random thoughts – Day 2,262 (Wednesday) – asphalt and costumes

The morning's view.

The morning's view from the couch included equipment for the final step of the neighbor’s driveway. Beyond the rhododendron that is now blooming, the business end of a dump truck rose from behind the red dumpster that has been in my own yard for the past month. The final operation of the driveway paving was relatively quiet and suddenly the crew was gone.

The new driveway looks great – like a swath of rich, black velvet. The only thing protecting its pristineness from potential damage is a thin strip of yellow plastic caution tape stretched across the edge adjoining the street. Meanwhile, my driveway looks like a faded, grayish, lumpy scrap quilt with long lines of patching. Driveway envy has definitely set in, but one thing at a time, please.

It was a mostly quiet day, meaning I cannot account for how I spent most of my time. Later, my dance partner and I practiced our duet choreography for Sunday’s show and two of the four group dances we are in for the June show a few weeks later.

Costumes in a row.

It’s hard to believe the shows are now so close. The costumes have been collected (mostly) and are hung on a rack in the spare room (jewelry and accessories still need to be gathered). There are a few costume pieces needing minor adjustments for the June dance show, and those items are over by the sewing machine. 

The costumes for the June show weigh a ton and will be a challenge (potential nightmare!) to stuff into a bag for transport. I can focus on all those moving parts next week. I just need to get through this weekend first.

random thoughts – Day 2,261 (Tuesday) – cemetery and clouds

Memorial Day may have been yesterday, but today was the day Mom, my sister and I went to the cemetery and did the family grave decorating. I grabbed my gloves and flimsy gardening tools and Mom and had hers, and we stopped to get flowers at a small greenhouse she likes. The selection was still good, even the day after Memorial Day. My sister met us at the cemetery in Fitchburg.

Bleeding heart.

We thinned the bleeding heart at Mummu’s stone and added yellow snapdragons because Mummu’s favorite color was yellow. At great-aunt Julia’s stone, we planted pink petunias and red snapdragons. Mom’s grandparents (John J and Wilhelmina) got white petunias and marigolds.

We checked on the graves of Mummu’s three siblings who had died in childhood – John W – aged 7 months, Lilja – aged 10, and John E – aged 16. John E’s grave is thickly overgrown with day lilies but we didn’t have the proper tools to thin them because the original agenda was planting, not thinning. We plan to return with the proper tools for the task.

The dug out bleeding heart came home with me and was promptly planted in the back yard. It originally came from either my sister’s yard or my yard in Lowell (which had come from my sister’s yard). It’s one of several plants I regret not having thinned from Lowell before I moved, but once the house sold, I ran out of time for things like gardening.

Evening sky from the passenger side.

Tuesday means dance night, for another couple weeks anyway. On the ride home, for which I was the passenger (my favorite automotive role), I took lots of photos of the clouds with the setting sun while chatting with my friend who was driving. I haven’t seen many sunsets lately. The trees at home usually block the view, and I’m not usually out anywhere else at the appropriate hour so I was glad to see it tonight.  

random thoughts – Day 2,260 (Monday) – books and such

The day, which began with rain, redeemed itself later with sunshine and humidity. This did not stop me from wearing a sweatshirt while taking a walk or pruning the azalea in front the house. It was on brand. I am also the person who once sat poolside in Florida summer heat and humidity wearing long jeans and a hoodie, while my family enjoyed swimming.

Neighborhood library box.

The walk was to return a book to the Little Library box near the mailboxes at the end of the street. So far this year, I have read 14 books, and 10 of them have come from the Little Library box. My neighbors have been putting in some great books that I likely never would have known of. There was no intention of getting another book until I finish the one I'm reading, but one caught my eye and is now on my kitchen counter awaiting its turn.

The book currently underway is a collection of short stories in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Technically, I guess it’s fan fiction by modern writers and the stories are really good. The morning rain left me unbothered as I went on some reading adventures with Holmes and Watson. Worked for me.

Later, I got busy and made fruit salad with cantaloupe, pineapple, mandarin oranges, and grapes, then later still, brought some over to Mom’s house, along with about a third of the bag of mandarins. A three-pound bag of tiny orange treats is a lot of tiny oranges, and the last bag I bought saw about six of them end up in the trash after getting gross and mushy. This time I brough Mom some before the same thing had a chance to happen again. I like mandarins, but I can’t eat that many of them.

Tiny toad hedge tenant.

The improved weather got me outside to trim the recently flowered and now sad looking azalea. I consulted some sources before beginning to cut, and took out the obviously dead branches, and cut back some wildly gangly ones. 

While working on the azalea, I spotted a cute, tiny, grayish-brown toad on top of the neighboring hedge. It was calmly sitting there while I carefully cut from the neighboring plant and made every effort to not disturb it. I guess now I know the source of the recent evening serenades that sounded like they were right outside the bedroom window.

random thoughts – Day 2,259 (Sunday) – wet one

A little steady rain and chilly temperatures didn’t spoil the Memorial Day weekend gathering and we still gathered a family member’s home. Despite all the rain this month, and what felt like a lot of snow this winter, I was told the water level is still six inches low and "we need the rain." Ok, cool. But could it maybe just rain overnight when people are sleeping? Please and thank you.

