Yes, I have an flagship Samsung Android phone but I wanted to see what the buzz is all about with this new iPhone 14 feature called Dynamic Island. Just my luck someone has recreated it for Android and you can get it from the Google Play store here if you want to try it out. I do kind of like it, but I know its just some gimmick. I’ll keep it for a while and see how it goes.
Gametime: Currently trying to get through Dying Dreams.
Latest Watched: Chastity Bites: When I started watching this I thought it was going to be horrible as its a bit campy but in truth it actually wasn’t that bad at all! Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian noblewoman who was said to have tortured and murdered as many as 650 people in the 16th century. If you believe her accusers, her favorite victims were young girls, because she thought bathing in the blood of virgins would keep her eternally young. Chastity Bites is a horror/comedy that imagines Bathory’s beauty regimen worked, and she’s still living, preying on modern high schools by organizing religious chastity pledge programs to make sure her victims are virgins. This underrated movie is low-budget and rough-around-the-edges, but it’s funny, smart, and skewers the horror genre’s sex = death obsession, right wing hypocrisy, vapid teenage culture, materialism, beauty obsession, and just about everything else that was happening in 2013 America.
I had a weird dream last night which now doesn’t sound so impressive but when it woke me up last night at the end I thought it was cool. I was hanging with this guy which I thought was my grandfather but couldn’t be because he looked like that guy Buzzy from Jeopardy. Anyways we somehow ended up in a place that resembled a mix between a restaurant and a train car. Later some other people joined us but it was him in different stages of his life but they were rendered in the colors of the television media of the time. So there was an early 1970 version of him looking kind of tinted green and for some reason looked like early 1970s era Stan Lee. And there was one were he was a young man, possibly from the 1940s are dressed dapper and in black and white, and an even earlier version of him during the silents era. That guy didn’t speak, but a woman then appeared next to him which I took to be his wife. She didn’t appear in the other versions though (perhaps because she no longer existed in those times?) The cool thing was they could all communicate with each other. Not sure why I was there, I had no direct link to this person that I could discern and I was kind of just a guest there, watching. It would be cool to be able to tell your younger self things and for the younger selves to talk to the older. Then toward the end of the dream a guy we used to work with we nicknamed DNO came into the dream although now the surroundings looked a bit like the hallways of a place we worked at in the 1990s. He passed away a couple of years ago sadly. He was a chemist and I saw him holding some beakers and saying hi and then walking down the hall to complete whatever he was doing. He looked tired, but happy in doing his job. I actually cried when I saw him and the oldest “Buzzy” in color consoled me. I then woke up and had real tears in my eyes. Not really sure what this dream means, we weren’t like close or anything although we did have some glorious deathmatches in Quake over the company network over the years. When I woke up in the middle of the night from this dream I almost wanted to get up and write this down so I wouldn’t forget it (I thought the sci-fi aspects of the Buzzy situation were great) but then as the day drew on I was unsure if I should even post it or write it down at all. As you can see I decided to go ahead. What do you guys make of this?
As a final note, my sister says next time we meet up she wants to take a walk with me to our old elementary school to try to relive that moment I was feeling yesterday. I’m going to take her up on that.
We’ve spent the last few days starting to return some of the tables and chairs to the people who were so kind as to let us borrow them; they were very useful, but we’ll be keeping a few just a little while longer because this weekend is a smaller, more private gathering, and this time, a goat will be involved, if you can believe that! I don’t think that it could compare to Lenny to me, but we’ll see! We’ll be using some the games that we didn’t get to and such that we used for the party for this small group of folks who couldn’t make the main event.
Lately I’ve been having thoughts of when I was little and a couple that keep coming up is with me and my sister. I can remember a friend asking me to come over his house and I was game to do it. My sister who was quite young at the time kept crying and didn’t want me to go. maybe we were playing together at the time or something, I don’t know. Anyways I can remember being sort of adamant that I was going to go. I can remember reaching the front gate to the driveway and looking back at the house and in the window I could see my sister crying. She really didn’t want me to go, and I debated staying in my head but ultimately I went anyway. I mean, he had the latest KISS record Double Platinum at the time and I wanted to listen to it! The friend I was visiting lived over by the Powerhouse so it was only a 10 minute walk. But I never forgot the crying. I always felt something changed a little but between us after that, but that can’t be. I actually mentioned this to my sister today and she laughed about it. Didn’t remember, and of course nothing changed. (Right?) I also had thoughts of us walking each other back and forth to school one year, the one year where it overlapped in such a way that we were in the same elementary school at the same time but in different grades. I think I was in 6th and see must have been in 1st.
