My mental health has been hit or miss the last few months. I’m generally a pretty positive person but I get days, like today, when I feel a little down. I haven’t been updating that much because pretty much lately everyday has been more or less of the same, each day just the same as the last, morphed into one blob of time, and it lends itself to me being in kind of a rut. I’m just hanging in there. I do feel blessed to have a very good support network to help get me through, but I am human after all and it’s probably natural to feel this way, the way things currently are. Sooner or later thing are going to change for the better, just going to take some time and I have my good memories like the scene above from this summer from our time on the Cape to help get me through. See? I told you I was a generally positive person.
Just updated the site to the latest version of the CMS. You shouldn’t notice any differences, it’s more just stuff I can use to configure my site better or in different ways if I so choose.
My phone started doing some weird crap today. While I was trying to make a call I could never get a dial tone. I swear this thing is on the way out. I still haven’t popped on the new cell yet but it’s becoming more and more apparent that I probably can’t wait too much longer. Hopefully just enough to last throughout the rest of this awful year. It’s not even worth a trade in anymore as they only give five bucks for it.
Work on our holiday card for the year has been completed and will be going out shortly, so if you’re on our mailing list expect to see it in your mailbox within the next couple of weeks.
Woke up this morning to the sound of jackhammers and other street equipment as the town decided to rip out a part of the next door neighbor’s driveway, for what purpose I still haven’t figured out.
A caricature of yours truly.
Found another new cute little library in Somerville today. It looked like a little house with glass doors ion both sides which was pretty neat. It’s right by Powderhouse Circle if you’re familiar with the area if you want to check it out yourself. I placed a book I had already read in there but didn’t take any out since there weren’t any in there that interested me.
I thought this was still a cool picture so I’m posting it again with some minor different editing from last time, a little more natural. Not been a bit of a whole lot happening over the last couple of days. Took a brief jaunt to a beach yesterday but it was pretty cold so didn’t stay too long. Was basically a potato today and didn’t do a whole lot.
Feeling a bit accomplished today. Last night I created a list of everything that I wanted to get through today and I’m pleased to say that I accomplished most of them. I watered the trees (and discovered that the two out front that we placed lights on are white spruce trees), went for a lunch time walk, took a trip to the ATM, did a load of laundry, watched a couple of early season 1 episodes of Hunter (those are so ridiculous and don’t follow the next 6 seasons – they changed it up after season 1, and after watching some of these I’d say that was a very smart move).
I also wanted to grill some burgers today so I did that just a little after 1 pm, when the sun was sparking and it felt the warmest of the entire day.
One thing that I forgot about doing all these lights is when one goes out. I needed to replace a couple already for the icicle lights in the sunroom but now I noticed tonight one of the reindeer is totally out, which is weird because he was totally fine last night. Guess I’ll try to take a alook at it tomorrow.
I got LD’s 8mm from the basement that must have been her dad’s or grandfather’s up and running and we watched some of whatever the heck was on those reels. All still in working condition and with the original box! We got to see her dad when he was 12 swimming in Florida with his family before there was an Interstate at a place called Cypress Gardens and her mom with a big bouffant hairdo with her dad years later for their prom! LD appreciated me figuring it out and working the machine. 🙂 I was happy to do it, I’ve been getting into old tech lately.
Each day I am thankful for nights that turned into mornings, friends that turned into family, dreams that turned into reality and likes that turned into love. I know its going to be hard but may you all have a wonderful time this Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving Day!
Trying to get over the hump, in more ways than one.
Finished replacing all the knobs on the kitchen cabinets. Pretty good makeover – funny how just a little touch like that can make it look like thousands for just a fraction of the cost. Rest of the day was more or less just trying thinking about to hang it there, just doing things around the house after the torrential rains stopped.
Started the day off with cooking some sides to go with our early turkey preps. I prepared the squashes, apples, and parsnips for roasting and baking. The apples were for the apple crisp desert. After that was done we headed to Home Depot to pick up some more knobs for the cabinets and some xmas icicle lights which we plan on putting up later in the week.
After that we did some sanctuary time where Tucker came over to me and we got to bond a little bit. LD hung with a cat that just wouldn’t leaver her side and the goats, as per usual. We also picked up some new calendars while we were there sales of them help support the animals, a yearly thing we’ve been doing since they started it in 2018.
Finished off the evening doing a Zoom gathering with the nephews and niece and made gratitude turkeys, a craft where you cut out shapes and form a turkey. On the feathers you write something you are grateful for. That was fun and actually went pretty well. After that I cooked up some shrimp before it went bad to use in a scampi for tonight (don’t worry – not done with the turkey dishes just yet) and just relaxed into Sunday night.
Stupid embeds on Instagram don’t work anymore because they changed the API (thanks again Facebook for screwing more things up) so you’ll just need to click this link and watch to see some of my work that made the local news:
Did a little yard work this morning – finishing cleaning up the last of the fallen oak leaves from the yard and by the gutter spouts and other areas such as the patio where they clump up that had been bugging me over the last couple of days. Thankfully this should be the last of it as most of trees back here look pretty bare now. Also did some generous watering of the baby sourwood and pine trees. Really want those to do well. Maybe it’s me but I think the pine is actually growing already, it definitely has little pine cones starting to grow out of it in various places. You need to give them 10-15 gallons of water daily ideally which is a lot but I’m doing what I can. I also planted a garlic clove in a pot in the house just for fun and it’s already got two green sprouts shooting up from the dirt. This one is more of just a fun experiment for myself just to see it grow.
