cotton from cottonwood trees (the dead leaf in the above photo is from a cottonwood). For the past few days, when the wind has blown, it has looked like a snow storm around our neighborhood. Since we live on a creek, cottonwood trees abound. When the cotton catches on fennel plants, it resembles Liz's Cuckoo Spit (and a yellow-billed cuckoo was calling while I took the photo, below!)

Addition of 6/20/2019 4:07pm:

OMG - this is the day of the cuckoos. While reading "Ball Lightning" a few minutes ago, I was startled by a thump on a nearby window. Peering outside through the vertical blinds, I spied a yellow-billed cuckoo in an Audubon-esque, inverted pose in a chokeberry bush. After a couple of seconds, the cuckoo shook its head, uprighted itself, and flew to another chokeberry bush where it hesitated but a moment before taking flight. It reminded me that, while this house was under construction, I found a dead yellow-billed cuckoo that had flown into one of the dining room windows - a window but about 15 feet from the window today's cuckoo hit. So sad. 

Joared knows

About a week ago, Joared of Along the Way posted REDHEAD AGING NATURALLY UP DATE . For her information, I sent her this selfie (below).

[The above photo shows Joared the color of this redhead's hair at age 81.]

[For comparison, the next photo is at age 41.]

Sounds bad, does good

When first I saw this embedded video from YouTube at Ronni's Time Goes By, I could think of several reasons why the system would be a bad idea. The people in the video answered each of my concerns. Enjoy! Note the spontaneous formation of hexagonal close-pack by the balls.

 

The Three-Body Problem

A few days ago, Stu of Eunoia posted Chinese SciFi in which he addressed an English language translation of a Science Fiction trilogy that was written by a leading Chinese sci-fi author, Cixin Liu. [Note: It seems that, for the English translations, the "normal" ordering of given name then surname was used. I believe that the author's surname is Liu.] Immediately, I went to the website of the Derby Public Library to confirm that the three books were available for checkout, as was a fourth book by the same author - only a bit over one mile distant from our home. Yay! When next I returned books to the library, I checked out all four available Cixin Liu books.

The following can in no way be considered a review of Cixin Liu's work; but, the few paragraphs contain some of my impressions.

Please understand that tackling Cixin Liu's trilogy took a great deal of fortitude on my part. The three books are The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End. I was greatly traumatized during my years of studying physics when faced with a 3-semester-hour course on [drum roll!] The Three-Body Problem. (I don't recall the title of the course, but I get chills just thinking about the content!) Thus, I expected the book The Three-Body Problem to burn my fingers as I held it - which it did not. Then, too, I have an issue with reading sci-fi. Although in my high school and college years (1952-1959) I was greatly amused reading sci-fi, it has been many years since I last read a sci-fi book that I found entertaining. Charging, headlong, into a lost cause, I started reading The Three-Body Problem on Wednesday - finishing Thursday evening.

Immediately, within the first few pages, I was struck by the lyrical quality of Cixin Liu's writing; or, I wondered, was the lyricism due to the expert translation of American writer Ken Liu? It was difficult for me to assess writing styles in the translation. By the time I had reached 100 pages into the book, I was enthusing to Hunky Husband about the content and writing of the story.

Many of us in the States lack any but the most trivial background in Asian history. As an American, Ken Liu understood the need for footnotes clarifying historical events and movements in China. He gave excellent footnotes throughout the book! Thank you, Ken Liu!

In a blurb on the back of the book, a quote from The New York Times review was given: "It is a classic science fiction story in the style of the British master Arthur C Clarke." I missed seeing the similarity; but, then, I'm not a specialist in literature! Based on the one book now under consideration, I would say that Cixin Liu writes as engagingly as did Clarke.

One of Cixin Liu's interesting devices was to equate the micro world with the macro world. For instance, at one point, Liu had a computer comprising many people whose actions mimicked AND, OR, and other computational gates in order to follow an algorith in calculations that pre-computer beings would have been unable to do within their lifetimes. In a later instance, complex calculations were performed using the interior mechanisms of a proton. The proton had been subjected to multiple "foldings" into different dimensionalities, one version of which  allowed the etching of "printed circuits" onto the 2D presentation of the proton - a sheet that formed a globe, enclosing a planet. The resulting computer, the size of a proton, was dubbed a "sophon".

