In the quiet space below, is laid out an aisle similar to those in any library. The gravestones like rows of books bearing the names of those whose names have been blotted from the pages of life; who have been forgotten elsewhere but are remembered here.
Thanks Boston 25 News for featuring another one of my photos!
Spent today putting candy treat bags together for any kiddos that might arrive on the doorstep on Saturday. We plan to be out front handing them out.
Met a new dog on shift today. Her name was Lucy and she is just 4 months old but wants to become a therapy dog when she gets older. You wouldn’t believe the number of times people will walk up to me and just start talking, but it’s cool. I get to meet all these local people and I get to be more social. There’s also this younger woman that comes by and always tries to joke with me (and I’m thinking in my head, uhmmm, okay….)
I had a weird dream last night where I saw my grandparents. I rarely seem to have dreams about them. Anyways in this dream I’m with my grandmother in the house I grew up in and were just hanging out and heading into another room. My grandfather is in the other room, with no shirt on, old, and looking like he was going to hit my grandmother with a stick or something. But he stops himself in time. He looks like I remember him toward the end of his life. He appears to be a little demented which I think he was becoming toward the end of his life. I step into the room and he looks like he’s going to hit me with the stick but in an instant there seems to be some recognition of me as his eyes widen, smiles, and appears to come out of the demented state. Then he falls backwards flat on his back and whacks his head solidly on the floor and looks knocked out. I ask my grandmother if we should do something but she says no, it happens all the time and he’ll be fine, seemingly not really caring in the least. He then gets up like nothing happens and heads over to a table that somehow appeared in the room. I look at him, bare-chested and all and tell him that I am worried about him. He tells me he’s ok and there’s nothing to worry about. I must have placed my eyes downward for a second because when I looked back up at him he was young, like when he was in his early twenties that I had seen in old photographs. I tell him again I’m worried about him but he just smiles, and says everything’s ok and then he starts wise cracking, like I imagine he did when he was that age. I then woke up out of the dream with some tears rolling down my face. What this dream could mean I have no idea, but I felt it was worthy of writing down because it was weird, it was of my grandparents, and it made me feel something. So I want to remember it.
Might add more to this post later tonight.. check back ..
It was crazy windy out there today. Lots of power outages around but we luckily seemed to be unscathed. Out on shift early this morning I could see other workers trying to fix things and get life back to normal. I didn’t notice until later that actually the house across the street had an uprooted tree leaning against it. The afternoon was a lot less windy but more rainy witch made my day somewhat miserable to out in the elements but you have to take the good with the bad, right?
It was kind of scary listening to the wind howl last night while I was lying in bed in the wee hours of the morning. Some of the plant stands outside had tipped over and the cover to the firepit was blown off, but otherwise everything else looked to be fine, seeing as I had made preparations to lock things down.
Got to love all the wind and rain we’ve been having over the last couple of days, right? Enjoy this nice New England spot I discovered a while back instead. And the little love down below.
All my stuff arrived today, the grill cover, the patio cover, my new headset, my gloves. We put the covers on their respective devices since it looks like rain for the next few days. We also got caught up on some gardening chores, like weeding and mulching and planting some more bulbs before the rains come. We also lopped some errant rose bush leaves that had been extending out into the driveway. LD also got a flu shot this afternoon. Also I was pretty proud of myself tonight with the dinner I concocted: Roasted chicken with a rosemary gravy long with sides of roasted broccoli, mashed potatoes, and a cranberry and apple chutney.
What do you think about my big pencil? It’s quite the handful, believe you me.
One neat thing I did around the house yesterday afternoon was to hang a thing to put our keys on by the door. It had these indentations on the back on where you would put the screws in the wall. I learned a new trick how to hang things like this. You get a piece of tape and stick it to the back of what you want to hang and mark on the tape the locations of where the screwheads or whatever would go and mark them on the tape. Then remove the tape from the object and stick it to the wall where you want to hang the item. Drill your holes where you placed the marks on the tape. Then remove the tape and hang your item. So much easier than having to measure out and keep trying to look behind the thing.
Today chose to be in the 70s which was a welcome change compared to what I dealt with a bit yesterday. I went on a bit of a spending spree today buying some needed things: a new cover for the grill, some gloves, and a new USB headset for my laptop since the ones I had been using since my corporate days finally bit the dust. I got one that also incorporates a 3.5mm jack so I can use it with other devices as well, so I’m looking forward to that being delivered.
Out on the afternoon shift today a woman came up to me and gifted me some lotion. I had been bringing in her barrels on trash day since she lets me use her driveway and she just wanted to meet and thank me for doing that. That was nice – actually most people that I’ve dealt with have been quite friendly to me. I am out there dealing with the public all the time now so it’s different than what I had been used to, but overall, I like the folks. Over the last couple of weeks I have been getting more and more comfortable with that.
I felt like posting a new photo today so I chose this sunset from Orleans down on the Cape to for the weather we had today.
Gametime: Apples Contain a Lot of Iron. Another puzzle game right up my alley. Seem to be stuck on level 17 at the moment.
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away; Lengthen night and shorten day; Every leaf speaks bliss to me Fluttering from the autumn tree. I shall smile when wreaths of snow Blossom where the rose should grow; I shall sing when night’s decay Ushers in a drearier day.
- Emily Brontë
This morning was the first morning in a while that it really started to feel like autumn, being cool and all.
“You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.”
