Author: marcia

My truck is my best friend.

It’s been in the shop for almost a week and a half, getting new engine parts, and I miss it terribly.

My truck doesn’t care what I look like. Same with computers: they don’t have ego demands around having a thin, beautiful owner.

My truck is there, 24×7, to help me when I need it. It asks nothing in return besides maintenance and gas. Doesn’t care how flat my stomach is or how much I weigh or whether I compare favorably to old operators. It doesn’t pine for them, correspond with them or “friend” them on Facebook.

When the truck comes back, I’ll have to do something nice for it.

The last two days have been quite nice, and this morning, temps are in the high 60’s and low humidity.

We got a lot done over the last 24 hours: watering, dead-heading, planting (sedum), spraying a hornet’s nest at Edgewater, lighting a fire under our septic contractor, grocery shopping. Ron is making progress on unpacking.

I think the change of weather is helping everyone.

Peter and James did the lawn and I trimmed the bushes at Edgewater, which pretty much finishes the front yardwork, at least for now.

I continued work on weeding the grass garden. Was able to pull out a lot of Evening Primrose, which I usually love, except that these were 5-6 feet tall and out of control.

I uncovered a hornet’s nest under one of Emme’s windows. Very happy that no one hit it with a lawnmower.

More work to be done on the grass garden, the goal being to weed out as much as possible before it seeds.

No pix (I was on the phone with Ed at the time), but a hummer visited our feeder this morning!

After some minor aggravation in Mashpee yesterday morning around disposal of non-electronic computer peripherals and the officious attitude of DPW Director Catherine Laurent, we headed up Route 3 to bring Ron’s computer to the Apple store for troubleshooting (the problem was resolved by downloading a patch to his OS).

Traffic was light and we got to the Derby Street shops early enough to pick up some groceries at Whole Foods. While Ron was in the Apple Store, I did some sale shopping at Crate & Barrel and Kohl’s.

I’d purchased a half-price voucher a while back to The (Ocean) Deck in Green Harbor Marina, Marshfield. It was the perfect day to be outside and we enjoyed our meal and the view. I asked Ron to please drive around so I could show him some of the neighborhood where I used to live.

We stopped at the Stop & Shop gas station on the way back to fill up the van. According to the manual, we had less than half a gallon left: unlikely, we so think.

The tomato plants fell over in this week’s rainstorm. They are so enormous that Ron picked up some rebar and a sledgehammer to stake them to the ground.

We lost a few that hadn’t ripened, so I’m going to try to fry them up in cornmeal and flour tonight.

Had some new potatoes last night that I harvested from our bucket. Sweet and delicious. Grilled some tuna and zuccini as well.

It’s less than three weeks away. Retailers have started advertising Labor Day specials. Thank goodness.

We went to the Harwichport Music Stroll last night, and it was mobbed, so much so that it was difficult to, well, stroll. We did get to hear a terrific Harwich band, Night Train.

We had another very busy weekend, ending with an enjoyable dinner with friends on Sunday evening.

We got the living room and yard back in order after all the work last week. I washed the new windows, rearranged the living room a bit, did some pruning and Ron did laundry and mowed the front. He was able to get the lawn mower, which I thought had to be replaced, to work; the problem was the extension cords.

Since it was a tax-free weekend, I bought a bench on sale at Mahoney’s, the last garden element to be installed from Lisa Rose’s original design.

My poor truck needs a complete engine rebuild.

We did the transfer station run, including a big tree branch that Ron cut down. I planted balloon plant seeds that Laura gave me from her garden in Nashua and another couple of phlox, plus some plants in the front. We picked up calcium spray for the tomatoes, which are getting blossom end rot. I put some on last night, but it’s raining heavily today, so will have to re-apply it.

Today was insane, driving to Buzzards Bay and back to return a rental truck. I forgot to return the key.