Month: August 2021

Sail Me Away

Posted on by Markman
Sailing Schooners in Gloucester.

No one could write about the sea and leave out the poetry.

I heard from who is going to be my supervisor this afternoon. You wouldn’t believe all the things I need to get through but I imagine it just seems like a lot until one gets the hang of it. I won’t be able to actually start until I finish my physical on Thursday and then the CPR class in another week, but I did get to see where I’ll be working and I think I’m going to like working with this group of folks. They seem pretty cool.

The Annual Schooner fest is coming up end of the week. Here’s a photo I took from it back in 2018 (was that really the last time I was there for this???) I might need to go up and get some new pictures, maybe hang out at the harbor, etc.

I fired up the grill again tonight for some turkey burgers. I need the energy after mowing the back yard today. It’s a big yard and takes a lot of energy but it looks good now.

I don’t like that the days are getting shorter!

I Goat You Babe

Posted on by Markman
Goats are my therapy. Eustis and I goat this.

I was looking over some new dehumidifiers to replace the old one we had that finally went to it’s grave. Did you know they have ones now that even include WIFI and will alert you to their status? The Internet of Things (IoT) really is everywhere these days.

I’ve been playing around with the website design again, just for a change. If you’re viewing the page on computer you’ll see a bunch of stuff on the right – a sidebar if you will, otherwise that stuff shows up and the very bottom of the page. I might go back to the previous design but for now I just felt like changing things a bit.

What a wonderfully pleasant day today, with cool breezes. Thinking of doing a fire tonight. But for this afternoon, we felt a trip to the sanctuary was in order, plus LD had some produce she wanted to donate to the animals. As we got there we met the owner who mentioned that she was thinking of LD and had “summoned” her and missed her and called us family. That was really sweet. We got goat time which is our favorite part (see photo of Eustis and I!) Eustis is one of my all time favorites (even though it’s a girl’s name the goat is actually a male) but we heard that he’s been having a harder time lately – arthritis and all, the animals are getting up in age sadly and Eustis has been there a long time. Still, just sitting in the sun and the sand seems to make us all pretty happy.

I did end up making a fire around 4:30. We were out there til about 6:50. The fire was nice because it actually felt somewhat cold outside by the late afternoon.

Currently watching: Behind Her Eyes on Netflix.

Be Still and Know That I Will Always Love You

Posted on by Markman
Still waters. An uncropped high res version is available for purchase.

Currently watching: The Murders at White House Farm on Netflix.

Well, it looks like one thing I’ve been working on is coming to fruition finally. The final steps are getting a physical, taking a CPR training and a having drug test done and then I’m ready to go ahead for the next stage in my journey. I expect to have these all done over the next few days.

I was saddened to learn that this 75+ year old tree that I grew up with next door to the house I grew up in was removed today. All to make room for another condo development. That was a pretty big tree.

More later…

I Finally Won Something

Posted on by Markman

I was notified by the Reelz channel today that I actually won one of their giveaways! It happens to be an Alice Cooper Funco Pop. Hey, it’s something! I used to win contests all the time, it was crazy, but over the last few years my winning pretty much stopped. Maybe this will be the start of a winning streak. That would be nice.

Don’t Want Summer to Leave

Posted on by Markman
Sunset in Marshfield

I am a bit concerned about the storm named Henri which is expected to hit us come Sunday but I’m hoping things won’t be too bad. I sort of remember Hurricane Bob 30 years ago to which they are comparing this one to. I don’t recall Bob being bad for me personally so I’m hoping for the same thing with Henri but time will tell. It doesn’t sound like it’ll hit where we are as bad as it could be but I’m still taking precaution by battening down the hatches, so to speak. You wouldn’t know a storm was coming by the way today is.

I took the time to watch Val, a videography by the actor. It wasn’t bad, I especially liked the behind the scenes videos he took of various movies and seeing the different actors he’s worked with being themselves. I also finally watched The Lighthouse, another strange movie to be sure and definitely creepy. This is going to be a good weekend for movies. Last night we saw Wonder Woman 1984 and wasn’t impressed. First one was way better, the story in this one was pretty stupid.

