I got some really great gifts this year – the big prize was this giant bean bag that I can lay in (like, my whole body fits inside it – it’s so large). Takes up a good chunk of the room which might be problematic but who cares! Also got some needed clothing, a wonderful photobook of our adventures from 2020 utilizing a lot of the personal photos from the year, a Carson mousepad and a heating pad and bear slippers. The last two I’ve been using for a while already because I got to open those early! The best was watching Carson open his gifts!
For lunch I went ahead and made and prepared some Cranberry Chicken and Herby Pan Stuffing. I’ve discovered that I think shallots are way better than onions. Will do a frozen pizza in the oven tonight.
I had to pick up one of the lighted reindeers out front. The winds knocked him over but overall, the wind didn’t seem to be that big a deal and that was a good thing. It was the only thing that fell out of place.
Today’s movie watch was Elf. (A movie I’ve actually never seen until now), can you believe it?) Last night was National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Spent some time tonight engaging in Winter Solstice Meditation. I recommend you do the same. After the day I had today it was needed. Actually it wasn’t all that bad – in fact it ended up pretty well.
We made a new recipe last night too – a turkey meatball sauce utilizing a spaghetti squash in the Instant Pot. Believe it or not it actually tastes pretty amazing!
Seen this after taking a ride around the neighborhood last night to see what decorations people had up around their houses, similar to the Illuminations thing we did a week ago, only over here.
“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
Happy gotcha day, Carson! How lucky are we to have found such a loving, sweet, snuggly, sassy, silly cat to bring home before the pandemic?! Thanks for picking us as your humans! One year today!
Somerville residents homes all lit up. This one has a working Ferris wheel on the porch over to the right by the Santa head!
Took a ride tonight around Somerville to check out some of the homes decked out for the holidays. Here are some of them that we visited. Very impressive displays! Perfect weather for checking them out tonight!
King Phillip’s Cave is a cave in Norton, Massachusetts near Lake Winnecunnett.
The cave is so named because Metacomet, the Wampanoag sachem also known as “King Phillip”, is said to have hid here near the end of King Philip’s War before meeting his death in the Great Misery Swamp in Bristol, RI.
We happened to be in the area so we checked it out. Very cool rock formations. I think I need to read up on Philip a bit more, sounds like he got a pretty raw deal. I wouldn’t really call it a cave though, more like two boulders that crisscrossed on top of one another and provided a gap beneath them.
We also checked out a quick hike over in Taunton at a place called Boyden Wildlife Area. This area is beautiful and quite scenic with some nice overhangs overlooking a nearby river that parallels it. Definitely going back to this location again.
Plotting out tomorrow’s Illuminations Tour drivebys to see what holiday lights everyone’s put up.
I just popped on a new smart tv for us for us as a holiday gift. Time to get into the current century with technology. Should be arriving next week sometime – kind of exciting, went for a Samsung 40″ 1080p with smart tv features.
Tonight we made some homemade craft ornaments using seashells (some we collected from our prior beach trips) and glitter and modpodge and beads and wires and created our own creations for the tree, while that old Rudolph the red Nosed Reindeer television show was playing in the background.
We also cooked a ton of stuff tonight, partly to get rid of some of the stuff we had hanging around. I’m talking soups, turkey burgers with mushrooms and dijonnaise, squashes and chilis.
Decided to pull the BBQ back into the shed for winter storage this morning. It wasn’t too cold out and I wanted to do it before it got too cold. Getting it across the expanse of lawn, off the lip of the patio, and lifting it into the shed is a bit much for me by myself but somehow I always manage to do it and today was no exception. It’s true it could stay out all year round but I pride myself on keeping it looking and working like new so that’s why I do it. Folks have come over in the past and wondered if it was a new grill and we say No, it’s around 10 years old, that’s how nice I keep it.
Shameless plug, if you want to purchase some of my photo artwork just click this link in time for the holidays and browse around. Hell, even just get a little magnet or somesuch as a stocking stuffer if you like. Every little bit helps. Bookmark and check back now and then, I add new stuff every so often. Please share the link with others if you think they would be interested as well.
Other than running a couple of errands to CVS, the bank, and a quick side trip to Wellesley to pick up some stuff, that’s pretty much it for today. A quiet night in watching television…again.
I know I’ve watched too many of these Dateline/2020/48 hours type shows when I can recognize a case on one show that was featured on a different show at a different time!
My mental health has been hit or miss the last few months. I’m generally a pretty positive person but I get days, like today, when I feel a little down. I haven’t been updating that much because pretty much lately everyday has been more or less of the same, each day just the same as the last, morphed into one blob of time, and it lends itself to me being in kind of a rut. I’m just hanging in there. I do feel blessed to have a very good support network to help get me through, but I am human after all and it’s probably natural to feel this way, the way things currently are. Sooner or later thing are going to change for the better, just going to take some time and I have my good memories like the scene above from this summer from our time on the Cape to help get me through. See? I told you I was a generally positive person.
