What's going on, here?

A good question! It's been 22 days since I last posted! In that period, I spent 5 days in Toledo, Ohio and then 8 days in New York City. It took me a few days to recover from Toledo alone! It was the first time I have set foot in the USA in almost 18 months.
I suppose that I want to write about my impressions of The USA, but my mind is swirling.
I walked through neighborhoods in Toledo and realized that the normal block had at least 7 houses with at least one American flag. Some houses had multiple flags. On one block I stopped and counted over 24 flags of various sizes, standard size, miniatures, decales...little plastic ones...I am sure i missed a few.
When I was a boy in Detroit, we had a neighbor who displayed a flag every day of the year. He was regarded as the neighborhood nut case and in reality, he was.
I also noticed that usually, I was the only person on the street. Nobody walks. One day I took a walk that was about 5 miles and when I got back to my sisters house, my brother in law asked me where I had gone. I told him and he said, "That's crazy! If you asked, I would have driven you!"
I was happy to get to New York. There, everyone walks. The level of street noise was more than I had ever experienced in my 25 years of living there. The juxtaposition of sheer poverty and obscene displays of wealth were mind boggling. CBGB was just another place for rent on the Bowery. There was an expensive CBGB Boutique on St. Marks Place marketing the aura of something that will never happen again.
I saw a Hummer fitted out like a family woody style station wagon from the 50's parked on my block in the East Village. There was more garbage on the street, but the quality was so much higher than I remembered it!
One of the strangest sights was on the Bowery, as I walked past the shell of CBGB, I saw that the Bowery Mission was still there with derelicts staggering out the doors and then the next building had a red carpet and a doorman and limos...The new Bowery Hotel! I stopped in disbelief.......what's going on here?
I was finally happy to get back here to La Sechere. I arrived in the midst of the strikes, not knowing if I could make it easily into Bordeaux from the airport, let alone get a train that evening to Perigueux.
Finally back here, utter silence. It's hard to get started again.
The picture is another friendly reminder that we are getting ready for the joyous gala celebration of Zappadan starting the 6th of December...o joy........