I do not plan to post about the remaining three books; but, if the first book is any indication, I shall enjoy reading them, very much. Thanks for bringing the books to my attention, Stu!

Addition of 6/14/2019 7:22pm:

Having received a suggestion by email, I'll at least tell you the premise of The Three-Body Problem. The premise is that contact is established between humankind and technologically superior beings on a planet in the Alpha Centauri A and B group. Consequently, knowing that the aliens would reach the Earth in about 400 years, humankind splits into factions either welcoming an invasion, to put an end to human corruption, or abhorring that thought and wishing to repel the aliens or to prevent the invasion.

Tale of an Acrosonic, by Baldwin

About six months before my parents moved our nuclear family from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Kansas City, Missouri, my widowed maternal grandmother married a widower who lived in Kansas City - she, living in Nevada, Missouri, 100 miles south of Kansas City. Within a short time, my Step-Grandfather (SGF) decided to sell his home and furnishings. Mom and Dad bought his dining room suite, a bedroom suite, and his piano. This would have been in about 1947 or 1948. Up until that time, we three kids had played on an old upright, the source of which I never knew.

Mother with the piano in 1949

At some point, in the early 1960s, Mom asked if I would like to have the piano. I said "Yes!" and, as I recall, paid her and Dad $200 for it, which is probably about what they had paid SGF for the piano. Shortly thereafter, Hunky Husband, our daughters, and I moved to the Seattle, Washington, area. Not wanting the piano to be exposed to the rigors of crossing the mountains, I sent the piano back to Mom and Dad. In 1967, HH, our daughters, and I moved back to Kansas. When we completed building a new house in May 1968, I had Mom and Dad ship the piano back to me. Since that time, the piano has stayed with me, wherever I have lived - Derby, Kansas; Wichita, Kansas; Panama City, Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and back to Derby, Kansas.

HH and I have entered the serious stages of downsizing to fit our age. We wish to minimize the hassle our progeny (three generations) experience in distributing our belongings after our deaths. Over the years, I've asked family members if they wanted the piano. The answer has always been "No." (I hasten to add that, by then, Dudette and WichiDude had long-since purchased a very nice spinet piano - on which Dudette taught children as a sideline.)

When Elder Brother was in town in May (Family Week), we sat around our dining table discussing many topics. I don't recall how the conversation went, but the subject of music came up - perhaps because Next Generation 1 and Next Generation 2, our great-grandsons, had asked if they might play on our piano - a first! Something that Rachie said caught my attention and I asked if she wanted the piano. Shockingly, she said, "Yes!" Thus, our piano will be moving within the next few weeks.

The piano is not large, but it is heavy. I struggle to move it by lifting one end and pivoting about the other. Thus, I suspect the cartage fee for moving it up to Rachie and Wonderful GrandDaughter's home will exceed the monetary value of the piano. I see offerings of similar pianos for sale, online, in the order of $200-$300. It is certainly worth the fee, to me, to see that the piano remains with our family.

The piano is an Acrosonic, by Baldwin, which was one of the most popular home piano models ever sold in the USA. According to the Serial Number Block on the back of the piano, it was probably manufactured in 1939 when I was but one year old.

It's too bad I cannot foresee whether the piano will remain in the family in future years and for how many more generations, if it does. Use the piano in good health for at least as long as I've owned it, Rachie. Although I've played on that piano, off and on for 71 or 72 years, now, I've owned it for but 57 years! My mother would be pleased.

Casa CC Happenings - Week starting 2019June9

Cherries

So far, this weekend has been outstanding - as outstanding as it can be when one of our family is missing, that is. I don't blame Bogie for wanting to live in beautiful New Hampshire (I would be in New Mexico or Colorado - or, even, California - if I could uproot Hunky Husband); but, her being up there does leave a hole in our family get-togethers.

