random thoughts – Day 2,319 (Tuesday) – weather talk

The clouds settled in and delivered much needed rain throughout the day. It hit all the shower settings from light drizzle to torrential downpour. The weather wizards and widgets noted the humidity at 96 percent at 9:00 p.m.

Moody, foggy night like a wet blanket.

The numerical designation of the humidity perfectly explained the scene outside. Heavy fog glowed yellow under the streetlight at the top of the street. It looked like the setting of a moody period piece or crime drama.

The thick, saturated air felt like a face full of Dad’s olive drab green wool Army blanket that my family used as a beach blanket every summer. It was scratchy, and when it got wet (as beach blankets do when people repeatedly leave the water and retreat to the fabric designation of the family’s beach real estate) it seemed like it took forever to dry. 

I can’t believe we laid on the beach on that wool blanket every summer (or that it was on my bed many winters). I can’t believe nature’s version of it is outside my door.

It looks like there will be more rain overnight, with possible thunderstorms, and more rain tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully this will help the very low water levels in pretty much every local body of liquid.

random thoughts – Day 2,318 (Monday) – tasks and taps

Tasks were accomplished. There was a three-ring circus of website portals and online billing documents that made me miss paper bills delivered via snail mail. One portal told me that due to privacy, info on my previous payment could not be provided. To me. The person who logged into my own patient portal using their multifactor authentication system to check the details on my own previous payment to try to figure out the new claim for payment on their stupid system. Fun time.

One document featured to phone number to call with questions, but the number led to the automated number pressing hell of a menu that just kept looping back on itself. A second number finally reached a helpful human in billing who discovered that the payment I made in March was incorrectly applied.

Another portal for another medical provider in another town was a nightmare to access on my phone but I finally succeeded on my laptop and the payment was made.

New Internet in town!

After the nightmarish fun of the medical payment portals, I called to sign up for a new internet provider. Comcast/Xfinity is too expensive, but there is a new company in town (Gateway Fiber). The recent oversized postcard mailers (official marketing lingo) with the exciting news made it sound like signing up was as simple as scanning the QR code, but that just led to pricing info. A phone call was required to sign up for the service.

The Internet provider call center person seemed to be a remote worker operating out of a day care center  based on background noise and up-close sounds of a toddler practicing newly learned speech. As if that wasn’t enough fun, the call kept cutting out so it was a fragmented and slightly frustrating conversation. I think the outcome is that the service will be available in my area beginning August 6, and I will receive an email to schedule installation. I think. It was hard to be sure with the call cutting out and the toddler shrieking.

The tap water still appears clear as expected, but it suddenly tastes like a murky pond, which hindered my hydration efforts. People on social media have been complaining about both the new pond flavor and fragrance and the absence of info from city hall. A trip was made to the grocery store for water-flavored bottled water because I don’t especially like the new city-provided dirt flavor.

Newly trimmed trees.

The weather was exceedingly pleasant and the next chapter of create your own adventure day was using the loppers to trim tree branches in the back yard. It is possible I am the only person who will notice the trimming, but that is okay, I am also the only one looking at it daily. It was done for my own enjoyment of the back yard.

The tall barrel and the giant planter were filled with cut branches that had been reaching out over the lawn. The trimmings were delivered to the yard waste drop-off area where the earthy aroma of the mountain of decomposing yard waste was similar to the fragrance of the day’s offerings from the home faucets.

The evening walk included a hummingbird sighting. It was hovering its way through a patch of flowers in a front yard two streets over. My phone was in my back pocket instead of my hand. But the time I dug it out and got the camera on, the hummingbird had flitted over to a nearby bush, so there was no opportunity to try for a photo.

I don’t know if all the day’s motivation came from some special planetary alignment, the amazing weather conditions, or the new dirt flavored water from my kitchen tap that my morning coffee was brewed with before I knew about the issue, but whatever it was, the end results were great.

random thoughts – Day 2,317 (Sunday) – family life and suburbia

Jello poke cake for the birthday girl.

The July family birthday celebration episode took place today. The honoree was my youngest niece, who turns 22 on Tuesday and I still can’t understand how that is happening because I swear it was just a couple weeks ago that she was five.

My sister did some of her fabulous cooking and we feasted on pulled pork subs and turkey grinders with sides of coleslaw, half-sour pickles, and chips. This was followed by a strawberry Jello poke cake that was requested by the birthday gal. So delicious!

Later, back at home, I was able to catch the end of the World Cup final game (Spain for the win!). I loved watching the footage of the Spanish team on the presentation stage in the stadium stage and the live shots of the thousands of fans in Madrid, both groups jumping up and down like the world was a giant dance pit. It looked like fun. If only we could all be World Cup win happy more often.

To offset the big lunch and the cake and the brownies still to be eaten later, I took a longer walk around the neighborhood. Instead of a loop that hit only two of the three streets, I walked along all three streets to maximize the distance and hit all the hills.

Streetside wildflowers.

It was quiet, breezy, cool, and a perfect evening for walking. The lowering sun shone through the streetside wildflowers and across the manicured lawns. Some birds were squawking high in the trees, but none of the other local wildlife made itself known. 

A few human neighbors enjoyed the evening from chairs in the shed attached to the rear of their carport in what looked like the ideal summer hangout spot. A lady in a purple flowing dress watered the many flowers in her front yard garden. It was as if the neighborhood was the scene of suburban calm, carefully crafted for a movie.

random thoughts – Day 2,316 (Saturday) – food and home

Cool breezes blew through the house all day.  A couple times the breezes carried rain through the screens and onto the windowsills which are all nice and clean now they have been wiped dry and the windows closed. My feet got cold early in the afternoon and socks were added, and my shorts were traded out for sweatpants. A crime series set in New York streamed on TV.

