week 1 Nature

 Standing on my porch I watch the clouds float through the brilliant sea of reds from the sunset. Looking along the tree tops I see the huge plume of smoke billowing up from the power plant. Disgusting, it makes me think of that cartoon that’s on late at night, The Oblongs. It’s about a family that is deformed and disabled due to pollution and radiation exposure.
I think of the power plant when it rains. I used to love to go in the rain. Now I just wonder what’s in it. Another thing I have noticed here is how different it smells after it rains. When you are right in Bangor, for example, it smells horrible after it rains. No one ever understands what I mean, but it does. Speaking of rain! When we got hit with what was left of hurricane Irene, I was outside watching the trees in the wind. A group of twenty or so birds were soaring in the air over me. They were flying against the wind so they really weren't going anywhere. It was the coolest thing! I was watching them wondering why in the world they weren't snuggled up to a tree, when all of the sudden they turned and flew in the other direction. Right behind them was the rain. A wall of rain chasing the birds!
Would it be horrible to say I was disappointed by Irene? I love storms, and was kind of hoping to get more. Not sure my neighbor would agree. A tree was blown over onto her car. I told my aunt about it and she simply said, "Yeah and hundreds of other people, so what." She has no sympathy. She had a totally different attitude when the tree came down in her yard and nearly took out her truck.
I have been riding in her truck since I was six years old. We used to go to her camp all the time when we were little. One time, my mother was driving and my aunt, my brothers and I were on back. All of the sudden we heard this really weird sound. The only way I could describe it would be to say it sounded like a thousand cricket all at once. Keep in mind I was a little kid. My aunt looks down over the side of the truck and hollers “GO Tracy GO! We’re losing air!”  
My aunt has a sandy beach at her camp. One day my brothers and I were digging and found turtle eggs! Unfortunately one of them was cut in half. My aunt came over and buried the eggs again and told us to leave them alone. I sat there holding the egg we destroyed, not quite understanding what we had done. In my hand was a tiny turtle and blood. My aunt took the egg and turtle away and told me to go wash my hands in the lake. As I did I noticed something in the water. It was black and looked like a snake almost. I asked my aunt what it was and she said “It’s a leach. Pick it up and throw it in the fire.” So I picked it up, looked at it for a minute and went to the fire. When I tried to throw it in it was stuck to me! I couldn’t get it to come off! My aunt laughed and pulled it off. “You have to be quick.” She said as she threw it in the fire. “Now listen.” A few seconds later I heard a pop! So then my new game was to make the leaches go pop in the fire.