I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I saw that Mass Audubon decided to use one of my photos for their Strut Your Stuff article about wild turkeys! I was going to save this one for reposting here actually on Thanksgiving, but here it is a bit early. The story behind this photo is pretty simple. LD and I were driving through Westwood when along the road on someone’s property LD spotted a bunch of turkeys walking around. Believe it or not, this is how a lot of my shots actually happen. So she stopped, I got out, tried to find a good spot real quick, and snapped a few and this was one of them that I thought was the best of the bunch. Just a spontaneous shot that came out pretty well I think. So, I am the cameraman but she’s the director a lot of times!
Here’s a shot down some alley I found a while back in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood – pretty swank. Beacon Hill is predominantly residential, known for old colonial brick row houses with “beautiful doors, decorative iron work, brick sidewalks, narrow streets, and gas lamps”. As the name implies, it is a hill, so if you’re going to walk it prepare to walk up and down some steep hills in places.
Been another low key couple of days – just getting ready for the turkey day and all. In fact, we went to the grocery store last night and it was pretty busy, but we got most of the things that will be needed. Got caught up on a lot of the shows we like to watch – a bunch of them are going on fall hiatus (inane) so there’s that. Million Little Things – drama so over the top it’s ridiculous, SVU – actually pretty good this season I think compared to the last few, the usual Datelines and 2020. I’ve tried watching a couple episodes of Watchmen on HBO but it strikes me as really strange. Maybe I missed it but it seems like it only tangentially touches on the graphic novel that started it all, taking place 34 years after the events of the DC limited series within the same alternate reality. Not what I was expecting.
Anyways, back to Thanksgiving, we’re just going to be having my mom over and maybe my sister if she’s around. My sister’s never really been much family oriented, so she might be out with her latest flavor of the week. Same story over and over, different day. We’ll see – she’s invited anyway.
We’re starting to get the itch to get a new felines, to replace the ones who have left us for the rainbow bridge. LD’s been looking at one particular cat who has cardiomyopathy, as a kindred spirit perhaps and deserving of love just the same. That might be kind of tough though, we’ll see.
Update: We put the tree up already! While putting it up we discovered that very few of the lights worked so we had to make trip down to home depot to get some new ones, but now it looks great! I think this is the earliest we’ve ever put up the tree, but what better time than the present?
A little bit of color for what’s been a dreary week.
It’s been a pretty dreary week here in Boston. Just drizzly on and off for days, sort of mirroring feelings of late. Not a deluge but little pellets on and off enough to annoy oneself. I figure things have got to turn better eventually, and in truth, some things already have – so things aren’t as bleak or dramatic as I might make it seem. I’ve been having more anxious dreams as of late too, enough to wake me up in the middle of the night with a faster heart rate, but I calm myself down right after. Just have to take it slow, after all.
“Expect to have hope rekindled. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.”
Sarah Ban Breathnach
I always did love that quote. So I’ll keep on reading and believing in it. It’s true. Just have to keep hanging in there, right? And if anyone wants to send along some good thoughts and mojo, that would also be appreciated as well!
Went to the Sanctuary today. Goats hung out with us which was fun. Sadly, the cat we had thoughts of adopting from there was adopted by someone else a few days ago. Maybe it’s for the best at this time though.
Afterwards hit up visit to Trader Joe’s in Foxborough (by where the Pats play) to get some groceries for the week. We’ve already cooked up some mushroom pizzas, ricotta bake, and some mustard glazed chicken.
What else? Watched the end of the Celtics game, flipping between that and Law & Order reruns on We TV. A typical low-key Sunday.
The above picture is one I took along Commonwealth Avenue in Boston a little while back. I always found the look of these two buildings rather cool. Come to find out, the “sisters” have an interesting back story! I still learn something new everyday!
Not the greatest week this week, but things appear to be looking up! Between spending a few days at the hospital visiting, losing an important piece of jewelry, and just being a stress bag all around. But like I said – things are looking up – found the jewelry this morning (my brain is just mush these days), and back home getting back to normalcy. Still have some worries – work sucks, and some major dental work most likely coming up again but c’est la vie.
Some gametime for fun that’s keeping me occupied at times:
Neon Dash – a platformer where you have to control a block over obstacles.
Just one chance – haven’t beaten this one yet. Thing is with this you only get one chance – if you die, you have to wait 24 hours to try again.
Conveyor mayhem – a puzzle game where you move crates onto their targets. Took me a few to beat all 22 levels.
Crazy Dungeon – not too hard, move your guy around the board but don’t get caught by the nasties.