I miss those days, looking back now.
And today’s photo is one of those lovely sunset images that everyone seems to enjoy. This one is from Rock Harbor, which is in Orleans, Massachusetts. One of our favorite places, and I’m sure you can tell why.
The story behind the photo: A few years ago, we went to the Fluffernutter Festival in my hometown of Somerville, MA. It’s a yearly celebration now honoring the invention of the product Fluffernutter, which was invented by a door to door salesman in town, Eventually he sold it to the company that still makes it today with their factory in Lynn but originally it all started right here. Anyways, this one particular year they somehow got Susan Olsen to come down and check it out, How could I not go? I grew up watching the Brady Bunch. I would get out from school and go home and put on Channel 56 which reran them everyday. I think it was a couple of cartoons, and then the Bradys and then the Monkees – amazing how TV has shaped me. In fact, I believe everything about life can be explained in various Brady Bunch episodes but that’s a discussion for another time. (Perhaps one day I will write a thesis about it but I digress.) Anyways, she was amazing. Kind of makes me want to meet the rest of the “Bradys”. As a side note, Florence Henderson visited the local hospital here a few years back and had I known this at the time I probably would have met Mrs. Brady, but it was sadly not to be. Also Peter Brady has visited Dedham a few times at Kings in Legacy Place so there was a possibility of seeing him as well. We missed Jan once in NYC, she apparently was downstairs from a restaurant we were frequenting at at the time but another miss. I figure Greg and Marcia would be the hardest to get to meet. I have no desire to meet Bobby (sorry!)
The party was a great success and I think everyone who attended had a great time! We were scrambling a little bit as the party start time drew near, with getting tables set up, and picking up the cake, getting a balloon and such, etc. Everyone who said they would attend did and we even had three dogs visit, including Boomer all the way down from Maine, and Lenny, a dog I’ve been wanting to meet for a long time. He was one solid boy weighing close to over 50 pounds! We played a game that made you meet and talk to people to learn things about them and it actually worked and everyone was into it. Another one of LD’s friends was kind enough to pick up the main entrees from Canton so that was a great help. The camera was all set up for the selfie station and I promise to set up a shared google drive directory so that folks who took one can download their pictures. The weather was perfect for a party day! We had some pretty great homemade props which I’ll be saving to use for future events.
People also got to see the new basement and bathroom to help us decide on colors by voting. So we had a lot going on, between everyone meeting everyone, eating all the various dishes, watching LD smash her piñata, cutting the cake, playing the games, and having a good time. LD even went out of her way and cooked some gluten free things for some guests who could not partake of the main entrees. All the desserts were a huge hit, from the cake which truly was delicious to the special ice cream sandwiches we got from Providence. As the party was ending (the last guests didn’t leave till around 10 pm!) we saw the SpaceX rocket in the sky although at the time we didn’t know what it was, circled around the fire pit. The main thing was that everyone who came genuinely came to celebrate LD and you could feel the joy. We have to remember that we really are surrounded by wonderful people who care and love LD and I’m very appreciative that I was also able to partake in that.
Now that we’ve cleaned everything up we are taking a well deserved nap!
The new bathroom is finished and ready! The snacks are in house! The food is ordered and on the way! The props and other accoutrements are almost ready! The tables and chairs are in and ready to be set up! This is going to be great!
The party plans are coming apace! Hard to believe the time is almost here. More planning yesterday and today. Tomorrow I’m due to make a big supply run with some helpers. The weather looks to be gorgeous this weekend for the event so I couldn’t be happier about that. The props should be arriving this afternoon for the selfie station. Got what I think is a pretty good assortment of different things, yes there probably will be a bunch of photos taken at this event. I won’t post many of them here but there will be lots I am sure. Might be good to grab some candid ones too. Just have to work on getting the final food stuff together and arranging the space! This will be the first time hosting almost 20 guests at one time, could be a bit daunting!
