Well, we ended up having some very minor flooding in the basement from last night, but overall, not bad. It’s mostly dried up on its own already, but I wetvacced a little bit, got some fans going, and opened windows. I’ll probably swing by the Home Depot later today and get some more of those tubs that suck water out of the air.
I had my physical this morning and everything looks good. I got my employment letter and signed it and all that good stuff when I visited HQ after the appointment. I’ll be starting officially in my new position on the 20th. So, go me! I have to the meet our coordinator next week to go over some stuff and then the CPR course and then I am ready to roll. Another thing on my to-do list is to help code get and LD’s website for her business up and running over the next few weeks. Very exciting stuff!
The story behind the photo: This is one from about a month ago when we spent some time at the Cape. One of the many sunset photos that I’ve taken. This is from Orleans. When the tide goes out here, it’s so flat, you could walk quite a ways before you find water deep enough to swim in. Anyways this photo makes me think of summer’s end for some reason.
We ended up watching this show last night detailing the events of Chyna’s life, the female WWF wrestler. Pretty amazing story, so sad it ended the way that it did for her.
No one could write about the sea and leave out the poetry.
I heard from who is going to be my supervisor this afternoon. You wouldn’t believe all the things I need to get through but I imagine it just seems like a lot until one gets the hang of it. I won’t be able to actually start until I finish my physical on Thursday and then the CPR class in another week, but I did get to see where I’ll be working and I think I’m going to like working with this group of folks. They seem pretty cool.
The Annual Schooner fest is coming up end of the week. Here’s a photo I took from it back in 2018 (was that really the last time I was there for this???) I might need to go up and get some new pictures, maybe hang out at the harbor, etc.
I fired up the grill again tonight for some turkey burgers. I need the energy after mowing the back yard today. It’s a big yard and takes a lot of energy but it looks good now.
I was looking over some new dehumidifiers to replace the old one we had that finally went to it’s grave. Did you know they have ones now that even include WIFI and will alert you to their status? The Internet of Things (IoT) really is everywhere these days.
I’ve been playing around with the website design again, just for a change. If you’re viewing the page on computer you’ll see a bunch of stuff on the right – a sidebar if you will, otherwise that stuff shows up and the very bottom of the page. I might go back to the previous design but for now I just felt like changing things a bit.
What a wonderfully pleasant day today, with cool breezes. Thinking of doing a fire tonight. But for this afternoon, we felt a trip to the sanctuary was in order, plus LD had some produce she wanted to donate to the animals. As we got there we met the owner who mentioned that she was thinking of LD and had “summoned” her and missed her and called us family. That was really sweet. We got goat time which is our favorite part (see photo of Eustis and I!) Eustis is one of my all time favorites (even though it’s a girl’s name the goat is actually a male) but we heard that he’s been having a harder time lately – arthritis and all, the animals are getting up in age sadly and Eustis has been there a long time. Still, just sitting in the sun and the sand seems to make us all pretty happy.
I did end up making a fire around 4:30. We were out there til about 6:50. The fire was nice because it actually felt somewhat cold outside by the late afternoon.
Currently watching: The Murders at White House Farm on Netflix.
Well, it looks like one thing I’ve been working on is coming to fruition finally. The final steps are getting a physical, taking a CPR training and a having drug test done and then I’m ready to go ahead for the next stage in my journey. I expect to have these all done over the next few days.
I was saddened to learn that this 75+ year old tree that I grew up with next door to the house I grew up in was removed today. All to make room for another condo development. That was a pretty big tree.
Last night we had the Sturgeon Moon, also a Blue Moon!
I’m glad Henri ended up being not much around here. I spent the day mostly cooking a turkey kale soup and tomato zucchini flatbreads and watching 3 episodes of Mare of Easttown.
I am a bit concerned about the storm named Henri which is expected to hit us come Sunday but I’m hoping things won’t be too bad. I sort of remember Hurricane Bob 30 years ago to which they are comparing this one to. I don’t recall Bob being bad for me personally so I’m hoping for the same thing with Henri but time will tell. It doesn’t sound like it’ll hit where we are as bad as it could be but I’m still taking precaution by battening down the hatches, so to speak. You wouldn’t know a storm was coming by the way today is.
