Month: June 2007

Peter has been worried about a massive tree limb that dangles over the back yard, and after three tries, I found an arborist, my next door neighbor’s employer, who is willing to take it down today.
Peter has also been wanting to power spray the porch, which still has vestiges of the lousy paint job from four years ago, and I’ve reserved a unit at Taylor Rental for late today/tomorrow.
That’ll mean sanding and staining the deck in the weekends to come. I’ll be a very happy person when that job is over.

Continue reading Gardener’s Diary, Power Sprayer and a Tree Limb

It’s been a good ten degrees cooler than Boston, but the weather on the Cape has still been oppressive for the last three days.
We’re supposed to get a break tomorrow, not soon enough for many of us.

So last night, I finally bought a $20 “Star Spangled Sweepstakes” ticket, the Mass. Lottery’s most recent opportunity for instant wealth or self-delusional scam, depending on your point of view.
There haven’t been any winners yet on the Cape, so if the law of random numbers applies, maybe there’s a better than average chance at either the daily or final Fourth of July drawing.
The Lottery claims it’s distributing $40 million in prizes, ranging from $250,000 to $20 million. You can’t win if you don’t play.

I truly wish I could do this.

It seems a shame to spend time indoors at this time of year, when sunset isn’t until well after 8 pm and there are over 16 hours of visible light.
If one had the money, skill and the tools to do so, one could build a patio or put up a shed, all within the normal workweek.
Even folks who don’t exercise on a regular basis are talking about fitness routines, and real athletes are geared up for serious competition.
If it weren’t for the fact that winter saves us from being infested with bugs and even nastier creatures, I wish it were like this all year long.

Glad I hauled self to the Provincetown Film Festival yesterday, otherwise I would have felt like a real loser this morning.
Not only were the two films I saw – America the Beautiful and Movimentos Perpetuos – well worth the trip, but the weather was picture-perfect.
It was a good drive out, good drive back, had enough cash for parking and lunch without breaking the bank, and I visited two National Seashore beaches on the way.
I’m running to catch up this morning; considering that the day is starting out gray and muggy, I’m happy to have invested a rare top ten in something other than mowing a lawn or a transfer station run.

June has been cool and dry, but the gardens don’t seem to mind.
Hacked but not stump ground 6 or 7 years ago, the woods around this house are looking like the forest primeval.
Having read through the “news” websites already, I’m trying to decide if I want to go to P-Town for the film festival, a one hour 45 minute trek each way, or just stay put.
That’s the story this time of year, when the opportunities for leisure time activities explodes.

Continue reading Gardener’s Diary

Too often, Friday night becomes a “throwaway”, and I get mad at myself when that happens.
The main reason is that most of the leisure time activities I enjoy, like yard work or visiting an art gallery, happen during the day. By the time 6 pm comes around, the sidewalks have been rolled up.

Continue reading TGIF

Maybe it’s the humidity, or the remains of the pollen, but getting in gear this weekend has been a promethean task.
There were a couple of community activities on the calendar, and I didn’t attend even one. Envisioning the traffic, parking and participation in the events themselves, especially because of the heat yesterday, was much too much and not too very, very.

Continue reading Lack of Motivation

After searching for a year, my friend across the street finally got herself a puppy, an 8 week old German Shepherd which she named Scully, after the agent in the X Files.
After being liberated from a 9-pup litter, Scully is enjoying being an only child.
She is doing an excellent job of training her two human “slaves” to recognize when she is hungry or needs to go out. The human have already gotten into the habit of putting ice cubes in her water (she loves them) and mixing her dry food with canned.
She is learning words, like her name and “No”.

Continue reading Little Miss Scully