“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 940 (Thursday) – fresh rain

At the DIY Lowell
Sunset Showcase.

Sometimes there are events after work for various local organizations and tonight was one of those nights. The DIY Lowell group hosted an event called the Sunset Showcase, were they reviewed projects they’ve done like the lanterns in the canal and the food truck festival. 

The event was scheduled to take place on a downtown rooftop deck, and nearby, another local organization was hosting an event on the rooftop level of one of the garages. The event concepts were great, but unfortunately, the weather, which seems to have a mind of its own, had other plans. 

What started as a sunny, slightly humid day, eroded into a late morning windstorm which deteriorated into rain with a few cycles of varying intensity. During an afternoon “off” period in the rotation, the neighbor kids played basketball in the street. Around 4:30 the basketball sounds stopped, which registered in my half-aware brain as either suppertime or a weather pause. 

At 5:00, as I prepared to leave the remote office for the downtown event, the cycle was back to a steady stage of precipitation.

Freshly rinsed.

Even without the deck and sunset setting, the event was still very nice. A singer, accompanied by a guitarist performed during the cocktail hour, and there was great food and a nice crowd. My colleague is new on the advisory board of the organization, the bank is a sponsor, and in all, there were four of us from our department in attendance. 

It was nice to be out for a couple hours, share some time with colleagues out of the office, and support a great organization. Leaving the event in a light drizzle, the freshly rinsed cobblestones glistened under the lights and the air felt a little fresher.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 939 (Wednesday) – growth

Old mum and new, lightly fried mum.

The autumn flowers and a few stragglers of the summer flowers are blooming. Last year’s maroon colored mum finally flowered after weeks of sitting patiently and plain next to a new yellow one put in this year that already has some tired blossoms. The snapdragons that were put in this summer seemed to have died during the drought, but a couple have now revived themselves. 

Up the street in the front yards of a couple neighbors, roses are still blooming. My rose seems to bloom once and be done with the flowering, while it continues to grow and sprawl.

Still blooming.

In the back yard, a lone evening primrose is still blooming on one side of the shed, and on the other side, a single stalk has stretched to the height of the shed. Some sort of vine has spread along the chain link fence near the shed which looks pretty cool. 

 The weeds and vines used to be either trampled by Moose, or pulled out be me to clear the way for his back yard explorations. This was the first summer that I didn’t pull out the growth between the shed and fence and it’s been fun seeing the cool stuff that grows when left alone.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 938 (Tuesday) – photo finish

Outside the board meeting.

There was a meeting tonight for a nonprofit board I’m on. The meeting was done by 7:00, which is now the dark of night and afforded the opportunity to wander a couple blocks and spend a few minutes taking phone pictures downtown after dark. I couldn’t remember the last time I did such a thing. 

The meeting was in a building off a large brick courtyard which has an entrance near the canal across the street from the Haffner’s gas station and the kicking donkey sign. Haffner's It Kicks! The same elusive Haffner’s sign that I’ve had zero luck photographing out the car window during the red light that is forever long most of the time and changes in two seconds when I pull out the cell phone camera. Hmmm…. Trying to take photos may be the secret to getting traffic lights to change faster.

Even though the phone has a night photography mode, it’s hard to get night photos. The low light means it takes several seconds for the picture to capture and without a tripod there is risk of camera movement which means blurry photos.

Across a canal, across a street ...
Haffner's - It Kicks!

Being out in the dark of night taking photos brought up memories of past nighttime shoots with a film camera and a tripod. The quality was good, but schlepping the gear was a pain. The cell phone wins for being portable, but would still need a tripod. 

We used to joke around in my old photo group about what is the best camera. I was in the Nikon camp, my photojournalist friends were all in with Canon, and we all dreamed of having the money to buy a Leica, but the real answer to the “best camera” question turns out to be kind of simple. It’s the one you have with you. Lately, mine just happens to be a phone. And it provided a nice finish to the day.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 937 (Monday) – resurrection and wizardry

In exciting news, after 2.5 days of not leaving the home property, I left the house. It was a sort of a resurrection. It was necessary to attend the in-person Finnish Class. It was great to have someplace to go that didn’t require  giving myself a pep talk first.

Kitchen wizardry in process.

The day was eased into with the usual tools of shower, coffee, Wordle, news, and Facebook. I lost Wordle, despite having four of the five letters (but only one in the correct place). Finnish homework was reviewed, Duolingo lessons were reviewed, continuing the daily lesson streak to 826 days, and then it was leisure time with Bling Empire and Woodoku while a couple loads of laundry were underway.

The food break involved the use of kitchen wizardry to transform a frozen block of soup to a hot lunch. It's amazing what a saucepan on a gas stove fire can do to a previously frozen item. Delicious! 

In the afternoon, the evening primrose along the deck was pulled, filling the yard waste barrel with barely half of the growth.  There is another barrel in the shed, and the application of a city-issued sticker would convert it from the once-needed bottles recycling barrel to the current yard waste variety. But, for as seldom as a second barrel is needed, the rest of the weeding can wait. The barrel will be emptied on Tuesday. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, BungaLowell waste management team. Pacing is important.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 936 (Sunday) – suspended animation

It was another day spent in suspended animation. The couch is the center of the world within The BungaLowell. It’s often more of an anchor than a piece of furniture.

Signs of life were everywhere outside. Birds chirped and scratched in the gutters. Neighbors yelled. Loud cars visited the neighbors who like to yell. Weekend activity continued with a $19.95 rental van at another neighbor’s house.

