Return to Rexhame

The scene this afternoon at Rexhame.

The calming movement of the sea along with the restless ocean breeze gently caresses me creating a soothing trance which lulls me to a place of peace.

Spent another beautiful afternoon out at Rexhame again. So peaceful today and relaxing. We also like watching the dogs play in the water that people bring along.

Piers

So far the week’s been going good. Getting the hang of it all. Still under observation this week but I took the helm midweek because I wanted to. Next week I start all by my lonesome.

Looking to have to get a new kitchen faucet installed. We noticed it leaking over the last few days.

Relaxing in the Peaceful Dunes

A cormorant crosses in front of a tugboat in Marshfield.

Tomorrow’s my big first day, wish me luck. What else? Not too much going on, just having some chill time around the firepit, watching tv, etc. I do need to make another appointment for a windshield repair. Darn thing had a pebble hit it while I was travelling down Route 1. This is the 2nd time now, last time being May 2020. I think this one can just be repaired though, as opposed to last time when I needed the whole thing replaced.

We went to Rexhame beach again this afternoon. The waves were killer. We didn’t go in the water of course, just sat in our chairs after a little hike around the river marsh in back. We found a nice secluded area above the river up a dune that was really peaceful and hung out there for a while. On the way back we got some open faced turkey sandwiches from a turkey farm place that’s on the way. We were going to eat them at home but ended up eating them on one of the picnic tables they had set up outside. It was really good too.

A Quick Look Inside

Morning coffee with a view

Feelings That I Love:

Seeing the sun rise in the morning
Making someone laugh
Listening to a snappy song
Being recognized for a job well done
Being counted on to come through, and succeeding
Getting personal emails
Getting lost in the amazement of this universe we inhabit
Getting the chill up my spine from a dramatic or surprising scene of a movie
Hugging a soft warm body
Growing Up

Feelings That I Hate:

A song that ends too soon
Feeling Pressured
Feeling Stressed Out
Regret
Being Frustrated
Biting Winds nipping at my face
Saying Good-Byes
Growing Up

Dancing the Paperwork Shuffle

Nauset Light and Birdhouse

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.

Meeting the Team

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.

B.E.A.C.H.: Best Escape Anyone Can Have.

Blue Gray Skies and Schooners

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.

A Parade of Schooners and a Hidden Grotto Makes for a Lovely Morning

Parade of Sail 2021

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.

End of Summer Beach Outings

Green Harbor

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!

Summertime and the Loving is Easy

End of summer approaches

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.

Here Comes the Invasion

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!

Sail Me Away

Sailing Schooners in Gloucester.

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 don’t like that the days are getting shorter!

Be Still and Know That I Will Always Love You

Still waters. An uncropped high res version is available for purchase.

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.

More later…

Don’t Want Summer to Leave

Sunset in Marshfield

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.

Swollen Ankle / Nubble Love

Nubble

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.

Board Walks

Boardwalk along Plum Island Reservation

“Love you to the end of the boardwalk and back.”

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 Perfect Day in Every Way

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!

American Gothic and Boardwalk Love

Return to American Gothic

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.

Au Pairs Everywhere

A sandy expanse

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.

It’s Nice to be Loved on your Birthday

Walking along Grey’s Boardwalk

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.