High point today was watching LD work on her swimming strokes over at the pool at the gym, doing laps and such. She’s become quite the expert! So proud of her! Enjoy this lighthouse pic of the Nauset that I took a little while back as the sun was starting to rise in the early hours of the morning.
Going through some of my archives and I came across this picture I took of the Castle Hill Lighthouse in Newport, RI that I thought was pretty cool so I thought I’d post it up and see what folks think of it.
Heading over to the supermarket this morning I noticed some chips that I had seen mentioned on the Phantom Gourmet the other day in my channel surfing. They are Lays chips but with flavors taken from other snacks, such as Lays chips with cool ranch Doritos flavor, and one with Cheetos. I picked up those two. They also have Funyuns and Fritos flavors but I didn’t see those. These are supposedly only available for a limited time. I’ve thus far tried the Doritos flavored and it’s pretty good, especially if you like cool ranch flavor.
Like I mentioned in the previous post I started reading a book about the two kids really (at the time) who created Doom and basically started the first player shooter sensation. It’s a pretty amazing read and I highly recommend it. It came out in 2003 so it’s not pricey. Having lived through and experienced many of the same things at the time growing up that these kids did made me really soak up this book. Brought back memories in the 80s of buying computer magazines at the time that had program code in it’s pages that you’d have to type in in order to play the games. And of course, I’d always make a typo somewhere so it wouldn’t work and I’d have to painstakingly try to find where it was, and the code was always a confusing mess of letters and numbers. Anyone remember that? I had totally forgotten all about doing that back in the day!
Firstly, here’s another pic of the Nubble from earlier in the week. A classic Lighthouse destination and one of our favorites.
Saw this hot fog food truck was around that I wanted to try. Ended up going with one that had grilled corn, queso cotija, crema mexicana, with some chili lime salt on top, and it was pretty good! Then it was off to Wellesley for a mail pickup where I ended up eating some cod. Guess I was a little hungry this afternoon!
I also spent a bunch of time nodding off in my gravity chair out on the back deck in the sun. Totally relaxing!
Finished the day off with a night by the fire pit. Ah! Finally ended out the evening by watching the documentary “I Just Killed My Dad” on Netflix.
Plug 🔌 time: Smooth Sailing now available for purchase. Wouldn’t it look so nice on your wall?
Too many things to say about my birthday getaway right now. But the highlights were hanging in an Airbnb in Dover NH that had an actual treehouse overlooking the scenic Piscataqua River, watching baby robins being fed by their mother in another tree in the back yard, getting clean in the shower that had two showerheads almost opposite each other which was really cool, grabbing burgers at the BRGR Bar in downtown Portsmouth, getting some shots over at the Nubble, hanging out and swimming at Long Sands beach, eating clams at Bob’s, and getting a gravity chair that I wanted and a book about Rumi that I also wanted to read! It was really hot outside but it is Leo Season as they say! Naturally I must thank LD for making my birthday amazing and every day, as always!
I’ll need to expand upon this at a later date, but all in all, totally amazing!
Watched this documentary last night which was about the debacle that was Woodstock ’99. Crazy crazy! This afternoon LD and I went down to the New Balance Factory Outlet and bought matching sneakers. She thought it a little ridiculous but I think it’s cute. Maybe we’ll both wear them at the same time! Haha!
Here’s a flashback photo of me visiting one of my favorite places along the eastern seaboard, Pemaquid Point in Maine.
Random stream of consciousness thoughts from the last day or so: It’s that time of year again where we can here this incessant what I assume to be baby hawk squawking all day long. I remember the sound from last year. Just goes all…day…long. We updated LD’s website a bit with a new look the other day. Little more visually pleasing now. Been watching a couple of murder mystery type shows lately and I came to the conclusion you should never marry anyone with a last name of Peterson. I mean, what is it which these guys murdering their wives: Scott Peterson, Drew Peterson, that Peterson guy from the Staircase. Just don’t do it ladies! Did a bunch of grilling yesterday, going to do it again today and probably light the fire pit tonight, it’s been a while since I’ve done that. Did get to check out the new Aldi’s this afternoon. We were curious having never been in one before. Have to day I wasn’t impressed and quite frankly the quarter for the cart thing really annoyed me. You can find dome good prices on things there but I didn’t find the selection all that great. Maybe it was just this one particular store but I found it actually kind of on the small side. Well, curiosity satisfied. Did watch a documentary last night called There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane, which chronicled that horrific crash on the Taconic Parkway in New York a few years back. It’s still a mystery into what actually happened, although there are theories including my own. Going through some of my older photos yesterday I decided to repost this shot of Highland Light.