I took the time to watch Val, a videography by the actor. It wasn’t bad, I especially liked the behind the scenes videos he took of various movies and seeing the different actors he’s worked with being themselves. I also finally watched The Lighthouse, another strange movie to be sure and definitely creepy. This is going to be a good weekend for movies. Last night we saw Wonder Woman 1984 and wasn’t impressed. First one was way better, the story in this one was pretty stupid.
Summer nears the end
We ended up going to a beach in Marshfield for the late afternoon and hung there for a while, til close to sunset where we watched it while chomping on some lobster rolls.
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.
I am so tanned now, it must be my Mediterranean blood!
We literally practically spent the whole day at the beach today. We are becoming beach bums and it was glorious! Not many people there at all today so we made the most of it. We’ve got to take these days while we can because these moments are finite and we need to savor and relish them. I sure am. Afterwards I treated us to lobster rolls and fried clams over at Green Harbor Lobster Pound – we love that place.
A spectacular sunrise I witnessed in Maine not too long ago.
“Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun. And I say it’s all right.”
The Beatles, Here Comes The Sun
It’s going to be a fantastic day, might as well start it out with a spectacular sunrise shot.
I did an experiment and fried up some hot dogs in the air fryer today and I’ve got to say, it’s pretty good. 6 minutes at 400 and it’s done! Probably going to be my go-to now in making them, unless I’m doing some grilling outside
Off to the beach this am, more later….
4.5 hours later today: Back from the beach, it was awesome! We played in the waves and got some sun, stayed there longer than ever so far. Just for the record we like going to Duxbury Beach Park which might actually technically be in Marshfield but it suits us. Definitely going in the early morning, which was new for us, is advantageous in many ways. Plus the weather today was just perfect, why can’t everyday be like today? Probably would have stayed even longer but we had to get back to home base because LD needed to attend a continuing conference online. We made it back just in the nick of time – cut it close with 5 minutes to spare!
On the streaming front we’ve just about finished season 2 of Mindhunter. Great show. As I mentioned before there’s a few more things I’d like to see within the next few weeks including Val, Sharp Objects, WW 1984, The Lighthouse, some 3 day special on A&E about serial killers, The Girl in the Fog, and Mare of Eastown to name a few.
Ended up the early evening by grilling up some steak tips and lighted up the fire pit and ate outside and relaxed. Now we’re salty and smoky! Perfect day!
The only negative part is LD got some sunburn on her arm!
Sending Love from Greys is now available on the online shop. I’ve been playing around with the idea of having physical media of my best photos with me all framed and such to sell at live venues. I still need to figure out a bunch of logistics and cost but this may be a better way to get some of my work noticed better. I’m also working on some other side gigs for the fall, so we’ll see.
Click to see more of product
Kind of too hot to much of anything today although I did do a Wegman’s grocery run in the morning and took some calls. I have figured out that I want to also watch the movie The Lighthouse, in addition to what I mentioned yesterday.
Ospreys looking
at eachother
I forgot to mention we saw a lot of osprey’s on the last trip. Here’s a photo of two of them just looking at eachother.
When we took this picture it was because the sign said the place was established the same year I was. Somehow or other we never noticed the word “Hors” in the sign, and does it mean what we think it might mean?!
Earlier today I saw an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly flitting around on the butterfly bush out back, It makes me happy to know that my taking care of that bush finally has some of the visitors I was hoping it would attract to come to fruition.
Lately in the evenings we’ve been getting through the series Mindhunter and finally finished season 1. Other things that I want to watch include Val, Wonder Woman 1984, and Sharp Objects. LD doesn’t want to watch that last one because she read the book and said it was extremely disturbing which Kinda makes me want to see it more in a strange way.
Today we hit the beach up here for a couple of hours because it was hot. We noticed what appeared to be au pairs ( bunch of them) watching children while their rich moms just relaxed on the beach. Really interesting to see, these young teenage girls so focused on watching the kids and doing all the work while the moms laid about. I didn’t notice at first, but LS noticed that the girls seems very focused on watching the kids, and what teenage girl is going to do that at the beach normally? We went it the water a couple of times, it was a little cold but actually I found it refreshing. Once you were in it was nothing and you adapted fairly quick. Before we left we hit Green Harbor again for Lobster Rolls and Clam Plates. I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide who got what.
