Well, I Have Been Saying This...

This was clipped from some newspaper stuffing around a set of keys received this week.  I'm not the type that goes for believing this stuff, but...
Mostly it seems to be the drivers.  It is hardly safe to be out on the roads any more.  They cut right in front of you, run stop signs, and drive down the middle of the road.  Just last week I took my turn stopping at a stop sign and watched in amazement as the truck in front of me made a U-turn at Five Corners...yikes!  Oh, and that drive down the middle of the road thing?  I had just made a left turn, pulling out of our street on to the main road...which happens to be Main Street...heading toward town when the pick-up truck coming up the hill veered in to the middle of the street.  I had to serve to the shoulder to avoid being hit.  He wasn't even texting.  He was looking right at me, like he was aiming for me or something.

And then there are the incompetents.  Evidently a homeowner needed to hook up to the town sewer system.  His contractor decided that it was okay to damage private property while doing the work.  The property belongs to a non-profit where I am the vice president.  I happened upon the mess while going for a Sunday walk.  A truck parked illegally on the property, stone walls damaged, tire ruts in mud when there used to be field growth, and dumped soil and tree branches.  To top it off, it's not only private property, but it is conservation land.  The contractor had also split a utility pole and that had to be replaced!  Met with the guy and hopefully, eventually, all will be well.  He tried to tell me that they had done us a favor.  What?

It snowed today.  I think it is pretty but I hate it.  Anyway, we got all the walks and drives shoveled - three times.  Pain in the...pain in everything.  We have back door neighbors and the foot of their driveway kind of crosses over our property and my driveway.  I shoveled my drive.  Then neighbor lady came out to shovel hers.  She left a little ridge of snow between the two.  Huh?  Why?  I had just cleared half the area.  Wouldn't it be easiest to just finish her half?  Why leave a 30 foot dividing ridge that was about 6 inches, give or take, wide?  I've only been nice to these people, never caused any trouble.  I wave when I pass them on the street, say hi when out walking.  She tries to avoid speaking to me.  She used to be real friendly.  What have I done?

See her?  My drive looks white as I finished before she started and it was still snowing.  My drive is between that long ridge of snow to her right and the stick marking the edge of my parking spot.  Why would anyone leave that ridge of snow?  The next time I went out to shovel, I shoveled the ridge away.  She hasn't shoveled since.  Must be angry that I cleared the ridge. 

In other wonderful news.  I just heard that we are to expect a blizzard on Tuesday.  OH JOY.
Maybe I'll take some pretty pictures.

Words of a Picture

Some time back I wrote a post about a picture that I came across while looking through some stuff my Dad had stashed away.  I just checked to find that the post is dated from April of 2008.  Most of you will remember reading it...hah. Those of you who don't can refresh your memory about the post here.

Most of you will also remember that a couple years ago I went through the mess of settling both my cousin's and aunt's estates.  During that process 'R' and I traveled to South Carolina to sort through lots of their stuff and make arrangements for the clearing out, repair and sale of their home.  I sent a box, that contained a lot of photos, back home to myself.

In that box was this photo:

Remember?  If not, go back to that link I gave you.

Same photograph is in the photograph.
It gets better.
We have the statue that belonged to my grandparents.  The one that the original photograph was propped up against to be photographed.

So......today I finally did this:

A Last Glimpse of Christmas

Part of a very pretty Christmas window display.

Thank you, Sandcastles, for brightening my evening!

Drifting Away...

so far from the appearance that I had hoped for in changing things here.  I guess I've got some work to do this weekend to fix the mess I've made.

Needing to Warm Up

Well, so much for the gloom and doom template trial.  I'm needing something better.  At least for the cold of winter.  So...I'll try this scheme for a bit and see if it will suit me.  It really screws up the print color of the doom and gloom posts but the text wasn't so important there anyway!

A Gift from New York

My friends M and E (along with K) spent the day in NYC and look what they brought home for me!

This is a challenge to photograph as the camera wishes to focus on the flat surface rather than the 'etched' image on the interior.

This is totally amazing to me.  Especially all the reflections from the top.

How do they make these?  3 - D and all the fine lines...inside.
Baffling.  Thank you!

p.s.  I got a nifty Statue of Liberty pencil, too.  It is displayed next to a Statue of Liberty pen!

The Dark Side

I was up for a change.  Don't know as I'll keep it but it sure makes photos look good.    I have no idea what this font color will look like on the dark gray...

Comments welcome.

Okay, just previewed it to make sure it's readable.  Won't keep the color but fun to play with.