I find it hard to believe that this shot was from a year ago today! Thankfully some trips are coming up and I’ll have some opportunities to take some new shots. As for what I’ve been up to the last few days, it was pretty much just resting up. Actually taking naps and getting some rest overall, which is weird for me since I’m generally always on the go. I am preparing to get that old laptop up and running Flex, I just need to get my hands on a USB stick I don’t need, probably will just buy a new one for that task. Speaking of buying things, I do want to buy some new sneakers. I’d like to get another pair of the M880E10’s from NB that I’ve been kicking around with over the last year or so. I really like them. Of course they’ve changed them to a new model number which doesn’t look exactly the same which makes me annoyed.
We opted to get a variety of stuff done outside yesterday because it was such a wonderful spring-like day, like cleaning out some dead vegetation and seeing plants like tulips and daffodils start to spring up. Toward evening we even constructed a fire pit. I burnt some wood, as well as some old paperwork, which was really a cleansing experience. Picked up a few things and the supermarket. Ordered a pizza for take out last night. Trying to rest my knee at times.
Now for today’s exciting events. I was searching through my photo archives and came upon this lighthouse photo that I had forgotten about from Mystic Seaport. So I figured I’d share it with you today. I like the tones in this one, but I think it could have been a little better.
Our stickers from Random Acts of Kindness Foundation finally arrived. If you remember, you had to color in an image in order to get them. It’s now simply an issue of deciding where they’ll go! Whatever the case may be, it’s still a good sentiment.
I waited for the sump pump people to come over and finish up some work this afternoon. Had they arrived by 2 pm? The answer is No, despite the fact that I wasn’t certain they were meant to show up today in the first place. They need to come back at some point though, some of their stuff is still here. In the meantime Carson and I had decided to kind of lay low for a while and rest, especially me to take some pressure off my knee. I think Charles Shultz said it best: “Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.”
For lunch I decided to air fry some hot dogs. I haven’t done that in quite a while. It’s so easy too, just pop them in for a few minutes and it’s done – no muss, no fuss. We also prepared some pasta bake that we’re going to delivering to a dear friend tomorrow who hasn’t been feeling too well as of late – sort of like a care package you might say. The house was filled with the aromas of cooking!
It being unseasonably warm today and almost hitting 60 degrees we decided to hit the beach today for a walk. It was a beautiful day, you wouldn’t know that it’s supposed to snow tomorrow! And just for the record, we did have a pizza last night (roasted eggplant!)
Sometimes when you lose your way in the fog, you end up in a beautiful place!
You may notice that I’ve moved this site over to a https URL instead of the less secure http that I’ve been using. So you may need to update your bookmarks but probably not. I’m not collecting any information from visitors, not doing e-commerce or anything like that, it’s just a prudent thing to do.
I just heard my New Years Eve skating photo from a few days ago was featured on NECN. Pretty cool. For some reason they don’t seem to be notifying anymore, just showing on tv. I wouldn’t have known about it but a woman I used to work with back in my AutoCAD drafting days saw it and commented the news to me.
I just picked up and finished reading Fauci: Expect the Unexpected. Easy read. That’s my first book on 2022. Hopefully I’ll be able to do more reading this year. I was horrified to learn that according to my Goodreads I had only read 5 books in 2021. Is that right? My average is around 25-30 books a year.
A picture’s worth a thousand words they say, so here are some of the highlights from the past year. 2021 wasn’t totally terrible, and there were some really high points, but 2022 looks to be really special and hopefully will also be better in so many ways. We can hope!
Photo Descriptions:
More in-depth notes on above:
There were so many beach walks and hangs this year I can’t remember them all. Most of them were either to Duxbury or Marshfield, usually on a weekend day. Just to hang and walk mostly. A couple of times we used our chairs to sit out in the summer or even actually went into the water but many of the trips were just to walk.
The main lighthouses that we hug around this year were at Nubble Light in Maine (always a classic – staying right across from it away from the tourists was also a treat) and Nauset Light in Eastham down on the Cape. It was really cool this year to stay in a cottage right next door to the light and the beach was literally across the street. It also helped that it’s on a private dirt road so there weren’t many people around in that particular area. 10-10 would do again. Plus the place was so cute!