There was a repeat of the terrific earlier in the week breakfast of fried egg, cheese, and homemade strawberry jam on an English muffin. Just like a few days ago, I was full from well into the afternoon. 

Supper.

Once settled in the not-going-out-anywhere because it was raining attire, it became all about eating and nesting. A photo was chosen and hung in the living room. Brownies were baked and enhanced with not enough chopped walnuts and a few too many butterscotch chips. They are just enough too sweet that I will likely pace myself in the consumption. 

For supper, there was a repeat of Friday's meal. For the next couple days it will be all about rice with beans, corn, salsa, various cheeses, and protein crumbles. Today's version included with a sliced avocado with everything seasoning.

Kiki spent her day lounging on the living room rug and posing on a windowsill during her Neighborhood Watch shift. Large chunks of the day were spent on the bed. Every once in a while, I would pass through the bedroom and pause and pet her sweet little face, scratch her head, tell her how great she is, and feed her a few treats.

Kiki on watch.

It was a good day to hang around the house, but time was spent expanding the list of fun summer activities for future days out of the house. Sis, Mom, and I started it to avoid the time suck of trying to figure out what to do. We’ve spent entire afternoons trying to figure out what to do and ended up doing nothing especially interesting or noteworthy, so we’re trying to fix that. Options currently include visits to various ice cream stands, Bridge of Flowers, the summit of Mount Wachusett, the alpaca farm, Red Apple Barn, and a few other places.

random thoughts – Day 2,315 (Friday) – pizza and nerdiness

Pizza!

It was a pizza party at Mom’s today when Sis blew in with the pizza to which we measure all others against. That would be Espresso Pizza in Fitchburg. When I was in high school, Espresso was a regular after school stop for a slice and a soda. The crust was thin, floppy, and foldable, and famous for having bubbles at the edges. The sauce was sweet, and the legend was that orange soda was an ingredient. 

When I lived in Lowell, I was thrilled to learn the Espresso Pizza location there produced the same tasty pizza I grew up with. Today’s pizza tasted just like it should. Sweet. Cheesy. Bubbles in the crust. Delicious.

After lunch, we played Yahtzee. The dice kept delivering nearly complete small and large straights on a high number of first rolls for all of us. So weird. The last time we played, my niece was with us and she kept rolling a full house. Also weird.

My nerd brain now wants to record all the Yahtzee rolls and track any patterns in our games going forward. I could fashion it after the charting I did of M&M vending machine bags during my corporate finance days. I tracked the number of candies in a bag and counts for each color. Then I would eat the M&Ms from the lowest count by color to the highest count. Good times. I doubt my family would tolerate the game delays required for my scientific recordkeeping.

random thoughts – Day 2,314 (Thursday) – breakfast and greenery

Most delicious breakfast.

It’s another week chugging along at breakneck speed. Thursday already? It's halfway through July and there is still not a summer fun plan on the calendar? How?!? I may stink at planning getaways. but at least I have conquered breakfasts. Today's was a fried egg and slice of onion with provolone cheese on an English muffin with a generous schmear of homemade strawberry jam gifted by a friend. So delicious. It carried me through the day until an unforgettable supper. 

It was another day with the smell of smoke in the air, but fainter than the past couple days. There was less smoke and haze in the air and the blue sky was visible.

My six-month dental cleaning, scheduled six months ago, was this afternoon. The travel in and back was smooth, and it was a mostly uneventful hour in the chair. I am now free for the next six months or until I break another tooth, whichever comes first. Fingers crossed for no more broken teeth. Like, ever.

Tight quarters.

As I was contemplating my evening walk, the wind picked up and I thought for sure there would be rain. As a result of my opinion, I stayed on the couch playing Words with Friends. I was wrong and it didn’t rain. 

To make up for the missed walk, I headed to the yard for “arm day” with the loppers and hedge trimmers. The greenery out front still encroaches on the walk on the frontside and is too close to the house on the backside, just a bit less than before. The goal is to create enough space behind the greenery for the contractor to be able to install the siding on the front of the house without needing a machete to smash through the hedge. It’s been baby steps, but I’ll get there.

random thoughts – Day 2,313 (Wednesday) – wildlife

Mama and fluff balls.

This week the wildlife has been promenading in the ‘hood. On Monday, I saw a mother turkey and counted seven tiny little fluff balls scattered around her. They were traveling at a brisk pace through my front yard and on to the next yard, the fluffy little ones doing a great job keeping up. A half-hour later, while on a walk, there were four toms congregated in a yard one street over from mine. 

Throughout the week, several times I’ve seen a lone bunny grazing in various yards. Most times the bunny would freeze, but once it ran away.

Bunny in a yard.

Twice now, I've spotted the neighborhood cat with the white legs and belly and two-tone black back and tail after months of absence. This was the cat that lounged with several turkeys under a bush in my back yard last fall. The black cat has been racing through yards, but there are a couple of other cats not seen since last fall.

Each day in the late afternoon, several crows gather in my yard and on roof of my house and carport. Between three and seven engage of them in takeoff and landing, squawking, and walking around. Two of them get right up close and squawk in each others faces and remind me of a bickering human couple.

Today’s evening walk also featured the red sun in the hazy sky. Weather services say it is due to smoke blowing in from wildfires in Canada and Minnesota. There have been some spectacular photos of the oddly colored light and sky, just none done by me. My usually reliable camera kept autocorrecting the color of the sun from reddish-orange to white hot, and I couldn’t capture in pixels what I saw with my own eyes. It was most frustrating.