postscript

I was able to get a little more beach time in with some friends yesterday.
The water was super great, the swimming buoyant and joyous. I can say goodbye for now.



Meanwhile, Fall goes forth. There is a guy I know as an aquaintance who used to live in Northampton. Since that time (2003 +/-) he got married and moved to G'field. I often see him riding his bike to and from work and around town, sometimes with a tie on which is super cute. I just saw him go up Wells on his bike with his wife on another bike looking fit and futur-istic (if the future is full of green-minded bike riders that is). Just before they went by an older guy rode by the Bricker on his old bike, going considerably slower and on the sidewalk. Funny.

I never get enough

GOOOD




BETTER




Like a drug, I can't get enough.

Me and the Hood

I'm on vacation right now and I'm hanging with my family. DbR uploaded this pic which was taken when we were almost on vacation. I really like it.



Pickles is wearing a hood I made for myself last Halloween which didn't fit. It was a throwaway. Recently I cleaned behind the couch and I found it. It is pretty cute.

i like this and i like that

Today I did some relaxing in a hammock and although it was hella pleasant, I kept thinking of things that made me a bit sad and regretful. Overall, though, it was a lovely weekend and I don't mind the next week. I really want to get a lot of work done at work this week before I take my birthday week off. I am happy to anticipate the vacation and would like every minute before it commences to drag slowly so I can enjoy the birthday lead up. Soon it will be over and I won't be able to look forward to the birthday vacation for a while. at least until February, when i will be able to happily anticipate DbR's 40th birthday vacation week. whoo hoo.

I saw this and stole it from Cooper's fb page. I really like it, it makes me happy to see my son doing the music recording. He is living the life I am pleased to have him live. He seems to be pleased as well and I think that is all very good.



so, to sum up, life isn't so terrible as we begin to enjoy this, my favorite month.

back in greenfield

i walked pickles for a long time today. we both enjoyed it.



I miss my buddy, Beaver, from Maine.

Last Day of Vacation

It always comes, the last day. DbR and I leave Maine tomorrow in the morning early enough to pick up Pickles by 5 pm.

This week has been full of middle class summer adventures including some rental unit problems. We find that there is only one real bed in this place with a bed frame, etc and Husbear found himself on that. I took the kids' room across the hall which had two twins and his parents took the loft, also with two twins. Early in the week when Jim got up and sat on the edge of his bed to put on his shoes and socks he fell past the mattress into the depths of the wooden box which was supposed to hold up his mattress. That was humorous and seemingly a mild silliness.

A day or two later I was lying on one of the beds in my room when I beckoned to DbR to come lay on top of me. He complied and the bed collapsed underneath us. We picked up the thin mattress and saw that the mattress-shaped wooden board underneath had dropped into the wooden frame. We saw that the slat or horizontal twobyfours were thin, just extra wooden pieces and nailed together with, not wood screws or anything sensible, but just common nails. It seemed absurd. Poor motherinlaw fretted for days about calling the landlady about this and we had to coach her on what to say. When she did finally call, she left messages on four different phone lines and when we got home that night the repair had been done with screws.


The thing is, that very night I was eager, very eager for a hot shower and there was nothing but lukewarm water. I suffered through and complained to DbR about how cold I was. He started to look at the breakers and the hot water heater's thermostat and fooled around with it for a long time to no avail. He went to bed without a shower.
This morning we tried the hot water and it came on readily.

What's next, I wonder, before we leave?

vacation on mt desert island

today i went kayaking. i never seem to kayak anytime besides when i'm on vacation.
i saw this lovely dragonfly. S/he seemed to preen for me.

oh kingstown, from the ocean you're all kinds of ugly

Queasy on theboat, should return diwnstars, still feels wavy. Sign on dock said 2-3 feet andon the way from the pArking lot I asked a kid who just had gotten off the boat, "is it wavy?" he looked at me blankly. Not knowing whether he was foreign or just teenager, I made wave gestures with my hand and asked, "very wavy?" that sort of shook him out of his luggage-pulling stupor. "no,
not so bad." he managed a smile.

Now i know why he was smiling! He thought he was lulling the old lady with the weak stomach into a big queasy surprise later! I seemany people on the millenium with their Friday evening beers but not me until I get to cb's. Toste doesn't want to drive to OB and I don't blame her. I'm happy to take the #13 into tisbury (I had to call & ask Kid what number bus) to please toste and save her aggro. This means I'm the bringer for CB's byob cocktail party. When he called me to ask if I could also tote a $5 nonmerlot red (his request) I didn't feel too guilty sending him to the natural foods sectionof his local stopy's to puck mr up numerous cans of hanson to match my Kentucky whisky.