Fine Dining

With the busy-ness of the Christmas season we have done a bit of extra eating out.  Hardly fine dining, but good food.

Denny's...usually attached to a budget motel...breakfast all day.

On Rocky Neck...a fave breakfast and lunch spot only open weekends in the winter.

Inside Sailor Stan's...yes, we were the only patrons at that moment.

So Many Questions! (Bernard)

Pretty much the size of a standard wooden matchstick with no actual flame stuff on the end.  Many of them have been glued together end to end.

As you can see, it has joined the collection.  The photo shows part of the collection.
They get dusted quarterly.

Ta Da ----------

Done.

1250 'matchsticks' later

Oh, the Suffering

I thought this would be a fun project.

What was I thinking?

Still lots more to go...46 pages of patterns.  And some say delightful things like make 7X or 4X or...
I am making progress, though.  I'm working on the double pedestal.

Keystone Bridge Gets Trimmed

Just some photos to compare with the ones in my last post.  The DPW has started work clearing out overgrowth around and under the bridge.  All that seems to be left is to cut down some vine-y stuff, clean out dead stuff, and remove the remnants of an old chain-link fence.  The photos.......

Now you can see the bridge!

Beautiful at Flat Ledge Quarry

Flat Ledge Quarry

The arch reflected

Keystone Bridge

Keystone Bridge viewed facing west

"R" and I took a little walk over by Granite Pier to take a look at the Keystone Bridge (Granite Street/Route 127 passes over the bridge).  There is to be a Conservation Commission meeting next week about the DPW's plan to cut back the overgrowth in the area.  This will include some trees and they have been marked with red paint streaks.  Our bank, the Granite Savings Bank is sponsoring a portion of the work and the hope is that there will be a granite bench placed somewhere near the bridge along with a plaque about the history of the bridge.

Flat Ledge Quarry (the cut and bridge enabled quarried stone to be easily transported to the pier to be loaded on boats)

Anyway, we thought we wanted to check it out.  I'll probably be representing the historical society at the Conservation Commission meeting.

Looking toward the coast from just west of the span

The work that they are proposing and the trimming and tree thinning seems appropriate.  Personally, I think it could be more radical!

A keystone bridge of dry fit granite blocks!

It is a really pretty area, supposedly off limits as it is town water supply.  No trespassing and posted so.  Makes me wonder about the bench and plaque.  Oh well, this is Rockport and everyone seems to trespass just like we did.

Walking in the Fog of a Saturday Afternoon

'A' and I are restarting our efforts toward fitness with a few long walks each week.  Here are some scenes from today.

Mill Pond

The ducks are back

Foggy Front Beach

Driftwood next to Toad Hall Bookstore

Late summer flowers at the former GAR Hall

Pears delivered fresh to the table!

and lobsters direct to the restaurant

Four Hours on a Sunday

Chopping...

starting to work through the pile of veggies

and more chopping.

Lots of green tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers, and onions.

Pile is about half chopped

  All chopped with a new, nineteen fifty-ish 'blitz hacker'.

Colander number one - before more tomatoes and before onions - filled two colanders piled high

Cooking and stirring two large pots of relish

4 hours later - the yield

Today was Make Relish Day.

The Motive

The latest and probably the painting that will be exhibited this Spring at the Rockport Art Association.  It is from a night photo that I took of Motif #1, which is often referred to as the motive by native Rockporters.

"Are you willing to sell it?" I was asked today. 
"That's why it is called The Motive, rather than Motif 1."

When Patience Is Priority

The piano was supposed to be on the stage.  The recital was in the afternoon and as I sat it was 11 a.m.  I had other jobs scheduled for later in the day.  A return visit was not an option.

My view of the piano-less stage.

The Stage Manager was frantic.  The guy in charge of moving the piano knew that it needed to be on stage.

I waited.

And waited...for 45 minutes.

The guy wasn't showing up, wasn't answering his phone.  It was a no-go or improvise.

Did I mention that the manager was frantic (and very apologetic)?

Finally, I went backstage and located the piano.  The Stage Manager found me exploring the options for getting the piano from backstage to on stage.

He said that there was a ramp and I found it.  Then I located a power driver and some drywall screws.  I attached the ramp to the edge of the stage and the manager and I rolled the piano on stage.

Not without mishap, though.  Managers do not make good movers, nor are they used to listening and following directions from someone else.  I pushed and steered, he guided and pulled.  I said take it slowly.  He rushed and managed to yank the piano part way off its stage dolly.  The homemade dolly wasn't attached!  Thus, another problem...

