random thoughts – Day 2,288 (Saturday) – art and solstice

It was a lovely day for a drive, and the drive was already planned, which means it happened. I’m much better at executing firm plans than with a spontaneous seat-of-the-pants approach (shocker!).

Today’s plan was to attend the reception for the Lowellscapes exhibit at The Brush Art Gallery and Studios. The invitational show features photography of scenes in Lowell by nine artists (including me). It was the perfect kick in the butt to get me off the couch and engaged in something I love.

One photographer talking,
another one filming.

The show looks great and the reception was well attended. It was fun being back in the art world and seeing a former colleague, former fellow board members, and patrons in the arts community again after a strange and busy year away from it. There were refreshments and beverages, and three of the photographers took turns talking about their process and photos.

After the reception, I headed back home to change from indoor art reception clothes (black ankle pants, white tee shirt, pink floral patterned bomber jacket with black trim) to outside solstice fire ensemble (camo patterned pants, black shirt, white and black hoodie) and drove to my friends house in the woods of a nearby town.

Fire for the solstice.

We spent the night before the longest day of the year with a fire in their big yard. We roasted marshmallows and ate s’mores, told stories and laughed. I burned my mouth removing a toasted marshmallow from the metal skewer which is a very different experience from when the marshmallow is toasted on a stick. Trust me when I say it hurts (in four places!). Zero stars, I do not recommend.

A few fireflies twinkled in the woods. The neighbor’s cats passed through the yard a few times, and once, one of them had a chipmunk in its mouth. After dark, the clear sky shone full of stars. We wrote wishes for the coming season and tossed them into the fire. It was a perfect night after a great day.

random thoughts – Day 2,287 (Friday) – restless

Some days (like today), I wander around the house like a ghost. No real intent, just vaguely moving about. There was a feeling of restlessness, like maybe I wanted to be doing something, but I didn’t know what. Early in the day I considered hopping on the commuter train at Wachusett Station and riding it all the way to North Station. Or maybe jumping off one stop earlier at Porter Square in Cambridge. Anything was possible. The schedule was consulted and I learned the train runs about every two hours, providing me with several opportunities to launch the idea.

I did not do this.

Needs paint.

I read. I moved a painting from one living room wall to another and hung a photo in the newly vacant spot. I made a grocery list and went to Aldi. I went to Aubuchon Hardware for a few things, most importantly, paint for the housing for the oil tank because I want to paint it before the new siding goes on so that I don't need to worry about getting paint on the new siding. The trip was not as straightforward as I thought it would be.

Upon entering the store, a clerk near the door asked if they could help. I responded in the affirmative, explained my paint mission, and showed a photo of the item in need of paint. The clerk began to rattle off every type of paint available. I did not want a full menu of options from which I had to choose. I wanted to know, from someone who ideally knows more than I do, the single best option for the project at hand. It turned into a fresh new level of hell.

After some discussion (too much), it was decided spray paint was probably best. They then showed me four or five versions of silver spray paint in stock in the store (all by the same company), but couldn’t really tell me anything about what made any can  different from the others beyond the price. What in the actual hell. I could have gone through the exercise alone and not had to politely deal with nonsensical interaction. 

I ended up buying two cans with a metal mailbox depicted on the label, which I interpreted as meaning it was good on metal. By then I couldn’t wait to get out of the place. There was no way I was going to endure going through the rest of my list (new house numbers, potting soil, sanding block, privacy film for windows, ceiling fans).

Maybe the next time I’ll say I’m just looking. I bet there are dozens of cool things I would buy if I knew they existed, but as part of the Ace network, the sales people pounce to offer service and get you back out the door. I get the impression that browsing is frowned upon. Maybe I’ll go to Lowe’s where you can browse in peace and good luck to you if need help.

Kiki watching the birds.

Back at home, I settled in to watch World Cup matches. For this, I blame Tartan Army and the Boston fan hijinks that led to them dominating my Facebook feed for the past week. First, USA played Australia (we won), then Scotland was beaten by Morocco (and I felt badly for Scotland). Games after that were on for background noise while I drained the battery in my cell (twice) playing a dumb arrow game. 

When it was still light out, Kiki sat on the window sill making funny little noises. The subject of her attention was two crows (or maybe they are ravens) that were walking on the lawn and driveway. 

