Going on a hayride with baby goats? And then walking them after? Hell, yes! Thankful that all the rain we were supposed to have pretty much held out for most of the day up in Georgetown, Massachusetts! Good memories were made this day my friends! You can click on any photo below for a bigger look.
I ended up buying a Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 so the Fitbit is out. It just arrived so I’m off to mess with it now and see how it compares and what other cool things I can do with it.
Today’s main image is from a bouquet of Poms I got for LD to commemorate her coming home from a two day trip last week as a surprise. I especially like how I set up the shadows to photograph this one, using light and darkness in such a way. The Pom flower is in the same genetic family that includes both chrysanthemums and daisies. We added the dahlia that we grew later to the center of it. There’s a couple more of them outside that I may pick later on and place into another vase just for themselves. Then I’ll dig out the tubers and store them over the winter again. These are the ones that I replant every spring and they just keep going. Pretty cool how that works.
Around lunchtime, I drove over to Beth Israel Needham to dispose of some old medication. Did you know you can just put them in a box in the lobby to get rid of them? Another nice feature is that there’s another box right next to that one where you can dispose of any sharps you have, which I did as well. The last time I was there, I noticed these boxes and made a mental note to return later to get rid of these meds we’ve had lying around for who knows how long. It felt good to finally get rid of them safely.
I also returned some other woman’s meds that we know who wanted to get rid of hers, so I got it all done at once. You used to be able to get rid of them at the police station nearby (but not the sharps), but they got rid of that for some reason.
I am starting to really get sick of all the rain we’ve been having. Can you relate? Speaking of water, have you ever added distilled water to a sump pump battery? I just found out I need to do that to the sump pump battery in the basement as the sensor is going off alerting us to that particular issue.
Oh, in my photo “memories” today this one from a few years ago of me playing piano in front of Bentley College came up, surrounded by some adoring fans. Have to admit that was a pretty good day. Comment if you think you know what song I was actually playing. If you’re right I might send you a little surprise gift.
Attending our first ever Bat Mitzvah. Let me tell you, our friends know how to throw a party! From the signature cocktails to all the custom everything! The service was wonderful as well. More as they come out.
I had to run down to Earth-1 today and while I was there, I was figuring, since it was a rather cool day out, that I’d go and do a quick bike ride down the GLX and get some exercise in. So that’s one of the things that happened today. While I was there i think I saw the next door neighbor’s kid brother out on her patio but I can’t figure out if it was him, how he got there. He doesn’t exactly live close to her. Mysteries to ponder. Also the guys putting in the foundation for the new condo development behind the garage have toppled over a tree that was back there but it’s actually good because that was basically just a giant weed. We do need to be careful though that they don’t mess up the back of the garage, which admittedly, is a very old edifice.
Tonight I’ll make some dinner and get ready for tomorrow’s shift. Lovely, I hear it’s supposed to rain on me again. The rain gear is getting a lot of use this week! Also tomorrow I need to find some time to maybe finally hit the home improvement store and get the items that I still didn’t get and perhaps put together a rather large contraption. (Long story).
We went to a memorial for a friend’s husband who died recently in town yesterday. We were invited to attend a memorial service honoring his life and legacy. It was a nice get-together, and it provided me an opportunity to dress up a little. The meal was delicious, as it always is at the OCC, and the event was well attended. This man truly touched many individuals and I was honored to be able to come.
Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.
– Orson Welles
Can you correctly identify these four creatures?
We had so much fun the other day, we had to go back yesterday and do it all over again. This time the waves were better and we basically ended up staying there until closing, Once again, thanks to LD’s friend for allowing us to use her resident pass so we could access this private beach. For lunch we munched on a Jersey Mike’s but one thing I learned is you have to eat there kind of with your food hidden, because the gulls are pretty aggressive. In fact on Thursday before I knew this I was divebombed by one of them trying to get the sandwich out of my hand! It basically crashed into my head but ended up empty handed.
I have so much yard work and gardening maintenance to do today and I want to do it but my body is tired and I don’t feel like it. Two beach days in a row apparently take a lot out of me these days. I’ll try to force myself in a little bit, at least to do a little.
Took a ride down to Dartmouth to take a swim over at Round Hill Beach. It’s only open to town residents but LD’s friend let us borrow her ride so we could get in gratis.