We hit Rexhame Beach in the early afternoon for some exercise, sun and nature time, especially since today is the last nice warmish day especially this late into November. It’s also the best beach for it’s selection of colorful and special looking rocks, at least in my opinion. It’s where I found my heart rock – a one in a billion find if you ask me and I feel very lucky to have found it. It currently sits on the windowsill next to a table where I do my web work.
The aforementioned heart shaped rock find of my lifetime.
We collected a bunch more rocks for our collections – a colorful selection of geology to adorn the windowsills.
Finally it was off to cook a turkey – we had defrosted it a little too early and today was the last day it would keep until cooking and so in it went. I basted it every 45 minutes until the bird was done. I think we did a pretty good job, not everyday we cook a whole bird. Needless to say we’ll be eating turkey all week and making various meals out of it. So we’re a little early, NBD!
Well I ended up purchasing that bulb anyway, figured what the hell, should arrive by next week sometime so then I’ll be able to continue to maybe catch some more glimpses of my very young self. For some reason I can’t seem to find many photographs of me as a youngster although I know they exist somewhere. You won’t find many photos of me in my teenage years however because back then I never wanted to be in any photos and would always shun away from them. Then one day my attitude changed on all that when I realized I should capture moments from my own history for remembrances. Taking photos is much easier nowadays as well.
Me and Me
Ended the day by cooking some filet mignon steaks and some marinated chicken outside on the grill while catching up on some DVR’d shows.
Gooseberry Island (click for larger version – it’s worth it)
Looking through some older photos I took this year and played around with this one from the time we visited Gooseberry a couple of months ago. Sometime in the future I would like to just spend the day there exploring all the terrain and rocky shoreline. Maybe next spring.
General consensus is that this particular 8mm bulb I’m looking for does still exist, but the vendors I found that carry it want a hundred bucks for it. Not sure if I’d be willing to spend that much for such a little bulb, but then I think to myself, can I put a price on watching the memories? I know there’s places that will convert the old film to transfer to CDs and other media and whatnot, but like some old codger I’ve come to actually like to putter with these old technologies. I mean, all the songs in our jukebox times ten can all fit on a tiny microchip, but there’s just something about the couple hundred pounds of mechanical behemoth that appeals to me.
I feel it was really too cold to do much of anything today dealing with the outside. I’ve started reading a book on the iPad that LD got through the library so that’s my current read: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary Trump. Nice family and childhood, no wonder the guy’s whacked. Also would someone please tell him the train has already left the station. Pul-eeeze!
You never know what you’re going to find, or what’s going to find you. After going to Wellesley to pick up some things, we ended up taking a side street that paralleled a waterway. LD headed down the street which ended basically in someone’s driveway, but as we turned around she caught sight of this heron just hanging around. So I jumped out and took a few snaps, and this is what we saw. Must be pretty nice to live at a location where scenes like this are basically at the end of your driveway! On the way back we also discovered a forest in Natick and went for a hike where we saw some majestic pine trees and a nesting swan couple. The pine trees made us think of what our little guy we planted could turn into someday decades from now, quite impressive to be sure. We also collected some leaves from the ground because for some reason these looked like some of the biggest maple leaves we have ever seen, and they were this cool green and yellow color. We’re flattening them out now. We were also feeling pretty accomplished after climbing up a somewhat large hill but the view looking down from above was worth it. We never knew a place of this majesty is just a block from a Route 9 intersection. Going to have to go back there and explore it some more in the future. Also there was hardly anyone there today which was also nice.
Finished splitting up various Hosta and Hyacinth and Chives species and planting them all around the perimeter. Looked more into the storing of the tubers I removed yesterday, will probably split them up more and plant those around in the spring.
Took a break midday and visited the sanctuary. Sadly no news on Blossom, might have to assume the worst at this point. Sad. On a happier note, I got to hang with Belle a little bit. “Belle is a fourteen year old Hafflinger horse. The first four years of her life she worked as a plow horse in the Pennsylvania farm country. She was worked hard and because she was so young she developed tendon issues in her fetlocks and was sent to a slaughter house. Belle was then saved by a 14 year old young man who eventually out grew her. Belle has had nine homes in her 14 years of life. She is a very sweet horse and a beautiful addition to the herd.” She’s really a beautiful horse. So smart too.
A large and liquid eye… the swirl of dust around pounding hooves… these, then, are the images that move us.
Earlier this morning I updated the iPad is iPadOS 14.2. Supposedly a bunch more emojis and some bug fixes. I generally use my Android phone which is still sadly rocking Android 6 (they’re on 11 now, I really need that new phone) and runs slow as molasses. The other day I visited my nearest carrier location but they didn’t have the phone I wanted in stock. Could do it online but I’d prefer not to. Well, I still have some time.
