The Day Before 9/11

Posted on September 10, 2020 by vanbraman

The day before 9/11 I was far away in Capetown, South Africa getting ready to fly back home after teaching for two weeks.

south africa, rainy day, coast, rock formationsMy colleague asked me if I wanted to get up early and take a drive along the coast before heading to the airport for my flight home. Of course, I didn’t want to miss a scenic drive.

It was a rainy and misty day, and the pictures were not the best.

The pictures were are all taken with an early digital camera that saved the pictures on a floppy disk. I did have a film camera with me, but found out later that a small grain of sand had been keeping the shutter from closing all the way and I had several rolls of overexposed film when I returned home.

South Africa Coast, hills, highway, rainIt was a little nerve wracking going down the wrong side of the highway in the rain. I am just glad that I was not driving.

waves, south africa, coast, oceanWe stopped several times to watch the waves crashing on the shore and enjoy the fresh air that came along with the rain.

South Africa, rainy day, CapetownWe finally made it back into town and the streets were a bit flooded as we made our way toward the airport.

Shanty Town, South Africa, CapetownAs we were on the way to the airport we passed a shanty town and I was able to get a few pictures as we drove by. I thought about whether to post this picture tonight, but wanted to let you see how the poor of other countries sometimes live. This was one of my last glimpses of South Africa on the trip.

Soon after this we made it to the airport for me to get checked in for my flight to London and then on home to San Francisco. Many of my memories of this last day in South Africa are blocked, but sometimes looking at this pictures I can bring them up. I do remember doing one last thing at the airport. We went to several banks or currency exchanges looking for a good 200 Rand note so that I had one of each denomination.

Tomorrow I will share what happened on the way home from South Africa. I have written about that day several times, so it may be a re-post of an old post. It depends on how I am feeling as it is always a tough day.

Steven

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Smoky Sky

Posted on September 9, 2020 by vanbraman

Today we had a very smoky sky that darkened the day. It has been darker than normal in the house all day and it just felt weird to look out the windows at the sky.

red sky, smoke filled sky, mars like skyWhen I went out this morning to get the newspaper, the sky was an ugly reddish orange. I made sure I had my mask on before I even opened the door as it smelt like a campfire outside.

smoke filled sky, wildfires, californiaAs the sun rose further in the sky the color was not so red, but it was still eerie and dark and you could barely see the sun peeking through the clouds.

smoky day, california wild fires, dark skyWhat was really weird was the color of the houses in the neighborhood. They were all a darker color than normal and some had an orange tint to them.

Inside I had to turn on a light for most of the day, especially during meetings. In one meeting one of my colleagues had a background picture of the surface of Mars, and we joked about it being a live picture. We have to at least have a little fun to try and lighten the mood.

heat damage, bad air, smoky, ashWe have had triple digit heat for most of the last week and my roses have significant heat damage. You can also see a bit of ash on this rose. Today the ash has been falling, but not as much as in other areas close by. Luckily Bluey is in the garage, although I took him out to go to the grocery store tonight.

My cousin, who lives to the north, was able to write ‘ash’ in the ash that was on her car. She washed her car when she got home from work before putting it in the garage.

rose bush, ash on leaves, smoky airHere you can see the ash being deposited on the leaves of one of my rose bushes. I will definitely be sheltering in place as much as possible and wearing a mask even to go out and pick up my paper and go to the mailbox. The air is very bad.

This smoke is coming from a fire to the north. The wind is blowing in the wrong direction for us, and is sending a plume of smoke south through the Central Valley of California.

I hope you had better air where you were today.

Steven

 

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