random thoughts — Day 1,568 — (Wednesday) — block party

Just before 5:00, I swapped the coral colored long dress worn all day at the office for denim capris, a blue blouse with white dots, and a lightweight, white cotton hoodie. The drive to Fitchburg after work was not horrible, and that was a blessing. 

Whitney Doucet on stage.

The destination was the annual Civic Days Block Party in downtown Fitchburg with live music, DJ music, a fleet of food truck vendors, a wrestling demonstration, a car show, games, and a kids area, all followed by fireworks. 

It was a beautiful summer evening. Sunny but not too hot. A light breeze. A block party that stretched for several blocks. Does it get any better than that on a Wednesday with no work on Thursday? I think not.

I nabbed a parking spot, met my friend, and we walked around the event. The wrestlers had a stage in the parking lot at Espresso Pizza and a good-sized crowd. The main stage featured the incredibly talented Whitney Doucet and her band. She always puts on a great show. 

There was a mechanical bull ride set up in an inflatable ring outside the church I grew up in. As a kid rode the bull, a line of other kids and their adults waited for their turns. 

Fireworks over Fitchburg.

Further up the street, the DJ, a classmate from high school, had a crowd of young dancers trying to outdo each other with their moves. One tiny tot in a yellow romper may have had the best moves of all. It was lively and fun to watch.

At various points in our travels on Main Street, we each saw friends. Some of my friends hadn’t been seen since last year’s Civic Days Block Party, and others I hadn’t seen for even longer. It was great to catch up.

We had a great spot outside The Cellar on Mill Street to see the fireworks, which were shot off from Rollstone Hill. It was a comfortable sized crowd with plenty of room to not feel crowded. The fireworks were colorful, and didn't seem as loud as I recall from in the past, which was good. Or maybe I'm just going deaf, which would not be so good.

random thoughts – Day 1,567 – (Tuesday) – book night

First Tuesday of the month means Boozy Book Club. A quick stop in the bookstore before the meeting got me hooked up with the August book and reserved for that meeting. 

Book club night.

It was a beautiful night at an outside table at Warp & Weft. Tonight's feast of appetizers included sweet potato fries, mozzarella sticks, onion rings (back on the menu!), fried pickles, and pig and fig flatbread (gluten free). 

Halfway across the University Ave bridge on the way to the meeting I realized there was no hair elastic on my right wrist and it was breezy enough that a face and mouth full of hair was likely. The usual places were checked – the gear shifter in the Jeep, the cup holder, my purse, my wallet. None of the places where hair elastics usually live delivered said item. Oops.

Six of us gathered to chat about the book Silver Alert by Lee Smith, 221 pages. Initially, I decided I liked it because it isn’t too thick a book. It turned out I also like the book. The story was well-paced and the main characters were likable. A few supporting characters were less likable but well-crafted.

The blooming garden on Middle Street.

After the meeting, the streets were blissfully quiet on the walk back to the car. The garden at the law office near work was alive with color. It's always well-tended and beautiful. The commercial part of the building used to be the Lowell Gas Light Company and is really nice, and there is a residence there behind the pretty garden. I bet it's amazing living there. 

Back at home, there was time spent on the deck with a big glass of ice water and reading the book I thought I’d be able to squeeze in before tonight’s club book (Total Immersion by Allegra Goodman). Instead, I got a bit more than halfway through it and paused to read Silver Alert. I used to have a rule that I had to finish a book before I could start a new one, but it was abandoned long ago. As result, there are several books I never finished reading tossed here and there.

The weather was comfortable – warm, but not humid; lightly breezy, but not windy. The lingering light was pretty. It was a nice half hour in the outdoor living space I usually forget to go live in, but I was glad I remembered tonight.

random thoughts – Day 1,566 – (Monday) – show time

Groundhog matinee.

There was a lot going on for a Monday. There was the nonsense left over from late on Friday to be dealt with and new, incomplete project requests that require the interrogation skill of a detective to eke out enough info to understand what is being asked for. There were the unfortunate recurring issues and delays with one major vendor. There were new vendor issues that we thought were resolved a year ago with a different vendor. 

Basically, there were several days’ worth of oddities crammed into one work day. Maybe it was to make up for the holiday later in the week. It wasn't boring. It wasn't awful. At the end of the day, it was pretty ok.

Outside the home office window, the backyard wildlife was especially cute. In between stretches of clouds and sunshine, a light rain around 1:30, more clouds, blazing sunshine, a heavy downpour around 3:30, and then more sun and clouds, there was some frolicking of backyard critters.

Bunny supper theater.

The early wildlife matinee featured the two young groundhogs. They were free of visible adult groundhog supervision as they posed and ate and sniffed the air. They froze like statues when a car chirped in the neighbor’s driveway and then fled to safety under the shed when the engine started. This repeated a couple times.

After a trip to the gym, there was a front row seat to the evening wildlife show. The dinner theater featured the first sighting of two bunnies together in the back yard. They posed and ate and sniffed the air. Ears twitched. They froze like statues at things I couldn’t see or hear. 

The bunnies mostly kept their distance from each other, but a couple times, one got too close to the other. The first bunny approached and then the other bunny leapt straight up in the air and then relocated further away. The levitation thing was really cool. 

Kiki, a fluffy blob in repose.

Inside, Kiki lounged under the dining room table. When the  thunder that might have been the noise of a trash truck rumbled right before the downpour, she retreated to the upper half of the staircase. She stayed there during the heavy rain and remained there for the rest of the day. 

During my periodic visits to the staircase, she let me stroke her face, but never for very long. Without a sound she would rearrange herself from the fluffy blob shape to stand and arch her back before moving herself up a step or two away from me. She's pretty good at communicating when she's had enough and removing herself from a situation that annoys her. Usually me.