Summer nears the end

We ended up going to a beach in Marshfield for the late afternoon and hung there for a while, til close to sunset where we watched it while chomping on some lobster rolls.

Swollen Ankle / Nubble Love

Posted on by Markman
Nubble

What a strange day, wake up to rain and tornado warnings, and then super humid and sunny.

I noticed my ankle was swelled last night, I think a jelly might have bit me in the water from the beach the other day. I took some meds last night and it seems to have gone down quite a bit and has gotten better so that’s good news. This happened to me a few months ago on my hand where after being in the ocean it was all swelled up but I did the same thing back then and the same result happened. Basically a Benadryl and a tiny bit of rest.

Here’s another shot from the Nubble I took in early spring of this year.

Board Walks

Posted on by Markman
Boardwalk along Plum Island Reservation

“Love you to the end of the boardwalk and back.”

Oh, I forgot to mention the other day when we were at the beach that we noticed all the au pairs again watching the kids and going in the water. Must be nice! For the Moms I mean, not so much for the au pairs who have to watch those kids constantly. Still, spending a day at the beach for work doesn’t sound so bad. We originally though they must live in the town but then we figured why would they spend time at the non-resident area, unless they just like the way the beach is there better? A mystery that most likely I will never solve.

Another Beautiful Beach Day Life

Posted on by Markman

I am so tanned now, it must be my Mediterranean blood!

We literally practically spent the whole day at the beach today. We are becoming beach bums and it was glorious! Not many people there at all today so we made the most of it. We’ve got to take these days while we can because these moments are finite and we need to savor and relish them. I sure am. Afterwards I treated us to lobster rolls and fried clams over at Green Harbor Lobster Pound – we love that place.

A Perfect Day in Every Way

Posted on by Markman
A spectacular sunrise I witnessed in Maine not too long ago.

“Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun. And I say it’s all right.”

The Beatles, Here Comes The Sun

It’s going to be a fantastic day, might as well start it out with a spectacular sunrise shot.

I did an experiment and fried up some hot dogs in the air fryer today and I’ve got to say, it’s pretty good. 6 minutes at 400 and it’s done! Probably going to be my go-to now in making them, unless I’m doing some grilling outside

Off to the beach this am, more later….

4.5 hours later today: Back from the beach, it was awesome! We played in the waves and got some sun, stayed there longer than ever so far. Just for the record we like going to Duxbury Beach Park which might actually technically be in Marshfield but it suits us. Definitely going in the early morning, which was new for us, is advantageous in many ways. Plus the weather today was just perfect, why can’t everyday be like today? Probably would have stayed even longer but we had to get back to home base because LD needed to attend a continuing conference online. We made it back just in the nick of time – cut it close with 5 minutes to spare!

On the streaming front we’ve just about finished season 2 of Mindhunter. Great show. As I mentioned before there’s a few more things I’d like to see within the next few weeks including Val, Sharp Objects, WW 1984, The Lighthouse, some 3 day special on A&E about serial killers, The Girl in the Fog, and Mare of Eastown to name a few.

Ended up the early evening by grilling up some steak tips and lighted up the fire pit and ate outside and relaxed. Now we’re salty and smoky! Perfect day!

The only negative part is LD got some sunburn on her arm!

American Gothic and Boardwalk Love

Posted on by Markman
Return to American Gothic

Sending Love from Greys is now available on the online shop. I’ve been playing around with the idea of having physical media of my best photos with me all framed and such to sell at live venues. I still need to figure out a bunch of logistics and cost but this may be a better way to get some of my work noticed better. I’m also working on some other side gigs for the fall, so we’ll see.

Click to see more of product

Kind of too hot to much of anything today although I did do a Wegman’s grocery run in the morning and took some calls. I have figured out that I want to also watch the movie The Lighthouse, in addition to what I mentioned yesterday.

