Month: June 2016

A candidate for state rep and his campaign manager dropped by today.

I appreciate the effort he’s putting into his campaign: going house to house is brutal, but his 1960’s ideas just don’t resonate.

Ron laughed when I told him about this:  “He was expecting a nice little 70 year old lady – poor bastard!”

Went to the Mashpee Food Pantry yesterday for the second time ever and the first time in many years.  Was overwhelmed by the kindness of the volunteers and the generosity of the donors!  Came back with a shopping cart full of good food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, chicken and fish.

Laura and I went to a session on vegetable gardening pests today at Meetinghouse Farm.

Did laundry, dried everything outside.

Chicken stir fry with bok choy from the Farm, baked kale from the Farm, salad with greens from the Farm and sweets from the Pantry for dinner tonight.

Ron worked very late, didn’t get home until 7.

We shared a full day of Ron’s cousins’ vacation in a West Tisbury rental: 5 bedrooms, with pool.

One of the vacationers is a professional chef, and I enjoyed watching how this pro handles a grill.

One of the other vacationers is a charming, lively 82 year old lady who exudes love and kindness.  She knocked both of us off our feet!

Conor and I won a game of cornhole, coming back from behind.  Conor is an outstanding person, and his cousins are the same.  Kind, intelligent, thoughtful kids.

Beachfront Restaurants

Most are in our neck of the woods:

Wellfleet Beachcomber

The Beach House at Chatham Bars Inn

Sesuit Harbor Cafe

The Red Inn

Liam’s at Nauset Beach

Ocean Terrace, Brewster

The Ocean House, Dennis

Popponessett Inn

Joe came over to tell us that Lucy passed away last evening.

Three of Ron’s cousins, and their spouses and children, treated us to lunch today at the Captain Kidd in Woods Hole on their way to the Vineyard.

We took the WHOOSH trolley back and forth.

Beautiful weather, great time.

Picked up my new glasses.  Getting used to looking down for reading; otherwise, am adjusting pretty well to wearing progressives again.

Ray Milland, as Don Birnham, had a lost weekend, and I feel as if I’ve lost this entire week, at least as far as software development is concerned.

I have accomplished a couple of garden projects, though, including transplanting a bunch of bare root (ugh) daylily fans that I bought for $1 (total) today at Soares.  They were left over from a landscaping project, and Terry has offered them to customers for almost nothing.

At the start of the week, I was obsessed with DNA tracking, and for the last two days, finding work.

Gun control is a pretty lame excuse for a “protest”. A criminal with mayhem on his mind can and does evade current gun control laws. Not to mention the nutjob in Britain who built his own weapon. If Dems want to draw attention to a problem that affects a huge number of their constituents, how about staging a sit-in over the loss of 3.2 million American jobs to China over the past 15 years?

I got distracted this week with genealogical research.  It’s addictive, and I missed some important tasks, like enlarging the newest garden so I could transplant James’ strawberries, which I’d put in a bucket with a now-fetid solution of Neptune’s.

I built out the garden and had enough fencing to surround the new strawberry plot.  The smell was horrific for a while, but flies loved it.

I planted the new lavender with the newest grass mini-island.  The monarda has started to bloom, a miniature version with bright pink flowers.  The grass seems to have taken, which is a relief.

I tied up the foxgloves in the front and pulled out a weedy vine that was troubling the Lady’s Mantle.

Planted the three Balloon Flowers in the corner garden.

Wisteria is blooming and smells divine.

Got two sets of “Grumpy Fucker” mugs and t-shirts yesterday.

Drove Robert home.  Steak and salad for supper.

Had coffee and a great conversation with one of my fellow Trustees yesterday.

 

Political Sexism & The Old New Left: Bernie Sanders’s Revolution Relies on Regression

What a great Father’s Day!

Ron set up the Sonos on the deck and we listened to the Pandora Brazilian channel during dinner and for me, afterwards, with coffee and the NY Times.

Grilled swordfish and salad and a choice of four(!) desserts for supper.

Had brunch with Cindy and Cathy.

Did laundry, changed the sheets, did the transfer station run, planted two little Forget-Me-Nots in the corner garden.

Received info from an email correspondent who is part of the online DNA/Adoption community.  She may have found my father!

Uploaded his GEDCOM and attached my DNA record to it.  Should know soon if I have DNA matches to both his his mother’s and father’s family.  If this man is my father, then I have every reason to be proud.  We think he was of Quaker background and may have been a conscientious objector in WWII and an MIT grad.

After decades of being ashamed of my background, with all the smug secrecy behind it, this is disconcerting, but in a good way.  This man was not married when he met my mother, and I wonder if she even told him about me.  For all their “liberal” pretensions, the couple that bought me have every reason to be ashamed of their selfish, duplicitous possessiveness, and I have every reason to be proud of my heritage.

Got my eyes checked yesterday and ordered new glasses.