That doesn't sound so great now, the cocktail, as I sit on the fast ferry enduring oceanicswells and engine fumes. Earlier I went out on deck and the mad breeze exposed my belly to other ferry-goers so I daren't go
back outside. The teens in the row before me lull me with their pc viewing of a "friends" episode

forgive all typos and nonsense phrasing. I am using my iph and will edit later.

just like i would expect

my fragile friend had a birthday this weekend and i wanted to make it as okay as i could for her. she was planning a gathering at her new house which had a nice yard. i went to visit there when the weather was just getting nice and we both wanted to sit around outside but she didn't have any yard chairs or things like that which allow the sitting of people. she brought out a blanket but i would have none of it. i find that i cannot put my body in a comfortable position without support. im old and weak and need a chair.

a couple of days before her birthday party i went over and hung out with her. she had two very nice green chairs in the yard. they were comfortable and attractive and i oohed and aahed. she told me that she had gotten birthday money from her mom and spent $30 each on the chairs. they were very attractive but i would never spend that much and i realized maybe that was why her house was so much nicer than mine, inside and out, because she would spend $30 on a lawn chair. while we sat in them it occurred to me that she might have more than one guest beside herself at her party. I hoped she would anyway. I wondered where they all would sit. the chairs inside her house were not easily carried out to the yard.

on the day of her party i decided i would try to buy a couple less expensive lawn chairs as a bday gift and bring a couple other less attractive chairs which were my own yard chairs to her house for the guests. i was somewhat proud of my decision and on the day of her party i headed in that direction with four lawn chairs in the car.

Husbear and I had plans to accomplish before her party started. there was another party we were to attend. when we got to this party it became clear that there were only two yard chairs there and already four adults. where was everyone going to sit? we took the chairs out of the car and shared them with this party for a couple hours. at one point the host noticed my white chair was, although dry, somewhat dirty with mold stains and discolorations. he brought out a clorox wipe and tried to clean it. he was able to lighten the seat a bit and i was a little chagrined by the experience. i had planned on cleaning the chair once i had arrived at my friend's party, when i first got there and no one was there but her and me. i had planned on doing it quickly so she wouldn't even notice that it had been dirty. but this guy beat me to it and i was so embarrassed that i made sure to sit in it the rest of the time so no one else would be subjected to the filth.

after we ate the best corn of western mass we gathered our four chairs and went to my friend's house, arriving two hours before she expected others to come. the Husbear left to meet with other people somewhere else, leaving us two, six lawn chairs, a dog and a house full of nice indoor chairs. we enjoyed each others company for hours, relaxing on the green chairs, sitting inside on the couch, occasionally sitting on my birthday gifts (but not often) and sitting on my dirty chair not ever. soon two other ladies showed up and we spent a while inside chatting and then we went outside and sat on her fun kiddie pool and then we played a little badminton. then, as we were all ready to begin the competitive game, Husbear appeared again, with two other fun people and we all milled about until slowly, everyone settled and sat on all the outdoor chairs except me. by the time i had helped everyone get a cocktail and brought some ginger ale out to Husbear all six chairs were spoken for: Husbear and birthday girl, two hot ladies and the cool traveling couple.



i felt a little sorry for myself. i had travelled many a mile carrying about chairs with the idea to help facilitate friends with parties. Not only helping my dear friend, who couldn't buy 6 $10 chairs for her party, but had to buy 2 $30 chairs for the chic factor but also helping some folks who i think are nice but whom i was helping out with the chairs just for the kindness and follow up karmic thank you but when the day was brought to the final sit down i had nothing but the awkward experience of dragging a heavy, falling apart, beat up kitchen chair that was hard to carry through the vestibule so that i could join the party people in their chairs outside.

what's up with that?

David Blames the Dress

Yesterday David and I adventured to New Hampshire to a lake he used to spend days at when was a kid. I was nice albeit I wished I had an innertube to play with in the water. I love the whole playing in waves thing and although I grew up swimming on lake ontario as a kid, I enjoyed swimming in calm water but I really want to play more, have some action. I remember as a kid we would row a boat out deep and throw in something which sinks to the bottom and then jump in and try to find it. I like that game. Or we would swim out to Weber's anchored raft and climb aboard and then enjoy jumping, diving, pushing off of it. That is fun as well.