Getting our shots was big this year, for me it was a couple of trips up to Amesbury because that’s where I could get an appointment at that time, so we made the best of it by exploring the neighboring sights afterwards like Salisbury Reservation and Plum Island.
It was cool that baby wildlife decided to grace us with their presence, baby bunnies born in a pot for the second year in a row and didn’t mind Carson watching them. I think he was more their protector than an adversary if you can believe that. Baby hawks too, very majestic, but hopefully never found Shiloh and company. Shiloh, the last baby bunny that was scared to leave after all his siblings did. LD was kind enough to put out some water and a lettuce plant for him. The next day, two nibbles off the plant, two little poops, and he was gone to live his adventures. I do admit to having empty nest syndrome every time they leave us.
Staying on an Alpaca farm was pretty cool, in rural Connecticut with family. Learned a lot, also a bit of fly swatting which can be annoying. And got to hang with baby goats which is always a pleasure.
Celebrated my birthday on the Cape. Special times there and stayed in a pretty cool Airbnb called the Osprey Nest because it feels like its up in the trees. Although the place was a little small, it literally had everything you could possibly need. Plus they had this cool booth that I would use in the kitchen area. 10-10 would stay again. I feel I get some of the best pictures I ever take down on the Cape for whatever reason. It’s a beautiful area but there’s something more that I can’t place why.
Our one outing to New Jersey this year was at another BnB (BnB’s were big this year for us – expanding choices) in Lavalette, a cute little beach town. It was a bit downcast and windy while we were there but it was still pretty cool. I enjoyed the area so much that it’s my #2 of my fav places in that state. It just seemed to have it all to me, easy access to whatever you need, a beautiful beach and boardwalk, not really busy at all (and if you want that you could drive to the next down over – Seaside Heights). That particular trip didn’t exactly work out as planned but I enjoyed it.
The last BnB and most recent was in Arundel, Maine. Stayed there because the town of Kennebunkport was doing it’s annual Christmas Prelude. HGTV featured the annual Kennebunkport celebration as the “#2 Christmas Town in America.” Plus we got to meet up with one of LD’s former colleagues and met the dogs Pippa and Boomer, and Boomer left quite an impression! Sailing up and down the Kennebunk River in a lobster boat while sipping coffee brandy on a sunny day was also rather enjoyable.
But as much as we enjoyed the few times away (choose to keep it rather low key due to the virus circulating, and were neurotic about being careful) staying at home was just as much so, whether with firepit outing with friends or just ourselves. Carson was also a really big help in that department as our mutual love him and for eachother kept us all sane.
I know I’m probably forgetting a bunch of stuff but these are the moments that I think were some of the high points, at least for me personally. I’d like to give all my love and thanks to LD for making it all happen and making me feel like the luckiest man alive every year.
It’s so much fun working out in the rain.
No, not really,
Enjoy this shot I took of the Nubble back in March/April. Looking forward to visiting Maine again next month.
Been a good evening to catch up on some more Season 1 reruns of The O.C. Can you believe that the first season is 27 episodes!? Today that would be like 2 or 3 seasons even of a show.
Enjoy this picture from the Nauset Light that I took back in early spring while we stayed next door to it. That was such a nice trip. This shot was just sitting in my archives – figure I’d pull it out and finally post it.
Spent a good part of today filling out and going over all the paperwork for the HR department. Kinda crazy how many things there are. I’ll be handing that in on Thursday after I finish the CPR training. Looking forward to actually getting started, feels like it’s been weeks (which I suppose at this point it kind of actually has been).
Watching: Season premiere of Ice-T’s In Ice Cold Blood. This series is pretty much like all those shows on the ID network. I was intrigued by the description of some kid’s great grandparents “melting.” I feel that the best episode is one from the first season called Money Pig or some such. That story was so whack how could it have all been true. Worth searching for.
My new beach chair I ordered finally showed up today. This was the one that I originally wanted with the built in head pillow rest, lumbar support, side cooler and tons of pockets/storage. I’m giving it to LD to replace her old one which is needing to be retired already.
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.
If you like this picture I would appreciate a vote! You have to scroll to the bottom of the page, which is dumb. If I win, I promise to make good on your contribution to me in some way!
https://www.visitma.com/state-of-wonder-contest/#g1899161
Also I may go ahead and convert this site from http to https. Stay tuned on that one.
