“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 615 (Sunday)

Coggshall!

One group’s ordinary Sunday playing Pokemon GO in the park is another group’s family unplugged day in the same park. For my family, as it was for several others, it was a family photo day, although there were many of the Sunday Pokemon Go folks wandering about.

The plan was to meet  in Coggshall Park, the 250 acre gem of Fitchburg. The objective was to take photos of my niece Shannon and her beau Britt for their Christmas cards. Photos with her immediate family were also planned. 

There were photos in the gazebo with the stone house in the distance and then on the other side of it with the woods in the background. We walked around to the opposite side of Mirror Lake over by the benches across from the gazebo. There were photos on the steps of the Stone House and up on the porch. It was a little chilly, but not completely awful. The red roof of the gazebo is very faded from the sun beating on it constantly, but the most disturbing element of the whole time was the very bright white sky. We called this particular sky "nuclear white" in my old photography class, but schedules are tight, the younger folks are in town from Vegas for only a week, and this was the day, so there would be no waiting for a blue sky.

And then they were engaged.

After the other sites, we returned to the gazebo to get a couple more shots we missed because other people were waiting for the space while we were in it. Plus, there was one more big secret event to happen there, because one family’s Sunday of photos was also a day for a major life event. When Britt took a knee, produced a diamond ring, and proposed, there were happy tears. 

The official act had already been cleared and blessed by the parents, and carefully mapped in advance. At the conclusion of the proposal, there was cheering from high up on the rock at the top of the hill where Shannon’s two besties had been hidden amongst the trees, observing and recording.

It was a great afternoon. Exciting times!

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 614 (Saturday)

Enjoying quality time chatting with seldom seen cousins is really fun, and today I got to do exactly that with two of my cousins when we spent several hours trading family stories. Thanks to stories shared by their mother, I now know a bit more about our parents’ generation of our common family. Other than being in a hospital in Boston with rheumatic fever as a young child and years of follow up visits, Dad rarely talked about life growing up.

The menfolk of the family seem to have a tall tales gene, and one of my cousins got into trouble after sharing one of our grandfather’s stories at school. Grandpa said that Grandma, who was from Canada, “came down the Nashua River in a canoe.” The teacher was neither impressed nor amused and made a phone call to my aunt.

Meanwhile, over at my house, Dad loved to regaling us with dinner table tales about his exploits with George Washington, George Custer, and other historical figures. In one tale, he crossed the Delaware River with George Washington. In another, he was at Little Big Horn with Custer, but didn’t die in battle because he had gone to get cigars. Never mind that the Washington river crossing was in 1776 and Custer’s Last Stand was 1876. Dad is apparently ageless, and in all the various tales and escapades, Dad always escaped injury or death thanks to having gone “out to get cigars.” After my sister repeated one of the tales in school, my parents got a talking-to from the kindergarten teacher at parents’ night.

The supper that shouldn't have been.

There was a food spread catered by Legends, a local restaurant. It was an array of comfort foods – toss salad, mac and cheese, pulled pork, chicken parmesan, shepherd’s pie, chicken and broccoli with rigatoni – and it was perfect. There was an abundance of desserts and much overeating was done. Maybe not by all, but by me. It’s okay, I avoided the cost of the “I’ve eaten too much and done too little for 20 months and my pants don’t fit” situation by wearing a stretchy knit skirt. I also avoided the salad, which is probably where I should have invested my lunch efforts. 

After the huge lunch, the plan was to skip supper, but you know how that goes. Once home, somehow a pecan roll found its way onto a plate as the accompaniment to a Sam Adams Holiday Porter. Oops. Nothing like potentially bad (but tasty) decisions.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 613 (Friday)

Office Overlord Winston
performs a desk check.

The work day (ha, more like the whole week!) was a headache pretty much end-to-end. At least it was a work from home day with the delightful and mostly scarce office Overlord Winston, who periodically appeared to make sure I was still busy at the desk. And at its conclusion, the frustrating workweek shifted to more of a success story. 

There was the now monthly 5:20 chiropractor appointment which was declared by the doctor as “the best yet!” I may be feeling like I’m wound a bit too tight, but apparently, it’s more in my head and less in my spine.

From the chiropractor, it was yet another trip to Hannaford. I've been there more times in the past two weeks than in the previous 19 months. The primary mission was ingredients for my Finnish grandmother’s Canadian stuffing recipe to bring to Mom’s house on the Day of the Turkey. Or, as the point of debate that raged the entire length of marriage number two, “dressing.”