As David and I drove around the lake, there was many rafts anchored around for play and people waterskiing and jetskiing. I was tempted to jetski even though, yuk, the expenditure of gas and the noise is repellent but seeing them on the lake made me miss boating and that seems fun. More fun perhaps would be riding an inflatable object pulled by a speedboat. then you are in the water and boating as well. yay.

On the way back I was worried about my bedroom windows letting in the rain from a huge storm we were headed into which looked Greenfield bound. Once we got home I saw that it wasn't a problem. I was going to read but I crashed out immediately. I just read David's blog of yesterday and enjoyed it greatly. I laughed out loud at his reference of blaming the dress for the storm. He was referring to a dress I had bought in Hawaii. One day he and I were just walking around Honolulu and were caught in a very dramatic rainstorm which drenched us to the bone, completely. As it waned we saw a very cool second hand clothing store where I was able to buy this dress to relieve me of my very wetness. Now I very rarely wear this dress, I don't think I look as good in it as I do a pair of shorts and a tee but it was nice to just slip it on after our beach day. David blames the dress for the rainstorm.

In other clothing news I bought Kid two pairs of black levis (one jeans, one cords), both as a result of looking for brown or red or rust colored jeans. He picked out 30 length and 32 waist. After buying those I found BBQ color (brown) levis on amazon and mistakenly ordered him 32 length and 30 waist! dumb ol mom. I have to laugh because 30 and 32 are very close in size-does it really make a difference? Of course it does to a 17 yr old guy. I told him that of course I will exchange them (kind of a drag with amazon!) but first would he please put them on and walk around in them to see if they are actually ok? he said he would. I remember seeing him in the 32 waist pants and he pulled the pants quite a bit away from his belly so I don't think he does need a 32 waist. But he is going to be a senior in high school! Every pair of pants needs to be perfect.

Overwatering and How I become attached to plants I've begun to love

Listen to this while reading this blogpost:








A month or two ago I bought a plant at the Greenfield's Farmers Market. It was a heliotrope and it was lovely. The plant seemed rich with flowers and sturdy. I marvelled at its thick beauty because I have a heliotrope at home which I grew from seed and love with all sorts of pride and delight. The above is a photo of the recently purchased plant with its rich, multi-hued purple flowers and vibrant green leaves about a week or so after I repotted it and put it in sunny company with a varigated lemon thyme.
I loved it so. But just yesterday I came to work and found it sitting in an over- sodden planter. I realized that the water I had supplied it on Friday did not drain out or get evaporated by the sun and soil. The poor plant was drowned. Horrified, I tipped the planter over to let out all the sitting water. I hoped that it would dry out and recover quickly. I went to a work meeting and after the meeting I saw a well-meaning coworker walking about with my watering can. Fearing the worst, I went outside and found that she had watered the heliotrope. I can only imagine that she saw its sickly sight and tried to help by watering, perhaps thinking that it was too dry! I poured out the water again and went in to admonish her.

I really wanted the plant to recover. I cut off the drooping limbs and branches, the grey flowers and swollen but limp stems and brought it home where i put the now-smaller plant in a pot with fresh soil, cutting off all dead items and hoping for the best.



When I was in my twenties and thirties I liked plants and flowers and enjoyed nature but never really understood the love of indoor plants. I thought they were pretty and appreciated them but had a boyf who had them all stacked up next to a window in one area. I have since discovered people have plants placed artfully around a house which I find is nicer. As I have gotten into my thirties I have enjoyed more and more the act of growing things from seed. Many Marches have seen me start flowers I really should wait longer to start and filled spaces inside by windows with seedlings and boxes of dirt. I understand this activity more now and appreciate the plants all clustered together by a window in the wintertime. The same guy from my past started a plant called a heliotrope when I lived with him and I was charmed that he would grow a plant because he heard of it in a ragtime song he taught himself to play on piano. A couple of years ago I saw a pack of heliotrope seeds for sale and just for amusement I bought them and tried to grow the plant. Out of the whole pack of seeds I successfully began a plant and still have it to this day. That plant is the healthier one in the above pic. I went for years not remembering its name and then something reminded me of the name of the purple color. It is rather "leggy" and long-branched. I was tempted to trim it way down to make it more bushy but DbR halted the scissors, pointing out that it was a healthy plant.



