Month: June 2015

One of my late-season Iris bloomed today – gloriously.

I’ve had a couple of medical appointments this week, one with an allergist who thinks I have eczema*, and one with an ortho surgeon about my knee.

So far, so good with mail order prescriptions.

I washed the pedestal fan today.  It was a wreck, poor thing.  Hope it turns out as well as the bathroom window fan did.

Ron kindly offered to do errands so I could stay off my legs: gas up the truck, drop off a prescription, deposit a check, return a package.

We had a nice lunch today: potato salad with the leftover spuds that Wes and Susan boiled; cole slaw seasoned by Ron; cold cuts; fruit salad.

Ron helped me dig out an errant olive.

We put up the Summer curtains.

Insane activity all around us: Tony’s having work done on his house and the hardscape crew is cutting concrete slabs at the Winslows.  Phenomenal day to work outside: dry air in the upper 60’s.  Too bad we can’t open our windows!

*2 years on eyelids

Sunnova finally billed us for energy production in addition to the lease fee.  So, we aren’t making out as well as we thought.  More like breaking even.

The good news is that we are paying less to them than we would for even the lowest “Green” kwH rate available in this area.  Plus, we are receiving a solid credit from Eversource for excess production: around 278 kwH last month.

Our panels produced 833 kwH of electricity during the May billing period.

I figured out how to normalize the Sunova results with Eversource.  Sunnova gives us daily and monthly production while Eversource shows credits in 28 day increments.

Our usage in April/May was almost identical to last year, which is good considering that we’re running the Radon reduction fan 24×7.

Incredible day today: clear, breezy, temperate.  Welcome to Paradise!

As I’d hoped, Wes and Susan made supper for us last night – an amazing feast. Wes is a genius in the kitchen. We had fish, potatoes, salad. Herbs – rosemary and thyme – from the garden.

We went to the Roadhouse afterwards to hear their friend gig with the house band. Three of Susan’s family members drove down from Northborough.

Ron thought he lost his keys. Turned out, he’d dropped his wallet at the restaurant.

Wes and Susan came back this morning with Ron’s wallet and bags of groceries from Whole Foods.  We were treated to French-style scrambled eggs with avocado and a fresh fruit salad.

Magnifique!

James texted in the early afternoon asking if we had work he could do for pay. Ron and I decided to hire him to help us clean the house for 2 hours.

He vacuumed, Bona’d the floors and even made supper for us! Nice job: grilled burgers with cheese and bacon, squash. I made sweet potato fries and brownies.

Did more watering today: the U (Ron) and areas that I didn’t get to yesterday, like the front of the fence, the roses, the veggie garden. Watered the front lawn.

James was pleased to see his strawberries and his tree. We had a great conversation with him at supper about his plans for college and career.

I picked up several types of twine at Mahoneys as well as plants for the shed. I repotted the violas and put them in the shade. Also planted some Dusty Miller from Attaquin.

Stopped at Breakaway for more dryer sheets. Did the transfer station run with James.

Wish we could go back 46 years so I could trade places with Ron.

I’d have transferred my college credits to Stanford (per Ron) and got myself a good job with benefits; moved Peter and spouse to California. Bought a house. Avoided the hippie life with all its ramifications.

He passed up a lot of opportunities. In the early 70’s, we could have positioned ourselves to accrue a bundle in home equity.

Ron asked me yesterday if I got satisfaction from doing for myself, as in the garden.

Truth be told, as of yesterday and maybe today, I wouldn’t have minded being handed it on a silver platter. Then again, I don’t know the consequences of being that spoiled, either.

I love my yard and little house, no matter how they came to be.

Years ago, when I worked at the MITRE Corporation, two of my reports started courting.

He had a house on the Cape with a garden, and one day, she walked in with an armload of flowers.

That made quite an impression on me.

The person with the flowers was, perhaps still is petite, dark-haired, big-eyed. The kind of person who gets armloads of flowers out of simple appreciation for her prettiness.

I, on the other hand, am mannish-looking, with small eyes, a broad nose, flat cheekbones, a prominent chin and a too-small mouth. The kind of person who gets abuse from men and hateful stares, or gets called “sir” in public meetings.

Ron had given me some lovely flowers a few days ago, and I coddled them along for as long as I could, but today I had to send them to compost.

Ron sighed a bit about that, he loves flowers and growing things generally, so I promised to make an arrangement from our garden.

This is the result. An armload of cut flowers. From my garden. On the Cape.

Ron drove the van to GMC/Hyannis last evening without incident.

We went by truck to Plymouth today for a seminar on knee replacement surgery. Picked up some nice duds at Savers, briefly checked out Pinehills and did a small shop at Market Basket.

Good to be home before the traffic. It’s 8° cooler in the house than the blazing 86° outside.

Since we’ve decided not to schlep to Wareham, we can actually look forward to Fourth of July this year: only 3 weeks away.

Last night’s dinner was great: beef kabobs that Ron had marinated, salad and a used lemon meringue pie.

Drove Alpha to her weekly session with her therapist and Robert to work. Peter is in SF for conferences this week.

Planted the tomato plants that Emma gave us. She’d called us on Monday afternoon with an invite to visit and have supper.

We got to see Gabriel; what a sweet baby!

Spotted five tomatoes in the vegetable garden!

Numbered the soaker hoses: 21. Hope to organize a watering schedule.

Laura invited us for dinner, and we got to visit with her, Joe and Laura’s sister Ellen. Lucy the cat is getting used to her surroundings and made several forays outside. Landscape work continues in their yard with a complete transplant of the foundation shrubs.

…, laundry, New York Times, and the usual Sunday chores as well.

We’ve had some “used” prickly pears in the frig for two months. I finally prepped the ones that were still edible today. Quite tasty!

Roses started blooming today.

Watered the flowers along the fence – 3 soakers – and Emme’s garden. Painted more markers.

Ron power-washed the front siding, front door, windows, lamp post and garden cart at Edgewater while I did the transfer station run and some raking in the grass garden.

I fell asleep on the couch.

We vowed to do nothing but it didn’t turn out that way.

Put the grill back together on the porch. Did more watering (rhodies and the corner garden).

Brought the wishing well base, months in the making, to Edgewater. Ended up mowing the back yard and picking up two more bushels of grass in the process. Ron swept the driveway.

Ice cream for dinner. Watched “Anita”.