random thoughts – Day 1,572 – (Sunday) – blue sky and salad

Sky-blue summer sky.

The weather this summer has been quite satisfactory. Well, except for the couple days of “enhanced threat of tornadoes.” Those days were not quite as lovely, but overall, I could live in a place with year-round sunny weather and temperatures in the 80s. That would be so awesome. Bonus points for affordability. 

Today’s unscheduled schedule featured minimal activity. It turns out I'm really, really good at a low-key activity schedule. For several years, the activity level has been partly dictated by classes and meetings that don't take place in the summer. Usually at 9:00 on a Sunday morning (September through May), I would be driving to dance class, but today I went to the gym, which was busy but not crowded. 

There was an afternoon visit to the Market Basket on my side of the river for salad ingredients. Halfway home, I realized I hadn’t gotten lettuce. I saw the heads of iceberg and noted the price, visited the bagged greens, decided to get the iceberg after all, then remembered I wanted feta cheese and trotted across the massive store to the deli and cheese area and never gave the salad greens another thought until later. Typical.

Summer salad.

An improvisational salad replaced the original idea of a traditional garden toss salad for supper. Broccoli, cucumber, green grapes, blueberries, raisins, craisins, grape tomatoes, strawberries, almond slivers, and carrots were tossed in a may and apple cider vinegar slaw dressing and topped with feta chunks. It was a nice play of textures and crunch and two bowls good. The blueberries and green grapes this week are great, and the strawberries the past couple weeks have been remarkable. It's the summer of great fruit and weather. 

Today’s Market Basket location had stuffed grape leaves and kalamata olives, and flavors of Luigi’s Italian ice that I hadn’t seen before. Blue raspberry and Watermelon? Sure. The watermelon didn’t really taste like watermelon fruit to me, but maybe like how I remember a watermelon Jolly Rancher to taste.

When the sun was lower in the bright sky-blue sky, there was visit to the deck to defrost from the air conditioning and read. Before I went to the deck I noticed a large bunny and one of the baby bunnies in the back yard, supping on select greens in the sunshine. So cute. I wish there were more rabbit and groundhog choice selection foods in the back yard so I wouldn’t need to mow. And out front, the yard is filled with scraggly weeds and the chrysanthemums and echinacea have been decimated.

Kiki!

The Kiki-allowed belly rubs of Saturday haven’t been repeated since, but she is still receptive to head rubs. In recent days, she has also begun to tentatively approach when I’m in the living room and the kitchen. If I freeze in place, it’s okay, but if I move towards her at all, she turns and leaves. 

Baby steps. It’s still only been 4.5 months since I got her from the Humane Society. We’ll get there. 

random thoughts – Day 1,571 – (Saturday) – back to usual

The past couple days have felt not like their usual personalities due to the holiday on Thursday. Going out for supper after work on Friday helped, and today, finally really-Saturday felt like its proper identity. The days of the week are back on track, at least until the next mid-week holiday.

There was a morning visit to the gym and then there was relaxation. “Relaxation” in this case means that basically, nothing was done all day except binge watching Netflix. First it was The Bureau of Magical Things, an Australian teen drama about magic and humans and fairies and stuff. This was followed by two seasons of Worst Roommate Ever, one of the most disturbing documentaries I think I’ve ever seen. It’s not just the horrible true roommate stories, but also the legal system and rights of squatters. What in the actual frigging hell? Now I need something light and fluffy to scrub the disturbances out of my gray matter.

Rice and beans supper.

Lunch was leftover pasta salad. Leftover rice and beans were excavated from the freezer for supper, topped with queso and corn chips. Relaxing  (umm, lazy) me is always grateful for previously ambitious cooking me when tasty morsels are discovered in the freezer.

Often food is the highlight of the usual day, but today the title goes to Kiki for an unusual event. She let me rub her belly. Not just once, but on two separate occasions. Amazing. What a day. I'm going to try for a third time belly rub because I'm feeling lucky. 

random thoughts – Day 1,570 – (Friday) – blooms and booms

Hydrangea at
Saint Anne's.

The mild disorientation of Thursday not-Saturday was followed by the slightly weird feeling of Friday not-Monday. Hopefully after the weekend Monday really-Monday will feel right again and the passage of time of the five-day workweek will feel back on track.

The walk from the garage included a view of the gorgeous hydrangea at Saint Anne's Episcopal. Based on the many photos shared on Facebook recently, hydrangeas are having a brilliant season this year. Or maybe they always do and I have neglected to notice. It any event, the beautiful blooms are making me want to plant some, but I can't think of where one could fit in the yard. 

It was the second in-office day and the second day I forgot to grab some breakfast. On Wednesday I was able to get a blueberry breakfast protein bar thing from the Coffee Mill, but today they were closed. The emergency food in the desk has been depleted and I keep forgetting to bring in more breakfast bars. Oops.

Pasta salad for breakfast-lunch.

After a semi-valiant effort to tough it out and survive until lunchtime, I caved. The salad greens and container of pasta salad brought from home were retrieved from the office fridge and 10:40 a.m. was declared lunchtime at my desk. There are a lot of kind of dumb laws floating around, but I’m pretty sure there are none about what time of day things can be eaten. If there are, well, so what. One of the best benefits of being a so-called adult is eating whatever whenever.

