Friday, December 15, 2023

Fears Realized

 

I hate having my teeth cleaned. It’s probably due to the bad old days when my gums had started receding and that fiendish jet-powered water cannon was used to scrub at the base of your teeth.

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Projects

 

When Friday ended I looked back and realized I’d gotten more done than I’d realized.

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Spot Begone!



December is filled with annual and bi-annual doctor visits; today’s was my dermatologist to have my bumps and barnacles examined.

Monday, December 4, 2023

Let there be light

 I’m off the ladder and into the knee brace, the result of my morning’s activities.

Sunday, December 3, 2023

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we cook

 

        For someone who usually leads a very quiet life, the upcoming days are almost frantic. 

Friday, December 1, 2023

Speed Versus Volume

 


For a while there, I drove my daughter nuts. Probably still do, but in this instance I knew why.

Monday, November 27, 2023

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Accessory

 

I’ve aided and abetted two more people, a kind married couple who’d never hurt a fly, I’m sure, into a world of risk and danger.

Monday, November 6, 2023

Writing Building Bending Winning

 What I’ve been doing:

Handwriting notes.

 An acquaintance send us photographs of a past trip that we were on with her and her husband - actual photographs. My Guy had run into her at the grocery store, and three days later a fat packet arrived in our mailbox.

Between the glossy pics and writing a thank you card (a quick email wouldn’t have cut it), it all felt very pre-millennium. But it also reminded me of how awful my handwriting is (I used to hate writing notes to parents when I was a teacher) and my sore hand told me how rarely I write anything anymore.

 

Feathering (or organizing) my nest.

          This closet is in a place where we hung store clothes. Instead, it’s always held piles of bins and boxes of toys for grandkids. After assembling these shelves and wedging them in there, anyone who wants it out will have to wait for the building to fall into rubble around them. But now I finally have a place to store that Lego and the extra pillows and blankets when we have an over-abundance of company.

 

(Major foot cramp here)


       Persevering with Yoga.

(Gimpy shoulder not happy)
          I went again this Sunday to the ‘Gentle Yoga’ class. Gentle, HA! We had a youngish substitute instructor who had a very different interpretation of gentle. Plank position? Bridge?  She needs to learn that older bodies need a bit of a warm up and some body parts are never again going to bend the way they used to.

 


Searching for a Mahjong home.

          Friday I drove over several hills and through a few towns to try a new venue. It’s beautiful at this library, next to a water fall, and the ladies were very kind (although pretty much all of them had a good ten years on me and I’m no spring chicken), but I realized it’s just too far to travel. And with the time change, I’d be returning in the dark, plus rush hour traffic. My brain definitely got a work out, though. This game takes way more concentration than chess. Oh, and I won twice! And these ladies play for money. $2.00 richer, Baby!!!









Wednesday, November 1, 2023

54th and 4th

 Today began with a trip to the Y to see if I could survive a yoga class, something I haven’t done for some time.

Friday, October 27, 2023

Dining Divesting

 


We did the Big Purge five years ago when we moved from our house to the condo, but there’s still plenty left to go.

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Wish Books


 

Our mailman must have hated that time of year. I can’t remember how they were delivered; they were certainly too big to shove through the little mail slot in our front door that had the three small descending windows. 

Monday, October 16, 2023

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles


 I somehow found myself in a fairly lengthy conversation with one of my neighbors at the Y this morning.

Sunday, October 15, 2023

Friday, October 13, 2023

Oh Them Bones!

 


I had a grandmotherly clutch-my-pearls moment this week when I was leaving the YMCA.

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Memories and Burritos

       Our daughter came up to attend her high school reunion – marking so many years that it makes me feel old, never mind her.

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Day of Consumption


 No, not tuberculosis (The other name for consumption in the 19th century when it seemed to hit everyone, real and fictional, including Shelley, Chopin, and Modigliani).

Friday, October 6, 2023

Golf and Equality

          My golf league had its last gathering of the year yesterday.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Clean and Safe

 




Yesterday was my day for suds and a shot.

Whoops! Sadly, not that kind.

Saturday, September 23, 2023

Friday, September 22, 2023

Ain't no sunshine with these folks

 


We have a big hairy controversy here in our condominium complex – you know, where people move to when they want to simplify their life.

Friday, September 15, 2023

Books and Buses

 


I’ve just returned from the library, where I picked up books for two upcoming events.

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Small Things

 

Fall's coming: The sedum's in bloom

This morning I woke up to a mama deer and baby in the back yard.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Harbingers

 

Years back, when we used to have a house on a lake, we spent Labor Day weekend packing it up for the winter tenants, the ones who were kind enough to pay the mortgage so we could afford a second home.

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Let a gal keep her mystery

 


I was just reading in today’s Boston Globe about this weekend’s convergence of Nessie hunters at Loch Ness. Apparently the place is being stormed with drones, infrared cameras, and microphones to detect underwater sounds.

Friday, August 25, 2023

Sunday, August 13, 2023

Neither sleet nor rain . . .

 When I first read about check washing, my first thought was that it was a city phenomenon, not something that would reach our small Massachusetts town.

Friday, August 11, 2023

Chicken in the Pot

 


I cooked a whole chicken last night, something I haven’t done in a while.

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Thursday, August 3, 2023

Not just for millionaires

 


Sometimes I feel vaguely defensive about playing golf, long considered the pastime of idle fat cats in white shoes and ugly pants.