The best photo I took on my Birthday getaway! Besides taking a hike, having some great adventures involving delicious dishes and swimming in the salty ocean with the breeze blowing on our backs, we finished off with a walk along the Grey’s Beach boardwalk. Thanks have to go to the love of my life, the Ladydoc, making it all happen. I’d also like to thank BostonFox25 for also featuring my photo (over 3,000 likes – wow!). Maybe someday we’ll have a board about us on this walkway. It essentially crosses the marsh for quite a bit until it gets to open water at the end.
We stayed in a place called The Osprey Nest, basically a pretty cute little apartment that had basically anything you could need and with an efficient use of the space. It also featured a booth which LD knew I would like sitting at and did on many occasions. Highlights from the trip I’d have to say were eating lunch from the local Market (a really good deli!) and eating it and the end of the Indian Trail, a little road that ends at Horseshoe Shoal across from Sandy Neck. Hot chocolates from the Chocolate Sparrow (of course), hiking and picking apples from the local Mass Audubon location there (and watching the goats there helping with keeping the vegetation in check – working goats!) , and lovely meals from Osterville and Yarmouth and swimming and sunning at the beaches (west Dennis and Seagull are particularly nice). On the way back we had a wonderful outdoor meal in Sandwich which is literally right up against the canal watching the sailboats go by as we dined.
One of my best memories with things I love: lighthouses, ocean coast, and LD (who was kind enough to snap this picture at the time). The name “Pemaquid” is said to have had its origins in an Abenaki Indian word for “situated far out.”
Saturday I felt like taking us out on a ride out to Gloucester so we spent the afternoon and had lunch at a place we like out there. I had their signature Lobster BLT and it did not disappoint. Then we went to Wingaersheek for a few in the late afternoon. In the evening a work buddy of LD’s came over and we had a nice fire pit outing. We didn’t get to bed until real late (like next day late, it was so fun!)
Sunday was going to be another beach day. After waking up pretty late (from the festivities of the night before) we finally made out way down to Duxbury and enjoyed the waves. We thought it was going to be a hassle and be busy and stuff, but it actually wasn’t bad at all and we had a wonderful time. Then hung out at Green Harbor for a while and enjoyed another meal.
Now I’m sitting on the deck out back, sipping a hot chocolate, and enjoying the evening by winding down, as the cool breeze gently blows.
I was playing around with taking some photos of some flowers that had raindrops on them and the result of one of them is the photo above. Raindrops on things, especially plant life, always seem to make a good picture, don’t you think so? Also please continue to vote for my other photo, you can do it once a day, and it would mean a lot to me personally. (You have to scroll to the bottom of the page).
A bunch of little small updates for y’all. I was jonesin for some new content to put up so I was going through my archives and found this picture I took from the seaport back in 2019 so I put that up today. Must have made some buzz because it became featured on Fox25 News’ Insta , so that made me surprised but happy.
In the early afternoon we took a ride out to this Hosta farm that we saw advertised a couple of months ago but finally decided to take a ride down to Mendon and check it out. They’re only open a few select Saturdays of the summer. Amazing selection of Hostas species and daylilies varieties and also a lot of Lotus. Pretty cool place actually. LD ended up getting two Hostas, two lilies and a cone flower, all of which we’ll be planting in the yard later this afternoon, along with some other potted beauties that we’ve had on the patio for a few weeks now.
Lotus
Lotus
Daylilies to plant
The other day I swung by Earth-1. The house next door is completely gone now, and there’s a guy there with a small backhoe just picking up all the debris so that the foundation guys can come in and do their work. It’s weird, if you didn’t know it from before it would seem like the house that was there never existed. I do feel all this condo development is destroying the old neighborhood. Just doesn’t look or feel the same anymore, losing character, Kinda sad.
