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.

random thoughts – Day 2,312 (Tuesday) – cookbook, weather, and cherries

Cookbook arrived!

The threat of heat rolling in again and another heat advisory meant I took my walk to the mailbox in the morning instead of waiting until after dance class. Plus, I had a notice from the Post Office that my high calcium cookbook delivered and I was excited to have it. 

I now have 250 pages of high calcium recipes for dips and appetizers, entrees, desserts, and sauces and dressings. I flipped through it immediately and noticed that the key ingredients in many recipes are cottage cheese and nonfat dry milk. It turns out my instinct to add those two ingredients while cooking was correct. Now, I have lots of official recipes to help with the calcium consumption challenge.

There was a breeze this morning and most of the afternoon, and it was comfortable. At dance, the air conditioning was refreshing when we arrived, but we were all bathed in sweat after an hour with the second hour still to go. I used my just-bought knee pads today and they helped greatly. A lot of our dances include kneeling and one is done totally on the floor, which was not an issue when my knees were 17 years old, but it’s a different and painful situation now. Thank goodness for cushiony knee pads.

When I stopped for gas after dance, I noticed the sun was especially orange in the gray, overcast sky. Later, I learned the smoke from wildfires in Canada has reached us and tomorrow is supposed to be pretty bad again with the newest round of heat and humidity plus the smoke. It sounds like it might be a good day to stay inside, not that I usually need any encouragement.

Chilled cherries!

I bought two pounds of cherries on Monday. After I washed them, I set them in the fridge and they are perfectly chilled. I have been grabbing them by the handful and devouring them and will likely need more by Wednesday. 

Then, after a full week of cherry consumption, I should be all set with cherries for a bit. That is what seems to have happened with the green grapes I couldn't get enough of for a couple weeks and am suddenly no longer interested in. Most of last week’s grape acquisition was chucked into this week’s trash. It’s how my erratic and fickle tastebuds roll.  

random thoughts – Day 2,311 (Monday) –k-drama

The lead characters looking sharp.

I recently succumbed to the Netflix suggestions, and after a long stretch of not watching Korean dramas, I started watching Vincenzo. The premise: Korean guy sent as a young child to be raised in Italy rises to rank of Mafia consigliere. Now he’s back in Korea with a mission.

As usual, the cast includes the supremely attractive male and female leads, the ever-so-slightly less attractive male and female second leads, and the usual slew of character actors providing comic relief with their quirky personalities.

Crazy suit with a cutaway back.

The wardrobe in this show features impeccably tailored suits for the leads, along with some interesting designer pieces. The female lead is a lawyer and is usually dressed in beautifully fitted suits with five buttons on the sleeves. Five! Even in my corporate finance days of splurging on suits worn almost daily, the most I ever had was three buttons on the sleeves. 

One very weird suit jacket on the female lead had a full front with lapels and pockets, and a cutout back. So weird. Another dress on a female character looked like a sculpture in gray wool with an exaggerated shoulder line and rounded sleeves. Mostly, the clothes were normal. 

The businessmen are sporting crisp shirts, silky ties, and beautiful jackets. Vests and collar bars seem to have made a comeback. The watches look fancy and pricey. I have always had and continue to have a weakness for a man in nicely tailored suit, and this show is filled with my favorite fantasy attire. Sigh. Side note: X1, for all his shortcomings, liked to dress up and looked like a million bucks in a suit, and often better than my finance colleagues. My schlubby manager often commented (more like whined) that my home-builder husband had better suits than he did. 

Anticipating "the flick."

In this K-drama, there are running gags involving the consumption of roasted sweet potatoes. And there is “the flick” square to the forehead. Lose a bet? You have to close your eyes and get the forehead flick from the winner of the bet. The male and female leads shared moments of exaggerated romantic tension involving anticipation of the flick.

I forgot how much I liked K-dramas – in the original Korean with English subtitles. This show has pulled me back into the genre. The wardrobes, the furniture and decorating features like screens and room separators, and the food. Seeing the food makes me want to visit a Korean restaurant, but I usually end up just making ramen at home.

As a bonus, reading subtitles gets me to set the phone aside for a while, which is a good thing.

random thoughts – Day 2,310 (Sunday) – shelving it

After: More tidy under,
less empty above.

The nesting continues. Or maybe it's still technically moving in and setting up. However it is categorized, today featured the assembly of two small (24-inch tall) floating corner shelf units. One went under the TV corner shelf, the other went above it as the first step in solving the issue of an odd empty space.

I had seen the shelves online through a couple retailers, but a recent email from Ocean State Job Lot had the exact shelves that were hanging around in my Amazon cart for a lower price. It's not the first time and I am guessing the Amazon markup funds the allegedly free shipping. I will drive one mile to pick up at your store Ocean State. Yes, please and thank you.

They were easy to assemble, especially compared to the larger stuff in the house came in a flat box and required my ever-improving skills with a screwdriver. Today also involved the drill to mount the shelves to the wall. Good times! I am living large and in charge with a power drill and a mini-chain saw.