Ospreys looking

at eachother

I forgot to mention we saw a lot of osprey’s on the last trip. Here’s a photo of two of them just looking at eachother.

Au Pairs Everywhere

Posted on by Markman
A sandy expanse

Earlier today I saw an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly flitting around on the butterfly bush out back, It makes me happy to know that my taking care of that bush finally has some of the visitors I was hoping it would attract to come to fruition.

Lately in the evenings we’ve been getting through the series Mindhunter and finally finished season 1. Other things that I want to watch include Val, Wonder Woman 1984, and Sharp Objects. LD doesn’t want to watch that last one because she read the book and said it was extremely disturbing which Kinda makes me want to see it more in a strange way.

Today we hit the beach up here for a couple of hours because it was hot. We noticed what appeared to be au pairs ( bunch of them) watching children while their rich moms just relaxed on the beach. Really interesting to see, these young teenage girls so focused on watching the kids and doing all the work while the moms laid about. I didn’t notice at first, but LS noticed that the girls seems very focused on watching the kids, and what teenage girl is going to do that at the beach normally? We went it the water a couple of times, it was a little cold but actually I found it refreshing. Once you were in it was nothing and you adapted fairly quick. Before we left we hit Green Harbor again for Lobster Rolls and Clam Plates. I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide who got what.

It’s Nice to be Loved on your Birthday

Posted on by Markman
Walking along Grey’s Boardwalk

The best photo I took on my Birthday getaway! Besides taking a hike, having some great adventures involving delicious dishes and swimming in the salty ocean with the breeze blowing on our backs, we finished off with a walk along the Grey’s Beach boardwalk. Thanks have to go to the love of my life, the Ladydoc, making it all happen. I’d also like to thank BostonFox25 for also featuring my photo (over 3,000 likes – wow!). Maybe someday we’ll have a board about us on this walkway. It essentially crosses the marsh for quite a bit until it gets to open water at the end.

We stayed in a place called The Osprey Nest, basically a pretty cute little apartment that had basically anything you could need and with an efficient use of the space. It also featured a booth which LD knew I would like sitting at and did on many occasions. Highlights from the trip I’d have to say were eating lunch from the local Market (a really good deli!) and eating it and the end of the Indian Trail, a little road that ends at Horseshoe Shoal across from Sandy Neck. Hot chocolates from the Chocolate Sparrow (of course), hiking and picking apples from the local Mass Audubon location there (and watching the goats there helping with keeping the vegetation in check – working goats!) , and lovely meals from Osterville and Yarmouth and swimming and sunning at the beaches (west Dennis and Seagull are particularly nice). On the way back we had a wonderful outdoor meal in Sandwich which is literally right up against the canal watching the sailboats go by as we dined.

The Undoing

Posted on by Markman

Discovered a new short series on HBO Max called The Undoing starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. It’s only 6 episodes long so it’s not a big commitment and we’re finding it really good. The first episode was a bit slow for about the first 45 minutes or so but after that, and every episode after, is a blast. If anyone else has some good recommendations for shows to watch that don’t have a large commitment like this one, I’d be happy to hear them. Comment and let me know.

Fun Weekend Vibes

Posted on by Markman
Summer Colors

Saturday I felt like taking us out on a ride out to Gloucester so we spent the afternoon and had lunch at a place we like out there. I had their signature Lobster BLT and it did not disappoint. Then we went to Wingaersheek for a few in the late afternoon. In the evening a work buddy of LD’s came over and we had a nice fire pit outing. We didn’t get to bed until real late (like next day late, it was so fun!)

Sunday was going to be another beach day. After waking up pretty late (from the festivities of the night before) we finally made out way down to Duxbury and enjoyed the waves. We thought it was going to be a hassle and be busy and stuff, but it actually wasn’t bad at all and we had a wonderful time. Then hung out at Green Harbor for a while and enjoyed another meal.

Now I’m sitting on the deck out back, sipping a hot chocolate, and enjoying the evening by winding down, as the cool breeze gently blows.