Monsoon Buffalo

After about a three week hiatus, monsoon has been catching up the last two days with very heavy rain. The buffalo have enjoyed the extra puddles and ponds.

The sidewalk is about a foot above the street, but the far side is about 2 feet lower. In it's deepest parts, this piece of land is covered with 3 to 4 feet of water.

What you don't see is that the rest of the herd is in the road doing a great job of blocking traffic.

Back in Vapi

I got back to Vapi yesterday. It's monsoon and the air is thick with humidity. Perfect weather for mold:

I bought green beans yesterday, but didn't get around to cooking them because I got too freaked out by a writhing mass of cockroaches in the kitchen sink. This morning I had to toss them in the trash. Mold is truly an "overnight sensation"!

"And now for something completely different … "

Lon was able to get a better view of a knife-wallah's bicycle than my photo in Mumbai (scroll down to near the end of the post). The front rack looks like it's loaded with sticks of dynamite, but it's really knives for sale. The sharpening stone is driven by a pulley on the rear wheel.

Bear Sighting

Just one more post from Virginia before I return to Vapi.

I heard a large crash in the woods behind our water tanks, then followed the waving vegetation to see the bear eating blackberries.

Dance of the Planets - Continued

This month the evening sky has held plenty of planets and other heavenly bodies. When the clouds have parted (which has not been all that often), there have been some spectacular sights.

July 18. The crescent moon (3 days past new) near Venus.

But, of course, the ("dwarf") planet making all the news right now is Pluto, as the New Horizons spacecraft is sending back photos and data captured during its fly-by earlier this week.

Dance of the Planets

When it's not been too cloudy or rainy (i.e. not very often!), I've been watching Jupiter overtake Venus in the western evening sky. This is what it looked like tonight.

Meanwhile, in the east, the smoke left over from the Fourth of July fireworks bathes Clifton Forge.

Two nights ago, the just-past-full moon glowed red through the haze.

And here's the reason why I haven't been able to see many stars since I've been back in the U.S.

Lightning illuminates clouds to the east.