Monday, July 31, 2023

A good day all around

 

I’m happy to report that I’m going to unpack my hospital “go” bag.

Monday, July 24, 2023

SNAFU Update

 


Thanks to all you kind people who took the time to think about and write in with suggestions on solving my technical issue. 

Saturday, July 22, 2023

SNAFU

      The acronym that is today's title seems apt in my dealings with blog technology. Just when I think things are cooking along nicely, the 'ping!" of a monkey wrench in the works announces itself. 

      If I seem disinterested in your kind comments, be assured that's not the case. For some reason I've now become anonymous when I try to reply. The ghost in the machine still allows me to activate your comments; I just can't respond to them as myself. 

    This is either due to the fun and whimsical way Blogger like to toss a stumbling block in from time to time, or perhaps something was fiddled with when I took my laptop into the shop for a renewal of my virus software. I'll keep researching. 

     Or - has anyone else had the problem lately?

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Climate and Cookies

 


          Peaches around here will likely be few and far between, thanks to an freak late frost that occurred this spring just as buds were forming.

Monday, July 17, 2023

Past Footsteps

For those of us who are homeowners, the people who came before are shadowy figures.

Saturday, July 8, 2023

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Flawed Conversation

    


      I’m on the verge of painting my toenails a wild and crazy color today.

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Bunnies and Bragging Gone Bad


 

 

I suspect this cutie with the counterfeit expression of innocence is the one who munched the tops off of my daisies.

Thursday, June 29, 2023

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Planned Obsolescence

 


Yet one more home project is keeping my kitchen appliances happy. They’ve been with us less than a year and yet they’ve settled in as some of the needier members of the household.

Monday, June 26, 2023

In Summary

 Since I've been bad, bad, bad about blogging this week, perhaps I can cover my bases by hitting the high (and low) points of the past few days. 

Monday, June 19, 2023

From Oysters to Mercury

 

We were away this weekend visiting delightful daughter and family, fitting in a generational pickleball game and a blowout clambake-style dinner at their house, featuring mussels, steamers, and oysters, topped off by some very respectable red snapper.

Monday, June 12, 2023

Under seige


 This was the view out our front door this morning. Roofer tarps galore.

Friday, June 9, 2023

Heads Up!

 At 7:30 this morning I was out. Dead to the world, at one with my pillow, asleep.


 

Then, BAM! BAM! BAM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, thanks to the camera we have in the garage window, the roofers had arrived, starting early to miss this afternoon’s rain.

Their goal was to complete the garage, which they finished off efficiently. 

 

The only snag for us was trying to get out, since their ladders were positioned right over the garage doors, and the big bucket loader collecting old shingles and bringing new came and went in the driveway. But it’s done and now we have all the rest of the roof to look forward to next week.

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Putting a lid on it

  The call from our complex’s management company came in on Tuesday: The roofers would be starting in on our building on Thursday.

Sunday, June 4, 2023

The first one's free

 


          What with electronic bill paying, the advent of email and then texting, our mailbox is often pretty barren.

Friday, June 2, 2023

Dental Daydreams

 

Off to the dentist’s office at high noon today, the hygienist at one end of the showdown, pick in hand, and me there at the other end with nothing but my plaque to protect me.

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Golf Drama

Outside of playing so badly lately that I’ve come darn close to throwing myself onto the fairway and pounding the ground in frustration, golf can be a serene experience.

Monday, May 29, 2023

Morning stroll

 


I set off for this morning’s walk with low expectations, and was happily surprised.

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Use it or lose it

 I’ll soon be carting another batch of things off for donation somewhere.

Monday, May 22, 2023

Caught by surprise

I finally was able to do something pretty darned exciting yesterday – laundry.

Saturday, May 20, 2023

Flowers and Fruit

 

Yesterday was a bit less frenetic.



My Guy has left me for his art. 

 

Friday, May 19, 2023

Tragedy, Conviviality, Conquest

 

A busy Thursday


          My morning began with 48 degree weather on the golf course, but it gradually warmed up to a toasty 60. If only I could say the same thing about my game, which was abysmal. 20 extra strokes abysmal.

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Daunting


Read any of the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series and it’s easy to be convinced it was written by a native African woman, the voice is so authentic.

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Noshing at the Library


The public library isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think of Mediterranean food, but that’s what happened. Now that I’m back home, I checked in with a group I discovered last December – a cookbook club. The idea is that a cookbook is chosen for the next meeting, members check it out from the library, choose something to make, and meet to try out the results.

          Interesting food that someone else cooked – what’s not to like? Offerings including a beef and pasta dish with hints of cinnamon, an asparagus-lemon-rice-goat cheese cold salad, polenta with parmesan, a risotto with shrimp, and mine – an artichoke, pepper, and chickpea tagine.

          I mostly chose mine because it had ingredients I’d actually heard of and bought. Too many of the recipes required things that were not only exotic, but seemed as though they’d be difficult to track down.


          It was easy to make, in spite of having 19 separate ingredients, and was kind of a surprise in every bite. Probably because along with the title ingredients, it called for cinnamon, coriander, cumin, ginger, 8! cloves of garlic, golden raisins, honey, yogurt, kalamata olives, and cilantro.  

          It must have been a success because when I went to gather up my big pot to take home, it was almost empty.