Other minor things – updated to site to WP 5.3. Seems to have gone well, although I notice the photo captions aren’t centered? Strange. Update: Never mind, appears to actually be that way – there’s some CSS code that fixes it temporally which I’ve used on the last few posts. One of somewhat related note, I’ve had this domain since 2001 – today is the anniversary of when hatchetation.com first went live! It’s all grown up now. You can catch up some older versions of the site through snapshots in time at the Wayback Machine. I wish I could find the even earlier versions back from Geocities but I think it’s on some zipdisk that I can no longer read.
Going to roast some carrots this afternoon to bring over to some friends tonight who are hosting a get together, should be fun. Speaking of fun, check out this video of a fully restored first coin operated jukebox. Must be priceless! It doesn’t play records – it plays Edison cylinder rolls!
Yup. Went to the Sanctuary today for a little bit again. I happened upon this scene of a mother chicken tending to her chicks. I find it interesting that they are so different looking color wise. We also hung with a cat named Grayson, where there could be the possibility that we could have him, if we so wanted. He’s very sweet. We’ll see about logistics moving forward to see if it’s a real possibility. Then I had to get back for a work meeting that took and hour and a half.
Day 2 at the W. Yesterday we had lunch in Sandwich on the way down (one of our usual spots by the Canal). Soon enough we got to the place and checked in, had supper at a place called Pate’s that we like and they came through. The line was out the door upon opening – we never seen it so busy in the summer! Delicious meal, then we headed back and relaxed for the rest of the night.
Today after a restful night, we got room service which was nice. Hadn’t done that in a long time. Afterwards we went for a walk along the spit. Soon enough it was time to go. We didn’t head home right away though – we tried to hit some little library’s to see if we could score any good reading material. Came up empty this time, although I did find a book entitled Why Men Love Bitches. Senseless drivel? We hit a couple of beaches – they are pretty empty this time of year, but there’s something nice about the silence. We visited the wildlife area on South Chatham too but didn’t catch anything spectacular sadly. Of course we had to hit the Chocolate Sparrow for a quick lunch and some delicious drinks.
Although I had a good time I still feel bummed about a few other things going on. Hoping for the best, I know I’ll get through them. I also got a feeling that I’ve got a mad case of Seasonal Affective Disorder! This getting dark early sh*t sucks,
The day was filled with visits to doctors. Just trying to get a handle on what ails us. Hopefully the path ahead will be more promising than it has been lately. Anyways, the bulk of the day was just dealing with those appointments and then just chilling round the house after it was all said and done.
I also took some time to rake up and bag some more fallen leaves. Mostly from the front, but I don’t get every single little leaf – I think leaving some around is good for the critters and environment (that’s what I’ve read anyway) – just dealing with the majority of them, plus more will just fall anyway. I also cleared out the clogged sewer drain out front. You think the next door neighbors could do it at least once in 10 years? Jeezus . Also went ahead and finally pulled out all the wild tomato plants that had been growing around. That was starting to get a bit unwieldy and plus would never eat them anyway.
What else? Rotated a couple of records in the jukebox – every now and then need a change of pace. I have toyed with the idea of starting a collection of old jukeboxes but that’s not really feasible due to cost and storage, and they’re all heavy as hell – some of those old Wurlitzers and Seaburgs really are beauties. Just a fantasy.
The above shot is from a place in Braintree called Sunset Lake. I just happened to catch it at the right moment for the shot. I especially like the gazebo in the background.
This shot of the lighthouse at Castle Hill in Newport, RI was from a getaway we had a few years ago. I’m putting it up now because I’ve planned another getaway coming up! It’s my usual appreciation getaway that I plan every year although this year it had to be postponed a couple of months due to other factors. This new one will be in a new location that I’ve never been so I’m looking forward to see how it all pans out.
Late this afternoon we went and saw Motherless Brooklyn, a movie starring and directed by Edward Norton – it was pretty good, and featured some big name actors like William DeFoe, Alec Baldwin, and Bruce Willis among others. I’d recommend it if you’re in the mood for a detective story and like some 1950s New York film noir. I had seen the previews and it looked interesting so I said let’s give it a go.
Earlier in the day we had created three dishes as part of lunch/dinner for tonight and also food-prep for the week (the usual routine):
Turkey Chili with Butternut Squash
Baked Scallops with a Parmesan crust; and
Turkey Spaghetti Squash Bake in peppers
The last one was to recreate with a different middle than the mac&cheese we went with last year around this time:
Stuffed peppers!