Between the router and cable box, power strip, multiple power cords, and a mile of cable, there is still an eyesore cluster of electrical cords and cable in the corner below the TV. I mounted an acrylic shelf to hold the power strip, but the rest is still messy. Baby steps.

Before: Messy under,
empty above.

I really wanted a small cabinet for the corner under the TV shelf, so that the nesting end tables currently in service in the corner could fulfil their potential as side tables but the heating vent on the floor in the corner was an obstacle. Finding a cabinet both short enough to clear the shelf and high enough off the floor to clear the vent and deflector was a losing battle. 

The floating shelf solution is good enough for now and the armchair now has a side table available for setting a cup of coffee and a plate. I’m taking the win.

random thoughts – Day 2,309 (Saturday) – squash blossoms and belly dance

Squash blossoms in the morning.

The squash plant, recently set into the ground in the backyard, had two gorgeous open orange blossoms that greeted me this morning. Until today, I had only seen the blossoms mostly or fully closed when it was in the pot. By 12:30, they were both closed again. Now I will be stalking the plant to learn the blossom opening and closing times. 

There was a morning visit with Mom, then it was back to my house. The second step of the blue embroidered and sequin dress remake was executed. With red thread (for visibility and easier removal), the mesh overlay was basted to the lining, about a half inch below the waist seam. This will allow me to cut the skirt off below the waist seam while keeping the two layers held together for the future step of forming the waistband casing.

Th weather was gorgeous with breezes blowing the curtains. This helped during the one-hour long stressful search for something to wear to a dance show tonight. I am no longer used to dressing for events, but I knew I wanted to wear my bronze-tone bejewelled sandals.

None of the three pairs of summery wide-legged pants looked good today. The first-choice skirt, a silk crepe de chine number in browns and rust with gold accents, fit great, but I couldn’t find a season-appropriate top to wear with it that didn’t look stupid (it has been worn only in the fall with a sweater). The next choice was a long black silk stripe on stripe flowy skirt. Again, the problem was tops. And memory. I couldn’t remember what I used to wear with said skirt, and nothing in the closet felt right. I ended up choosing a black mesh top with tiny gold beaded embellishments. I am so out of practice with dressing for a social life. 

Once upon a time, multiple times a day, I could dash into the house for a complete costume change executed in under ten minutes and be out the door to another activity. I could shift from gardening clothes to an outfit for a formal event in no time flat. While blindfolded, a bag could be packed for a weekend away and events from the beach to shopping to a night club were covered. Lately, I specialize in stay at home with no plans outfits, stage performance costumes, and pajamas.

Anyway, once dressed, I sat around quietly basting the skirt part of the dress and then playing games on my phone while episodes of the show Animal Control streamed on Netflix until it was time to leave for the belly dance show. In addition to professional level skills in staying at home, I am excellent at sitting quietly, a skill I have perfected in the past several months. It is time, however, to work on my social skills and pull myself back from the brink of being totally feral. Study tips are welcomed.

Aurelia Pearl dances to Swan Lake.

The dance show, called "Molten," was co-hosted by Greenfield area dancers Aurelia Pearl and Eshta Amar. It was a fun production in the intimate space of the LAVA Center in Greenfield and featured seven solo performers and a duet. 

The costumes and veils were colorful and sparkly and various musical and dance styles were presented. One dance was to music from the ballet Swan Lake arranged with a Middle Eastern beat. Very cool. It was all very cool. 

There is a lot of beauty and talent out in the world. 

random thoughts – Day 2,308 (Friday) – fri-yay!

Things were accomplished. The morning included the trimming of low-hanging tree branches and the pulling of weeds in the back yard. A small trash bin, a large planter, and a bucket full of trimmings were loaded into the car and brought to the neighborhood yard waste drop off area which is a splendid feature of living here. A faded garden decoration that was once blue, green, and gold, was sprayed with fresh silver paint and set near the basil, lavender, and squash. 

Laundry was done. Food was consumed. The zipper was removed from the embroidered and sequin trimmed gown bought on Wednesday, and a plan made (and documented!) for the next steps to its transformation. A book was read (not the whole book, just some chapters). A walk around the ‘hood was taken. Several people were sitting in their yards, driveways, or under their carports enjoying the most pleasant evening air, and I was waving at people like I was Miss America in a parade. When I got back home, I noticed a tear in the back of my beloved camo print cargo capris and was grateful that the majority of houses sit far back from the street and also that most of the neighbors are elderly and probably couldn’t see my butt flashing my undies from their chairs.

Stuff got done.

There was an evening session with my new favorite household tool, the mini-chainsaw, and I trimmed ground-level branches from the overgrown flora in front of the house, still in my camo print torn in the back capris with blue underpants underneath. It felt reckless. Is anyone really watching? Can my elderly neighbors even see that far? Do I really care? Whatever. For the record, I love that little chainsaw.

