Went down to HQ for my first meeting with the team of my new job. I think I’m going to like working with these folks. Got some more details and training and we watched a orientation video. I spent a bunch of extra time down there after the meeting was over just and meet and greet the folks. I want to get my face and name out there and network with the group, etc. Let them know that I’m a team player and thankful for the opportunity. It’s going to be a lot different than the corporate world crap I did for the last 30 years but I’m ready to try something new and different. Plus who knows, it could lead to other more lucrative opportunities. Lots of folks have done that I have learned. I’m not saying I’d never go back to the corporate world but for now I’ve no desire to do the typical nine to five, dog-eat-dog, anymore. Plus I’ll have a lot of room in my schedule for other things that I’m still working on, including my photography side hustle business.
Rango and I
The above picture came through in my “memories” today so I figured I’d share it here. The goat was named Rango. Sadly, he passed away of a heart attack earlier in the year. He loved to be brushed and was quite a character. Very soulful eyes, and would always bump the other goats out of the way so that he could be continued to be brushed.
Rather rainy, drizzly day today, although feels quite humid. Makes me want to take a nap.
Here’s another shot above from the Schooner festival earlier in the week.
LD got done early today so we went to Rexhame in the late afternoon. The waves were really big, possibly due to Hurricane Larry way offshore? It made quite a sight. I also watched a gull eat an entire crab on the beach, so there’s that.
Don’t worry, beach happy.
Started to watch Impeachment: American Crime Story on FX last night. The latest season of that show.
Checked out the Parade of Sail up in Gloucester this morning. Like I mentioned before I hadn’t seen it since 2018. This year didn’t seem to have as many boats as that year but still a good time to view some scenic boats float by. LD came with this time and liked watching the dogs play in the water down below the boulevard, fetching balls and pieces of wood from the water thrown by their masters. Good thing we had the foresight to bring our beach chairs, which we set down right along the boulevard and watched the action. Toward the end I ventured over to more mountainous area and discovered what I like to call the hidden grotto. Pretty cool location. There was talk of maybe hitting the beach but the weather didn’t look that promising, plus we went yesterday, and there’s always tomorrow as a possibility.
The “hidden” grotto.
We then headed for lunch at a place we like to go when we’re in the area. No wait! Got there just before it started getting busy. And it was outside with umbrellas! It spitting rain at us off and on but really nothing and didn’t effect us negatively. We ordered a bit too much this time so we’ll be having the leftovers for sinner tonight.
Finished off the early evening with a fire pit for a while. Did that for a few until the skies decided to start to drizzle again but thankfully I had been done with the fire by that point. After that we finally finished our leftovers while watching some 48 Hours reruns we had recorded from the night before and a movie on HBO, which was a recommendation from some friends of ours. I didn’t watch much of the movie as I had fallen asleep on my heating pad. Yes, it’s getting close to being that time of year again where I lay on this thing and end up napping for an hour or two.
I had to go out and buy some black work sneaks and boots for my upcoming position so I did that yesterday afternoon. I lucked out in that there’s a DSW not too far from here and I was able to find what I needed right away, so that was nice. I’m the type of person who likes to have everything I need at the ready, even if it won’t be needed for months in advance. That’s just me.
Spent the day at Duxbury beach again. Went into the water a couple of times. I ordered LD a new beach chair as we noticed hers was starting to be too worn. I actually ended up ordering for her the chair that I myself originally wanted but got sent something else that I ended up staying with because I actually liked it. Anyways, while we were in the water we noticed these weird gelatinous beings all around that your skin would brush against. Picking them out if the water they looked like some translucent sort of worm. Come to find out after looking it up, they were salps. I found these beings to have a fascinating life cycle – I had never heard of these creatures before. I assume the recent storm blew them more inland than they usually are.
By the time it became after 5 o’clock we were getting hungry so we headed over to Green Harbor – our go to place after the beach there. They are closing after Monday to end their season. They were out of lobster rolls but LD got shrimp and I went with the clam plate. The wait took over an hour which was annoying but we didn’t have any other plans so we just waited and got a little hangry. We finally got the food and ate it while watching a sunset over by a nearby marsh.
I had originally planned to do a fire pit tonight but we’re too tired now and it’s rather late. Perhaps I’ll light one tomorrow night.
Tomorrow my plan is to be getting up early to check out the schooners in G-town!
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.
Driving around Earth-1 yesterday you couldn’t help but notice all the furniture and things all out on the sidewalks as the students move in. Kinda crazy. I mean, it’s always like that this time of year but somehow this time it looked much more pronounced, at least in the neighborhood that I grew up in.
Gearing up for the remnants of Ida. I really hope the basement doesn’t flood again at all. I don’t think it will but time will tell.
I have my physical appointment tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!
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.
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.
Oh, I forgot to mention the other day when we were at the beach that we noticed all the au pairs again watching the kids and going in the water. Must be nice! For the Moms I mean, not so much for the au pairs who have to watch those kids constantly. Still, spending a day at the beach for work doesn’t sound so bad. We originally though they must live in the town but then we figured why would they spend time at the non-resident area, unless they just like the way the beach is there better? A mystery that most likely I will never solve.
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.
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.
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!
