Took a jaunt out to Revere Beach today because it was so unseasonably warm today. We met up with a friend there and partook of some Kelly Roast Beefs as well before heading back to the home front.
Revere Beach Sky was on Fire Tonight
Month: December 2022
Working on the Memories
I’ve been working on posting up my end of the year recap. I’m thinking of doing a top ten moments along with some runners up and maybe some stuff that wasn’t so good. I just have to sit down and get all my images together and come up with the writeups and all. It was a pretty good year overall as I’ve been looking back at some of the moments. So stay tuned for that as it will probably be my next post and I’ll try to have it up in a couple of days before the year ends.
Merry Xmas Everyone!
Every day is Christmas
By Anonymous
when you have the kind of mind,
That stores up all the goodness
and the sweetness it can find
When you don’t need an occasion,
to spread a bit of cheer,
But just keep on a-giving,
of yourself throughout the year
Every day is Christmas,
with a gaily wrapped surprise,
When you to see the friendship,
in someone else’s eyes.
When you try a little harder,
and complain a little less,
Holding fast to all the fervor
of the faith that you possess
Every day is Christmas,
when you’ve found that you can be
More concerned with words like “you”
and less with “I” and “me”.
When it’s fun to do a favor,
and to lend a helping a hand,
When being understood means less,
than when you understand
Every day is Christmas,
with a beauty deeply cast,
When you find it doesn’t matter,
if you’re first or if you’re last
When you can face your conscience,
and be glad of what you are,
Then every day is Christmas,
with a stable and star”
The Calm Before the Storm?
The impending storm might leave you without power this Christmas. Eversource is warning that 70,000 Massachusetts electric customers could lose power for two days or longer due to damaging winds, heavy rain, and downed tree branches. They were so worried about not having enough staff on deck to deal with a high-impact storm that they canceled all employee vacations. So while it looks like Eversource will have the necessary staff, just to be safe, make sure to charge up your devices ahead of time. I’ll be sure to have everything ready to go just in case. This town has it’s own power company so we’ll see how they do.
You should be getting this year’s holiday card from us if we know you personally and you’ve been good this year. I know a bunch of people got theirs already, which is pretty good since we booked to get them all done and out on last Saturday. I don’t know about you, but I think in general the mail has been a bit on the slower side than it used to be.
LD got an air purifier and I set it up yesterday and I’m finding it to actually be a pretty neat device.
We are having some friends over for a firepit outing this afternoon, the last of the year most likely. Update: Well, we didn’t fire pit but we had a great time! Carson even came out and played with our guests, which is saying a lot for him!
Happy Winter Solstice!
Home Sweet Home
If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”
No Growth Comes from Comfort
I saw a quote today that really made me think and it’s the title of today’s post. “No Growth Comes from Comfort” really resonated with me when I saw it. I tend to be a creature that likes to live in it’s comfort zone. But this week I went ahead and did something that may take me out of that, at least for a bit, and growth could definitely come of it. It will be a little bit of time before this thing I’m talking about sees fruition but it could be the start of something pretty good. I kept flipping back and forth about it, but in the end I decided to go for it and put my hat in the ring.
On the domestic front, things are mostly business as usual. You may or may not have seen my attempts to draw attention to my photography on my social media sites. Although I don’t want to seem spammy, I do want people to be aware of my work because I do believe that some of it is fairly good. I still have a lot to learn about it all, and I need to work much harder at it. But it is effort, and I do occasionally have a tendency to be lazy.
In a more uplifting tone, today’s main image is from this summer down on the Cape. I do feel I seem to take some of my best work there but perhaps that’s only because the setting is so stunning. I don’t have to add much, if anything. I just to tried to capture a moment in time when we felt free and warm and giddy. A little bit of tranquility for today, I’m sure we could all use some right about now.
Hanging with some Buds
Spent a little time yesterday afternoon at the Sanctuary. They weren’t open but we have a special relationship with the owner so she let us in and could mosey about. It was a bit chilly but not too bad considering. Part of it was a visit in remembrance of LD’s mom, it’s something she wanted to do. A bit of a somber day full of reflection.
Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem.”
A. A. MILNE
These Reindeer are Lit!
Here’s another shot of the reindeers I put together the other week, all lit up now.
Next Level Hall Decking in Somerville
Thanks Boston.com for sharing my latest photograph! And another thing to celebrate today is it is our cat Carson’s Gotcha Day!
Christmas Prelude in Kennebunk Weekend Fun
Back from a wonderful weekend in Maine during the Christmas Prelude festivities that the town of Kennebunkport puts on. LD got this sweet little Airbnb location right near the center of town so everything was really convenient and accessible to get to. The first night there, which was Friday, we kind of just checked in to the Airbnb and got some takeout and hung with some friends that live in the area. We got to hang with their pups, Boomer and Pippa. Boomer is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever so he’s a pretty big dog. He doesn’t really seem to know that though as his master keeps trying to train him but he has a ways to go. Still, he is a love and LD can’t get enough of him, they have a special connection, Pippa is a Jack Russel and a bit feisty but that’s her personality. I don’t think we got back to the Airbnb until after midnight. For some reason time just seems to fly anytime we are there.
The next day we got breakfast done the street at a little coffee shop and then headed over to some crafty fair thing. They did have some amazing looking gingerbread houses in one of the shops. In the evening we hit a restaurant and checked out some things, like the various lighted trees in Cape Porpoise as well as KBP and did a bit more shopping and browsing. Before that though we drove to Ogunquit to see some fireworks – perhaps that town wanted to get in on what KBP was doing. The weather was great all weekend except that it was a bit on the chilly side.
On Sunday we checked out some Dog parade they were having. Pippa was supposed to be in but bailed at the last minute because it was a bit too cold, plus she’s feisty, like I mentioned before. For lunch LD had somehow managed to reserve a fish shack at this restaurant called Batson River Brewing and Distilling. It was quite an experience. We liked it. And I have to say the food on this trip was really good. Every place that we went was great. I took a ton of pictures of which here is a sampling. Truth to tell I simply cannot remember every single thing that we did!
Driving home on Sunday night kind of sucked because we got stuck in the falling snow so getting home was slow but we made it safe and sound and that’s what’s important.
In other small news:
Gametime: Sophie the Slug. A fun little sliding game I’ve been playing with lately. I also borrowed a new book from my Libby App entitled “The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer” about the story of Tony Costa. It’s a pretty good read as I am enjoying it. I learned a fascinating tidbit while reading the early chapters of this book in that he actually lived two streets up from where I grew up. Pretty wild.
New Reindeers Installed
I spent part of the morning putting together some new reindeer LD got to replace the old ones we had for years that we finally got rid of this summer because they had outlived their usefulness basically. I may need to move them around a little bit depending on how the plugs are setup but I was able to put them all together in under an hour. They don’t move like the previous ones did but I think that’ll be better – less things to go wrong over time. I also went ahead and finished up putting up these snowman head solar lights over on the side deck. Better to get it down now before the weather turns cold again. So, I think this will be today’s little bit of holiday joy!
The Business Cards have Arrived!
The business cards arrived this afternoon. Now I plan to go around and post a bunch around. Have to give props to the Ladydoc for taking the lead on this!
AWD is back!
Well, when I started up the car this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the AWD was back and working normally. I had googled about it yesterday and a bunch of folks said it can be caused by a bunch of things, but one thing you should try is checking the gas cap. So that’s what I did yesterday and the message still showed but this morning it was gone. I suppose it takes a little time for the sensors or whatever to “catch up.” Anyways, I’m pleased about this outcome. Let’s hope it stays this way! I also spent part of the afternoon filling up my tires using this portable USB air compressor I bought awhile ago. It works like a charm and saves me a trip to a air filling station.