Just updated the site to the latest version of the CMS. You shouldn’t notice any differences, it’s more just stuff I can use to configure my site better or in different ways if I so choose.
My phone started doing some weird crap today. While I was trying to make a call I could never get a dial tone. I swear this thing is on the way out. I still haven’t popped on the new cell yet but it’s becoming more and more apparent that I probably can’t wait too much longer. Hopefully just enough to last throughout the rest of this awful year. It’s not even worth a trade in anymore as they only give five bucks for it.
Work on our holiday card for the year has been completed and will be going out shortly, so if you’re on our mailing list expect to see it in your mailbox within the next couple of weeks.
Woke up this morning to the sound of jackhammers and other street equipment as the town decided to rip out a part of the next door neighbor’s driveway, for what purpose I still haven’t figured out.
A caricature of yours truly.
Found another new cute little library in Somerville today. It looked like a little house with glass doors ion both sides which was pretty neat. It’s right by Powderhouse Circle if you’re familiar with the area if you want to check it out yourself. I placed a book I had already read in there but didn’t take any out since there weren’t any in there that interested me.
I thought this was still a cool picture so I’m posting it again with some minor different editing from last time, a little more natural. Not been a bit of a whole lot happening over the last couple of days. Took a brief jaunt to a beach yesterday but it was pretty cold so didn’t stay too long. Was basically a potato today and didn’t do a whole lot.
Elemental Tiles: Use the power of elements to solve the puzzles and reach the exit of each level in this grid-based puzzle game.
Viscous Forest: A box-push puzzle game, but with candies!… and you involuntarily pull them with you. Bring the candies to the creatures of the forest to reveal the exit.
I finally got around to inserting that new bulb I got for the 8mm back at Earth-1. I felt a bit tentative turning it on, afterall, you could tell this was a very old bulb (new but untouched for probably decades) but it worked like a charm. I got around to watching about an hour and a half of old films, highlighted by ones of myself and my sister as little kids and my mom and grandparents in all their glory. It was great and then for some reason the motor to the feeding mechanism just stopped so that was that for now. Maybe it just needs a rest, I’ll tinker around with it some more another time but I’m satisfied with what I did get to see.
After the storm the other day I needed to reseat two of the lighted reindeer out front, they had fallen over in the gales but otherwise were okay. Unfortunately one of the red bows on one must have blown off and flew away as I can find no trace of it anywhere.
The calendar people finally got around to start sharing my image on social media so you might see that around. Not sure why they couldn’t have used a higher resolution for it though. Perhaps I’m biased but I do think my photo is the best one in the entire calendar. Rather fitting that it’s the last one of the year in there as well – best for last! Hah!
Feeling a bit accomplished today. Last night I created a list of everything that I wanted to get through today and I’m pleased to say that I accomplished most of them. I watered the trees (and discovered that the two out front that we placed lights on are white spruce trees), went for a lunch time walk, took a trip to the ATM, did a load of laundry, watched a couple of early season 1 episodes of Hunter (those are so ridiculous and don’t follow the next 6 seasons – they changed it up after season 1, and after watching some of these I’d say that was a very smart move).
I also wanted to grill some burgers today so I did that just a little after 1 pm, when the sun was sparking and it felt the warmest of the entire day.
One thing that I forgot about doing all these lights is when one goes out. I needed to replace a couple already for the icicle lights in the sunroom but now I noticed tonight one of the reindeer is totally out, which is weird because he was totally fine last night. Guess I’ll try to take a alook at it tomorrow.
I got LD’s 8mm from the basement that must have been her dad’s or grandfather’s up and running and we watched some of whatever the heck was on those reels. All still in working condition and with the original box! We got to see her dad when he was 12 swimming in Florida with his family before there was an Interstate at a place called Cypress Gardens and her mom with a big bouffant hairdo with her dad years later for their prom! LD appreciated me figuring it out and working the machine. 🙂 I was happy to do it, I’ve been getting into old tech lately.
Started using this “Happy Light” lamp that LD bought to help with my Seasonal Affective Disorder. Hard to tell but I think it might actually be working – especially on these downcast morning cloudy days.
I think we’re sick of turkey now, pretty much made everything you could with it over the past few days: turkey soup, turkey pot pie, turkey enchiladas, yadda yadda yadda. The garlic clove I planted is growing like wildfire – guess the little thing likes it’s new digs, got three leave sprouts shooting skyward. It resides on a windowsill by my computer along with his buddy, the aloe plant (also doing well), and some rocks and shells we’ve collected from our beach outings this year.
Today was also the day for putting up and out all the holiday decorations. I got the lighted automated reindeers all set up on the front lawn and we also adorned the two spruces out front with some colored lights. I hung the lighted wreath up on the front door and we then worked together to put up the xmas tree and get the lights around that. Tring to get all the timers to be set to the proper times. Added add all the ornaments later in the evening. I placed one ornament on the real baby pine tree that we are growing outside in the back. I think this is the earliest we ever put everything up!
