Month: August 2008

Last night, the question was posed, what is a group of jellyfish? The answer, “smack”, was incomplete: it is also a “fluther”:
http://www.ucgc.org/terms-for-collections.htm

That was James, about yesterday.
We went to game 2 of the Cape Cod Baseball League playoffs. It was just about picture perfect weather, and we got to see one home run and two broken bats.
Fairly late in the game, and after downing an order of cheese nachos, James told me that the main reason he wanted to go to the game was to collect autographs.
And I thought it was all about the junk food.

Continue reading Best Day Ever

Falmouth road race weekend is over, and it’s cool and overcast today, so it really feels like summer is winding down.
There’s a playoff game at Cotuit this afternoon, weather permitting.
I missed a couple of events I probably would have enjoyed, the Cape Verdean Festival at Onset on Saturday and the Bourne Historical Society Summer Soiree at Briarwood in Pocasset yesterday. Just didn’t find out about them until it was too late.
Emme and I had a nice afternoon, though. We poked around Home Depot, then had a snack and picked up some books at Border’s. We stopped at Cape Leisure in Cotuit and bought a Hatteras hammock to replace the rope one that had been vandalized.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon in the backyard, either in the hammock or reading in the surprisingly comfortable chairs belonging to the new outdoor dining set.

Maybe you’ve seen this ad, in which the consistently disgusting Charmin’ bears reach a new level of poor taste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBNcQgkXEWE

From now until Sunday evening, I’m not planning to go near Falmouth Center or points South – it’s Road Race weekend.
I should have known something was up yesterday afternoon: it was the first time, ever, that I didn’t enjoy being in Woods Hole. I couldn’t wait to leave, the unfamiliar intensity of the crowds made me extremely uncomfortable.
By evening, when we went back for the CSS open house, things seemed to be back to normal.

The Children’s School of Science ends its 2008 summer term today, concluding its 95th year of operation.
Bonnie, Peter and I attended the open house with James last night, and they got to meet his teachers and bought him a very cool black jersey jacket with the school logo.
To round out the evening, we attended an ice cream social at the MBL Club, where James hooked up with one of his classmates and played various summer games, like water balloons and egg toss.
All in all, a great time and a fitting end to a terrific 3 weeks in “the Hole”.

James has attained the magical age, 8. I think he’s hit the peak of childhood, which in my opinion happens between 8 and 10.
People at that age are no longer babies, they are able to start thinking and articulating in a more mature way. They are not yet old enough to be cynical pre-teens; rather, they are immeasurably curious and delighted with the world around them.

Continue reading Magic Age

There are times when I want to avoid Stop & Shop for various reasons, not the least of which is that I don’t want them to become a monopoly in this region.
Roche Brothers has better meat, Shaw’s has a wider selection of groceries and the Windfall has a better deli.
Stop & Shop has the best customer service at the podium, though, and that goes a long, long way.
Recently, I complained about the auditing policy Stop & Shop imposes on customers who use their hand held scanners. They wrote an exceptionally gracious reply.
Then last evening, rushing to get Emme, James and I ready for the ball game, I managed to misplace a bag of groceries. It was like losing a five dollar bill, not a tragedy, but still, the equivalent of a gallon of gas and maybe a pack of gum.
Several hours later, after dropping the kids off, I went back to the Mashpee Stop & Shop, mostly out of curiosity to see if I could figure out what happened to the sack of groceries – left it at the checkout, left it in a cart, etc.
No one had turned it in, but the floor manager made me the following offer: if I could produce a receipt, I could take home replacements for the items lost.
And that’s exactly what happened. Rather than handing me, a customer of almost seven years, a “tough luck” or “we’re not responsible”, Stop & Shop took the high road.
Quite remarkable.

Inspired by our good luck the other night (James won the t-shirt toss at Fuller Field in Cotuit), I just got back from taking James, Emme and their friend Tyler to a Cape League baseball game between the Falmouth Commodores and the Orleans Cardinals.
For the first four innings, the kids ran between the bleachers and the snack bar. For the next three innings, they chased foul balls. They were loud and obnoxious. They ate too many sweets, got their hands dirty and will get to bed too late.
They complained when I told them it was time to go, and they are ready to do it all over again.

Mike Barnicle is quoted as saying that it takes a young person to understand how the under 30’s keep up with current events “from the Internet, from blogs, places that older people like me don’t get.”
Excuse me, Mike, but speak for yourself.