Kiki was fixated on them. I was fixated on her and wondered if she was offended by the yard intruders, was taunting them, or maybe is hoping for friends. I wish she could tell me.

random thoughts – Day 2,286 (Thursday) – house guest

Credit to the Frigidaire folks for jumping on my refrigeration issue. This morning at 8:20, a call came in from the service department of the appliance store in town to set an appointment for 11:00 to 12:00 for the technician to be here to check out the freezer issue. They are the local service partner to the store in Worcester where I bought my refrigerator. The instructions were to leave everything in the fridge and freezer and keep it running so the tech could check it all out in use. The ice cubes had all melted so I took the trays of water out and I ate a big bowl of semi-frozen blueberries with Greek yogurt, but that was it.

Dining room overlord.

A delivery crew with a loaner fridge was scheduled to arrive between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. today (arranged yesterday). At 10:10, two guys arrived and by 10:25 they were gone and I was completing an online survey about their delivery. Meanwhile, Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of Frigid Air was lodged in the dining room. For the arrival I had rolled the rug back, moved the buffet down the wall a couple feet, moved Kiki’s personal cabinet a foot or so in the other direction, packed up the sewing machine and moved the dining table closer to the windows, and the couch was moved a few feet for clearance at the entry way. Basically, the dining room is now unusable, but I got a nice workout.

At 11:00, the tech arrived. Pleasantries were exchanged. I learned that the ice cubes, ice cream, and bread are the first casualties in a freezer failure. Once the freezer has lost all coldness, the contents of the refrigerator below are then affected. My collection of Nordic packs from my Misfit Market days (permanent residents of the freezer) likely helped maintain the temperature.

He looked in the fridge and freezer and then we emptied the freezer for further inspection. Almost everything was still in a state of frozenness and I set it into the now quite chilled Darth Vader. The tech checked all the components of my refrigerator, made a phone call, and then told me all the major stuff was fine, using lots of technical terminology from which I heard “compressor blah blah,” “heater blah blah,” and “fan blah blah”. The issue was determined to be the timer gadget thingy (not his words) for the defroster, which had recently become an issue systemwide. The units were getting stuck and not cycling properly. He told me it began about six months ago, and they were replacing as many as 20 of them a week (or day, I was spacing out, whichever, it was a lot of them). He had one of the replacement units in his van and took care of it on the spot. Now, everything is running normally again in my freezer.

As for Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Frigid Air – well, it is my house guest and dining room overlord for the weekend. The service rep from the appliance store checked to see if the truck could come back today to collect it, but they had “a long route” and there wouldn’t be time. Friday is the Juneteenth holiday and the service rep couldn’t promise Saturday morning for pickup and I have an event in the afternoon, so Monday morning it is. I can live with that. Having two functional refrigerators in the house is definitely better than none. Maybe I’ll plug Darth Vader back in and have a massive ice cream feast for the next three days.

If the delivery guys hadn’t been so efficient, or if I had been a later stop than number four for the day, they probably could have been intercepted and wouldn’t have had to unpack and set up the thing at all. If I had called on Monday or Tuesday instead of first not wanting to be an alarmist, and then waiting to get through the stress of prepping for the show Tuesday night, this might have been resolved days ago. 

But, like X2’s dad (Ducky) used to love to say, “If ‘if’ was an ass, we could all go for a ride.” (Stay tuned for more Ducky-isms.) Anyway, everything worked out. Even when my life goes sideways there is often a soft landing, and I'm glad for that.

random thoughts – Day 2,285 (Wednesday) – flowers and stuff

It was the day after the show the night before. The show was great, I got home late, and I was tired. The morning air was cool and perfect for sleeping, but the morning light and the cat conspired to prevent me from doing so. The light was pricking my eyes open and the cat was licking my forehead. It was time to flee the bed.

Two tote bags crammed with costumes from the show occupied the kitchen counter. They greeted me in the kitchen as I headed to the coffee maker. After setting up the machine, I headed to the couch to start the morning email and games. After the usual amount of time, I realized it was just hot water because I had forgotten to add the coffee. Clearly I was still tired and definitely in need of the coffee. The situation was fixed.