A second trip was made to the drop off area with the evening trimmings and then it was time to relax with a Korean drama on Netflix and some calcium-rich cheese slices and crackers. What a day! Not exactly a day in a cottage at the beach, but still fun and fulfilling.

random thoughts – Day 2,307 (Thursday) – lunch, dice, and plants

Bacon cheeseburger with fries and pickles.

A spontaneous lunch invitation livened up a potentially dull day. Mom, Sis, my youngest niece and I, after brief discussion about who was already hungry, who likes what, and what places are nearby, chose Kay’s Dairy Bar as our target destination. It has a varied menu, and we debated sharing an appetizer and then having ice cream, but in the end, we all ordered lunch plates like adults. It was good.

After lunch, we went back to Mom’s and played Yahtzee. The dice were not favoring me today. My niece rolled a full house so many times we wondered if the Universe was sending her a message. I kept rolling crap and ended up taking zeroes when I missed required combinations, which also felt like a message from the Universe.

After a supper of grocery store ice cream, I decided to plant the spaghetti squash Sis gave me a few weeks ago. Knowing there is a ground hog that visits the yard, I checked what plants they hate to surround and protect the squash plant. I got lucky and it was several plants I wanted anyway, including basil, lavender, and rosemary, plus bleeding heart, which I planted a couple months ago.

Tiny backyard garden.

In a matter of minutes, I was in the car and headed to Tractor Supply where I bought a second pot of basil and a lavender plant. An hour after the internet search about plants, the squash was finally in the ground near the bleeding heart, flanked by the new basil plant and the one bought a couple weeks ago. The lavender is nearby, still in the original pot, while I decide if I want to try and split the plant. The plants were surrounded with wire flower bed edging to keep the lawn mower at bay.

random thoughts – Day 2,306 (Wednesday) – shopping

The weather pendulum has swung back to the warmer side of things after a couple cooler days. Mom and I went to the air-conditioned comfort of the duchy of Kohls in the kingdom of retail. My list was short – look for outdoor décor and sneakers on clearance.

Bird for the yard.

The odds were in my favor, the yard décor curse has been broken,  and I found a figurine that I liked (a bird). It was less successful in the shoe department and the other departments I breezed through. Mom didn’t find anything she wanted to buy.

Our next stop before heading home was a consignment store we both like. There were two racks of clearance clothes in the sidewalk. The pants I liked didn’t fit right, but I found a raincoat for $2 and a blue full-length gown, brand new with tags, for $1. The gown has perfect seaming to easily be taken apart and turned into a dance skirt and a top. There was another clearance rack inside and I got several items to use for head wraps, plus a pair of like-new Skechers sneakers for $10 in the not clearance stuff. Once again, Mom found nothing to buy. Usually, the roles are reversed and I’m the one leaving empty-handed.

random thoughts – Day 2,305 (Tuesday) – dark dancing

Tuesday brought rain, chill, and dance day. The ride to dance faced a traffic jam within minutes of hitting Route 2. Luckily, the backup was near the exit I had planned to take and I was able to get out of the mess.

Dimly lit dance day.

At our practice hall, there was a sensor of some sort beeping. It was ongoing and regular, like a slow metronome. And there was no electricity. Despite the many windows on three sides of the hall, the cloudy dreary day meant a dimly lit space. 

Someone had our music on their fully charged phone and someone else had a really cool speaker in their dance bag, so we chose to proceed. There were jokes about dancing in the dark.

Most of us know the barre, center work, and choreography by heart or close enough to get through it, but today we learned something new. Specifically, balancing is a bit harder in the semi-dark. The little speaker, which was actually a shower speaker, had great volume and colored LED lights and now we all want one. There is one in my Amazon cart right now.

We think Mrs. Rice would have been proud of us for not wimping out due to a tiny obstacle like the absence of electricity and the presence of a shrill beep. If it hadn’t been raining, we might have even danced outside under the pavilion, just like a core cluster of the group did throughout the pandemic (even in the winter). We are hardy stock.

random thoughts – Day 2,304 (Monday) – reading, walking, and thinking

The weather was cooler today and it was a relief. There were cool breezes flowing into the house. The air and all the backyard trees reminded me of my family’s vacation camping trips in Maine when I was a kid.

Hitting the southern Maine coastal area and living in a cloth house was a change of pace from our life in a proper building. Not completely, though. We sometimes got a site with electricity and I think at least once we brought a portable TV and electric frying pan in addition to the usual outdoor living and cooking gear. I have a memory of sitting outside our tent with a campfire and watching a TV set on the picnic table. Or maybe I dreamt the part about the TV. I’ll need to check with Mom and Sis.

The house held to the pattern of the heat wave. Even with the windows open wide to benefit from the breezes, the house held steady at four to five degrees warmer inside than out.

It was a quiet day, which is the current norm. There was reading on the couch – Mockingjay (the final book of The Hunger Games) was started yesterday and will be done by bedtime tonight. There was cooking and eating. 

Another walk,
another bunny sighting.