I think I am going to pop on that e-bike but I’m going to wait until after this next trip we have planned coming up. The fact that it folds up and will allow me to just pop in the back of our trucks makes it very appealing to me to be able to ride on trips and such. I’ve been watching reviews and everything and for the longest time I’ve been on the fence about it, going back and forth, but seeing as my birthday is coming up, this could be my yearly “gift to myself” purchase. I did just order a portable air compressor however as I’ve been wanting one for some time to inflate things.
Here’s a pic from earlier this year that I felt like reliving. Would definitely stay there again.
Here’s a couple of pics from our little getaway at the cottage. I’ll post more as the days go on. The lighthouse shot was from when we both got up at 4:30 am to catch the sunrise over the cliff across the street. I haven’t processed those pix yet but while we were there we saw the cutest bunnies and actually a toad in the yard (I haven’t seen a toad in the wild in many years, and especially not in a yard!) It was a relaxing little trip and the cottage was just so cute, will definitely stay there again. LD twisted her ankle on the beach (a little tweak) so we had to turn the activities down a little bit but since this trip was all about relaxing it wasn’t a big deal. One place we discovered for meals is a place called Mac’s. Very impressed, probably will be our main go to moving forward and of course as always, we visited the Chocolate Sparrow every day. Before leaving we hiked around the Great Salt Pond which travels through salt marsh and into cedar forests. Later in the day we spotted a young coyote in the marsh grasses over at First Encounter Beach. Basically we didn’t want to leave but we were starting to miss Carson a bit (I know I was) and I think he missed us too. So it’s nice to be back but it was nice to get away too. We will return!
Thanks to the Lighthouses in the USA group for choosing one of my lighthouse photos for their cover! This is also one of my favorite photos ever that I was lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time. (This was also the night we saw the amorous skunks running around the property!)
The story behind the photo: Here’s a shot of Minot Ledge Light, also known as the 1-4-3 (I love you) lighthouse because of it’s light flashing patterns. This is a great lighthouse off the coast of Cohasset but for all it’s beauty, it’s also in a very dangerous place and lightkeepers have died there trying to keep the light lit back in the day. I think that’s why I like this one so much, it’s in such a beautiful place surrounded by the ocean but also an extremely dangerous place. Like two sides of a coin. Can you imagine being one of the guys who had to even build the thing where it is? Superior engineering for sure. It was foggy on the day I took this and these cormorants where trying to dry their wings as it had rained earlier. I remember having to climb up on some slippery rocks and use the maximum zoom my camera had at the time to try to get a shot of this. If you’re new to reading my blog this is essentially the place where I talk about what I’m up to day to day and to showcase some of my pictures from my various adventures throughout mostly New England. Prints of some of my photos are available for purchase at my shop , if you’re interested, so peruse it if you like any of my stuff. Anything could help my future endeavors into photography, plus it’s really heartwarming to make a sale. But enough about plugging.
The gas company folks came by again to take more readings. Uhmmm, why are they sending out more people when it’s already been checked out. Maybe they’ll get around to fixing the problem sooner rather than later.
In the afternoon I got a frantic call from my sister that she and my mom locked themselves out of the house at Earth-1 so I had to make the trek over there to let them back in. I’m also going back over there tomorrow to take my mom to her covid test appointment so she can have her hand surgery on Monday. She’s fully vaxed but they want the test anyway. I’ll be taking her to the hospital on Monday early as her surgery is scheduled at 6 am. Fingers crossed that it all goes well!
The story behind the photo: This particular shot was actually taken by me from land zoomed in. I saw this sailboat in the water and in the distance Whaleback Light so I tried to juxtapose the two and this is what I came up with. I also lightened it up considerably from the original snap. I find I prefer ship or boat scenes surrounded by white – just a preference of mine. I wished that the boat would have its blue sails unfurled as that would have looked great, but it was just not to be. Another thing I like about the photo is the lighthouse is serving it’s purpose, guiding the boats around (even though this particular one was just sitting there at the time) but that’s the sentiment I got and was going for.
Yesterday I noticed this car in the parking lot and thought it was interesting. Looks like it caught the ‘Rona. Looking a bit more into it it’s some kind of service that deals with people getting flu and covid shots. This was parked over at Assembly Square near the TJ Max and Trader Joe’s. Not sure if it’s still there but if you’re in the area it may be worth a look if you’re interested.
