This Corny Street

I was awakened by an extremely loud thunder clap in the morning, upon which sound my cat stabbed me with his claw, being startled awake himself. All day the talk was of the approaching Hurricane Irene, which promises the hardest storm to visit our city for fifty years or more. Also a young lady of the neighborhood who had gone missing was found dead. Many of my friends knew her, and her picture is slightly familiar to me, but the cause of death has not been openly stated yet. The signs point to a very sad but private tragedy.

Aside from all that, it was a busy day with not much time to scare up a good blip. Here is a street scene about a half mile from my place, in a block where wretched row houses are interspersed with nicely fixed ones. It caught my eye because one has been restored with a 3-color paint job, tiled roof, and reflective roof coating, still with all of its old ornamentation. To the right of it is a thoroughly neglected (but occupied) dwelling, such as this neighborhood was full of until about a dozen years ago. Next is the worst of the three: Some landlord has given the tired old house a cheap facelift, covering all interesting features with vinyl siding and even chopping the shared ornamental crests in half. Landlords are reviled as worse than termites by many around here. But even the bland influence of the landlord can't take away from the nano-corn field that's standing tall by the sidewalk!

I couldn't find the right poem or lyric about corn to end with, but I hope you've all had a great day.