During the first several months of the COVID-19 pandemic, I took many, many walks. I would often cross the river on the pedestrian path on the side of the freeway. The bridge was built a few years ago, and the walkway is nice and wide.
There has always been a population of homeless people living out there. Like many people in the US, situations like these pit my sense of compassion against my need for safety. They often stole the apples off my fruit trees. That didn't bother me all that much, since I figured they were hungry and needed them. One year, they stole my hammock. I saw later in one of their camps and decided to just let them keep it.
There is certainly a fair amount of mental illness (I've encountered numerous people in the throes of psychosis) and drug use. There is even a delightful (sarcasm!) amount of profane, obscene, and racist graffiti on the bridge. The one below was accompanied by a lewd drawing. At least it was in chalk, so it doesn't deface our new bridge. The style of the letter S is an intentional Nazi reference that I've seen in other, more overtly racist, graffiti.
While everything was shut down during 2020, I had to quit going down to the bridge. It felt unsafe to me. People would sometimes yell at me for wearing a mask, or come up and get right in my face. Before my vaccination, I didn't want anyone close to me.
Another lovely feature of those shut-down days was the amount of dog feces in the street and on the side walks. That isn't something I'm accustomed to in North America. It is pretty common in Latin America, where dogs run all over the place, shitting on sidewalks. I still don't know why people quit scooping up after their dogs. It isn't pleasant to smell human and dog waste while you are out for a walk.
In the past few years, the number of people who are homeless has exploded. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been walking past a new camp. My walking route takes me past their open latrine, where you can see paper towels, toilet paper, and lots of flies. The people don't harass me or anything, so I don't feel uncomfortable with them being there. What worries me, though, is the latrine. Open defecation is a huge public health issue. In countries where it is common, parasites and disease abound. We don't have those diseases here because of our sanitation infrastructure. But we now have a growing population living without modern sanitation. How long will it be before those diseases become part of life here in this country?
I won't launch into politics here. The actual reason for this post is to show what I found next to that camp. There is an Oregon oak seedling that has no chlorophyll. When the food from the acorn runs out, it will die, since it can't produce any sugars on its own. I have seen cherry seedlings like this before. I even tried to graft them to other seedlings without success.
I'm not inclined to torture this tree's short life by grafting it, Frankenstein-style, to another plant. I have to fantasize about what an albino oak would look like though... A tree like this would be so ghostly.
I will appreciate it while it lasts.