Early lunch was a success. It happened before there was the chance to become full-blown hangry. I did not expire from hunger. No colleagues were injured. Performance reviews should include points for such proactive, strategic thinking.

Four cheese grilled
deliciousness.

After work, there was a visit with a couple colleagues to Thirsty First. There, my supper of choice was a basket of comfort in the form of a delicious four cheese grilled cheese sandwich served with chips and baby gherkins that weren’t sweet like I expected, but were dill instead. The four cheese grilled cheese definitely needs to become part of the evening food rotation. 

The rain, initially forecast to begin in the afternoon, then at 5:00 and then later, began to fall around 7:00. By the time I reached the parking garage it was coming down in large steady splats. It wasn’t a refreshing shower, and the air was thick and heavy with humidity.

Later, as I sat on the couch with a huge glass of ice water, a show playing on Netflix (The Bureau of Magical Things), and Kiki camped out behind the couch, thunder rumbled in the distance. It grew louder and closer and eventually moved on through the area. The weather app is showing potential for more rain and storms overnight. During the interlude, the neighborhood is being subjected to the latest edition of random amateur home fireworks displays. 

I would love to reach the level of financial comfort that would allow for spending money on something that is intended to be destroyed. I’m not saying I would buy fireworks if I had more money, I just wonder what it feels like to be comfortable enough with cash flow that essentially lighting it on fire wouldn’t be a concern. Maybe someday.

random thoughts – Day 1,569 – (Thursday) – not saturday

The day felt a bit confusing. The alarm went off at 6:15 like a workday and was dismissed because obviously, I knew I didn’t need to work today. I fell back to sleep and got out of bed later, around 8:30, which made it feel like a Saturday. Getting home from the Fitchburg Civic Days Block Party after 11:00 pm and staying up until nearly 1:00 am was way outside the parameters of a usual Wednesday and bound to screw up all time perceptions of Thursday not-Saturday.

After coffee and a hurried, easy breakfast of three strawberries, there was a quick visit to the gym. Yes, I drove. The drive was dominated by the thought that I should just walk there, and also that if I did walk there I wouldn’t even need to go inside and walk on the treadmill, I would essentially be done.

It wasn’t super busy at the gym on holiday not-Saturday and I scored my favorite treadmill. Yes, there is a favorite. It has a crappy display but it’s closest to the entrance/exit and front desk and is also the furthest from the output of any of the ceiling fans. When I’m on a treadmill, I don’t enjoy feeling like I’m in a wind tunnel or having to wear a hoodie buttoned up to my chin to keep from freezing. It’s worth tolerating the crappy display screen to be out of the path of the brisk and steady trade winds.

The rest of the day was super low-key, like many a Saturday, even though it is Thursday not-Saturday. Nothing on Netflix or Prime seemed at all appealing so the TV stayed off most of the day. 

Thanks to the recent purchase of a six pack of hard boiled, peeled eggs from Market Basket, there was egg salad for lunch. Made with the last three of the eggs, there was a half sandwich on whole grain bread with lettuce, followed a half hour later by another half sandwich with lettuce, followed an hour later by the rest of the egg salad eaten with a spoon from the bowl. There is always the intent to “save some for later,” but “later” usually turns out to mean it’s gone within an hour or two. If the current egg salad cravings are anything like most of my food dalliances, it will be a short-term obsession and over soon, and I won’t have egg salad again for another five years.

Once upon a time at Target.

It’s also just as likely the personal favorite food trend will be prematurely cut short by never again finding hard cooked, peeled eggs in Market Basket. History shows this to be the case with several loved products that disappeared from shelves shortly after I discovered them. There are only faint memories left of the cranberry jalapeno dip (two brands/Costco and Target), jalapeno cherry dip (MB, you have forsaken me), Bibigo Korean steamed dumplings (gone from multiple stores), instant chai latte (a gift never to be found for my own purchase), stuffed grape leaves and the large jar of Kalamata olives in oil (MB screwing with me again on both of those). Discovered, loved, and then disappeared forevermore. 

Maybe I’m paranoid and making products disappear isn’t my unwanted super power. It might be a case of becoming infatuated with seasonal merchandise or popular products that sell out. In any case, it reminds me of something overheard in the Commissary at Fort Campbell Army Post. A customer asked where to find a certain product and the manager said, “We kept running out of that so we stopped ordering it.” I wish I was making that up.

Pasta salad.

Retailers, if there are any products you would like to disappear from your shelves forever, send me the product and for a modest fee, I can fall in love with it and then it will magically be gone in no time flat, clearing your shelf space for other things. Maybe this can be my primary retirement activity. I’m also experienced in feeling responsible for the disappearance of TV shows and clothing brands and items (damn you Apt 9 and the elbow length tee and the entire office wear collection).

Supper preparation felt like a regular Thursday. At around the normal supper time, pasta salad was assembled with mixed vegetables, fresh onion, cherry tomatoes and broccoli, and a slaw dressing. Lunch for work on Friday is covered. Then it’s the real Saturday (my favorite day of the week!) and weekend leisure time. 

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.