Each day I am thankful for nights that turned into mornings, friends that turned into family, dreams that turned into reality and likes that turned into love. I know its going to be hard but may you all have a wonderful time this Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving Day!
Started hanging some holiday lights late this afternoon. A bunch of lighted trees to adorn the pathway out front, which will also be with the automated reindeer that goes out every year. I haven’t got around to them yet, but hope to before the week is out. Also hung some icicle lights inside the sun room and some adorning the big picture window that looks out onto the patio. I also still need to hang the lighted wreath and bring up the Xmas tree.
We’re getting a jump on it a little early this year you might say. We even already ate most of our turkey, seeing as we cooked it last Saturday. An interesting story in and of itself as to why. Ask and I’ll tell, otherwise I’ll keep mum about it.
Also thanks to whoever bought some coasters featuring my shot of Scituate Light from my shop! Always nice to get a sale!
Tonight’s movie watch is High Fidelity. Figure we’ll watch that and then catch a couple of 48 Hrs episodes left on the DVR. Also every day I try to catch at least one Hunter episode. Working my way through those.
Today’s National Jukebox Day so I figured I’d reiterate a little history of the one that we have serving court in the sitting room across from the fireplace and add some things from last time out.
It’s not one of the super expensive famous Wurlitzer’s but it gets the job done. This particular model is from a company called Rowe/AMi and it dates to 1982. (Hey, around the same time I was playing basketball with my friend from the previous entry! Man, life is weird.) We actually found this one on Craigslist (this was during a period when I was searching for random things for a man cave – it’s also how we obtained a Foosball table, air hockey table, and an authentic full size Ms. Pacman arcade machine – each one with stories for another day, especially the foosball with the kid having the climb the walls to a window to get back inside his building). I’m not sure now what made us decide to get a jukebox in the first place, perhaps just really feeling nostalgic at the time. Anyways, this guy Dave in Braintree wanted to part with it, so we got it. We were able to haggle him down a little bit from the price he originally wanted. I think he said it was from his mom’s house or something when he was growing up but since was sitting in the garage for a while taking up space. That’s the thing about these machines – they’re actually pretty large. In getting it home we actually had to get movers to move it because it weighs so much – all that mechanical workings are pretty heavy – also due to the nature of the innards they had to be very careful not to jostle it too much because it could get cranky. One thing out of place by just a smidge and it gets messed up. It came with the records as well but I think we replaced most of the selections he had in there, as they weren’t to our particular tastes. I think LD needs to take a picture of herself dancing in front of the machine while wearing a poodle skirt someday.
It only holds 200 45 RPM LPs. Part of what we like to do is search bargain bins or antique stores once in a while to pick up some. It’s a crap shoot on the quality because a scratched record can ruin the experience, but overall we’ve been pretty lucky, and they’re actually pretty cheap. There’s a antique place in New Hampshire down the road from where we’ve done baby goat yoga that has never let us down in selection or quality. You can also buy some online from some reputable retailers. And yes, an iPod or your cellphone can hold and stream thousands of songs but we like the nostalgia of actually having a real jukebox. It’s always fun having friends over that can dance along it front of it with us, hopefully we can do that again once the pandemic is over. Most of our selections are from the 80s, but we also have 70s and older stuff. LD has a whole collection of records from her mom and dad when they were younger and those are great, and in great condition too. Every so often, in a need of change, I’ll swap out some records and their labels with new songs and get those into the rotation. We finally created a database in Google Docs to keep track of what we have in there, what’s in storage, and their condition, so that when we go browsing again someday we’ll know what we have and what to look for.
It has an electronic selector – you just type the number that corresponds to the number on the song you want to play (I created all the labels myself – there’s an awesome free website where you type in your stuff and customize the look and then you can print them out, cut them to size, and insert them). There’s a mini-computer in this one that supposedly keeps track of what songs were played the most, etc. but I could never figure out how it actually works – I need to look into that a little bit more. Speaking of, when I have the top open, it’s kind of cool to actually see the robot arm select the record you’ve chosen, grab it, and place it on the turntable. Then the needle comes over and places itself on the disc, and the tunes start flowing from the speakers, which are VERY LOUD if turned all the way up. It’s currently set to free play but the coin mech is all there and can be set to accept coins for play, it defaults to 25 cents per song.
Hopefully, it will never need service, because most of folks who actually know how to repair these things are in their late 80s or no longer working!
You might be wondering about the décor around the machine. The large hanging 45 over the machine on the wall was a pick from someplace in Maine on the way back from a trip I believe. An antique dealer dealing in kitsch and stuff. He didn’t really want to part with it but he eventually gave it up. The round mat in front of the machine is a personalized gift I got for LD and me. The label has our nicknames on it with the heading “Making music since 2008”, the year we met.