During the evening walk, there was the spotting of a brown bunny in a yard and one of the neighborhood outdoor cats in the street. The turkeys are still pretty scarce. The several usual neighborhood cats have been scarce and Mom and I wondered last week if something had happened to them, but the white and tortoise one was out this evening. 

I’ve been noticing people’s plantings, yard décor, and exterior lighting in search of ideas for my own house. Someone one street over has a large planter that I like in the form of a fish on its back with its mouth open to the sky. It reminds me of a much smaller similar matched set I had that I left behind in Tennessee to save space during the move, thinking I could find them again. Not the case. There have been years of regret over my abandoned yard décor which included a bird, two fish, a Buddha head, and a heart. 

Some very poor choices have been made during moves, mostly because I stupidly thought I could replace items as easily as I found them in the big box stores the first time. I even asked AI why yard décor is so frigging ugly and stupid since 2016 or so and got a very long answer about mass production and the prevalence of cookie cutter houses and people wanting to show their personality through yard décor. Ok, cool. I get the philosophy of yard decor. But why are the only things available gnomes, frogs in yoga poses, toadstools, and metal solar light flowers that look like a bad drug trip (and cost a fortune)?

random thoughts – Day 2,303 (Sunday) – floating

Today was dedicated to floating. My friends live down the road from a lake and this afternoon the three of us gathered up the floats and headed for the water. The lake was surprisingly quiet for a summer Sunday/holiday weekend. Over the course of our time on the water, there was a pontoon boat out, a jet ski, a couple paddle boards, a kayak and a canoe, a sailboat, and us with our inflatable floats in a small inlet down a couple stone steps from a small beach area.

To the lake!

The quiet was perfect. We bobbed in the water for about 90 minutes, drifting this way and that in a small area. A guy and his young daughter were there when we arrived, and there was adult conversation about the various houses on the lake while the girl used her swim mask to explore the lake floor.  

Later, a couple arrived with their two very well behaved dogs and the humans had a chat with my friends about their respective homes, chickens, goats, and the local bear. 

The dogs had different approaches to the water. The Jack Russell Terrier spent all his time swimming to fetch a ball, return it to the beach, shake himself off, stand there admiring his prize, then letting the humans know he was ready for another toss. The companion dog, a pale yellow larger dog of unnamed breed, gingerly approached the water and took a very long to time to enter it while her make human petted her head and encouraged her to come have fun. Then she walked around a bit in it before she was done.

Time was gooey. We weren't on a schedule, so we didn't need to be mindful of it. It was relaxing floating on the water, which felt smooth and silky. A perfect Sunday, really.

random thoughts – Day 2,302 (Saturday) – independent reading

It has been such a weird week that I didn’t even know what day it was today. I knew it was July 4, but I kept thinking it was Sunday instead of Saturday. I think the heat this week fried my brain. The house has offered little to no relief from the heat and held steady at four to five degrees hotter inside than outside for the past four days. It hasn't seemed to help lowering shades and closing curtains against the sun. I’m apparently living in a sauna.

Earlier tonight (hours ago!), the outside temperature dropped to a comfortable 73 degrees with a steady breeze that seemed to come from the precise direction to avoid every one of my windows. As a result, several hours later, the thermostat is still showing the temperature as 83 degrees inside as the temperature continues to drop outside. I don’t understand.

New best friend.

It may have been Independence Day with lots of activities happening, but, with the exception of a walk around 6:00, I stayed home all day inside the slow cooker. The cookout I was invited to had already been moved to Sunday due to the weather and I just couldn’t justify going alone to a parade or any other celebration full of families, couples, friend groups, i.e. crowds of people who are not solitary singletons in a long-term committed love-hate relationship with their independent lifestyle. I stayed home, laid out on the couch under my new best friend the ceiling fan, ice water nearby, and read. 

I finished The Hunger Games last night and started Catching Fire this morning. I read The Hunger Games when it first came out and didn’t remember any of it. The neighborhood little library had the entire trilogy so I snatched them all a few days ago with the intention of plowing through them quickly so I can put them back for someone else. So far, so good and I’m halfway through the second book.

The frequent library book exchanges and laying on the couch sweating and reading has sent me back to the summers when I was nine and ten years old, before we moved across town. There were no girls my age on our dead-end street and the several boys on the street were busy hanging around with my brother and ignoring me (unless they were torturing me), so books filled the gaping social hole in my life. The early social isolation training came in handy during the pandemic and again in what are turning out to be my recluse years. I’m now in a contest with myself to see how many books I can read this year.

Friends and family on Goodreads, who have jobs and spouses, have been reading impressive numbers of books the past several years and I, without any such real-world distractions and impositions on my time, have read a mere sliver of a fraction of some of their totals. It’s time for me to stop wasting so much time on social media, LinkedIn, and streaming channels. Social media stresses me out, there is nothing I want to watch on cable, Netflix, or Prime, and I’ve accepted the impossible reality of the job market for laid-off people my age and abandoned the search, so it’s time to shift gears. It’s books. For now, anyway.  I shift gears a lot, and in a couple weeks may suddenly be determined to jump out of a plane or weave baskets or start frequenting a rage room to smash stuff or something. We’ll see.

random thoughts – Day 2,301 (Friday) – melting and eating

Day three of hot and steamy conditions. Day three of chugging water, sitting quietly while reading a book and sweating. I feel like I am melting.