I while back I mentioned how my old ass Kindle died and I was considering tinkering with it and maybe replacing it’s battery but I’ve since did probably what most people do and just downloaded the Kindle app to my phone. Now all the books that I purchased on that old Kindle are available on my phone for rereading. It might be fun just to try to explore the innards of that old Kindle anyway just for my own hobby knowledge.
The cargo net for my truck finally arrived today. I installed that as soon as it came. I’m pleased with it and I think it will come in quite handy for my needs. I also bought a USB-C back up drive to backup all the photos from my laptop. Seemed like a good idea to have another place for backups besides just the cloud. I was amazed at how tiny the device itself actually is. 500Gb capacity. You could put it on a keychain although I never would. One of the old dehumidifiers in the basement finally died. It was quite a workhorse getting through various floods and powering through for days but it appears to have finally met it’s end. Not that they are still needed as this point but for the future it probably is time to get a new one. I tried finagling with it for a bit and I was able to get a couple more hours out of it but then it would just die again. Time to put it to rest. The other one we have down there is still cranking anyway, although like I said, I can probably shut those down at this point.
Stargazers popping
Some of the Asiatic Lilies we have growing.
We still can hear that baby hawk squawking outside all day. Is it ever going to get the message? You would think the thing would have a sore throat by now. I don’t think it’s starving though because when I saw it the other day it looked quite healthy and was flying into the trees really well. I did see some white fur in the driveway as I was mowing the lawn yesterday as if from a smaller animal. Not saying it was from him but who knows.
Been using the grill a bit the past few days. Cod last night and steak tips tonight!
Stayed in a wonderful 4-bedroom 200 year old farm house for a few days that is located on a working alpaca farm which is connected out back to the alpaca pen in the southeastern Connecticut town of Bozrah – very agricultural part of the state, lots of Native American history to the area as well, and the folks are very friendly if a bit odd at times. Interesting factoid for you: Bozrah CT is the only town in all of the United States with that name, never duplicated anywhere else. As to how it got that name, there is an interesting story.
The community, according to the legend, really wanted to call itself “Bath” after the famous spa in England. The local man chosen to carry the parish’s request to Hartford had a somewhat eccentric manner of dress, however, and when he appeared before the Legislature he was dressed in loud, parti-colored homespun so odd as to bring to the mind of one amused legislator the query of Isaiah 63:1: “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?” Overcome by the humorous appropriateness of this verse, the Assembly decided to name the town “Bozrah” when it incorporated the place. Or so the story goes. Like I said, it is a bit of an off-the-beaten-path kind of place.
Learning all about Alpaca care.
I’ll go over some selected moments from the trip. We learned how to care for the animals as well as what makes them tick and we saw how they use their fur to make things at a mill where they process the sheared fur of the animals . The farmhouse had a nice firepit that we used the first night there to relax and make s’mores with. Also discovered and played a new card game called Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza which is my favorite game right now and will be playing it again with more friends soon.
The girls on the farm
Heading out to the pasture
An RV for Alpacas?
Alpaca Mill Apparatus
Alpaca Mill Apparatus
Herding Alpacas
Goats on a slide! Mama, Daughter, and grandkid
Baby Dwarf Goats
We did what was called a private goat snuggle event on Sunday at a farm in Richmond, RI. Actually a woman’s house with her young daughter. You really can’t judge a book by its cover because as we approached the place we started to feel a bit trepidatious but low and behold, it was actually pretty amazing, It ended up being one of the best, if not the best, goat experiences we ever had. The property was I think really made for goats as they could climb on various things and climb hills and try to reach pine tree needles, it was really cool, trust me. A nice part of the trip was that the rains held out for every event we tried so score there! They had so many goats and such cute babies and so sweet. One goat mama there named Moon we gave a little extra TLC because she had recently lost all four of her babies but she sure did love to be scratched on her neck. There’s lots of pictures from our time there but I don’t want to upload them all. Also that evening we met up with an old friend of LD’s from her grad school days and ate on a beautiful patio at a restaurant in another part of Connecticut. We ended up staying there past closing!