Getting sooner to the big party day. I went ahead yesterday and mowed all the lawns, might go over it again next week just to make it sure it looks all pristine. Working on getting the food and decorations together for the big day. All the invites have gone out and just about everyone that was invited is due to come. Not going to lie, I do feel a little nervous, but it’s all going to be a good time. Working on getting the propane tanks full as well, for possible grilling but also the outdoor space heater just for the off chance that it might be a chilly day, but hopefully the weather will be good all around. Also been messing around with my tripod for the selfie station. It’s been forever since I missed with it so I’m a little rusty. Decided to go with the DSLR to get some real high quality photos instead of or in addition to cell phone pics. Really want to make this a time to remember for the folks who are kind enough to join us in the celebration.
LD remembered a great place for the food that we’ll be offering. Super psyched to dig into that. Making me hungry just thinking about it. Might also need to take a trip down to Providence RI to pick up some very special snacks.
Getting a little ahead of myself – today is really about nailing down the specifics and planning. So to that end we were able to accomplish the following things today: visiting a bunch of places to see if we could get things that are on our list of things needed to get, pumpkins and mums for fall decorations. To that end we visited a couple of places and even a local farm. Really need to narrow down the rest of the list today and get everything locked down and ready!
Drove to drop off 2 blank CDs in Walpole to someone online who asked for them in a social media group that we belong to. Got a bunch of free stuff off of there that was useful so just sort of giving back. I’m looking for some stuff for the game room that I’m hoping will show up on there at some point.
Made an appointment to take my mom to get her drivers license renewed at the end of the month at the local AAA office, forget going to the RMV! It took a while to get one, you basically have to keep clicking online every 10 minutes or so and hope you bump someone else out of the way. In hindsight now I’m realizing it may be a little tough to be able to make it there on time but I’m going to try.
We got these special lily bulbs from LD’s garden lady friend yesterday. I’ve been soaking them overnight to be able to put them in the ground today. For some reason the lady said they should go in as soon as possible. Just need to find a spot where they’ll actually fit. We have too many things growing! I eventually decided to put split them up a bit, putting some in the main round area and then the rest out toward the back corner of the back yard. Fingers crossed they come up next year!
Here’s a pic I took of two of the three sisters lighthouses in Orleans. These gals were replaced by the Nauset Light that’s there now but they saved these ladies and set them further inland and used to adorn a park now. Thanks to Lighthouses around the World for featuring me!
Thanks Raw_Boston for featuring some of my work!
For the start of the week I finally decided to swap in some new hydroponics. The lettuces we had growing there were mostly used up by now, from me either eating them or giving away some of the leaves for a friend’s Guinea Pig pets. So this time around I’m mostly going with herbs such as chives, mint, parsley, lemon basil and oregano. Also had an extra spot so I stuck in a mini cherry tomato. If it all goes to plan they should start sprouting in a bout a week or so. I find that herbs and lettuce do the best in this little hydroponic garden of ours.
Been trying a new meal kit delivery service but so far this one hasn’t been impressive. It seems like they are all kind of the same after a while. They generally start out good but sooner or later, something goes awry with the shipping or you just get bored with the choices. I did learn how to cook a bunch of things though so it has been somewhat educational for me and given me skills that I can use to cook up own own creations or even just recreate some recipes that they’ve shown me in the past.
Would like to try to get through a bunch of little things tonight. Work is changing their communication systems over to Google from Zimbra so I need to go through some setup and change a couple of passwords and such for that to work. Set up 2FA, all that fun stuff. I’ve been putting it off because I had changing settings but if I don’t do it by early October I won’t be able to log in. Speaking of work, they’re also changing up their CPR scheduling so we all have to take that again in a month or so even though we just had it a few months ago but that’s cool.