Instead of sitting on the deck, we sat in the living room/dining room area.  There were still burgers and hot dogs, just cooked inside. There was toss salad, potato salad, pasta salad, fruit salad, bean and veggie salad, chips and salsa. Then there were brownies, and after eating a huge one, I learned there was cake. Oy.

Final score - Twins 5, Sox 5.

The Red Sox played (after a delay) and we watched the game They lost to Minnesota again, for a three game sweep. I did not envy the die-hard fans sitting under plastic ponchos in Fenway Park in the rain, but I do admire their fortitude and willingness to do so.

My guess of the black blob in the yard being bear poop was confirmed by the relaying of a tale about a neighbor who lives one street over from me recently seeing a bear in their backyard at 5 a.m. Now I will be tempted to get up and look out the windows when I first wake up instead of rolling over and going back to sleep. I kind of would like to see a bear (from a safe and protected distance).

The overeating made me very tired. When I got home, I sat on the couch like a zoned-out blob scrolling through social media and playing Words with Friends and Duolingo Chess for a couple hours. Now, it’s time to go read some Sherlock Holmes stories written by modern crime writers (Murder in Baker Street – New Tales of Sherlock Holmes).

random thoughts – Day 2,258 (Saturday) – prepping

Cowboy caviar. Or Texas salsa.

It was a domestic day at home. After much deliberation and reviewing of recipes and the contents of the pantry, a big bowl of bean and veggie “Cowboy Caviar” (aka “Texas Salsa”) was made for a cookout on Sunday. The other main contender was a fruit salad, but the pantry contained nearly everything needed for the bean and veggie mixture – pinto beans, black beans, canned corn, diced tomatoes, plus chopped grape tomatoes, onion, and vinaigrette dressing. The only missing item was green pepper, so I mixed everything and added the green pepper later. The taste test was a success. I forgot how much I like that salad/salsa/stuff.

There was nothing on hand to make the fruit salad and it might have taken multiple stores to gather the items, depending upon what Aldi had in stock for produce. The Cowboy Caviar  felt like a good decision when I arrived at Aldi to get the green peppers. They had some of the fruit I like, but not enough variety for a decent fruit salad for a party.

In the effort to consume more calcium from food sources, I spent a disappointing amount of time at the dairy case reading labels because online articles about the type of yogurt with the most calcium are very contradictory. One claimed that Greek yogurt (my favorite) has more calcium, another said low-fat regular yogurt had the most. My label reading at Aldi revealed that of the yogurt they carry, the regular yogurt has more calcium per serving than their Greek yogurt so I bought the regular stuff. And also, some cottage cheese which I will try my best to consume, although my track record with it isn’t good. There are some recipes involving eggs and cottage cheese baked with some stuff that sound promising.

random thoughts – Day 2,257 (Friday) – matts and mowing

There were tasks scheduled for today, specifically, working on the photo matting and framing for an exhibit, and mowing the lawn. One of the photos is a nonstandard size and needed a special window matt cut. I found a framing shop close to the house.

It was a great time in the shop, and I ended up being there a couple hours. One of the owners demonstrated the matt cutting machine to show me some fancy additional cuts that could be done, but we decided against it. We had a great time chatting about downsizing homes, frames, matts, and a local arts group her husband is involved with. Later, her husband/co-owner arrived. He is an artist and he and I had a great talk about hanging art shows while he cut the matts and she had some lunch. 

Almost all mowed.

The lawn was less successful and energizing than the framing shop. It was my first mow since moving here because stepdad next door mowed my  yard last fall when he did his. My mower is electric and today I discovered my cord is too short to reach all of the front lawn. At least a dozen times it unplugged itself when it reached maximum distance, and I swore and stomped to the outlet to plug it back in. 

There is an L-shaped section in the front yard along the driveway and at the edge of the road that is still tall and shaggy because I couldn’t reach it with the mower. The opposite corner of the back yard has a corresponding shaggy patch that I couldn’t reach. Now, I need to determine the length of the cord so I can buy a longer one.

Mystery matter.

Near the shaggy back yard spot lies a surprise. There is mysterious matter in the form of a large black blob of glossy something that is dark like tar or licorice. There were small flies on it. It didn’t smell. 

Based on the size, I know it is not cat, dog, bunny, or deer poop. A lot of local people have been mentioning bear sightings on the Nextdoor app, so that was my best guess. I carefully mowed around it and decided to deal with it further tomorrow. An internet search for bear poop seems to have confirmed the guess. 

random thoughts – Day 2,256 (Thursday) – driveways

Yesterday’s guess about the driveway work next door was correct and part of it is being widened. As part of the process, the old driveway was dug out today. The clanking sound of roller being driven up the street kicked things off at 7:09 this morning. Before long, it was followed by the rumble of a dump truck and a collection of other vehicles.

Next door driveway work underway.

I had already been up for an hour and was drinking coffee, so it gave me some live entertainment. The existing pavement was cut with a circular saw thingy and the digger tore up pieces of asphalt and set them into the dump truck. My favorite part of the process was the workers yelling long conversations over the noise of the equipment.

By early afternoon, most of the equipment had disappeared and a beautifully flat, slightly wider, compacted dirt driveway remained. It will be interesting to see the next phase. 

My driveway is a little rough with some previously patched cracks and general unevenness and now it will look even worse by comparison. It will probably be next year when I’ve got my own driveway job going on and I should probably pop next door the next time the crew is there and get a business contact.