I've only seen it flower twice in the two+ years since I've grown it. I hope it will flower more.

ice cream truck

Kid is here this weekend. Today we went to a rainy park event and were able to catch a nice set by Spouse. Henning played bass in the 3 piece instead of Ken. Afterwards, Sal chatted up the band and came away with Spouse's new album. After some more running around he and I settled down in front of our computers in the dining room and he put the disc in. We were 1/5 through the first song when I heard some other weird music playing.

"What is that?" I asked. Sal heard it too and turned off the album. We heard the distinctive noisesong of an ice cream truck. Excitedly (who doesn't love door delivery of ice cream?) we jumped off our seats and ran outside, carefully not letting the dog out. The truck passed and I couldn't even see it but Kid has a nose for such things and took off down the sidewalk, yelling and waving. A block and a half away the truck finally stopped for us. Sal bought himself a cookies and cream ice cream cone and I bought myself a choco taco. I also got DbR the peanutbutter cup ice cream bar. He liked it.

I saw a funny sign advertising sour cherry italian ice. There was a picture of a cartoon kid's face puckered up with tears squeezing out. It was called "Cry baby". I almost wish I had gotten that instead of the chocotaco.

This was the first time in a couple of years that the truck went by Wells Street. No one else seemed to notice or care. It is a quiet afternoon in Greenfield.

dogs sometimes bark at fireworks

Since I bought the Bricker in August 2002, I have now lived through eight Greenfield Fireworks events. You can call it nine if you want to count the one the month before the Bricker was mine, because I did endure it that year. Sal and I unknowingly found ourselves at the Peoples Pint during the fireworks and he left his very valuable book about the steamships there and it was an upsetting occasion. Then, driving out of town we were stuck in traffic. It is a yukky memory.

There have been better fireworks years. Sometimes I go to the park where people gather, I have also sat in yards on side streets adjacent to the park. I've enjoyed the fireworks with Karen, Evelyn and Karen's mom, I've experienced the fireworks with Frank and Ken, last year I went to the fireworks with David who likes a small town event. I think the park gets too crowded with people, which I don't find enjoyable and I detest getting caught in traffic. The fireworks park is just a little too far to enjoy the walk but one can park on this side of Federal Street and cut it down to an okay jaunt and if you pick the right side street one can shoot right down to wells, if you are lucky.

This year David went to Eaha for a show, leaving me home. I had just finished packing my bag for an overnight trip tomorrow when the fireworks began. I noticed from my bedroom if I looked just down the hall toward the back of the Bricker, in the direction of the train tracks, I could see some bright lights and exploding gun powder. I pulled my futon over into the position of my room where I could see the fireworks while lying down. It was no panoramic view and there was a bit of a tree in the way but for being in bed with the dog, it was a pretty great show.

Now people and traffic has livened up outside on Wells Street and Peretz is disturbed, barking at the impudence. Pickles is out in the hall outside my bedroom doorway, snoozing on a cushy dog bed. He looks comfortable.

took a shower

and although Pickles had total access to my bedroom garbage, he did not molest the contents. what a good dog!!

Pickles is a good dog

Today is hot and humid and yuck. Thankfully it is Saturday so I can just lounge around the house taking showers. Two, so far.

I'm not lounging 100% however. I got up and started laundry. I did some dishes, watered some plants. I found some alaskan daisy starters half dead in their outgrown clay pot so I gave them a lot of water in the sink and then a little while later, stuck them in the ground next to a row of columbine I had planted a couple weeks ago. Out of a whole pack of columbine seeds I have 5-6 plants popping up. I wish there were more. Now they are in a row next to a row of daisies. I'll report back on their progress.

Just now I heard a cat's meow which is weird because I don't have a cat and I'm sitting in my bedroom on the third floor of my house next to a fan. The meow must have come from the ground but that's pretty great projection for a kitty.

Back to today's progress. I did a little weeding after replanting the daisies and then watered a bunch of stuff but I don't have a hose that works so I tired after 2 5 gallon trips. David went to NH and before I took another shower I pushed the couch out from the wall and vacuumed all the horrible hairballs, etc up from behind there. Only found 35c. I did find a rejected piece of my halloween costume that I had sewn and discarded. It was supposed to have been the ewok hood but was a FAIL. Then I was ready for shower #2 so I called and enticed Pickles up to the bathroom with me and got him in and showered. It was great. I took off my clothes so I could get in there too and managed to sit on the edge of the tub with him (somewhat) complacently standing between my knees as i soaped and rinsed him. He was good and now it is obvious that he knows he is a very good boy and he just looks so shiny and lovely freshly washed.

