Cape Karen
September 27-October 7... are the days I'll be staying on the Cape this year. This is a much-anticipated trip, for many reasons. First of all, after so many continual hot weather days, I'm very relieved to be heading into the Fall season in New England. Temperatures there will be in the low 70º's or high 60º's during the days, and the nights will be cool... maybe even cold.... (Hooray!)
Secondly, I haven't seen my friend Susan since Andy died, and I want to do whatever I can to help her readjust to this difficult transition in her life. E-mails and phone calls just aren't the same as time spent together walking a beach, sharing memories and just being present.
Thirdly, I'll be getting away from this now-horrendous neighborhood, with its constant noisy traffic. That means I'll be able to sleep at night and not be awakened by roaring car engines, loud subwoofers or screeching tires at 3:00 AM. O' yeah, I'll miss Franko and Smudge kitty, but they'll be fine... they're both pretty self-sufficient. Frank can iron his own shirts and pants for ten days, and Smudge can survive without 'Mommy' spoiling her rotten with treats.
Fourthly, this is the time of year when two of the big car shows come to town. For the past two weekends we've had thousands of antique cars arriving. In this age of CO2 concerns you'd think they'd limit the number of cars shows in this little congested valley, but instead of just two car shows a year, we now have eleven, and motorcycle weekends, too.
Between tourism, the car shows, the high level of dangerous ground ozone (that always puts us at the top of the "dirty air" list in the country) plus the thousands of Mexicans who've come here and drive around town in their new souped-up vehicles with the amplified engines, I'm surprised we're not all flopping in the streets like dying fish from the big clouds of car exhaust that continually hang over our heads.
It amazes me every year how so many people come here and sit for hours in lawn chairs on the sidewalks, in 90º heat, to breathe-in the exhaust fumes from all the cars going back and forth on the Parkway. I've never seen anything like it in my life. People sitting, packed like sardines, for miles and miles, watching cars go by. Cripes - I don't even dare open the windows in my house for fear of getting poisoned by the air here... and they eagerly volunteer to sit there right on the street?
"Honey, it's time to go down to Pigeon Forge and eat exhaust fumes for the weekend!" (I really don't get it?)
But then, I don't crumple beer cans with my fist, wear sloppy tee-shirts year-round, wear baseball caps backwards, chew 'tabacca' or go to the NASCAR races, either... so, I guess this damn Yankee just ain't never gonna make it as a Redneck.