Month: July 2008

Organized and loaded the trash and recyclables for the transfer station run with Peter and Emme, stopped in for the first time ever to the Pow-Wow, had lunch with a very old friend from out of town whom I haven’t seen for 25+ years, talked with another friend on the phone, then picked up James and Robert and groceries for their overnight.
It’s almost 4:30, with miles to go before we sleep.

Yeah, I’ve actually heard these:
There are two working days between Friday afternoon and Monday.
I don’t have time for a code review (but I’ll have time to refactor your code after you leave).
It’s all about me.
Some other characteristics:
Plays favorites
Fits of rage or belittlement
Micromanagement
Unreasonable expectations
Good questions to ask in the interview:
Ten Warning Signs of a Toxic Boss

Started off with some raking and watering, then cleaned out the frig, paid bills, dropped in on a neighborhood party, watched part of the Twilight Zone marathon.
Crossed the bridge to Wareham, where I picked up a “beauty sheet” at my friend Carolyn’s old cottage, checked out a concert in Onset Village, then spent the rest of the day at the machatonim’s waterfront house in Cromesset.
The kids and I went for a beach walk and their little cousin spotted a horseshoe crab moult. Turns out, he’s very interested in “mawine biology”, wants to be a scuba diver and later on, waved a flashlight in our faces and invited us to hunt for “cwickets”.
There was a long and spectacular fireworks display afterwards, and we must have seen over two dozen similar home-grown spectacles along the beaches.
As one of Bonnie’s aunts said, it’s enough to reassure you that maybe the economy isn’t as bad as all that.

Took a break from the usual last night and visited the Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary in Cummaquid for an evening beach walk to look for horseshoe crabs. The sharp-eyed Audubon naturalist spotted three of them while the rest of us settled for green and hermit crab sightings.
We learned that the Sandy Neck lighthouse wasn’t in fact built inland, but that the spit has grown through the years; must be one of the few places on the Cape that is actually gaining rather than losing land.
For the first time ever, I saw the tide creep in over the north side flats, spreading slowly toward the shore like the runoff from watering your lawn. The south side beaches don’t have the same topography, nor do they have the spectacular sunset views.
It was a perfect night, and I was lucky enough to get back to Mashpee in time to catch most of the fireworks display at New Seabury. I’d been told this is a private event, but the roads weren’t blocked off. Several dozen of us were parked at a meadow with a decent view of the display and an easy in/easy out with no crowds to fight with.
The cicadas are pretty much finished, considerate to the end, having emerged after Memorial Day and ended before Fourth of July, they didn’t interfere with the tourist season.
Everything that marks the passage of time has a particular poignancy these days, the cicadas’ brief little lives being no exception. They were not the marauding monsters we were told to expect but, rather, a unique natural event. In a way, we were fortunate to get to see them.