By David Fortier
Come Sunday morning a few more trees will have come down on the green, not from the remnants of Storm Elsa but a few days earlier when heavy rains knocked out power for a couple hundred residences including ours.
Did not see that happening.
There is nothing cute about our changing weather patterns these days. One day its’ 90 degrees plus 100 percent humidity, the next it’s 60 degrees and middling humidity. Another day it is torrential downpours, the next it’s a withering bright sunny day.
This week it was on Tuesday that more trees came down on Federal Hill Green. A quick survey showed a couple of trees on the property of the First Congressional Church, one on the property at the corner of Maple St. and Center St., three on the Green itself including one leaning against a telephone pole, and a final one on the St. Joseph Church parking lot.
it didn’t take long for police to come by and cordon off Maple Ave., and a few minutes later, for a Public Works truck to idle up Queen Street. In the PW truck, Rob Lincoln stopped for some short banter while calling Eversource.
On Friday morning I did wander out for a few appointments. It rained heavily, as forecast. By noon, however, the sun came out. Later that evening, it rained again. Well, it didn’t just rain. The rain came down in torrents, pounding the roof, lawn and pavement.
On Saturday morning upon returning from a late breakfast at Parkside Cafe and a visit to the new Bakery on Maple, there in the driveway was a deceased mouse—apparently, a victim of the pounding rain from the night before.
Breakfast on Saturday was wonderful, though, and the Bakery on Maple a treat—or treats—with the purchase of the bakery’s version of a faux Twix Bar, cheesecake cookie sandwich, and vanilla cupcake.
And from there to another afternoon family gathering and an evening dinner party with some friends. Things are opening up, and yet it is difficult for me not to mask up. It’s become a habit, I guess. A few articles from a variety of newspapers lately have focused on booster shots—several of them were opinion pieces where the writers talked about going out and getting one themselves.
The CDC has stopped short of recommending booster shots, but Pfizer has been aggressively pursuing boosters, in general, and new vaccines for the Delta variant of the coronavirus. I have received the J&J vaccine, so I am waiting for more information. The consensus is that all the current vaccinations provide good protection against serious illness and death from new variants.
This week a new column appears, “From Bristol’s History,” compiled by Dave Greenleaf. It’s great to have Dave join us. He has a great eye for tidbits from our history so that it makes things easy for us to make connections.
Donovan Wilson has had one article to date but there will be more. Donovan, a recent graduate from Southern Conn. State University, is the grandson of Pam and Joe Wilson. He will be doing some reporting on developments with Memorial Boulevard and the Bristol Arts and Culture Commission.
I can’t resist this homework assignment. Check out another Ezra Klein podcast with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy on creativity. Click here.
Have a great week!
“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.