Just as we were getting wet in the shower I heard thunder but this hasn't followed through yet. Will there be hail? Will there be a tornado? Let's watch.

sunset, asparagus-filled, and giggles

Thursdays can be sweet.

everything is better now

so after i decided to go to the minnesingers concert i called Sal to tell him and we spoke very briefly, mostly him saying, yeah, ok
then on thursday night, late, he sent me an email saying, don't come, just got back from rehearsal, its not worth coming for, everyone sucks, yadda yadda and then i wrote back, "i don't care, i really want to, email me back that is okay" and i didn't hear from him all day friday which bummed me out because then i didn't know my plan
and then at work weirdness occurred but then DbR+I went to the flywheel and it was a great show with lots of interesting sounds and i had a few laughs with Nick, a few heartfelt talks with Ted, some cuddles and smiles with Husbear, some other nice conversations/interactions with this guy Dave and this woman Jess, nice nice nice Friday night.
Today, I slept really late and felt funky, missed the g'field farmers market which bummed me out (really great plant selections-me no money), still no word from Sal, which fucked me up, i called him at one, "tell me if its okay to come or not, what's up?" went to Iron Man2 (good+fun), had a margarita at hope and olive at 5
(david had a gay boy drink) and we split a italian meats and cheese bread board, then i bought $6 worth of 50% off crappy eleanor roosevelt mysteries, we came home, i made a cake + he made a nice dinner, we walked the dogs and i called sal, "call me back, we won't come if that gets you mad but i am still hoping you call me back and say, come on down" I was feeling a little stressed about it and then finally he called and we had a very light, comical conversation and so the trip is a go for mother's day!

rainy depressed Saturday

I do not feel on top of the world at all today, regardless of how tall my bedroom is in the sky.
Should do laundry, both pairs of jeans are dirty. dogs are raising a ruckus downstairs.
Feel like things are out of my hands, I hate that. Time to condense and contract.
Maybe going to see Iron Man 2 will be a pleasant distraction.

lovely saturday

im excited to go to fenway park tonight. it's been a long time.

david sleeps on the couch sometimes which is nice for him and the dogs, whatever, but this morning he was there on the couch on the first floor sleeping and the dogs both came up to my room on the third floor to ask me for morning kibble and to be let out to do their morning business. why come to me? David was right there. Oh, yeah, they can't wake him up as easily as they can wake me up.

So I did get up, it was 10 am anyway, and i let them out and it is a beautiful day-they liked it, i made coffee and turned on the radio and did all the dishes. 45 minutes later, David is still asleep and I'm upstairs doing this and drinking coffee.

the dogs are back. Pickles followed me up immediately and Peretz just stumbled up the stairs himself. I heard him pause and stumble on his way up, poor ol' guy. What is hella cute is that Pickles removed himself from the extra futon (where dogs are welcome to sleep, night and day) so Peretz could lay down on there. and so Peretz has. Pickles looks out the window. I drink coffee.

All the news that is fit to print.

Peretz and his temper tantrum

Last night, around midnight, I heard Peretz's distinctive barking. I ignored it for the first minute or two because who cares, right? After a while, it had lasted long enough for me to pay attention to it and this is when I discerned that it was just the old dog, all alone, there was no Pickles joining him. This shows to me that there is no bat or other alarm-worthy reason for his barking so I ignored it some more.

After another minute or two I heard him give a howl. Peretz has a mini-howl that I hear only once in a while and it is associated mostly just with his own peevishness. Since I had to visit the bathroom anyway, I decided to check in with Peretz to see what the trouble is. I descended to the first floor where all the lights had been turned off by me a half hour before when I had decided to go to my bedroom for the night. David and Pickles were already asleep in D's room but I was lucky enough to be still awake to hear Sir Peretz's trouble making. I arrived downstairs to find him on a dog bed all alone with his barking discontinued (probably when he heard me coming in his direction he ceased). He looked perfectly healthy, awake and alert and when I questioned him, he gave me a sidelong glance all of us Peretz lovers know very well.



There was no apparent reason for his bark and howl that I could see, or any human would be able to conclude. He was just lying there looking well. I decided he must have just wanted attention and was feeling melancholy and/or dramatic. I encouraged him to come upstairs and join me in my room. "Come on, Peretz, come on." I bade him as I climbed the stairs. A couple more verbal enticements and he did rise and clamored up to the second floor, joining me at the landing. Pickles had heard my admonishments and emerged into the hallway from David's room and he then led Peretz to the comfort of their man's room, crisis over.