Our North Star cherry tree having done its usual great job of producing a crop of cherries, and the peak of ripeness having occurred on Wednesday, we held a cherry-picking party, yesterday - while Stu of Eunoia was celebrating another birthday.

Wednesday, I picked about a quart of cherries. Stu-of-Derby, our around-the-corner neighbor, espied me at my tasking, at about 6:30am, while on his morning bicycle ride through the neighborhood. When he stopped to see what I was picking, I gave him a bag so that he could pick, too. (Stu's wife has gout and I've been told by others with the same disorder that consumption of cherries is helpful.) Stu might have picked a quart and eaten a handful as he picked. (I do not believe in spraying my plants, so the cherries are safe to eat off the tree.)

Thursday, I picked another half-quart. Yesterday, Dudette & WichiDude, Wonderful GrandDaughter (WGD) & Rachie, Next Generation 1 & Next Generation 2 arrived at 11:30am. Fueling up for the grueling bout of picking was in order, so we repaired to a local eatery for brunch. (Thank you, WGD!)

Stomachs full, we returned to the house. Dudette and WGD proceeded to pick cherries while we slackers sat inside escaping the rays of the sun and the heat and humidity of the outside air. Between them, Dudette & WGD picked another quart or two. I would say that one should compare how the branches are hanging this morning to the two-inch space between ground and limb tips, Wednesday morning, to gage how many cherries had been picked. However, it is raining this morning so the rain is weighing the limbs down, somewhat.

Unusually, there are many cherries left after our picking party. Last year, I ate nary a cherry because the birds beat me to them. They evidently had other sources of food, this year!

In case no one has noticed, my blog is populated by "after" photos. Having been blessed with a one-track mind, it rarely occurs to me to take "before" photos or any photos while I'm enjoying the company of other people. I can enjoy the moment or I can think to make records for posterity. Posterity loses. **smirking**

I asked Dudette and WGD to take home, not only the cherries they picked, but the cherries that I had picked. To encourage them, I gave them the manual cherry pitter that will pit six cherries at a time.

Addition of 6/10/2019 7:02am:

Dudette kindly supplied the photo, below, showing all of the cherries that she processed and gave me permission to post whatever I wished. Thus, I'll include a couple of her comments from emails.

From email #1: "Thank you for the cherries!!  We have Rum Cherries and Canned Cherries for baking.  I’m going to try some in a smoothie."

From email #2: "I don’t know about fast!  [That comment was responding to my email in which I said Dudette made fast work of the cherries. CC] I worked about 6 hours all told (including clean up).  The pitting tool worked out great, taking about ½ of the time.  Gave me a good time to chat with [WichiDude] and then catch up on a couple of pod casts!

"I checked the jars this morning and it looks like they all sealed (except the large one in the middle which I did not water bath).  Yahoo!

"Again, thanks for the cherries. 

"Feel free to post what you want on your blog."

Addition of 6/12/2019 11:59am:

Another quart (1.75 pounds) of cherries picked that will be cooked into a cobbler for HH.

House Finch Tri-Level Nest

As previously mentioned, all of the House Finch babies have fledged...flown the coop. This (photo, below) is how the empty tri-level nest looks. I plan to remove the nest from the swing and sterilize the swing, today.

Addition of 6/9/2019 4:42pm:

Below is a photo of the nest, in the swing, after I removed the swing and scrubbed down the front porch.

The next photo shows the swing, sans nest, after I had scrubbed it down and sanitized it. I'm considering giving it a coat of paint before reinstalling the swing. The markings on the vertical slats are bare wood showing through. Suggestions as to color of paint?

Addition of 6/11/2019 10:12am:

Painted

& Hung

Window Well Work

I've been spending a few minutes, early each morning, working on our basement escape window well. I had noted that, not only was the sand not level - with the tilt going toward the house foundation instead of away from it - but the sand was touching the wooden sill under the window. Not good. We have abundant termites in the area, being situated near a woods.