We took an afternoon trip down to beautiful Bristol RI and I got to have a nice lunch by the water. We saw some herons and egrets too. I ended up getting a Del’s Lemonade Cucumber Spritz with Vodka and a nice Seafood Linguine. I would recommend this place called the Beach House. I found my dish to be super delicious.
The before heading back we took a detour to stop by Like No Udder down in Providence to get some ice cream and slush goodies.
I also got some cool books, and a neat bamboo cutting board that includes different mats for cutting different types of foods on top of it, which will replace the current cutting board I’ve been using for a long time now.
Today’s my birthday! First thing I got out of the way was my morning shift. I ended up being a rainy morning so I got a little drenched but it’s all part of the job. I also played a lottery ticket while I was doing my route. Nicely, the sun came out in the afternoon so the whole day wasn’t a washout.
This evening, LD took me out for a nice dinner over at Seasons 52, as part of their Dine Out Boston week, Yum!
Currently Reading: Little, Crazy Children: A True Crime Tragedy of Lost Innocence
Forgot to mention my new water shoes! I purchased them back last September but finally had a chance to try them out at the beach yesterday. They are amazing! Anyways if you’re interested, search amazon for the Zhuanglin Men’s Quick Drying Aqua Water Shoes.
Today was a little more low key. Mostly just a trip out to Wellfleet for lunch and then back here for pool time. I overdid it a little bit at the beach yesterday but then again, it WAS one of the best days of my life EVER. I do feel somewhat drained however.
After the pool we headed to Crosby for a sunset (or what was left of it that we could see – just a sliver through the clouds). Wrap up with a trip to the Sparrow for my go to Nectar of the Gods drink, the hot choc with soy milk. I did p[ick up a book from a little library there but I don’t know if I’ll read it. Basically a bunch of short moral stories. I’ll list the title here later as it’s in the car right now and I don’t remember the title offhand.
Update: The title is The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories and it’s over 800 pages, although the stories themselves only appear to be a page or two generally.
That’s pretty much what I’m feeling right now. I did head back to Earth-1 on Monday Night to do my work shift on Tuesday morning but by the afternoon I was back. I grilled some burgers with the charcoal grill, we swam and swam. Harding’s Beach on Wednesday afternoon was particularly awesome. The water was warm, the waves were high, and I was having a blast. I think we all ended up staying there from like 1:30 to 6:30.
Although the sunsets so far have been a bit on the cloudy side, minus those amazing shots I got from Rock Harbor earlier in the week. The weather down here has simply been spectacular this week. I think it’s the best it’s ever been for us.
They had a pretty cool layout there and included this very Zen looking area. There’s just too much for me to process right now so here’s just a few pics from today.
“Seaweed just went up my nose!” is a quote I overheard today from some kid playing in the seaweed at West Dennis Beach. I can honestly say that that is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say that, so me being me, I had to make a mental note of it and share that with you all. So to recap today we slept in, then pretty much headed down to the beach and spent a good chunk of time there. I finally got to try out the Beau Jarden cart we got last fall and it worked flawlessly. So much easier to cart all our stuff around in. Anyways, I went in the water, LD went in a couple of times, and then I dried out in the sun and it pretty much wiped me out when we were done. I was so tired. But I rallied after some time to rest up and then we headed out to see a sunset. We chose Rock Harbor and this is one of the shots that I took tonight. This time I decided to walk further down along the marshy area then I have in the past. I covered myself up appropriately so that I wouldn’t get eaten by any bugs too badly and that was a smart move by me. This isn’t my first rodeo! What’s really cool about this pic is how the sun’s reflection kind of forms the shape of a heart! Then we went for ice cream and I got a burger. Now I’m uploading this to the website and going to chill the rest of the night.
I also wanted to mentioned that I learned today of some sad news. One of our favorite goats at the Sanctuary we visit recently passed away. This goat was special in that he was the goat that had been there the longest, 16 or years, and he was always such a sweetheart to us. He loved to be brushed too. RIP Eustis. We love you.
Since I was going to Earth-1 today for a visit and to help my mom bring one of her cats to the vet for his yearly physical, I figured I’d take the bike again but and check out the GLX path but this time follow it to the end. It basically ends at Lechmere but connects to North Point so getting to the Museum of Science, or TD Garden, the North End, etc. is super easy and one straight shot. Seriously, this is pretty cool. Naturally I had to get a shot of myself by the Zakim Bridge. The park actually goes underneath the bridge so it’s pretty freaky to be under something that so many cars use. (I-93) Plus the Charles River is right there. I must say that everyone involved did a really nice job tying everything together.