Crustless cheesy quiche.

During the cooler part of the morning, a very cheesy crustless quiche was baked. It was loaded with onion, broccoli, spinach, mushroom, and an ungodly amount of cottage cheese, provolone, and Italian cheese blend. It was hearty and satisfying and now there are several future meals I won’t have to think too hard about.

Later in the day, during the evening feeding, there was no desire to repeat the breakfast food or the pizza slices that have been on repeat for several days. I was suddenly wanting gazpacho, but lacked a significant amount of the ingredients in the slew of recipes found online.

The focus shifted to using the recently bought green beans and a recipe was found for a green bean salad. Modifications were made and it became a green bean and broccoli salad. It was pretty good, but will likely be better tomorrow after the flavors meld overnight.

Neighborhood bunnies!

There was a walk in the evening which featured two bunnies in a yard two streets over. There was a breeze and it felt amazing. Unfortunately, the beautiful evening breeze was blowing from a direction in which there are no windows on my house to benefit from the comfort. It was cooler outside the house than in it, where the temperature has hovered around 87 degrees each day. Oy. Too bad the house doesn’t hold heat like this in the winter.

random thoughts – Day 2,300 (Thursday) – fern fun

There was a kitchen tidy-up this morning and a couple containers were brought out to the recycle bin. They had been rinsed last night and set to dry and were ready for the next stop. Standing on the back door landing shortly after 10 a.m. I realized it wasn’t as hot as I had imagined it to be and the back of the house was still in deep morning shade. The oil tank enclosure idea had baked sufficiently and the paint was bought days ago, so I grabbed my yard work shoes and gloves and made for the yard.

Giant back yard ferns.

Something had trampled some of the giant ferns in the clump near the shed and they were laying sideways along the ground, making it easy to choose some for the project. Three large fronds were clipped and brought over by the oil tank enclosure with the spray paint cans.

Fern fronds were held against the sides of the enclosure with one gloved hand and outlined with either moss or fossil colored spray paint with the other hand. There was spraying, and stepping back to decide where to put the next outline and pretty soon it was done. It was peaceful, meditative work, and based on the absence of new paint on my sneakers, less messy than when I used a similar process on a deck umbrella a bunch of years ago. Maybe I’m getting better at paint control.

Done!

By 11:15, and before it became hella-hot, I was done and had returned to the confines of the house to resume chugging water. And just like that, a project was knocked off the house to-do list. The total cost was $26 and around two hours. It was enjoyable enough that I may start painting the shed right away. I have a picture of the siding color chip and can probably get paint in a close enough color to get a jump on it soon instead of waiting to take a siding scrap to the store.

Working on the shed will keep my mind off all the planting that it would be dumb to do before the siding is installed because it would be trampled. The shed will involve some scraping and then brush work, and maybe a spray paint layer afterwards if I’m feeling extra about it and recreate the fern effect done on the oil tank enclosure. We’ll see.

random thoughts – Day 2,299 (Wednesday) – hotness

As promised and foretold in an endless stream of media accounts declaring the heat advisory and scorching temperatures across the country, it was hot.

Mom and I went shopping this morning. The first stop was Ollie’s Bargain Outlet for a couple things. I looked at sheets, but the only 100% cotton ones didn’t have a deep enough pocket for my mattress. Mom had a mission which was fulfilled.

The other stop was a few doors down at Market Basket, where we threw ourselves into the crowd. Shopping carts were scarce and store clerks were wrangling them as best they could, which included taking them from customers in the parking lot as soon as they were emptied. 

I had just grocery shopped a couple days ago and was along mostly for the company and the cheese ends usually available near the deli. There were no cheese ends today so I wandered around the store, dodging the many shoppers who had the glazed look seen at any mall right before Christmas. The best part of the trip was that the stores were air conditioned.

The temperature was in the 90s outside, and 85 in my house despite my efforts to block the sun from entering. It was humid and there was no breeze, except for the living room ceiling fan which I sat under all afternoon, drinking endless glasses of ice water and reading a book

The bedroom is currently closed off with the window A/C unit chilling the space before bed. I am most definitely missing the central A/C in the Lowell house. One heat advisory day down, three more to go. I used to think there is no such thing as too hot, but I am ready to reconsider that position.

random thoughts – Day 2,298 (Tuesday) – dancing it out

Dancing the summer at Saima.

It was week two of my summer trip down Denishawn memory lane. Today, there were ten of us at Saima Park, executing the barre and center of the floor routines, and then dancing the memories. We were able to run some of the big group dances with moving parts in the form of a sections with a soloist, duos, trios, and quartets. We aren’t prepping for a show or anything stressful, so it’s pure fun. 