I also forgot to mention that we paid a visit to Like No Udder down in Providence RI on Friday night. We hadn’t gotten anything from there since the time of LD’s big party bash. It was delicious. It’s amazing the things they can make all vegan – you would not no the difference, they are that good. So just a plus for those guys. They are going on hiatus till February now so if you can, check them out in the spring.
Watched a beautiful flock of cardinals in the back yard frolicking around this morning. Makes me want to start photographing birds again. I’d never seen so many red birds all together all at once like that before.
Not sure why I’m all over this Amy Robach/TJ Holmes story. Maybe I should get a life? For some reason though I feel drawn to the drama. Now I heard they’ve been put on “hiatus.” I never actually watched their show, I’m just interested in all the media buzz about it, Also RIP to Kirstie Alley.
New Product Alert! For the Love of Sunsets has been added to the store! This one looks really great either as a framed print or a metal print.
Pink Skies on the Pier at the Holidays
I spent some time over at Earth-1 this morning. I had to take care of a few errands, check the fuel tanks, take care of some bills, etc. etc. Also for some reason my sister’s tv wasn’t seeing the internet anymore so I tried to help her out with that. As I was driving back over to Earth-2 my ride kept saying there was a system malfunction with the AWD and that 2WD was engaged. I suppose I’ll have to get that looked at eventually. So annoying, but I suppose things could be worse.
Hey, I’m going to let you guys in on an awesome Chrome extension called YouTube Enhancer. Just Google it. It does a lot of things but the best thing is that it gets rid of all the ads. So try it out – it’s super great.
I Was a Photo Contest Award Winner
Under the Powder Point Bridge
Today was the Big Day!
We got dressed up for this! A while back we had entered some of my photos from Duxbury Beach on over to the Duxbury Beach Reservation Committee and low and behold they actually chose one of the three that we submitted! I was notified that I’d be included in their upcoming calendar why back in the late spring. Imagine my surprise when months later, I was invited by them to participate in a thank you and reception to be held at the Duxbury Bay Maritime School! We arrived and were greeted by the trustees of the Reservation and lead upstairs to the Chart Room where all the winning photographs were on display, printed out and framed around the room! Very cool! After a brief talk and meet and greet with the other folks we all got our gift bags filled with goodies from the Reservation even and got to keep our winning photo, frame and all! They really do look pretty amazing all framed out.
The photo that was selected.
After looking through the gorgeous calendar my shot appears in the month of September. Why did I pick this shot to take? I had just happened to be walking around by the bridge and I saw that most of the water had receded at that time so I wandered underneath. I think at first I was taken with the woodwork underneath the bridge road surface. I thought the texture looked pretty cool, and then the more I looked I thought the ripples in the sand and even the shadows created by the sun underneath was also pretty cool. It’s also something really related to Duxbury Beach as the bridge is a big part of it and I wanted something representative of the area. I also took “regular” beach shots but I felt those could be from any beach, with this, I felt it was something that only exists here and is instantly recognizable to the folks who frequent here.
I also took a very cool shot of a Xmas tree on a pier at sunset that I’ll be posting tomorrow!
Dedication to the Ladydoc
None of any of this would have been possible without the love and support of the Ladydoc. From getting me here to sharing ideas and looking for opportunities for me. Hell, she even bought me the “real” camera that I used to take these shots way back when! I wanted to give her the credit that she deserves and for making me better in every way. All these shots that I take really couldn’t have happened without her in my life. So thank you LD, from the bottom of my heart.
Welcome to Another December
Got a new desk and roof rake from our friends yesterday who are moving to another town soon and didn’t need or want to move those items so we took them. I think the roof rake might come in quite handy come the serious winter. I went to go pick them yesterday just before the weather really started turning bad but luckily everything came out just fine. Route 93 is terrible anytime but especially in a serious rain and nearing rush hour to boot.
Today’s picture post is a shot I took of the Nubble Light very early one morning. I thought the waves crashing up on the rocks made a pretty dramatic shot, although I’m not totally satisfied with this one but perhaps I’m being a bit harsh on myself. Also the sky had a pinkish hue to it.