This morning I went to Home Depot to buy some more leaf bags and later raked up some more leaves. Good day to do some work around the house actually. Also been measuring the downstairs windows because we’re going with the same kinds of blinds that we have upstairs now – the Cordless Cellular Shades that are all the rage now. The windows down here are a lot larger so it’s more expensive but it’ll be worth it.
It’s not all fun and games though. Turning back the clock has made this day seem much longer which is great – but getting dark early is a bummer. I worry about LD, my mom, and a bunch of other things too as well these days.
Went to the sanctuary for a little bit today and to soak up some sun. This city boy got to hold a chicken. Hey, I never held an actual chicken before! Not just any chicken though, this one lost his foot in infancy. Miraculously enough though, he is getting a prosthetic foot made that will fit over his stub! His name is Petey and he is the chillest chicken I ever met with a bit of spunk.
Did you all have a nice Halloween? Last night we had I’d say about 50 kids or so come through between the hours of 6 and 8 pm. Even the parents dress up in costume now – I guess that’s a new thing? I don’t recall my folks ever trick or treating with us when we did it OR dress up. There was one guy dressed as a king which was different. The little kids are the best of course. Really the only reason to participate in the event. There was a thought that the two bags of candy that I had bought might not end up being enough but thankfully it was. There’s even a bunch of KitKats left over. I was figuring with the way the weather has been and was supposed to be that we wouldn’t get a crazy deluge and I was right.
I wanted to somewhat recreate a photo from near this location that I had taken years before – it always seems to have nice reds in the trees at this particular cemetery in Arlington, Mass and it’s on the way home. So I pulled over real quick and did a quick jaunt through. I found he original location and took some shots but wasn’t really wowed by them this year – I was going to put one of those up but as I was leaving I turned to my left and saw the structure you see in this shot and I felt it might provide a good frame. I think it came out pretty good. I am wishing I had maybe visited a week earlier since we’ve had a lot of wind and rain lately so a lot of the leaves had fallen off the trees. I think if the trees were fuller in this shot it may have looked even better. Maples do produce the best reds I feel.
Meanwhile back at Earth-1 we’ve had some furnace issues but better to take care of that now then to wait until it really gets cold. Anyways that’s all set now too – seemed to be some kind of wiring issue as to why the radiators weren’t producing heat – I even bled them all the other night.
Went up to Georgetown for the afternoon to try out some ‘Goat Snuggles.’ Definitely worth the trip even in the pouring rain! The baby goats were dressed in various costumes for Halloween (although some costumes we still can;t figure out what they were supposed to be). It was better than I expected! They generally do all the activities outside but the weather was terrible so it was held in this amazing looking 5-story barn. We would surely visit them again someday – maybe next spring.
With over 200 pictures taken it’s a bit of a challenge to figure out which ones to put up, they’re all so cute! Maybe more later…
Cabin in the Woods at Moose Hill. Is Slender-man in there?
Got back from doing some errands today. Had to get some candy to hand out later next week. Also picked up a bunch of hearing aid size batteries to replace the dead ones in this skull light up thing that we use every year as a decoration. I totally sure I had gotten the right size but when I placed them into old ‘Skully’ it worked and lit up brightly. Why the hell it would need three of them is beyond me. I ended up going to this brand new CVS they just recently opened across the street from the one it was replacing and I was curious to see what it looked like inside. They all pretty much look the same, although this new one is definitely bigger than the one it replaced and even had a fairly large grocery section.
Also spent the afternoon replacing the door summer screens to the house with the solid glass panes because the weather is turning cooler and cooler now. Should keep the heat in a little better as well. Oh, and my lens cap finally arrived today to replace the one I lost in the fields of Long Valley, NJ last week.
No lie, this is the back yard view right now from the sun room.
I don’t know what the heck I did last night but my left shoulder up to my neck is killing me right now. Perhaps I slept on it wrong, or I don’t know, but it’s a real bummer. I did power on and mow the front lawn however because it really needed it but I should probably take it easy. While sitting out in the sun room I noticed the trees out back looked pretty nice, so I took a quick picture. Going to suck having to deal with these leaves when they fall but that’s life.
There may be a pregnant bunny that was witnessed out in the back yard, but it didn’t appear to be Brazen Bunny. Also Squibbs the squirrel out back appears to be clawing and scraping away at the pumpkins out there. Really annoying.
I’m messing around with the site design a little bit. Might go back to what it was before, but I do like how this design puts my photos front and center. Only thing is it sends all the sidebar material to the bottom of the page (click the ‘plus’ sign to see what I mean down at the very bottom of the page).