Little-by-little, I'm trying to remedy the situation. Each morning I partially fill a couple of buckets with sand from the window well and set them up on the retaining wall. While out doing my yard work I empty those buckets. (I'm too lazy to set up an extension ladder in the window well and walk up and down the ladder with buckets of sand.) Eventually, I'll level out the remaining sand, with proper slope away from the foundation, and place a fresh layer of clean sand on top. I'm considering planting a couple of hostas and an airplane plant in that sand (with dirt surrounding the roots).

Addition of 6/12/2019 12:01pm:

The window well project has been completed, for now - debris cleaned out, fresh sand added near the window, proper slope away from the foundation established, and two hostas and an airplane plant placed.

Just because they're pretty

I know that the golden blossoms are Stella D'Oro daylilies. I'm not sure what the white blossoms are. They came up voluntarily several years ago. Since they have pretty fern-ish type "leaves", I kept them and even transplanted starts of them in other locations. Elder Brother thinks they are Queen Anne's Lace ^*;but, I don't remember QAL's having quite that type of "leaf".

Addition of 6/12/2019 12:04pm:

The photo, below, shows more of the Stella D-Oro and "Queen Anne's Lace"^* plants, demonstrating the true height of the QAL. Bogie had pointed out, quite rightly, that QAL was generally taller than it they appeared to be in the above photo. The wind and rain had knocked the plants over, during the night.

^* It finally came to me what the white-flowering plant must be: a yarrow! It has the fern-like leaves while Queen Anne's Lace has a real leaf (see photo below from Herbstalk). Had I not seen a red-flowered yarrow plant while buying mulch, this morning, I would still be wondering.

 

Derby Weather - Starting on Dudette's birthday, 5/28/2019

Happy birthday, Dudette, and many, many more!

Yesterday, we were predicted to have a non-rainy day, today, so I started unpacking from the "shall we evacuate" exercise. Now, our emergency management folks are telling us to expect severe thunderstorms (with hail) and torrential rains - starting at 4:00pm-6:00pm and lasting throughout the night. And...the nursery just called to say that they will arrive in a few minutes to plant the replacement dogwood tree. Yay!

Addition of 5/31/2019 7:17am: The torrential downpours missed us by a few miles. Yay! Yesterday and today have been dry - except for the heavy dew each morning. I've been "killing" myself working in the yard - hauling in bags of dirt, spreading it into the low spots, spreading mulch over the dirt, cutting the dead stalks off of the spent irises, pulling tens of thousands of tree seedlings, pruning bushes - and I doubt that anyone can tell that I've done a thing! Hunky Husband has mowed the grass twice this week, at the highest setting for the first mowing and at two notches lower, today.

Members of the second hatch of house finches are starting to crowd the nest on the front porch and the bluebirds have been feeding something within their nesting box.

The weather guessers say that we will have more waves of rain during June. Jason gave me the grand tour of their yard which includes a peninsula that is about five feet lower than the rim of the creek bank. There are huge trees spaced along the creek bed causing the water to snake around in about 50-foot (lateral) waves. Much erosion was in view that is not visible from our yard.

The temperature is 88 degrees Fahrenheit and the chiggers are biting. I'll let anyone else who wants it have summer in Kansas. Bah, humbug!

Addition of 6/1/2019 4:55pm: No wonder the house finch nest looks crowded. There are five youngsters in that nest! Below is a (poor) photo of mom feeding the brood. The photo was taken through a dirty window, without flash, which means my essential tremors blur the view.

Addition of 6/5/2019 1:12pm: All five of the young house finches have fledged. Since the nest is now three stories tall, I should probably take the swing down and clean it. I noticed that the young birds seemed to have mites and I don't want the next brood to get leftovers. 

Derby flooding - starting 5/20/2019

For ease of later retrieval, I am importing the flooding information into this posting out of the Tee Shirts posting. To see photos of flooding earlier in the month, please see One more entry into the non-ecclesiastical litany on flooding at CC's. 

