Author: marcia

I am disgusted with the way that simple actions can bring back bad memories.

Cutting up an apple, for instance, reminds me of an unpleasant job in Seattle, where the ardent swain of one of the secretaries used to carefully core and slice apples for the two of them at lunch time.

Prepping tomatoes is another. That brings back a scene over 40 years ago at a then-friend’s house, when her father complimented a salad she’d prepared: “Good tomato, Elizabeth”. It was a difficult time and I don’t like to be reminded of it.

“A hell of a mess” recalls the petty egotist I worked for at a hospital in Dorchester.

I almost envy those with the type of brain injury that obliterates the past.

These days, there is a lot of noise about debt forgiveness, in the form of mortgage cramdowns and moving up the effective date of changes in federal student loan repayment policies (forgiveness after 20 years, a cap based on income, etc.)

Maybe it’s a character flaw on my part, but these stick in my craw.

Ignorance and lack of “smarts” have “explained” how some borrowers were supposedly snookered into bad home mortgage deals.

Okay, ignorance is a hazard. What, then, caused people smart enough to get in to college to get in over their heads, debt-wise?

As far as frequency of foreclosures is concerned, “experts” predict that as many as 1 out of every 5 mortgages could default if Congress doesn’t “do something”.

Here’s a conflicting data point: in our son’s neighborhood, which has 164 houses, only one has been put up for auction in the 10 years we’ve owned there.

So, let’s cut the bull and call mortgage debt forgiveness for what it is: a gift in a year before a tough Presidential election to some of the most affluent and politically important regions in the United States: California, the Southwest and Florida.

I like the driveway layout at Edgewater better than ours at Dixon. Great contractor, too. The best part is that we are DONE with big projects for this year.

Elie Wiesel:
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

George Bernard Shaw:
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

I’ve put off bringing trash to the Bourne Integrated Solid Waste Management facility for altogether too long.

So, having loaded up the truck with 120 pounds of decayed wood from the newly discovered West corner of our lot, I was happy when Ron volunteered to go with me today.

Turns out, it was very easy, and I’m happy that we figured that out.

We’ve been inundated with a particularly loathsome fungus, and one of the garden centers suggested sweetening the soil to discourage them. So, yesterday, I put some limestone on the worst infestation, to the right of the front stairs.

We had a nice, busy day. I dropped off one of Ron’s prescriptions, dumped some junk at the transfer station and picked up “caution” tape at Botello’s to mark the property line for underbrush clearing.

Ron tried to repair the bench that I dumpstered out of Mark’s yard, but the legs are too far gone. The top is made of mahogany slats, though, so we saved those. The sander is shot.

We attended the semi-annual owners’ SPEA meeting and stopped by Edgewater to check out the lawn. The back yard needs more fill; Ron will call on Monday. We brought Emme with us. We stopped off at a yard sale at the Wing School, and Ron treated to lunch at Chew’s. Then Emme and I took walks along the canal.

She got so far ahead of me at one point that I asked a bike rider to please tell her to come back. Otherwise, I believe she’d have walked the whole way to Bourne.

I got to see Tonka for the first time; he is gorgeous, beautiful grey fur and green and yellow eyes.

We brought four bags of soda bottles to the redemption center; Peter said to keep the cash for Emme’s lunch. We picked up Ron’s prescription, did laundry and watched the second half of “The Corporation”.

Our surveyor put in the “corners” today, and it turns out that our friend Ed was right: our property lines extend well to the left and to the right of our frontage. So much so, in fact, that our complaining neighbor’s boat is in our yard.

I figure, at $22/foot for winter storage, they owe us about $3,000.

On a more mundane note, I finally finished cleaning up the stupid circle that I put in a couple of years ago and reseeded today. We should have seedlings in 7-14 days.

Now it matches the house.

I have three projects going, which isn’t good, I’d rather finish one before starting another, but in this case, the weather has complicated things.

Last week, it rained for several days, so outdoor activities were limited. It was especially hard for painting, since both the current temperature and the future 24 hour forecast need to be right.

I have managed to clear the circle of white rocks and mulch that surrounded the fire pit, which is now part of the new glade.

The white rocks are in the bench area, to be used as a matrix for the pavers. The mulch is piled mainly around the rose bushes, although I did place some around the annual containers on the right side of the deck.

I’ll want to do something with the now barren circle, maybe wait till the spring to put in grass or even sod.

The matrix just needs to be evened out for the placement of the pavers, which shouldn’t take too long.

The third project, something I’ve put off for a couple of years, is painting the shed.

Until we committed to the gray siding in the front, I wasn’t sure what color to use. We bought a house version of the gray stain that we used on the balustrade.

The shed looks a little odd right now because Ron took the shutters off for painting and we emptied the window boxes. I may freshen up the trim, haven’t decided yet. I was so used to the odd yellow-brown primer that it will take some getting used to the gray, although I think we will like it much better.

We’re expecting a surveyor this week and completion of a new driveway at Edgewater next week.

Ron and I have contracted or completed some big projects since he moved here in May: roof ridge vent; siding and new front windows; new basement windows; new septic system at Edgewater; fence repair and repainting; driveway; staining over 70 feet of balustrade; reupholstering a living room chair; and now the rhododendron glade.

In addition, and in spite of knee and back problems, Ron finished a number of smaller but very helpful home repairs, including making a soil sifter for my gardening, installing a second medicine cabinet and replacing the doors on the first, re-attaching several hooks in the bathroom and putting in a new back door light.

We’ve also refinanced the mortgage at Edgewater and purchased Dixon.

Not bad for a couple of doddering old fogies.