Anyways while I was doing that, my mom had a dr. appt but I was done and waiting for her by the time she got back. She wanted to run a couple of errands so I took her around to do those. I got some gas for my car. A bunch of little odds and end things.
The contractors demolishing the old laundry building out back are almost done it looks like. They’ve been using a backhoe to scoop up all the debris and place them into giant dumpsters. It’s all open now, which seems kind of weird being able to see the houses across the way that were blocked by the building before. It won’t last though as new buildings will go up to take it’s place.
By around 2 o’clock it was time to take Hardy to the vet. His brother Laurel will probably be going in a couple of weeks but today was Hardy’s turn. Just the usual exam, he was due for his rabies shot and got his nails cut while there. He wasn’t a happy camper while he was there but he mostly behaved himself and got a clean bill of health.
Finally after all that and he was returned to his abode I decided to take one more short bike ride over to just outside Harvard Square because I wanted to take a picture of this church that has all these really neat looking wildflowers growing out in front. So I banged that out as well.
Heading back to Earth-2 LD was kind enough to order us up some Greek food takeout, which I picked up on the way back from the ‘Ville. I did end up grilling some chicken afterwards though because it needed to be done and we can eat it tomorrow. I’m planning on having my mom and sis over for a BBQ day here on Monday so I’m getting pretty excited about that. I hope the weather will be alright.
Today I was jonesin for a little bit of Kelly’s Roast Beef out in Revere Beach, so LD was kind enough to get us there today. I also wore my Carson sweatshirt which was a gift from last year but I wear it only on special occasions because it is so special. It’s actually a hoodie, with the face of Carson on the front and the text “Carson’s Dad” all hand stitched from a photo that LD sent to a woman in the Ukraine who made it. Truly a one of a kind! It took a long time to arrive but I’m amazed it came at all seeing as there is a war going on over there! I enjoyed my roast beef sandwich loaded with cheese and sauce, but I did switch hoodies when it came to eat on the beach because I would not want to get the Carson hoodie damaged in any way!
The other night we had some friends over for an impromptu BBQ and fire pit night. We ended up just getting takeout from a great Greek food place in town and then did the S’mores thing. It was supposed to happen on Saturday but the weather looked to be crappy so it all got moved up to Friday night and it was wonderful. We did need all of Saturday to basically recuperate from it all though. Being social can take a lot out of a person!
LD got these cool little firefly lights for the garden that are solar powered. They’re cute, purely decorative but I’m mentioning them because they’re pretty neat and it’s fun to look out the window when it’s dark out and see them lit up.
Reservations finally came through for a little get together at a fancy tea house to help celebrate our anniversary. The food was great! I ended up going with a white tea called the Bartlett Pear which consists of White tea, pear, apple and peach pieces, pear flavor, nutmeg, cinnamon, white cornflowers, peach flavor. I must say it was quite good, very pleased with my choice. We were seated in the cutest little room, very pink and very Marie Antoinette-ish, for my lack of a better description.
Not too much sun this weekend, there it goes down below the horizon. I’ve had this shot just laying around for a while, figured I might as well put it up. Also decided to put up this shot again that I took of an Osprey nest, just because it’s pretty cool.
Yesterday was a nice day though, took a trip out to Franklin to pick up a surprise. LD got me a solid wooden chest that is surrounded with an old map of the Earth motif, because of my map making heritage years. Now I just need to decide where to place it in the home and what to actually store in it. It’s not really a chest, although it looks like one, more like a cabinet on stands, rather interesting piece actually. Guess the folks who were getting rid of it are moving to Texas so the less stuff they have to bring with them, the more economically feasible. Their loss, our gain.
Before that though we took a quick trip to the kitchen cabinet place. Pretty cool how you can see a three dimensional rendering of what the update will look like. Looks like this is going to happen!
This morning we couldn’t help noticing one of the bunnies eating some of the phlox we have growing in a pot on the patio. Cute, but destructive little creatures.
Did you ever hear of your former coworkers passing away? Seems to be I’m starting to hear this a little more and more lately. Within in the three years now I’ve heard of two. Sad. They were great people too.
I need to stay up till after midnight tonight to get in on some Lowe’s deal and get my name in there for some free swag. Wish me luck.