Finishing the day off by making dinner consisting of some shrimp rolls, watching a Hunter episode, and watchinh election results.
Spent the morning being busy taking advantage of the nice weather we are currently having. Bagged up about 7 leaf bags full of leaves and lawn cutting, which I also did. I did it mostly to clean up and make the place look nicer but also for the exercise as I was to able to get over 160 zone minutes and climbing (cardio workup) and burning calories, which is good because I plan on eating some lasagna my sister made for me.
Still finishing up planting some leftover chives and hostas that we split up on Tuesday. Hopefully everything will take and this yard will look amazing around the perimeter fences and ultimately less for me to mow and hiding places for bunnies. Also finally dug the tubers and stored them for replanting in spring. Feeling a little sore but feeling good about what I accomplished in a day.
Can someone tell me what the big deal is about that movie Hocus Pocus? I started watching it last night while I was scrolling to the channels and I couldn’t stand it. I ended up switching to some old rerun of the 80s show Hunter (which I did watch back in the day) featuring Erik Estrada as a guest star. Gotta love the 80s. Of course I found one that was a story spread across three episodes of which I had taped the first two but I tracked down the part 3 so I’ll need to watch that on Monday. Whew! That would have sucked just having 2 of 3. Earlier in the evening we put out the candy bags so as to be socially distant and all for Halloween. They were gone pretty quick and that was it. Kind of lame, which makes sense, to go along with the rest of this year.
Hanging with the horses in the snow.
Went to the Sanctuary today for a few, still sadly no word on Blossom, so there’s an air of sadness about the place, but all the other animals are still there and do provide some comfort. Afterwards we cooked up a bunch of dishes for the week, eggplant chicken parmesan, LD’s famous chili, and I created my usual tofu dish for LD. I think the rest of the night is just going to get comfy and just zone out and keep warm. This Daylight Savings Time is messing up my sleep schedule. I did watch an interesting show on the life of Edgar Allan Poe on PBS. That man was a character.
Building 4 at abandoned Medfield State Hospital, the Men’s Workshop in 1896
Started out the day going for a drive out in the country to get some scenic snow shots, which we did and I’ll share in a bit. We also hit a place called Choate Pond and got some scenic fall shots there as well. Since we weren’t too far LD decided that we should check out the Medfield State Hospital. Did you know it’s the only abandoned psychiatric hospital where you can still walk the grounds? You can’t enter any of the buildings as they are unsafe from disuse but walking around the property is permitted and the grounds are beautiful. Medfield State Hospital claimed to be the first mental health hospital to be built on the “cottage plan” with individual buildings to allow for better light ventilation, easier classification, and to create a more homelike environment. Really state of the art thinking for the time. I said a prayer while I was there for the folks who spent their lives there.
We’re getting a sourwood tree from a friend who is going to help us plant it in the back on Election Day. So nice! I wanted to mow up some leaves today but when I woke up it was raining out so I’ll need to delay doing that for a little bit. Going to put some Halloween treat bags together tonight and leave them outside the door on Saturday. Personally I can’t stand Halloween, I think it’s dumb, especially these days. I’m such a curmudgeon when it comes to dishing out candy, I want to eat it for myself.
Feeling a little more motivated today before the frost that’s coming, even though I find the nuisance rain annoying. Here’s my list: Replaced the furnace filter, removed the outside hoses and shut off the outdoor water valves, disconnected the outside electrical dragonfly lights, replaced the storm door screens with glass panes – they are always a pain to get in and I have to strenuously lift them into place (not that they’re heavy, just the way that it’s set up), did some laundry, took down the sun umbrella from the patio, cut and harvested the remaining butternut squash growing outside in one of the raised boxes, measured some of the remaining windows in the house that LD wants to get more Top Down Bottom Up blackout shades for. I still need to hang the new curtain rods in the sitting room. I took out the shovels and driveway markers in case we get any snow tomorrow. I still need to set the ceiling fans to spin clockwise and check on the gutters and storm drain out front for clogs. So far I have 92 active zone minutes as opposed to my goal of 22 a day so I’m being super physical today performing all these tasks.
I’m not one to get political on here but we are all starting to reach our breaking point. I hope next week we have some good news and start getting back to decency and back to what America should be all about, and it is not what has been going on in the last few years, and especially this year in particular. I was better off 4 years ago. I know we won’t survive another 4 years of this, physically, mentally and emotionally. We need change, and fast.
Went for a nice walk yesterday afternoon down at Revere Beach. It also ended up with me taking a impromptu photoshoot of one of LD’s friends as the lighting was superb as sunset was approaching (and LD too). I hope she likes them and they came out alright. I think they did. We collected a bunch of seashells. Just some more stuff to go with my beach collection of rocks.
I spent the late afternoon today burning some logs I had lying around so it was good to get rid of those, fallen branches from the trees that I hacked up after they fell out of the trees after a storm and also a big log we had from our friend down it Dartmouth that I had sitting around for a while. They all burned up within a couple of hours. We also put away some of the flowerpots with specimens that had already pretty much gone through their season. A little fall cleaning up since it was kind of warm today. Supposed to be colder tomorrow.