I caught some of some local documentary yesterday entitled Chet’s Last Call which was about a Boston dive club just above another dive bar called the Penalty Box where Mafia guys hung out across from the Boston Garden in the 80s that hosted local bands. It was sort of a dedication to the bar’s owner, named Chet, who gave a lot of these groups a chance. This was 20 years before I had gotten interested in the local scene so most of this was before my time but some famous type groups who did play there were the Beastie Boys, Hüsker Dü, Bim Skala Bim and the Mighty Bosstones. It was sort of interesting, it definitely was a very different time. Anyways it got me in a Boston remembrance state of mind so I’m reposting this photo from Beacon Hill. I also spent some time at the gym to watch LD do her swimming thing. She invited me to see her do her thing so I obliged. She’s doing great and loves it so much. I found my old ‘All the Feels’ shirt so I wore that trying to make a statement.
Which brings to mind my next point. Is this blog getting stale? Feel like I really haven’t put up any interesting content in a while.
Earlier in the day started watching an old movie that was on cable called The Three Faces of Eve (1957). You’ve probably heard of it. I thought it was going to be hokey but I found myself actually enjoying watching it. By early afternoon LD was jonesing to get in some beach time so we headed over to Rexhame for a few. It was actually pretty busy and a lot warmer there than we expected. After a few hours of relaxation there we grabbed a late lunch over at Snug Harbor and ate it while watching the sights along the Duxbury Yacht Club.
I can definitely feel the autumn coming in the air as I head out there in the early mornings. Feels good though. The new bathroom is coming along really nice – I am actually impressed at how it all came together so quickly. There’s still more to do aesthetically but basically it’s ready to go for the most part. In the early evening we tried a Greek place I’ve been wanting to try for a while for some take out. It was actually pretty good, but the service could have been better.
The schooner has served as the iconic representation of Cape Ann’s seafaring history for more than three centuries. These sailing boats are quick and skillful, capturing the interest of both tourists and locals. On a schooner, sailing is thrilling! Its power and splendor are unmatched by any other kind of watercraft. When you board a schooner, it’s impossible not to feel a strong connection to the countless brave fishermen who risked it along the eastern shores!
What did you do today?
A pretty good Saturday as far as Saturdays go. I saw a coffee table on someone’s curb in the neighboring town in the morning that they were trying to get rid of (the wonders of the Internet to get the word out). I recall my mother stating she was searching for a coffee table for her outdoor back deck, and I believe this one will work out rather well. Therefore, we went and picked it up. I’ll deliver it there on Tuesday and see if she digs it. This one is a little bit smaller and nicer than the free one I gave her the last time, which is fine but in retrospect is just a little bit too big for the space. I think she will like it.
I grilled a bunch of salmon and corn in the afternoon for this picnic that our other friend couple had invited us to. It took place in Milton at Houghton’s Pond. Thought we’d give it a go even though we weren’t sure whether we’d be all that into it, but actually once we got there and started hanging out it was actually a rather enjoyable and fun time! So, glad we went. As we were leaving we came upon these two super cute dogs and petted them. There were a bunch of dogs there all day and all were very cute, such as Spaniels, long haired Dachshunds, and a bunch of other dogs that all have very short legs!
Today’s photo is from the Gloucester Schooner fest from a few years back. It’s that time of year again, and so looking at this has inspired me to go check it out again this year, tomorrow in fact. I’m going to try to get some good shots by climbing up on some high rocks so wish me luck and hope I don’t break anything!
Think I might try to watch that new Elvis movie tonight on HBO Max. I’m not a huge Elvis fan but I’ve heard it was a pretty good movie, so maybe. Can only watch so many Dateline reruns.
Since going to the beach as much as we have this year, it’s becoming time for me to invest in a good pair of water shoes. For the last couple of years I’ve been wearing this pair that I got from ocean State Job Lot but the soles aren’t very thick. Better than nothing but I need something more, especially when it comes to walking on rocks that you can’t see beneath the surface of the water. I’ve been eyeing the Zhuanglin Men’s Quick Drying Aqua Water Shoes. I think I’m probably going to buy those in lime green color.
I ended up mowing the lawn today, not so much because it needed it, it didn’t since it hasn’t rained enough in forever, but to clean it up a little bit as some leaves have started falling off the trees and also to drown out the noise of all these little kids yelling and screaming next door as the neighbor was having another pool party. Not sure why they need to be screaming all the time – can’t you all just splash and have fun without screaming?