It was fun, and a healthier way to spend my one-year anniversary of being laid off than sitting at home simmering in an unemployed stew of if only and what if. It’s time to move on in every way possible, and for now that means dancing it out and shaking it off.

Last week, I was sore for several days after class, but it felt good. Today I’m already feeling it in my legs and glutes. Maybe it’s from what feels like a million plies and I’ll take it. In the weird way my body handles environmental temperature, my arms were cool to the touch and my feet were cold while my head and torso were sweating. So weird. But I sometimes get chills when I eat spicy food, so I’ve given up trying to comprehend.

It rained while we were dancing, and when I got home, the evening air was deliciously cool and breezy. The shades had been lowered against the sun early in the day, but tonight they were raised for the evening air to blow through the house. Of course, all good things must come to and end, and the breezes stopped shortly before a skunk sprayed nearby, and the fragrance is hanging in the air and my nostrils and the back of my throat. It must be tome to close up the fortress again. 

Gonna get hot, hot, hot.

From Wednesday morning until Saturday night, we are under an excessive heat warning, so the next several days should be fun to navigate while it is hot, hot, hot. Between the heat and it being a holiday and popular vacation week, the beaches will likely be packed, so I won’t set my hopes on being there. It might be a good time to go to the movies and every grocery and retail store in the region, spots where I generally tend to be chilly. I can test the spicy food and chills situation, too.

random thoughts – Day 2,297 (Monday) – adulting

Somehow, the end of the month snuck up on me and there were only two days left to get my car inspection done. Once upon a time, there was a strategy for this, which was to schedule an oil change in June and have the sticker done then, too. Other times, the “strategy” was shrieking, “crap, it’s the 30^th” and logging off the work computer to drive two streets over to Hank’s Garage for the task.

This year it’s all different with no job to be working at from home during the week, no inspection station spitting distance from home, and not much urgency for life maintenance tasks because all the days are mostly empty and things can easily be delayed until tomorrow.

Anyway. This morning, I was checking the day planner I often forget to consult and saw “car inspection” on this week’s to-do list, having been carried over from last week’s list. The state website listed  three or four inspections stations in town, with two of them about a mile away down the street. The closest location was the Chevy-Jeep-Dodge dealership so I went there first. Unfortunately, it was 11:45 and the inspection guy was in the middle of an inspection and then was going to lunch until 1:00. I was invited to wait there for an hour and be the first car after lunch, but I declined (and also marveled about the one-hour lunch, because for nine years it was a measly 30 minute lunch break at the bank).

First in the queue.

I drove down the street to the other inspection station which was a large brick complex with a tow yard, auto repair bays, and activity in the lot with flatbeds, tow trucks, delivery vehicles from parts providers, and those of us waiting for inspections. I was the third car in the inspection line. The A/C was on, the radio was playing, and my phone was put to use with a game for the wait. It was about 35 minutes later when my car was collected by the mechanic and I was invited to wait in the office.

When my car was put into the inspection bay there were three cars in the queue outside (again). The office A/C was running on the Arctic setting and I was freezing, but standing in the asphalt parking lot in the heat felt kind of weird and dumb. Around 1:00, my car was brought back out to the lot and I was on my way. There were now four cars in the permanent inspection queue on the next to the last day for June inspections but mine was done with a day to spare and I was feeling pleased.

After the triumph of the annual inspection, I went to Dollar Tree for tin foil, but it’s dumb to buy just one item there so I browsed the whole store and also got a can of tuna, a can of mandarin oranges, a bag of coffee. News flash -- school ended in my town last Wednesday, and the back to school displays are being installed at Dollar Tree now. Basically, parents, teachers, and students had about five minutes to shake off school before having to think about the upcoming school year. That is cruel.

The shopping was marred by some old dude wandering the aisles and whistling random warbling notes and humming random noises. He seemed to be one aisle away from me no matter where I was, until he ended up two people behind me in the very long checkout line at the one cashier, still whistling. I don't know why whistling grates on my nerves like it does, but I was tempted to drop my items and flee the store to get away from it. 

I chose to be a responsible shopper, completed my transaction and declared the adulting tasks done for the day. And the month. Until I begin again with the bill paying and chores and to-do lists for July. Adulting is like being on a never ending gerbil wheel.

random thoughts – Day 2,296 (Sunday) – years ago on june 28

Oceanside Pier,
Oceanside, California, 6-28-2012.

On this date in 2012 (June 28) I had recently arrived in California from Tennessee and hanging out with two of my cousins who had fled New England for better weather and a different lifestyle.  I had fled New England for Tennessee after one too many harsh winters, then fled Tennessee temporarily for a vacation with a change of scenery. 

During my Cali vacation, I stayed at the home of one cousin for half the week, then went to the other cousin’s home for the rest of the week. It was fun, even though the weather was the midst of the “June gloom” with cloud cover, chilly temperatures, and fog.