X2, raised in a small town in Pennsylvania, referred to the stuff made from bread crumbs and other ingredients and served with turkey as “dressing.” Imagine my surprise at our first Thanksgiving together when he kept referring to “dressing” and I kept thinking of the stuff in the bottle. That first years'  conversation was along the lines of:

“Is there dressing?”

“Why, I thought you didn't like salad?”

“No, dressing!”

“Ummm…. what, what?!?!”

Anyway, we finally got it sorted out and agreed to disagree on whether it was called “dressing” or “stuffing.” But, really, if it's actually "dressing" like he claimed, why is every box of Stove Top and every bag of Pepperidge Farm called "stuffing" and not "dressing"? I rest my case.

Of all the ingredients on the shopping list, the Bell’s Poultry Seasoning was the hardest to find. I checked the spice row. And over by the turkeys. And on each of the endcaps featuring all sorts of Thanksgiving related displays. And while fetching the forgotten onions, even looked in produce. Then it was back to the spice row, where the yellow boxes were finally located, shoved far back on the shelf. In a flashback to my DeMoulas days, I pulled the remaining boxes (all three) forward to the edge of the shelf to spare the next shopper the hunt.

The reward.

Other grocery conquests included a 12-pack of Sam Adams assorted holiday brews and two bags of the coveted Tri-Sum 1908 recipe chips, which were woefully absent from the shelf on my previous three visits. I almost missed them, as they were behind some of the not quite as tasty more modern recipe. My tendency to be like a dog with a bone when on a mission paid off. And there was a payoff. 

The persistence at both the grocery store and the desk, and a sensible lunch of rice, chicken, salsa, and cheese was rewarded. Despite the overabundance of delightful and healthy foodstuffs, supper was a spontaneous meal of Tri-Sum 1908 Original Recipe chips and Sam Adams Winter Lager (Festive and Smooth!). And the rewards will continue into the night and weekend with the discovery of "20 years of Harry Potter" on the Peacock streaming channel.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 612 (Thursday)

I'm no quitter.

Today is another milestone day … <insert drum roll> … Duolingo Day 500 of Finnish lessons. No, I am not fluent in Finnish. I can barely formulate a short sentence and am better at reading it than speaking it. If the actual Finnish speakers talk as fast as the speaker in the lessons, I’m in deep trouble if I ever meet a Finnish speaker who wants to chat. But it's still a "hyvää päivää" (good day).

It’s an interesting language. After 500 days of it, I can say that some of the words are long, but for a lot of it, the language feels very economical. There is often one word for something it takes several words to say in English. For example, “Do you live in that country?” Six English words needed! In Finnish, it’s three – “Asutko tassa maassa?” Economical! Sure, it’s the same number of syllables, but let’s not get picky. There are double duty words like “han” which means both “he” and “she” and “hänellä” which means both “he has” and “she has.” Talk about equality. Also, the letter “ä”seems to be very popular.

Ever so briefly, I was #1.

And credit goes to the Duolingo creators for working in some fun sentences. For example, “Missä kissa on? Kissa on kuusaa” is fun to say in Finnish. It means “Where is the cat? The cat is on the moon,” which is significantly less fun in English.

The app is very game-like with points and rankings and wagers, and I held roughly one full second of glory in the number on spot in the “Diamond League” last weekend. It just happened that mid-lesson the day in the app changed over and the lesson points rolled to the new day. The ranking as top diamond dog lasted only as long as it took to grab the screen shot, and in a blink, I was already demoted to number nine as points rolled in for other people. The highest I’ve ever ended a week’s ranking is third, so at least I got the screengrab proof of my fleeting glory for the first few seconds of a new ranking week. 

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 611 (Wednesday)

 It was a day. It was like a lot of other days, except I was kind of extra cranky and there probably should have been blanket apologies issued to all who were present on my half of the fourth floor. 

Everything is exhausting. Even sleeping is exhausting. I go to bed tired and get up seven or eight hours later, still tired. The crankiness is built on a foundation of tiredness.

I did laugh at work today. Once. Thanks, workspace neighbor! Laughing is fun and I would like more of it. It seems rather sad (pathetic?) that a single afternoon laugh at work is noteworthy, but that's the way it is lately. It’s not like we were watching a comedy cavalcade or anything, either. I don’t even recall exactly what it was, but there was a dry and amusing comment that had to do with my being super extra cranky this morning. 

After supper, while scrolling through images on my phone, a second laugh happened. How could I not? It was a screenshot of post shared on Facebook last year. Instead of scrolling through my phone, I may need to get an enlargement of this solicitation for commissions for "Processional animal portrait" by "a professional drawer person" to cheer me up whenever needed. I'm not sure which part I find most amusing -- the language or the sample pet portrait.