Winston at rest.

Meanwhile, on the couch, Winston sprawled and napped and I streamed Netflix shows while playing Wordle and then Woodoku. At 3:30, I finally sprang to action and changed out of pajamas and into jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and the tan yard chores sweatshirt with a schmear of black paint. Once dressed, the key was retrieved from the drawer and I marched to the shed and removed the lawn mower.

The grass was lush, thanks to the recent rains and tall thanks to the recent neglect. It took several passes over some spots in the back yard where the grass seemed to flatten out and didn’t seem willing to be cut. In the front yard, the mower wouldn’t start. That’s when I learned about the reset button on the outside outlet. The yards certainly look a lot better than before they were mowed, and the electric mower is much easier to start and maneuver than the previous gas mower.

Back inside, it was back to the couch and the Asian wealth of Bling Empire. It was a change of pace from the recent suspense movies (Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, The Midnight Club) and the full three-season binge of Derry Girls.

When I stop to think about it, which I usually don’t, the amount of time spent with the big screen is quite horrifying. It’s equivalent to a part-time job. Or an actual life out in the world.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 935 (Saturday) –

Like countless weekends before, the current one had a plan. There was a Jack Kerouac commemorative event this morning at the Jack Kerouac Commemorative Park. This was followed by a downtown walk with a guide from National Park Service pointing out Jack Kerouac related spots. Later in the day there were various musical events scheduled. I had printed the weekend’s schedule a couple days earlier and flagged Facebook events for the reminders.

It was a late sleep this morning – 8:00. The multiple awakenings from Winston all week long have taken their toll and leave me tired. He’s often up at midnight and again around 4:00. Of course, he usually sleeps all day while I'm trying to drag my arse through my own.

There was coffee and news and Facebook and when I let Winston outside the first time it felt cold. The next two times were also cold, and when it was time to get dressed to go downtown for the walk, I didn’t. I didn’t dress in cold weather layers shoes appropriate for a 90-minute walk. I stayed in my jeans and slippers and pajama top with the chambray short over it, temporarily donned so I would look sort of dressed when I let Win out. It was cold enough that I didn’t fee l like being outside for it, alone in a crowd, making idle chit chat with strangers and wondering if they thought I am as awkward as I usually feel. It would all take too much effort.

Instead, like countless weekends, I sat on the couch and streamed shows on Netflix. There were movies in the morning and a series with 10 episodes that consumed the afternoon and all night.

Cannolo!

I break plans with myself constantly, but at least I follow through on the food aspect of life. Breakfast was an English muffin with butter and cinnamon sugar. Lunch was two corn tortillas with melted cheese. Supper was ordered in – a large pizza, a burger plate, and a cannolo. The delivery tracker showed the driver on the street, but when I checked, there was nobody out front and no food on the table in the porch. 

The driver was turning in circles in the driveway at the house next door, his face in his phone GPS and my food stack neatly on the roof of his car. Had he bothered to look at the actual houses as he drove down the street, he might have noticed the dark blue numbers attached to the white fence post and on the mailbox. In any event, it made it into my hands.

Most of the huge burger was eaten and some of the fries. The pizza was intended as more of a grocery order and went into the fridge untouched. It will be Sunday lunch and the remainder frozen for future lunches. The planning happens pretty well, and sometimes the execution happens, too, at least when it comes to food. The activities are often abandoned, for a host of reasons. It’s too hot, too chilly, too crowded, too far, too something or other.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 934 (Friday) – boo day

As office office days go, it was like a roller coaster ride. The kind in the kiddie ride section of the amusement park. Not too scary, maybe a belly flop or two, but overall, on the pleasant side of things.

The ride into work was an even lighter version of Friday morning light and it was in the seven- to nine-minute range getting to the garage. It was green lights all the way and light volume. Once in the office, it was a morning routine of logging in and checking the to-do list. Not long after, it got busy with a rush of activity and frenzy due to other people’s poor planning becoming an emergency in our department. Basically, just another day. Poop flows downstream, and most times, we are the collection center for it.

Hunger hit quickly and lunch was heated and eaten just past 11:00. Office office hunger hits suddenly and early. It is very different from home office hunger, which creeps in slowly and much later, often not until 2:00. It’s weird.

Then, all of a sudden, the busy disappeared. Evaporated. The energy that carried the morning was gone, and like a switch had been flipped, the momentum stopped and the day dragged. Time stood still. Not just for me, but for all of us on the floor. Open a file, make changes, save said file and it was as if time had moved backward. 

Hooray, I was "Booed"!

The afternoon interoffice mail delivered a “Boo.” October means the potential for being “Booed” and in October that is a good thing. In chain mail fashion, treats are delivered anonymously with a note and the recipient is asked to keep it moving by sending with a copy of the note and a treat anonymously to two other bankers. 

Today, I received a delightful and delicious boo in the form of a Ziplock treat bag stuffed with candies. The chocolate ones, Snickers, Hershey bar, Almond Joy, and Whoppers, disappeared in a matter of minutes. So weird. The Smartees and Star Bursts were saved for next week. And now the fun task is to make or buy some treats to send and keep it going. 

Finally, one million hours and a bunch of name-brand chocolate candies later, it was 5:00 on Friday of a long weekend and freedom had arrived. Hallelujah.

October has many redeeming qualities besides foliage. One of them is secret candy deliveries, the hope thereof, and spreading the secret joy.