On June 28^th, a cousin and I had been to a very fancy and beautiful gym in Carlsbad that put to shame any I had ever belonged to. Later that day, we went to Oceanside Pier. During the course of the week, both cousins and their menfolk and I went to a concert at the San Diego County Fair, visited breweries, and rode a train from Carlsbad to San Diego to eat dinner. 

During the week, I also enjoyed a yoga class taught by one of my Cali cousins, and many other fun things that were not in my usual Tennessee lifestyle. My cousins were great hosts and made it a great vacation for me with a blend of touristy things and cool places where the locals eat and socialize.

Long Sands Beach,
York, Maine, 6-28-2013.

Seeing the photo of Oceanside Pier in Facebook memories today sent me back to that fun vacation week along the Pacific Ocean. The same memories feature for today included a photo from a vacation exactly one year later in York Beach, Maine. that is the year when Mom, my sister, and I rented a house one block from the beach for a week. 

In York Beach, we rode trolleys, went to the beach, walked my dogs, and ate seafood and ice cream. York Beach was so welcoming, the colorful seaweed even coordinated with my sneakers during a morning walk with the dogs. Unlike the humans and all the other dogs on the beach in the early mornings, my dogs were not fans of the beach.

Beach towns are fun. For various reasons, in recent years I have failed to get myself to a nearby beach. This needs to be corrected this summer.

random thoughts – Day 2,295 (Saturday) – old and new

Mom and I went out to some consignment and antique stores today. One of our favorite consignment shops is in Amherst, NH, so we headed there. As usual, the two-level store had a huge selection of furniture and cool home décor. A sectional upholstered in patchwork denim ($700+) was interesting, and so was the reaction of two younger women who were so excited about it they were practically jumping up and down with glee. I can't recall ever being so excited about a couch. Or much else, really. I may have been a bit envious of the passion expressed.

I was tempted by a couple items, but reason took over. Sure, the rooster pitcher was fun, but I already have a blue glass pitcher that lives in a cabinet, and the counters are cluttered enough without a pitcher shaped like a rooster. The cosmetic roll up with four removable sections was cute but seemed complicated. There were about a hundred Hummel figurines and some Lladro pieces which did not tempt me at all because I’m looking for some stuff for the yard that is not a gnome or a toadstool.

At the two-level antique shop a mile down the street, there were lots of Hot Wheels, larger metal collectible cars, comics, some interesting signs, and more Hummels. It looks like the great Hummel figurine purge is underway.

We laughed about how much money we saved by not buying anything.

Mama and a fluff ball poult.

Back at home, from the comfort of the couch which is angled to face the windows, I spotted a turkey with one wee fluffy chick crossing my lawn. It’s the youngest turkey I’ve ever seen and it was so cute with the fluffy little feathers. 

The turkey and poult moved so quickly I didn’t have a chance to call Mom to tell her to look out her window as they raced through her yard and into the woods. 

random thoughts – Day 2,294 (Friday) – domesticity

Guest room window film.

Today’s domestic effort to chip away at the house list was covering the guest bathroom window with privacy film. This allows elimination of a sheer curtain and the temperamental old-timey roller window shade that goes down but not back up. The film for this window has an alligator-type texture and when the sun shines through it, it throws holographic prisms. I like it better than the film installed in the main bathroom window. The main bathroom might very well be changed to the fun one. 

Later, two cans of spray paint were bought for the next stage of the oil tank enclosure painting project. Tonight's visit to the hardware store was free of clerks attempting to be helpful and it was great. I even wandered the store and saw some nice interior lighting fixtures and outdoor flower pots but no garden decor, which have been a quest item since 2016 when I couldn't find any for the Lowell house. 

The in-between time of the two activities was spent reading and roasting veggies for lunch. There was a rare itch to socialize, and a debate took place about reaching out to see if anyone wanted to do something tonight. Thanks to the inability to have any ideas to suggest for a proposed social activity because it is basically a foreign activity for me, the desire to socialize evaporated before any texts were made that might have committed me to do so. It’s hard when checking availability with people and their willingness to leave their own homes is based on the idea at hand and there is no idea, because why make a plan if there nobody to do it with. A real chicken and egg situation. 

Once I hit the point where the idea of socializing felt like too much work, it then felt a little bit like I had dodged a bullet. Whew! The night was spent re-watching a series I already watched, and then marveling over the fireflies. The first one was at the living room window, and there were a couple spotted in the back yard. So cool.

random thoughts – Day 2,293 (Thursday) – tackling the list

Much like the running project list I always maintained for work, there is a running list of projects for the house. The rate of additions to the list usually exceeds the pace of completed items coming off. This week, progress is being recorded.

On Wednesday, pruning was done out front and the oil tank enclosure out back was covered with a fresh coat of spray paint. Today, the plan for artsy-fartsy embellishment of the tank cover took shape with a list of spray paint colors to be procured and an solid plan for the design.

Also today, the narrow window in the bathroom adjoining the main bedroom received a coating of static cling privacy film. The film replaces a privacy curtain which was attached by rods at the top and bottom of the window and made the window inaccessible. 