Last day before heading back we went to beach named Misquamicut State Beach in Westerly, RI. We actually were in Watch Hill before that but that place was a zoo today so we bailed on that. LD swam in the water while I watched from my beach chair and enjoyed the ocean breezes, and even though the beach was packed today we enjoyed our time there.
Got up early and went down to the local Dunkins’ which had just been remodeled to see if I could be picked to win free coffee for a year, being a random customer to be chosen. Sadly, I was not one, but I did order a morning coffee anyway. Place looks nice done over though.
Here’s a fun throwback photo I found. Don’t remember where it was taken but that castle in the back is pretty cool. Props to anyone who can figure it out and tell me what place would models of castles like this. It may be long gone by now for all I know.
I imagine the castle was a model of some real one someplace in Europe.
This hawk just keeps hanging around still. Maybe it still hasn’t totally gotten the message that he needs to be on his own and start feeding himself. Actually according to MassAudubon that’s exactly what it is! He looks pretty healthy to me though, so I don’t think he’s in any distress. Maybe he’s making this area his home base, which is true, might not be good for Shiloh! Better leave little Shiloh alone!
Meanwhile, at Earth-1 the takedown of the house next door is coming along little by little, floor by floor. The roof is long gone and yesterday it appeared that most of the second floor had been removed as well. I should mention the reason for the teardown is to build, you guessed it, another new condo. I took a couple of pics but they don’t really do the magnitude of the work justice in my mind.
I ended up putting up some more shelving in the basement. The idea is to become more organized and not have anything on the floor that wouldn’t need to be. Mostly though, it’s for neatness and organization moving forward. I also inflated all my car tires using the portable. Believe it or not it actually works! Not a bad purchase! You can blow air from it either thru the car lighter plug or via the stored energy after charging the device itself through USB, which is what I’ve been doing. Next thing I want to get for the back is a cargo net, They’re cheap and I think it would help in keeping any groceries or such that I put back there from sliding all around the back when making turns.
Yesterday I got new some new sneakers from the New Balance Outlet in Brighton, after destroying my previous pair working down in the basement. Ended up getting the Fresh Foam 880s in Light Aluminum/Black/Steel. Pretty sharp looking!
Today’s major activities. Yesterday LD saw this juvenile hawk across the street just squawking and moving around the driveways. Today it came back and brought what we think might be his sibling, I think there’s a male and female but who knows. They sure have been squawking a lot. All day actually. Now we definitely know what a hawk’s call is. LD actually took all these shots with my camera and I think she did a great job. We actually have many more photos but I personally think these are some of the best. After that we both, along with a friend of ours, went ahead and ripped out all the carpet and padding from the basement. What a job! We were a great team and we were done in about 2 hours which is really great. The cellar is just about dry now and it’s just a matter of running the fans and humidifiers and various drying tools. That should be done fairly soon, then it’s a matter of going through things, organizing, and getting rid of all the crap that accumulated over the years that are really just taking up space. So all in all, I think we are in really great shape, although every muscle in my body has been getting quite the workout over the last couple of days. Maybe I’m not as out of shape as I thought!
I was getting a bit concerned with the drain out back to the cellar as the stairwell that surrounds it was beginning to retain water as it couldn’t keep up with the rainfall and we don’t need a flooded cellar. We put on some dehumidifiers just in case, and I watched it over time. I even bailed out some water with a pail earlier but not sure if it helped at all. It all ended up flooding anyways as the day wore on. I must have wetvacced to pump out the cellar 5000 times but I got it somewhat dry. Moving forward, just going to rip out the carpets – done with this crap. Fortunately most things down there appear fine, it’s really just the floor. Almost every bone in my body hurts a little but I got a lot done and what a way to gain over 400 active zone minutes according to my Fitbit!
Hopefully my mom’s cellar at Earth-1 will be ok, it tends to flood a bunch, even with the sump pump. Hers is an unfinished basement but there’s a tendency for pilot lights to go out and if that happens I’ll need to head over there and relight them. Update: I have to go over and relight afterall. Also I forgot to mention that they are starting to dismantle the house next door to her. Apparently the roof finally came off yesterday. They seem to be doing it with a crew of people rather than a wrecking ball, starting from the top and working down to the ground,
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.
