TheCapeBlog

What a day.  We accomplished our long-promised plan to lunch at Tora in Chinatown, so Alpha could sate her craving for Takoyaki.

Alpha generously treated us to lunch AND later, to dessert at Ho Yuen!

After doing laundry and  gardening – got all the veg and herb plants in before the rain expected tomorrow – we tore over to the Cape Cod Mall to pick up Alpha a little after noon.  Stopped at Edgewater so she could retrieve some things for the trip.

By a miracle, Ron got us to Middleboro/Lakeville in time for the 1:53.  I got to use the tickets that would have expired at midnight tonight, as well as the mobile app for parking payments.

We walked a bit of the Greenway and chilled out at South Station.  I was able to pick up OTC meds at the CVS; saved 30%, too.

On the way home, we stopped at the big Walmart in Wareham so Alpha could look for trading cards.  I did a quick shop in their grocery department.

Once we got back to Dixon, we put away the laundry and changed sheets.

Three hours of misery: couldn’t hear any of the speakers, many loud animal noises – it sounded like the Mashpee Wildlife Refuge had taken over the gym.  The Wampanoag Red Hawk singers were the best part.

No more high school graduations for us!

We finished (!) the weeding around the birdbath. Ron watered the new vegetables and herbs; I watered the geraniums, which were parched, and groomed and watered the pansy hanging plant. Doesn’t sound like much, but I’m pretty sure it was two solid hours of work.

Not predicted, but there it was, and I’m grateful for it.  Between pollen and weeding, plant leaves needed a wash.

Did more weeding and planted the five tomatoes and the big, gorgeous rosemary: the queen of the garden.

Peter was here to do laundry.  Ron drove Robert to work and picked up hardware at Eastman’s.

After driving Robert home, we went to Jane’s opening in Orleans.  Love her work, love her unique, individual point of view.

Back in Mashpee and fueled by gin and tonics, Ron and I were in hysterics picking out a card for James’ graduation bucks ($100).

 

 

Uploaded RovingGM files and database to Jim’s server so he/they can see the pages and the layouts.  More to be done, but this is a solid start.

Had teeth cleaned this morning and good review by Dr. D.

Ron cut down the holly bush by the driveway.

I weeded around the bird bath, the tomato garden and the corn garden.  More to do but for now, the truck is pretty well packed.  Sifted out almost a wheelbarrow full of soil from the weeds.

Hope to finish weeding and plant tomorrow.  We may get rain on Saturday.  Watered today.

Pollen everywhere.

We did laundry.  Hung a few things outside to dry for the first time this year.

Ron is the designated driver today for the boys, but I gave James a lift to work from school.

I’m done with the shed!  An adorable couple from West Roxbury bought the leaf shredder.  Suggested Cooke’s for lunch; hope they liked it.

After an hour, I got through the top of the little table, to find that it’s just paper and veneer.  Ron brought it to the transfer station.  I did another run earlier with plastic and cardboard.

Ron put up another partial loft.

I’ve been trying to multitask between prepping the spare room for painting, cleaning out the shed and RovingGM.  Not to mention garden prep and planting.

Haven’t done much with the spare room since last week’s cleaning, although today I did find an emergency hand-crank light and radio that Cindy gave us, and put them in the TV cabinet.

Trying to get through RovingGM, but it’s tedious and that makes it hard to concentrate.

The shed is coming along, and some people are looking at the leaf shredder tomorrow.  Today we finished cleaning and putting away the recyclables and the useful buckets.

Ron did a lot of outdoor work today, including spraying Spinosad on the trees, the roses and the lupine.  We both did some watering as well: the corner garden, the driveway garden and the new vegetables and herbs.

Watering is about all I’ve done in the way of garden prep since cleaning out the clover.  Lots of weeding to do.

I drove Em to a job interview in Hyannis and did a shop while waiting at TJ’s.

Peter was here doing laundry.

Lousy news from Cathy.  She’s optimistic.  We are getting together on Sunday.

Irony: I’d kidded her a while back about inventing an illness that would let her retire early, and that’s exactly what she has to do.

I don’t want to lose her.

A Mallard pair visited this morning.

Ron did the transfer station run so I could rest. Good lad.

No work for the boys.

I added to RovingGM and worked on the shed contents, washing containers to keep, recycling and trash.

A couple from Boston emailed about the leaf shredder.

Ordered mushroom/spinach/eggplant/broccoli pizza from Dino’s.

Cooler today, around 57. Yesterday, our outdoor thermometer hit 90: crazy.

Looks like traffic is nasty through Buzzards Bay right now, so we are lucky to have finished early today.

I was up at 3:30 this morning. Made coffee (thanks for the setup, Ron). Left Edgewater around 7 or so.

Only had to water at Home Depot. Em and I had breakfast at BK. I picked up a few things at the Job Lot in Wareham, then drove to Lowe’s. Scott had “worked” the plants and a nice gent in a Lowe’s uniform had done the watering. So, we were excused from doing any work at Lowe’s. Makes up for yesterday, when we worked for about 6 hours total between us.

Scott let me take a flat of vegetable plants plus a couple others! If everyone from Alabama were as nice as he is, I would want to move there.

Rain started around noon today. I slept for a bit and recovered enough to do a transfer station run so I could empty the back of the truck, do a small shop and make the bed with Ron. Fried some veggie burgers and put together a salad for an early supper/late lunch.

One of the SPEA residents, a representative for Scott, posted a request from his colleague at Bonnie plants for stock help this weekend: $150 cash for 8 hours of work.

So, Em worked at Home Depot and Lowe’s yesterday from about 3:20 in the afternoon to about 8:23 that evening. Em worked with Scott, the Bonnie’s rep, at Home Depot while I had lunch/supper at Chili’s and worked on a .NET project. Em had lunch/supper at Burger King, then we both worked at Lowe’s.

It was fun work and very tiring. Em knew what to do and confidently directed me.

We decided both of us like to either work alone or in pairs. Any larger group inevitably includes a pecking order, and usually the new person is at the bottom.

We lucked out on traffic for our shift. By 3, it was slick going over the bridge.

Ron, meanwhile, did some work on the shed! He put up shelves and it looks fantastic. Contents need more culling, and that’s up to me.

Yesterday morning, I stopped at two garden club plant sales, Osterville and Cotuit, and then Soares, but didn’t find what I wanted. Had great luck at Sprout Farm, though: picked up about $25 of herbs.

Some really nice stock at Home Depot and Lowe’s. The Bonnie rep said this is their biggest weekend of the year. Makes sense.

Ron did laundry today. I dug up the second dead rose bush.

After dropping off the boys, we went to a political event at Dino’s, Jay McMahon for AG.

Ron water blasted Ron’s Pond, drove the boys to and from home, started organizing his tools and chopped off the end of one of the stair rails in the basement.

I managed to unload and move two of the shelves from the spare room. Did some more cleaning; found a live cricket and a dead mouse. Cut in primer around the outlets.

Made a stir fry for lunch with reconstituted mushrooms, tofu, onions and coleslaw mix.

Treated the Edgewater gang to a Dominos meal last night to celebrate Robert’s promotion and James’ liberation from public secondary school.

Stomach better today but still a bit iffy. Yesterday was horrible; pain all day and most of the night.