Once awake, it was time to get things done. The freezer was checked. No miracles had occurred overnight and it wasn’t fixed. Things were cold, but not solidly frozen. I contacted the store in Worcester  I bought it from last August via online chat. The rep opened a service ticket and suggested turning the fridge off for 30 minutes to recycle some thing or other. That was easier said than done because the plug is low on the wall behind the fridge which is crammed between a counter and a wall. I figured I would try the electrical panel and turn off whichever lever controlled the fridge. The switches are labeled, but the handwriting is so terrible that I can’t make out most of them. I popped next door and StepDad came over to help me figure it out. He flipped switches, I watched the light in the refrigerator and when it went out, we knew which was the magic switch and it was labeled accordingly and legibly. Thirty minutes later, I set the panel switch back to the “on” position.

The online chat was quickly followed up by a call from someone in the service department who arranged for a service call and a loaner refrigerator to be delivered Thursday between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Effective tomorrow, there will be a refrigerator crammed into the dining room for an as yet undefined length of time to be determined by the availability of any replacement parts needed. It would have been today if the local service partner in my town wasn’t closed on Wednesdays. 

Halloween flowers at Dollar Tree.

Costumes were unpacked, hung, and crammed into the already full costume closet. Hair flowers and makeup were returned to their homes in the bathroom closet. Later in the day, I went out to buy paper towels and toothpaste. This just in – Dollar Tree has Halloween flowers on display (some with plastic eyeballs!), so now is the time to get your black fabric roses edged with orange glitter before they sell out. 

Although Wednesday is often grocery shopping day, no perishables or frozen items were procured in light of the current freezer situation. I'm already a bit nervous about the viability of the current freezer contents. 

I bought a basil plant and a hanging flower plant (20% off) from Tractor Supply. The basil was immediately repotted into a purple pot and set on the front door landing. For now. The hanging plant was intended for one of the two empty chains hanging from the carport, but the hook on the pot is too big to fit in the links so it was hung on one of the bigger iron hangers on the shed. I very nearly also bought a two-foot white metal rooster painted with flowers for the yard (30% off!) but talked myself out of it. For now, anyway. I make no promises that it won't happen tomorrow or the next day. 

Flowers for the shed.

Around 5:00 I headed to the hedges with the big cutters and did some shaping and trimming. The second rhododendron was also trimmed. There is still a long way to go with both overgrown monstrosities. And the poor forsythia, which was basically flattened by the roof replacement, needs some love and protection, not that I know what to do. That can be a problem for another day.

random thoughts – Day 2,282 (Tuesday) – show time

The final performance day of the belly dance season blew in on a cool, gentle morning breeze. It was another comfortable morning for sleeping and I dismissed the alarm in favor of more rest. The house, with windows left open overnight, was the perfect spring comfort level that I wished would linger for more of the year.

Despite it being performance day, I was calm, except for growing angst about the freezer. This wasn't something I wanted to start calling about. I didn't need extra stress before the performance nerves, which usually kick in until closer to showtime. The ice cubes aren’t as solid as usual, and the bread is feeling less than frozen. On Wednesday the freezer can be dealt with.

Setting up for the show.

My dance sister and I (and her fiancé) arrived at the venue at 5:00 so we could help set up for the audience and our costume changes. There were costumes to be hung in order of need, floors to be swept, tables to be moved, chairs to be set out, oscillating fans to be placed. The activity was a good way to work off nerves.

The show went by in a blur. Everyone was in the opening number, which was followed by group dances, solos, and duets. Then we had two dances and a belly dance hand movement lesson for a complete costume change into our second costume. Then two dances for a complete costume change into our third costume. Then two dances for a complete costume change into the fourth costume. Then three dances and some chair relocations for the fifth and final costume. Suddenly, it was over. It went like clockwork. At the end of the night, I had a jumble of balled up costumes crammed into zipper bags. I hope there are videos of the show because I’d love to see all the dances that happened while I was changing.

And now, the belly dancing is officially done for the summer. I have several ideas for the new free time, and oddly, three of them involve dance, just a different flavor.

random thoughts – Day 2,281 (Monday) – peaceful, yet weird

It was a mostly calm and peaceful day with not a lot going on. The weather was a perfect sunny, dry, and breezy spring day and a welcome relief from all the heat. It rained overnight, which in my opinion (not that anyone asked), is the ideal time for rain. I made it to the credit union to deposit checks. Laundry was done. Vacuuming occurred. 