After the "professional drawer person" post, the next image is a screenshot from the website of our health plan at work. There are educational modules and challenges available throughout the year and this particular module was about a healthy eating challenge. While the tips about eating more fruit may be helpful, I am pretty sure I will never be tempted by "an attractive bowel" on my counter. Never. Nope. I don't see that happening.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 610 (Tuesday)

The morning was cold and I didn’t want to get out of bed, but it was a work day and I like to eat, so yeah. I got up. It was the usual drill of getting dressed, makeup, packing lunch, saying goodbye to Winston – all the extra things that need doing that make a work from home day superior to a work at the office day.

On the way to work, there was a numbskull who acted like an idiot and drove into the intersection when the traffic was already piled up and there was clearly no room for his car. When the light changed, he was blocking the intersection I needed to cross and my road rage may have activated with some horn blowing, swearing, and a passionate display of the one finger salute. 

A bit further down the road, a vehicle approached from the other direction, straddling the two lanes. The driver had his hands at 12:00 on the wheel and as we got closer, it looked like he was scratching a lottery ticket. He snapped to awareness of where he was (a city street) and his primary activity (driving) in time to return to his own side of the road. Maybe it’s the approaching full moon. Or something.

Thankfully the rest of the day and the ride home from work were without incident. Once inside the house, however, it was obvious there had been an incident or two in my lengthy absence. A sizeable puddle of pee sat on the kitchen floor. It was a joy mopping it up. No, really, the stuff of dreams.

Had a sweater, but no pants.

That’s when I realized the morning departure activities missed one critical element. I remembered to put a stylish sweater on him, but I forgot to put Winston’s pants on him. Based on the many times I let him out while home and the size of the puddle, it was gone far too long without a diaper for the doggy who needs to pee a lot. Winston was standing at the top of the staircase waiting for me, as cute as ever and I didn't mention the accident. It wasn't his fault anyway. 

It seems the new “thing” is for me to forget something reasonably important each day on the way out. A few days ago it was my phone. Last Friday it was my lunch. This morning, it was Winston’s wrap. The alternating hybrid schedule and regular morning routines aren’t really coordinating right now. Maybe it’s also a casualty of the approaching full moon. Or something.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 609 (Monday)

When Monday is a work from home day, it’s the best sort of a Monday. Not as great as a Monday holiday Monday, but you know, better than the usual wretched Monday.

While I toiled calmly at the desk, the outside world chugged along. The trash, recycling, and yard waste were all picked up during the day, and in the process, nothing was destroyed on my fence (this week), so that is a big win.

Ouch. Thanks, trash truck.

A couple weeks ago, while the mechanical trash truck arms were emptying the neighbor’s recycle bin, there was an unfortunate incident. The fence post cap, which had previously been securely glued to the post, was forcibly removed. It was found lying in the flower bed with parts of it smashed to bits. Vinyl is final, but apparently only until the trash truck arrives. Since the event, the busted post cap pieces have sat on the counter, mocking me. 

The whole broken fence thing could have been avoided if the neighbor’s bins could be picked up from the front of her house. When the truck had two workers, one would get out of the truck and empty the bins into the truck, but recently it’s been a one-person operation. There were several weeks over the summer where the neighbor bins were left in front of her house and were not emptied, which was unfortunate. Also unfortunate is my current level of trash knowledge.

My favorite part is the section of the curbside collection instructions on the city website which states, and I quote, "All items must be put out in front of one's own property; it cannot be put out in front of another's property. Anyone found in violation of this is subject to fines up to $100." Except on my street, where the neighbor's bins in front of the neighbor's house are ignored for weeks.

I recently learned from the neighbor that some time ago, a trash truck ripped down some low-hanging wires running to each of our houses from the pole across the street. There are still many wires draped low and casually across the street, so, that’s still a real problem. I called the city to talk trash and asked what could be done about the pickups and the wires and was told the engineering department would look into the wires. It's been months with no change, but maybe someday, which is not an actual day of the week, something will be done about it. 

Also someday, I’ll get to either Lowe’s or Home Depot for a replacement to the fence cap. First, I need to scroll through old text messages, and hopefully, the ones from May or June 2020 are still there. That’s when former neighbor guy sent fence pictures, and hopefully there is a brand/style/store noted. Neighbor guy ordered everything and had all the paperwork, and also moved away several months ago. When I texted to ask where the fencing came from, he responded not so helpfully, "Either Home Depot or Lowe's." With luck the messages weren’t part of the recent massive cell phone purge, and if they were, well, then the real detective work will begin.