Our first time, and we shopped small at Splash Stationers, Heart of Stone, Stephanie’s, Titcomb’s and Scenic Roots,
Picked up gifts for Peter’s birthday and Christmas presents for Cindy and Mary. Ron got a beautifully illustrated Watership Down for Jen’s three musketeers.
Got some nice cookie recipes, too.
Did a medium-sized shop and had lunch at Market Basket. A fine way to spend the afternoon.
Ron and I just got back from a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner, hosted as a gift to the community by Craigville Pizza & Mexican. Turkey, ham, mashed and sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, corn, broccoli, salad, roll, stuffing, gravy AND Centerville cherry and pumpkin pie. The nicest Thanksgiving meal I’ve had since Carolyn passed away. And NO banishment to the nether regions of the holiday table or listening to someone do laundry!
Carolyn Canfield Oakley, born November 10, 1947 and passed away on Saturday, April 19, 2008.
I’m thinking about her today because it’s Thanksgiving, and since Carolyn died, I haven’t enjoyed this holiday. It was special because she and I attended one of the last Mashpee Thanksgiving community dinners at Camp Farley. It was our last real outing. Her health deteriorated very fast after that, and she died five months later.
We had a two-fer lunch yesterday at the BBC in Falmouth, purchased a $25 raffle ticket for a 1969 Triumph Bonneville (BBC’s fund-raiser for the Childrens Hospital heart transplant program) and picked up a key lime pie at the Windfall.
Given the state of our finances – not grim, but not lavish either – we decided this morning to make that our anniversary celebration rather than go out today.
We returned the Comcast TV box and remote. Our first bill was $150 – a far cry from the $74 and change we’ve been paying. We’ve been channel-surfing off and on for two weeks but found little worth watching except for hockey and football, even on HBO.
Besides BBC and Comcast, we did several other errands in Falmouth yesterday: got my glasses adjusted at VisionQuest, and Ron shopped at Kappy’s and did a fill-up at Cumby Farms with the new 10 cents/gallon discount card.
I’ve been looking at the forecast for Jaffrey, NH, with glee: 8-12 inches of snow predicted for today, which would have been our departure date if we’d gone there for Thanksgiving.
Feels like we’re just catching our breath from the last 10 or so days of activity. Ron is off to re-install Emme’s hair dryer wall plate, drop off a check to the Water Department, and do a light shop at Stop & Shop.
Peter Randall stopped by late afternoon yesterday to check out the attic for insulation possibilities through Terminix. Looks like it won’t work. Pity they don’t do wall insulation.
It’s fairly mild and raining again today. I removed the burlap from the shrubs yesterday, until the next cold snap.
We made another trip to Falmouth for strings and a tuner for James’ bass guitar, and trim paint for Edgewater.
Rained most of the day.
Picked up some nice baked goods at the Senior Center.
Did laundry.
Ron and I, mostly Ron, re-installed a couple of wall items at Edgewater. He’ll handle the last one on his own tomorrow.
The reimbursement check arrived today! We ran to the bank to deposit it.
I broke off a piece of tooth.
We hauled ourselves to Edgewater today to pick up trash and de-leaf the back yard. Took around 3 hours total for both of us, 1 1/2 hours each.
Great to have these done before the rain.
Ron did the transfer station run in my stead and is off to stagehand for the Woods Hole FMS.
We removed two truckloads of leaves from the front yard at Edgewater this afternoon.
It took a lot longer than expected – about four hours between us – so we didn’t get to reattaching switch plates, towel racks and other wall items in the bathrooms.
Looks like rain on Monday, so we’ll try to clean up the back yard tomorrow.
Grass looks pretty nice!
The Cohens lectured out of both sides of their mouths when it came to money and respect.
On the one hand, they self-righteously “taught” us that all human beings were of value, regardless of their household income and relative wealth.
On the other hand, family members who were considered to not have a lot of money were looked down on. I remember making a Christmas list by cost, thinking this was the “right” thing to do for the benefit of aunts and uncles who were supposedly “poor” or “low income”.
What gall, what presumption!
I think that’s why I’m hyper-sensitive about our lifestyle, which is by most standards a good one, but by no means as lavish as most of the extended “family”. We can pay our bills. We don’t get hounded by creditors. We can afford to visit our friends, give birthday and holiday presents to our grands, eat healthily and even enjoy an occasional treat.
It occurred to me this morning that the Cohens’ siblings had retirement plans and/or investments and lived very comfortably, making the formers’ snotty, over-competitive attitude especially astonishing.
We haven’t seen the final result, but the painters finished both bathrooms today, on time and on budget, and we got a great report from Peter.
I have been more stressed about this than any other recent home improvement. Not sure why, it’s about the smallest expense and involves no moving parts.
Covered another shrub with the last of the burlap. I may go back on Saturday for more.
Ron drove Peter to his follow-on appointment today. Good review!
The boys and I had calzones and prepped the two bathrooms. They removed wall items and measured the rooms; I filled holes. James made me a coffee; Robert made Smoothies for all of us.
Did a paint run to Sherwin-Williams. Great customer service.
Grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches for supper.
Predicted temps in the 20’s tonight, so Ron and I wrapped four shrubs in the burlap sacks from Cape Coffee Roasters.
Ron did leaves today and I did a bit of garden cleanup.