Visiting Old Friends

Downtown Boston

Took a drive out to the cemetery this afternoon where my grandparents are buried. Felt like visiting them and sharing my thoughts with them. Really wanted to ask for their advice and guidance , my grandmother always knew what to say whenever I needed it. While there we also got homemade masks from a friend – practicing the proper routine and social distancing and all. Ended the evening off with a Zoom call with our couple friends and played a game for a couple hours – believe it or not it does actually help our moods.

The picture above has nothing to do with this entry – just felt like pulling it out from the archives, a throwback to a time when you could walk around town.

New Beginnings

York Cliiss

Distance means so little, when life means so much.

I felt a little sad today – I get good days and bad days, but overall I try to keep an optimistic outlook (this rainy cloudy dark cold weather day isn’t helping). Worked on some great projects and I learned a lot but it is time to move on. I think in the end things will turn out pretty good – but it’s going to be long road for sure. One day at a time, no one said rebirth was easy. We’ve been going over some ideas that might give me a focus and that I could possibly use to provide some value. Mostly I’m thankful and immensely grateful for all the support that I have. I need to remember that.

No Safe Harbor

Newburyport Harbor

A ship in a harbor is a safe ship, but that’s not what ships are built for.

And 2020 just keeps on sucking. Had a meeting late this afternoon and guess what…. I’ve been laid off, kinda shitty the way they did it too. Basically I’ll be cut off totally after April 21. I’ve worked with this group for 30 years (well, actually if I made it to September of this year but close enough). I’m not surprised – the writing was on the wall, but I think if they couldn’t find anything for me with my skill set I think that company as a whole is going to be feeling a lot of hurt soon, as a lot of folks already are.

Well, I’ll need some time to process all this. Not feeling so great at the moment but I’ll find a way through it somehow.

The Visit to Castle Hill

Castle Hill Light

The story behind the photo: I had seen photos from this location that other people had taken and wanted to see it myself. So, I found out that there was an inn right at the location and booked a getaway there. I’ve been to this location a bunch of times since and this photo is not from the first time I was there, but maybe the third or fourth. The actual location is back a ways from the inn and you have to climb over this huge rock outcropping formation to get to the location that I liked – good thing I’m agile, more so back in those days. The location is very scenic.

Still

Motif No. 1 (reprise)

Life’s most precious moments are not all loud or uproarious. Silence and stillness has its own virtues.

The story behind the photo: Taking this one out again, although I did touch it up a little bit more from the original. Did you know that the little red fishing shack at the end of Bearskin Neck in Rockport, Massachusetts, is the most painted building in the world? Well, it is. I like the way I did this shot, to give it sort of a somber and quiet tone. Truth is it was actually a really nice sunny day when I shot this and I had to wait for folks to get out of the shot as I believe I shot it around one or two in the afternoon. I’d like to put all these shots in a large format book someday, at the very least. At the most in an art gallery – I can dream, right? I might need to have a side hustle and start selling these things – assuming I could get anyone to buy them – not really the best of times right now.

Spent part of the afternoon replacing the glass panes in the doors with their screen counterparts – it’s that time of the year again getting ready for the warmer weather! For dinner tonight going to try the hand at a little dish called Korean Beef Bebimbap. I’m not a big ethnic food eater but I’m willing to give it a try.

Through the Fog

One half of Thatcher Light through the fog.

You never realized how thick your fog was until it lifted.

More updates later! Some of the things I’m going to try to get done today: cleaning, setting up LD’s new computer (done!), getting some fresh air somewhere (done!), making a bruschetta chicken dish for dinner (done!), doing some planting/gardening (done!) and maybe watching one of the following movies that we currently have on the DVR (American Graffiti, Donnie Brasco, Shazam!, The Recruit, The Lonely Bones, Along Came Polly).

The story behind the photo: Tooling around Rockport one morning and exploring different areas I had never been to before we happened upon this one outcrop somewhere along the shoreline of the town (Loblolly Point – a little hidden treasure of a location) with a trail that I decided to get out and follow and see what there was to see. I think we were actually trying to look for some birds at the time, like a heron or something. After climbing over some rocks which you can see in the foreground I happened to look out and see one of Thatcher’s lights peeking out through the fog and so I thought to myself that this might be cool. It was a clear day but the fog hadn’t lifted yet across the waterway to where the lights are so it was a really striking look I thought.

Happy Anniversary LadyDoc!

I love all the moments that make up our life,
the chaos and the calm,
the quiet and the crazy,
I love them because they’re spent with you.

In a world where so many things can be uncertain, you are the one thing that I will always be sure of. Happy anniversary Ladydoc! Seriously, you’re amazing.

Out There

Out there.

There were so many times in my life when I thought it was the end but there was another day.