Drove out to Salem Connecticut to visit this place that had an opportunity to hang with some baby goats, play and snuggles with them as sunset approached, and as the evening drew out, to put them to bed in their barn. Also live streamed over the Internet so there’s video of us performing these tasks over the wires.
Funny yhing is, although we didn;t know it at the time, the place is actually down the street from an Airbnb we stayed in a couple years back! The barn house that was connected to an alpaca farm. We were astonished at how close it was, not knowing!
Today we thought about checking out another event that we checked out exactly this time last year, but we are just tired and hurting from last night so we’ll be laying low I think! It’s also record Store Day and although we have a real jukebox, there doesn’t really seem to be any new vinyl I’m interested in at the moment. Plus the contractor is supposed to visit today to discuss kitchen stuff.
Back from a lovely Easter weekend in the Catskills of New York. We got to stay in a pretty cool Airbnb , pretty much a log cabin, with a wood stove fireplace and that is attached to an actual goat sanctuary across the way and they had baby goats, which of course we snuggled! We also got to “paint with goats!” Actually we got to do a lot of things there but one of the highlights was probably LD with a sweet baby goat that fell asleep in her arms for two hours. Pretty amazing to experience. Her name is Alora by the way and she is the cutest. Probably my favorite. Click on the pics for full length versions.
Afterwards we took a little drive over to the old Catskill Game Farm, where LD went to visit as a little kid. It’s abandoned now but we visited anyway. We also passed by the largest garden gnome statue in the world (at least up until 2007) on the way.
I might add more to this post later because there really is a lot more. One cool thing about the place that I forgot to mention earlier is that it was fully stacked but also had this somewhat amazing gameroom in the basement, with Poker, darts, air hockey, basketball, foosball, and even a full length ping pong table. I also spent some time in one of the various hammocks around the property. The place was pretty cool, I would definitely go back, and the drive is not bad at all.
Oh, there wasn’t even supposed to be baby goats there. we lucked out on that one. They got some goats in previously and apparently one male somehow slipped through the process and basically ended up impregnating a bunch of the ladies one night. That goat was super busy. But it worked out because baby goats are the best and it ended up being a great surprise and made the experience even better in my opinion.
Currently Reading: Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths and The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World.
Happy
Anniversary
to Us!
People say that with age and experience comes wisdom, and with wisdom comes enlightenment. Well, I don’t know how much of it is the truth, but I have grown up and grown with you to realize what love means and what it really means to love someone. Love goes beyond time, age, or even the person, and I have experienced love in its purest form; I feel nothing but gratefulness today. All these years strong with you and more to go, I stand here a happy man thanks to you, and I love you with all my heart.
Our relationship might not be perfect, and certainly has its ups and downs, but our love for each other is still strong and is wonderful all the same, and that’s all anyone could ever ask or hope for. I am truly blessed to have found you. I just want you to know, that when I picture myself happy, it is with you.
In a world where so many things can be uncertain, you are the one thing that I will always be sure of.
Better than I was, more than I am.
I’m so glad to be able to spend this day with you, and all the days with you. The good things in life are better with you. Seriously, you’re amazing! This lowly kid from Somerville hit it big when he met this Jersey Girl!
Happy Anniversary Ladydoc!!
Early in the afternoon we decided to take a trip to the Sanctuary to drop off some food for the animals and we ended up staying there for a bit. Had to get in some goat brushing time after all. After hanging there for about an hour or so we headed down to Rhode Island, since it was only a half hour away from where we were, to get some vegan shamrock shakes that I place that we like was having as a March special. Minty green soft serve topped with shopmade whipped cream and gold glitter, and it was delicious!
Best
Wishes!
Sometimes I wish that we had met sooner, that the detours along the way could have been fewer. But then something tells me we found eachother at just the right place in our lives. I love being with you, You're the best thing to ever happen to me, You're my favorite person in the world. In you I have found: the perfect partner, the best friend, and the sweetest love that I ever imagined. I’m so happy that life has brought me to you. Best birthday wishes to the perfect woman in the world who chose to love an imperfect man like me. Happy Birthday "Ladydoc!"
We ended up having a lovely dinner at The Capital Grille.. Currently reading: Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. After that I want to see if I can find the book about Ada Blackjack. Another amazing character from history that time seems to have forgotten about.