I’ll also go back and read my latest issue of KMT magazine, It’s a quarterly that deals with ancient Egypt. This particular issue really strikes me as some of the articles in it are really interesting to me. One about the actual lineage of the 18th dynasty – does it really start with Tao I and end with Tutankhamen? Lots of gray area on that. A really cool article about using state of the art CT scans to look inside mummy coffins to see who and what’s inside including any artifacts they had on without opening them or damaging them (the photo quality they can get now is amazing and in three dimensions) and using iPads and software to recreate the hieroglyphic walls adorning various tombs accurately digitally – a process called digital epigraphy. Told you before I was a complete nerd for this stuff. So with all that I feel I’ve got to try to rest up and let this shoulder heal up a little bit.
Been spending the last couple of days learning to run the Moodle LMS and it’s Drupal front end. Not to toot my my own horn, but I do think I’m picking it up rather quickly. It’s not the mist user friendly software in the world and the user interface (UI) is pretty clunky – but it’s some open source free tool so what does one expect. I even created my own example course today with an assignment, a video to watch, and a quiz that one must pass in order to get the certificate of completion. So I think I have the basics down. Seems like they mostly use this tool for users to self-learn so don’t have to do any grading or any of that other teacher kind of stuff. I found some really helpful videos on how to use the software on LinkedIn of all places. Guess I’ll still play around with it until I get some actual requests to start building some real course material. It’s not that bad really once you figure out where everything is (kinda all over the place and like I said, not the most intuitive interface) but I can deal.
Spent the weekend in Long Valley, NJ doing the pumpkin thing. Met up with some folks too who needed an ear, but didn’t stay long. Did get called “Massholes” down in Jerz which was kinda funny. Picked a pumpkim myself and even a gourd, as is my custom. This particular gourd is kind of cool because it naturally grew somewhat in the shape of a starfish. Never saw anything like that before. I also lost my lens cap in the field on the hayride back but I’ve since placed another one on order.
Finally picked Sean, the pumpkin we’ve been growing up here. He looks a little deformed on one side actually but it’s all good.
Taking a seat and enjoying the show of Autumn in New England.
Picked up bagged some leaves that had fallen off the trees.
Finally got a haircut. Much needed and I really like how it came out.
Went to the store to get some minor snacks for myself
Went to the Depot to get some batteries and a nice celosia I saw last week on sale. The batteries are for the exercise bike we got for free last week. Good model. How often it actually gets used – time will tell. It works!
Caught up on a bunch of little things around here.
For some reason, the town is ripping up the grass edgings along the street – I imagine they are going to replant it new?
I’m currently in training learning how to administer an LMS (Learning Management System) called Moodle. It’s basically a tool that allows teachers and such to provide online courses to their students and it allows them to do grades and other things of that sort all online. Could be a new direction for me, so I’m giving it the old try.
Beautiful couple of days here – decided to spend it doing a bit of leaf peeping, and saying hello to our animal friends down at the sanctuary. Also stopped by an apple orchard and got some apples for making some apple stuff probably later today, a huge butternut squash from the farm, and some other grocery odds and ends. Also getting the place ready for the upcoming seasons, shutting down the outdoor hoses, moving the grill into the storage shed, etc.
Halloween is coming. Old cemetery in Wrentham, MA.
We lost the proposal that I was hoping we’d win. Kind of a bummer for me, because that project kept me busy and I was controlling my own destiny a bit. Feeling a little depressed over it actually. The firm that won I didn’t think did the kind of work they were asking for, and for more money, so I’m not sure what the decision process was – maybe they were just sick of us after almost 10 years. Maybe it’ll bite them someday, but probably not. I personally think they made a mistake, and not to toot my own horn, but there’s no way they’ll get the same level of service that I was giving them, at least not at first. But it wasn’t up to me, and they’ll survive. The question is will I? Where do I go from here? I’ll have to try to find some other stuff to do.
Working for a consulting firm kinda sucks sometimes. Oftentimes I wish I could just work at a job where you know what it is day in and day out, and you don’t have to worry about billing and getting your utilization numbers up all the time. I not really complaining too much though – in a lot of ways it has been a dream job for me.. That’s what was nice about this project though – it kept me safe. Perhaps, I’ve become too complacent, and if so, then that’s all on me. Then again, maybe I’m being overly dramatic. Perhaps something positive could occur out of all this. New opportunities could lie ahead. I guess I just don’t like that it wasn’t on my terms.
We have a friend flying in from out of state to visit for a while, so it might be a nice distraction for a day or two. Meanwhile, the city is jack hammering the street out in front of the house in preparation for repaving it. Loud and annoying.