The story behind the photo: Another sunset drive around and happened upon this spot where I had noticed that a guy with a fishing rod walked out to the end of the line of rocks and just decided to fish there. This is one of those being a place at the right time kinda shots that I’ve been lucky to capture. I like the mood of this one – you have the bright sunset but the guy looks lonely to me, isolated, but hey – there’s hope. I don’t know, I just like the dichotomy of that sort of thought I guess, and once again somewhat applicable to the current situation in the world – don’t you think? Do folks like this idea I’ve been doing? The photo with a quote and the stories behind the photos?

Red Roses

Roses are red…

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn

Should never crave the rose.”

The story behind the photo: This was a valentine’s gift one year and I felt like playing around with close up photography. I wanted to focus on the rose petals toward the front of the shot with the baby’s breath muted in the background. I then applied some effects after to give it a “softer” look. The red rose has been associated with love and passion for thousands of years. In Greek and Roman mythology, roses are often linked to Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.

Gametime: Ice Roll. In case you haven’t noticed I have a thing for Puzzlescript games. I like these kinds of games that make me have to think on how to get to the exits. Maybe they can help you pass the day away too trying to solve them.

Spent some time over at Earth-1 this morning/afternoon. It was a good time, ended up watching SpiderMan 2 of all things. I think tomorrow I’m going to do some planting.

Along the Cliffs

Cliff Walk

Life is a walk to the edge of a cliff. Every day we get a step nearer and what lies over the brink, no one can tell.

Tonight we made some Chicken with an Apricot Jam sauce, and watched Menendez: Blood Brothers staring Courtney Love of all people (we all know the story – I was curious how this version would be – verdict – what you would expect). Today was such a rainy and windy day, I think I even took an afternoon nap which is something I never do!

The story behind the photo: Sad to say I don’t have any real interesting story about this one. Just happened to be at that location and took a snap and there it was.

Healing

Rock Harbor Sunset

“Okay Mother Nature — You win.”

The story behind the photo: This was taken at Rock Harbor in Orleans. This is one that I was surprised by. This was actually taken just in the parking lot so if I stepped the shot back just a foot or two you would see the awful pavement and surrounding automobiles. I do think in a strange way the Earth is trying to reset itself – you hear stories of pollution way down and marine life returning to the canals of Venice. Maybe Mother Nature has had enough and wants time to heal and so is forcing it to happen, the only way she knows how.

Missing My Vitamin Sea

Watching the scene along the Newport coast

The story behind the photo: Not sure if I ever posted this one before since I refreshed the site but if I did, well here it is again. I’m having to plumb my archives for some content since I haven’t been going out much these days as we all need to lay low to flatten the curve. Let me see if I can remember how this one came about. One afternoon we were just driving around Newport RI one day and we stopped into the Ocean Cliff Hotel but you could go in and eat even if you weren’t staying there. I remember it not being very bust this particular day – seemed like there might have been some big family event going on later on, like maybe a wedding or something. I vaguely recall this place had something of a safari motif which I thought was a little weird, in fact, I believe it may have been called the Safari Room actually. Anyways, they had an open deck area out back and that’s where this shot was taken. I knew I definitely wanted to have a sailboat in the background of this shot and I also thought the black chairs looked kind of cool but other than that this was literally a quick snap from the cellphone. I also thought the cotton candy clouds were a nice touch as well. I believe the day had the threat of rain but other than some drizzles here and there I believe it was mostly partly cloudy. Unlike today, which actually did start raining and had to cut short our noontime walk around the block, but hey, April showers bring May flowers! Which reminds me, I really need to start planting some things.

Some random thoughts: Since I’ve got my Versa 2 activity tracker I’ve walked over 588k steps. I’m going to draw Carson – do a little art therapy with myself. Maybe I can finish some reading, I’ve been slacking on that lately. I may update this post later with more so check back. Tonight’s movie watch is Serpico!

Spring and Teacher Parade

Spring came just the same.

“I am going to try to pay attention to the spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen.”

Anne Lamott

Just updated the site to the newest version of WordPress. This entry is just more or less to make sure nothing “broke” in the process. Seems to be alright. I’ll try using some of the new features in posts over time as I feel they warrant it.

I braved going to the grocery store last night. Looked like everyone was practicing social distancing and all. In and out. Work for me has been really slow lately – been watching some training videos but will probably have to take some personal time (PTO) to help with utilization. Kinda sucks and is concerning regarding my possible future but keeping the chin up, it all could be worse.

At lunch today we went for a walk around a block and discovered that all the teachers in town drove around in a parade with balloons and honking horns while waving from their cars said hello to the students around town. It was a nice thing to see today. So great to see them spreading positivity their students. What are you doing to spread positivity?