Get the piano back on the dolly correctly so that it could be rolled across the stage.  With a bit of searching I found the necessary items to force things back in line. 

Finally, an hour and a quarter later.........ready to tune.  Much to the relief of the Stage Manager who offered to go get me lunch.  I settled on a bottled water, got to work and collected my pay.

We've Been Lit

Last Saturday evening was Illumination Night in Rockport.  I drove my mom's car down to find a parking space at about 6 p.m. and R followed in my truck.  The only reasonably close parking spot to where we would view the fireworks was at the library.  "Library Parking Only 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Violators will be towed."  However, the library did close at 5 p.m.  What to do?  I parked, got in the truck, and we drove to the police station to plead our case.  "We needed to find a parking spot for my mom's car and we will drop her off at it for fireworks time.  She isn't handicapped, but she can't walk from home.  It's just too far.  Will her car be okay there?"  After giving a description of her car, we were assured that we could leave it there.  Yay, it worked!

At 8:30, Mom, A, and I headed down in the truck.  I dropped them at the car to wait, drove home and R and I walked back down.

We all sat on the wall on Pier Avenue.  A great spot to watch the fireworks!

Food Frenzy

Well...

We have three supermarkets on the island.  The employees walked off the job at one of them.* That one being the lower priced product store. Kinda.  Evidently, their most beloved leader, Artie T. was fired by his board (including his cousin Artie S.)  A family feud that has been going on for decades finally exploded.  First the warehouse drivers left work, then some managers were fired, then the employees started picketing.  Then the customers decided to boycott in support of said Artie T. (and the fact that there were very few items left on the shelves.) "Bring back Artie T.!"  or else.

In the meanwhile, all those Artie T. loving customers had to shop somewhere.  Of course they went to the other two stores on the island...who were not equipped to handle the sudden overload of shoppers.

So, the other two stores have had to scramble to accommodate.  I can't speak too much about one of them, but A works at the other.  The median priced place.

The schedule manager quickly asked if employees could work extra hours.  Then the request went out for employees to give up a day off in the upcoming week.  Work 7 days straight.  A agreed, as did most, she is scheduled to work 50.5 hours this week.  The place is a zoo.  Workers from out of the area affected by the Artie T. walkout are commuting to the store to help out.  The store has even had to rent extra shopping carriages!

And while workers deal with all the mess and the massive extra effort is made to accommodate the folks from the Artie T. store, it would be nice to hear some appreciation from those customers.

What are the clerks hearing?  "I hate shopping here."  Your prices are too high."  "It was better at Artie T's."

Go away, I say.  Find something better.  Hah.

*Rumor has it that many of those 'walk off the job' employees are actually punching the time clock for work and then going outside to picket the store that is paying them for those hours.

An update to the asterisk ...The Boston Globe newspaper reported that managers of several Artie stores have been scheduling employees for full schedules even though there is basically no one shopping at the stores.  They are doing this to further damage the company financially. In my opinion this is theft.  The managers and any employees knowingly participating in this should be fired, or prosecuted, for stealing this money from the company.

June Is Off to a Good Start

Indeed.

The weather has improved, considerably.  The veggie garden is looking pretty good and we even have tomatoes on the plants. 

Work is good, a bit better than steady.  I currently have a key job in the shop that has required a bit of thought and planning (like first removing 156 little brads that my machine blades don't like).  I enjoy having to think a bit about work. 

"waterfall" style keys...no overhang at front and non-parallel top to bottom

The only hitch this month was that I was scheduled to report for jury duty on the 9th.  Well drat.  No time for that.  Fortunately, when I called the juror line "on the business day prior to the date of service", I was informed by a pleasant recording that my group did not need to report.  Yes, June is starting off great!  More good stuff...I cleaned all our windows last Sunday.  The world looks so much brighter.

I feel somewhat inspired to get caught up with lots of stuff.  I bought stain to re-stain our porch and part of the house than looks worn.  I'm in the process of getting all the materials together to re-roof the weather side roof of the shed.  And finally, I'm designing a new business card.  I think I've come up with a nice design and will head to a real printer this week.  I've tried the online budget-minded cards and don't like the results.

Next week dickiebo and I celebrate our birthdays.  I've not even had any grief from fretting family members about plans for my birthday...still time for that, I suppose.  Right now I'll extend the best of birthday wishes to my blog twin.  Strange how we connected just because of a shared birthday.

Don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the month...and to summer.