Status report as of 5/20/2019 8:36pm: The creek is up to its banks, now, we've already had 2" of rain, and are expecting another 3". We are under possible evacuation alert - eastern part of Sedgwick County, on a creek. For the first time, ever, I have packed essential stuff into my car (it filled 1/2 of the trunk.)  If the water gets high enough (which we are expecting it to do), Hunky Husband will pack his car. If we evacuate, I expect us to leave at the same time. We plan to take turns watching the back yard through the night. 

Note to Bogie: Your quilt and materials are in my trunk. I'm not losing all that work to any flooding - lol!

Status report as of 5/20/2019 9:22pm: Hunky Husband just toddled off to bed. When he came in to give me a good-night smooch, he showed me an alert on his cell phone. Our City of Derby is under Flood Watch through next Sunday! I have the night watch.

Status report as of 5/21/2019 8:52am: The creek is high and thus somewhat out of its banks; but, it is flowing well and has not yet come up into the wild grass area of our yard. So far, I’ve not seen any logs floating down the creek – thanks to the clearing action of the flood a couple of weeks ago, no doubt. It rained off-and-on, all night. I failed to ask HH how much rain he removed from the gage.

Status report as of 5/21/2019 11:15am: Hunky Husband reports 3.3" in the rain gage. Sporadic rain falling.

Status report as of 5/22/2019 9:55am: We are breathing a sigh of relief, this morning. The creek is within its banks and the sun is shining. of course, rain is to resume this afternoon, they say. I unloaded my car trunk; but, I put the contents into my den rather than distributing it back into our household. I needed to haul some bags of dirt in my trunk to fill in low spots around the house's foundation. In planting the sedums that I bought Monday, I noted that each hole that I dug (about 2" deep) filled with water within 10 seconds.

Status report as of 5/23/2019 6:30pm: We had been told to expect thunderstorms starting at 4:00pm. At 4:08pm, it started raining, heavily. At 4:11PM, it stopped. We were on the edge of the storm, so we breathed another sigh of relief. I finished planting the sedums, after dinner, getting them all (36 plants) into the ground. I also staked the walnut tree that had been knocked over by the rushing waters of the flooding. If the staking works in flooding that we yet expect to have this week, I'll stake the umbrella catalpa tree that had, to a lesser extent, been knocked askew.

Below is a photo of the second tiny bouquet from Hunky Husband's rose garden, for the year. The large blossoms are Peace and Midas Touch tea roses, while the small blossom is from the fake Mr Lincoln.

Status report as of 5/24/2019 4:42pm: I went to the gym, this morning, then picked up Elegant Friend. We had lunch, toured the demonstration gardens that Kansas State University has up the that area of Wichita, then called it quits. I drove home through heavy rain and a small patch of stuff that looked like melted hail. (Hail in the forecast had been the reason I headed home so early.)

At about 2:00pm, it started raining heavily here at the house - at the rate of 4" or 5" per hour. Fortunately, the heavy rain lasted but about 15 minutes. The street was 2/3 covered by water (the crown was above water) and I noted the standing water locations that I still need to fill in with top soil. There was a small tornado about 10 miles from us about 30 minutes ago. We expect more storms (we see them training up toward us on the doppler radar display on TV) throughout the night and tomorrow. Hail and possible tornados are possible. Our big worry, of course, is the creek rising from all of the runoff. 

Status report as of 5/25/2019 8:47am: We received a total of a bit over 2" of rain, yesterday. We watched the creek rise, but it never really exceeded its banks. This morning (6:00am) the water level had fallen by about 2', but still very high.

A turtle made its way from the pond across the street from us (behind the facing houses) toward our creek. It came up the edging between our yard and Fred's. Unfortunately, my photo session disturbed the turtle and it took the long way around Fred's property. My bad.

               
 

Status report as of 5/26/2019 9:30am: It has been raining, off-and-on, all night and morning. The creek is about 1' higher than the highest it achieved, yesterday. Flood warnings have been extended through Tuesday, May 28. Tomorrow I shall probably start a new status posting. This one is getting rather long.