It was about an hour of fun with a spray bottle of water, scissors, and a box cutter. The hardest part of working with the film was trimming the excess after it was in place. I probably need a new blade. Bonus content with the new film is the option to open the window for air flow. A different pattern of film was bought for the guest bathroom, which will probably be installed on Friday. The second window should be much quicker now that I'm experienced in the technique. Maybe I can hire myself out for oil tank cover painting and window privacy film installation. 

The walls in the bedroom and dining room are beginning to speak to me and the artwork plan is formulating. The added bonus to finally hanging art on the walls is the clearing of space in the craft room so it can become functional (also on the list).

I love the taste of progress. It’s delicious like chocolate. Or Ben & Jerry Karamel Sutra ice cream.

random thoughts – Day 2,292 (Wednesday) – breakfast and ideas

My sister and I (Family 1.0) celebrated Father’s Day with Dad today, which was my sister’s day off. We always assume one or both of our half-sisters (Family 2.0) have plans with him on the actual day (along with his birthday and major holidays). This might currently be an incorrect assumption, but there was a stretch of time of it being true, so there is historical precedent. 

Anyway. It was a nice morning. My sister made her famous Southern biscuits and gravy and extra breakfast sausages, I brought over a fruit salad, and there was coffee. Three hours flew by in a blink and then Dad headed his way and I came home.

Better than it was, but basic.

The weather made it a nice day for getting things done. Once the sunshine relocated to behind the trees after blasting the front of the house, the new, cute mini chain saw came out to play. Several branches of the rhododendron that were too thick for the loppers were cut and stuffed into a bin to be transported to the neighborhood yard waste area another time. It was quick work out front and then it was out to the back of the house to the oil tank enclosure armed with a sanding block, a cloth, gloves, and two cans of silver spray paint.

One can of spray paint covered about 95% of the enclosure and I was glad to have bought two. It's not perfect, but it is definitely better than it was. It is just very, very basic. Boring, even. I think it can be better.

Recoating the big tin can in silver was a good reminder that I like playing with spray paint and I wondered about taking the project a step or two further. In Lowell, I used plastic ferns, various weeds, and a foil grill tray as stencils to spray paint a green deck umbrella that had some faded stripey marks from sun exposure while closed. By the time I was done with the navy blue, red, and tan paints, the faded parts were hidden and I had an improved deck umbrella with a pattern of leaves and dots.

Previous project, new inspiration.

I may replicate the concept on the oil tank enclosure. Nobody but two neighbors, the oil delivery guy, and I will see it, but it will be fun doing it, so there is value there. There are tons of ferns in the back yard, some of which are huge, so this could be fun. 

If the oil tank enclosure turns out to be as much fun as I imagine, there is a shed at the end of the driveway that also needs some love. It’s currently a very boring white barn style with black trim and the plan has been to paint it a color close to the new siding (still to be installed, thank goodness I’m not naïve enough to be sitting here holding my breath). The new main color may just be the start of something a bit grander on the shed. Or not. We’ll see. Sometimes, one little task launches an avalanche of creativity, and sometimes the onslaught of ideas is grander than the attention span.

random thoughts – Day 2,291 (Tuesday) – dancing memories

Prepping for barre work.

The new Tuesday dance plan was activated today when I met up with some long-ago dance friends (circa high school) during their weekly dance session. With a recording of the old dance studio music playing, eight of us did the Denishawn barre and center work, followed by many dances.

Musical memory and muscle memory ruled the day and got me through. At the barre, there were shaky one-legged balancing holds where some strength needs to be rebuilt. I nearly always remembered the music, and if I didn’t think about it too much, muscle memory kicked in and the movements took over. When the muscle memory was spotty or if it was something I hadn’t ever fully learned, I had seven dance pals to follow. One even called out the steps on a dance I wasn’t familiar with.

We ran through a lot of the repertoire. In many cases, I remembered the costumes we wore back in the day more than the dance itself, which is on brand for me. “Creation” featured metallic silver leotards under black capes. “Tales of Vienna Woods” had light green dresses with flower chains diagonally across the torso. “Chopin Preludes” (Opus 28 No. 20 followed immediately by No. 7) was a maroon leotard with a maroon wrap skirt.

We did dances with tour jetes and turns for which I didn’t fully trust my recently wonky left knee, the steadiness of my feet, or my ballet slippers on the slippery floor. We danced soft, quiet dances that required lots of control and still broke a sweat. There were dances with quick footwork and spins that made me dizzy. It was glorious. It felt like home. Several hours later I was a little sore, but in a good way. Tomorrow I may be sore in the barely can move way and that will also be good.

Baby chain saw!

In other exciting news, before going to dance, I visited Ollie’s Bargain Outlet and bought one of the tiny, adorable chain saws for pruning that StepDad told me about. It even comes in its own little hard case. Now I need a free and dry day so I can try it out. Yard work fun times are ahead and I can hardly wait.