― Andy Warhol
As I was finishing up my shift today, a gentleman wearing a hat pulled over and came over to me and stated that he was an artist and drew various people around town. He even showed me some of his work. I suppose they were ok, but this guy was no Picasso. Anyways he asked if he could take my picture so that he could draw me, I guess, I mean I am rather adorable and cute, right? I obliged and let him take his shots. We’ll see what comes out of this one. I would have never believed all the weird stuff that I see these days out in the field.
The patio heater works! I got the tank filled and attached it to the device and lit the ignition with fingers crossed. Booted up right on the first try and I could immediately feel the heat radiating out of the device. Probably should buy a cover for it though to help protect it from some of the elements. Speaking of covers, we should probably buy a new one for the grill as well. The cover on there is over 11 years old and has served us admirably but it has a rip in the back that is just getting bigger and bigger over time. Time for an update for sure.
LD had me run over to the garden lady in town (the one we got a bunch of other bulbs from before). She had a bunch of lily bulbs she wanted to get rid of. We’ll plant them and hopefully get lots of lilies next season to look at! We just need to figure out where to actually place them. Might be a job for the weekend.
The photo is a throwback with a little updating by yours truly of when we stayed at the Castle Hill Inn in Newport, RI. This photo was from my first visit there. Still remains one of my favorites to visit and enjoy. Maybe another visit will be in the not too distant future?
I spent the afternoon assembling the patio heater out in the back yard. The directions said it should take an hour or so but it took me a little while longer. Although I was initially hesitant about assembling it after seeing all the various parts and hardwire, once I got down to brass tacks and started working my way through the instructions, it actually wasn’t so bad. All that’s left to do now is attach the propane and give her a test run. I’ll attempt to get that done tomorrow between shifts. The whole thing itself is actually quite tall at around 87.5 inches. Then I went ahead and mowed the back yard, giving me another ~6,000 steps according to my Fitbit, so it’s a bit of a workout.
I went ahead and added two more of my designs over at the shop. One recent, the other a little bit older. Check those out if you are interested.
Anyways it ended up being a rather productive day for myself.
Last night I made a shrimp and white bean sauté and tonight I made some pan roasted cod. On a seafood kick this week.
Spent the long weekend in Lavalette, NJ in a very cute beach house only steps from the ocean, so that was pretty amazing. The weather was a little rainy off and on, but mostly off, just windy and cloudy. It made for some pretty spectacular waves. I don’t know if the waves are like that there all the time, but like I said, it was pretty wild to watch the height and power of them. Another thing I like about Lavalette is that everything is right there. The main boulevard is right there and there’s lots of options, which is why Lavalette has quickly become my 2nd favorite place in Jersey now (Cape May being Number 1). The weekend didn’t go entirely as was planned but we made the best of it and we really enjoyed ourselves. I would definitely stay there again. (You can see some of the sights on my Insta stories before they disappear).
While I was there I also was able to pick up a new book to read from a little library that was located at a local coffeehouse that we checked out. The place was Lava Java, and the book is Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Changed the World. We’ll see how the book is but the coffee place was pretty good. We also frequented a place called Lenny’s for take out dinners. Have to say their pasta dinners were really good. So plugs out to those places – check them out if you’re ever down there. Also got to watch some Netflix while we were there in the evenings, a thing on Britney, some killer documentaries, and something about LSD and the stories from celebrities who’ve done it from time to time.
Meanwhile back at the home front I need to start assembling that patio heater this week, and fill up the propane for the outside grill.
Just me.
Smile! The heater and tank have arrived for the patio finally! I’ll start assembling it after the long weekend. In between I’ve been doing a bunch of errands and other little things that had to happen, visiting HQ, the bank, working my shift etc. For some reason PayPal decided to gift me 5 bucks. Not sure why but I’ll take it.
I’m a little concerned about our pine tree out back, as he appears to be browning its needles. I think it’s probably due to all the wet weather we had this season. Hopefully things will dry out and he’ll be able to survive. He does appear to be growing new things at the nodes and he did produce a new pinecone, so fingers crossed.
Today was a good day to get caught up on a bunch of little things, Like going to Home Depot to pick up some dirt, manure, and mulch to get ready for the next season’s garden activities. Also shopped around for some mums and pumpkins at various other places to make the place blend in for fall. We need to dig out the tubers, move some random spruce trees that planted themselves a few years back to other areas, and some various other transplant tasks. Also getting ready for a short road trip soon as well.
I had some of my own tasks to complete, such as finally pulling the AC out of the window, checking the level of propane in the grill (grilling chicken out there tonight as a matter of fact). I finally got around to trying to make some hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot. It was really easy – just stack 6 of them on a rack in there with a cup of water and set it to manual for 5 minutes. When the 5 minutes is up, release the pressure and let it set for another 5 minutes. When that’s down just carefully take them out and put them in a cold water bath for the last five minutes. I did all this and ate two and have to say, it’s the way to go. Easy peasy lemonade squeezy.
The next door neighbors are having some kid party/Patriots thing going on. So annoying! Can I just say I don’t care about the Pats or Brady? Didn’t care anytime before, still don’t care today.
LD got a patio heater that’s due to arrive midweek. I can’t wait to get a look and this thing and start using it as the nights get colder. Might be able to extend our outdoor gatherings a bit longer which would be nice.
I have a meeting tomorrow morning after my 1st shift to go over our emp numbers. Since I just started I don’t think my number is going to mean all that much. I’m also not really sure what a lower number entitles you to, but I’m going to find out.