It wasn’t all sunshine and breezes, though. There were entries posted in the not so idyllic side of the life accounting books.

Waiting to file a complaint.

The evening walk to the mailbox was weird. The past few evenings of walking have been kind of eerie. I have been the only person out and about in the neighborhood at 7:00 p.m. No cars passing by. No people tending gardens or sitting under carports chatting. No dog walkers. Nothing. Just me. It’s unnerving. Spooky, like in a creepy movie.

Earlier in the day, I tried to put Kiki’s collar on her. Previous attempts were a disaster. Today, as soon as she realized I was attempting to violate the fragile peace agreement we have been working under, she bolted from the bed and disappeared under it for several hours. When she re-emerged, she was meowing up a storm at me in her “I’d like to speak to a manger” tone.

Also, there was an odd sound this morning. I couldn’t tell if it was coming from the water heater or the nearby refrigerator. It wasn’t especially loud, it just seemed different than the normal house sounds. 

Tonight, when it was too late to do anything about it, I realized the freezer may be malfunctioning. This is the refrigerator/freezer bought last September that is not even one year old. The ice cream, which is usually hard as a rock, was very soft. The ice cubes in the tray, which are usually hard and brittle and shatter upon removal, felt more wet than usual. The English muffins were not the usual level of frozenness. I moved the setting from “recommended” more towards “coldest” and crossed my fingers. I hope there are no morning surprises like a freezer full of thawed food because I will likely lose my sh*t in a very unpeaceful manner.

random thoughts – Day 2,280 (Sunday) – staycation day

The weather was much kinder today than it was yesterday or Friday, but that doesn’t mean it inspired me to do much. Earlier in the week and as recently as yesterday, I had thought I might go to Rietta Ranch, a big outdoor Sunday morning flea market near me. I haven’t been to this flea market in at least a decade.  

It opens early (6:00), and the advice is to “go early” because the good stuff goes fast. This morning, the bedroom window was open and the air was cool and perfect for sleeping, so instead of my usual 6:30 extraction from bed, it was a little past 8:00. By the time I fully woke up, it might be creeping way beyond “early” for Rietta. I decided to skip to the flea market for the same reason I skip most out-of-the-home activities – I hadn’t made a plan to go with anyone and doing stuff alone feels like too much work. Instead, I shopped online for yard decor and ceiling fans and read about plants.

Backyard view.

Around 11:00, I popped out the back door to put something into the big recycle bin. That’s when I noticed my car. Even living under the carport, it is currently crusted with gross greenish-yellow pollen that I’ve been aware of for several days and haven’t made getting to a car wash a priority. That isn’t the part I noticed. What I saw this morning was that the back cargo door was raised in the open position. This means that Saturday, at around 4:30, when I took the emptied yard waste barrels out of the back I didn’t close the door and it was open all night. Oops.

There was a flashback to my Honda CRV and the button on the remote that popped open the back window on the cargo door. Once, a friend hit the button while moving my car after I broke my leg. After a couple weeks of recuperating on the couch, I needed something from the car and learned the battery was dead, drained by the rear cargo light that turned on weeks earlier on when the window was popped. I don’t know if the Jeep cargo area has a battery-draining light because I rarely go back there, but I figured I was going to find out soon enough.

Later in the afternoon, after I had finished reading a book, I decided to try starting the car. It worked, so I took a ride to drop the just-finished book back at the little library at the end of the street and then onward to the local credit union that isn’t my credit union. The closest location for my credit union is a couple towns away, but with the magic of technology,  I can withdraw money from my credit union’s account at other institutions’ ATMs and  make deposits in person, but today I wanted to know if I could deposit checks into my account using the not-my-credit-union’s ATM. I now know that is not a transaction option available to me and I’ll have to go tomorrow and visit the humans.

The evening air and temperature (in the 70s!) were comfortable and I thought about continuing the trimming of the overgrown hedges and rhododendrons. Then I thought about driving down the street to dispose of the trimmings before the rain that is predicted for tonight turns the contents of the trimmings barrel into a wet mess. The refreshing breezes, the absolute quiet of the neighborhood, and the view of the lush woods of the backyard conspired to remind me of a long-ago vacation cabin as I sprawled on the couch, reading a book as if I were on a vacation. Instead of yardwork, I did the next most logical thing and stayed in vacation/staycation mode reading a book. It was perfect.