Gametime: Pâquerette down the bunburrow. A fun short game where you have to catch the bunnies. You know how we love bunnies around here!
Prints of some of my photos are available for purchase at my shop! And now on to today’s minutia!
Started off today by LD getting a tip from a FB group about some new bathroom flooring tiles that somebody wanted to get rid of for free. So we arranged the pickup and drove over there and got the tile. Not bad looking tile at all, plus tile is pretty expensive so this was a good pop. Good chance they may be incorporated into a future home project. After that it was back for another trip to the Home Depot. First to return some paint that we never used for the table project, and then to get some pulls for the table (it has faux drawers on the sides) and some gardening plants and things. I finally got around to planting the tree sapling. I had a thought to use the old pot that our pine tree came in when we first got it last fall. I figure it can grow in this pot until it gets too big for it and then we’ll transplant it to wherever we decide it should go. I also ended up buying some wood glue for the butterfly house we’re going to build and a hanging plant. We also got some grass seed and seeded some of the barer areas of the lawn along with a couple of other supplies for the house.
While all that was going on, LD’s computer took hours to update Windows 10 but thankfully it eventually did work. Also about a week ago my email client on my phone stopped receiving emails. I could still use the webmail but I got so used to using the Samsung email client for one of my primary email accounts. I finally decided to just delete the entire account and try to re-add it, set it all back up from scratch. That worked. Seems like the email provider changed the address of the smtp email server but I never got a notice about it. Anyways it all works now and I have more space on this still-ass phone because I could never erase the over 5000 emails I had sitting in the trash. Deleting the account removed them all at once. Learn something new everyday. I really do need to get a new phone though. Also, the gas guy technician showed up again. Looked like he was taking some more readings in the street, Maybe they’ll get to this job sooner than I thought. He left after about an hour futzing around out there.
I was a bit surprised that it didn’t seem to rain as much as I thought the forecasters were anticipating. It was somewhat advantageous as it allowed me to get some of the stuff done outside that I wanted to get to. However, with the rain we did have I think I may need to mow the lawn again tomorrow. I also finally cleaned out the Keurig, running the white vinegar through it, etc. I hadn’t cleaned it in probably a couple of years but I’m the only one who ever uses it anyway. To be honest it was a lot cleaner than I thought it was going to be. You just have to make sure to get all the vinegar out of the system by flushing it through over and over or else your drink will taste like ass.
I also got an email today saying my second Covid shot location is being moved from Amesbury to Newburyport. Like, really? Well NBP is a lot more scenic than Amesbury anyway.
Things I planned on getting done today, cleaning the Keurig because it’s been way too long, getting together the parts for the butterfly house I plan on building, and getting to watching that documentary and heading down to Lowe’s later to get my free tree sapling.
Decided to clean the coffee maker on Saturday morning, so that’s on hold for now. I ordered the parts for the butterfly housing I plan on building. Lowe’s: went done after 5 pm and picked up my tree sapling. Looks to be some kind of pine tree. I’ll have LD decide where to plant it somewhere tomorrow sometime. We already have a nice pine tree growing but this new one is just a baby.
I finished watching the Last Lightkeepers documentary. It’s pretty good. A lot of the lighthouses are beautifully shot at sunrise and sunset, really majestic sights. I recommended it if you have any interest in New England Lighthouses. I knew some of the stories already having visited many of them and read about them. In fact, now I want to reread my books on lighthouses!
Today was a beautiful day and so today was more or less dedicated to gardening activities. LD even had a great idea to use a part of the middle of the lawn that’s always been a problem and had some kind of a sinkhole like situation and so we converted it into a planting bed with a bunch phlox we purchased and some new dirt and placed some stones around. It looks pretty amazing and really produces a nice accent point. She also split a bunch more hostas which we then used to replant at different areas around the fence line that seem a bit bare, hoping they’ll take (which I believe they will) and fill in those areas nicely. I moved all the remaining pots out of the shed for planting things as well. Let me tell you, I am dog tired now. Also hooked up the hoses and some worked on some other round-the-house activities.
It would appear that little Shiloh has moved on. We left some lettuce and water out for him and come the next day it looked like there was a nibble or two, but he was gone. Good luck and be safe little friend!