3rd House Journal

October

Ah, where has the time gone? Busy with work, as ever. Avoiding sitting any more than already required for the job -- another impediment to blogging. However, I did just install a Varidesk sit-stand thingie in my home office, which means I can stand some portion of the time at my computer and I like it a lot! I may have to work from home a bit more since we don't have the means to stand at desks at the office. [photo: Beech tree in the Public Garden, Boston, 10/23/16]

After a very dry summer (we have extreme drought in this part of New England), we got a bit of rain over the weekend. It's starting to cool down to normal October weather, too, after some weird 80-degree days the end of last week. Tomorrow's forecast hinted at the possibility of snow flurries. I get up for work in the morning while it's still dark, though that will change for awhile when we turn the clocks back this weekend. Soon I'll be driving home from work in the dark as well. [photo: Newbury St in Boston; 10/22/16]

Despite the drought, we've seen some fall foliage around here that isn't just dried brown leaves. Further north of here in Vermont where we visited friends the first weekend of October, the foliage was spectacular. My friend and her husband have retired up there, although MJ just took a job at the local ski resort selling season ski passes. This gave her free access to the road that winds up the mountain to the peak (normally quite pricey), so we piled into her minivan and she drove us up for sightseeing, one of the last weekends before they close the road for the winter season. [photos below: Stowe, Vermont, 10/1/16] More photos from Vermont here.

  

 I had my 40th high school reunion the weekend before last, which was quite fun actually. I absolved D of coming with me (he had a friend visiting anyway) so I could catch up with friends I haven't spoken to in 20 years (I did go to my 20th, so long ago). We had a large turnout, not surprisingly since there were more than 800 people in my graduating class! Nice to be with so many people my age since everyone I work with is 15 to 35 years younger than me, and D and many of my friends are a few years to a dozen years older.

Other than that, I and many of my friends and, well, countrymen and women, have been existing in high anxiety over the political situation in our country. Things seem to be heading in a positive direction regarding the elections (just 2 weeks from yesterday), which eases the mind a bit, but nothing to be taken for granted. I will be relieved (presumably, fingers crossed) when the elections are over. But so much sorry behavior and sentiment. I hope lancing this boil to let these things come to light helps to eventually cleanse the country, however noxious it is in the meantime. I teeter between pessimism and hope.

Maybe it's the perfect season, Halloween, which brings out the ghouls and goblins and gives them their due. I remember years ago visiting a friend in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the annual Fiesta, where they bring out Zozobra, Old Man Gloom. People contribute mementos of the year's troubles, let Zozobra rail a bit, before burning him in effigy along with their troubles away for another year. I think we could use a similar ritual after the elections to cleanse our own spirits and make way for a merrier holiday season.

[Back Bay, Boston; 10/23/16] 

Still here

Two months after my last post, checking back in. The news is unbearably sad or infuriating in turn these days here in the US. And yet there is still beauty and love.

On Saturday, we walked down the street to the Boston Pride Parade, which was fun and joyful despite the drizzle. A very long parade and disparate or maybe inclusive is the word - gay dad groups, drag queens, LGBT sports teams, church groups of all stripes, public education advocates, a pet rescue group, many large local corporate sponsors, and our liberal politicians including both of our US senators (including Elizabeth Warren, which was rather thrilling since she's becoming quite the rock star). With all the hateful stupidity bubbling up around the country, it's heartening to know at least that I live in a state with sane, progressive representatives.

[At the Boston Pride Parade; 11 June 2016]

Otherwise, we are enjoying the long summer days, which have been on the cool side lately, which I am perfectly happy with. I'll not be doing much beach going and sunning this summer after suffering through the past month healing from the excision of a swath of skin off my back to remove a basal cell carcinoma, nothing serious but very uncomfortable (and not at all easy to wash and dress by myself twice a day, bandage in one hand and mirror in the other navigating against reverse reflection to position the bandage in just the right spot). Better now a month later, no more bandage at least. 

We did get up to Rockport one very hot day in May, thinking the sea breezes would be cooling. No other road trips this summer as yet, but the summer has only just begun.

We have one more weekend together before we both fly off for a few days - me to visit my dad and D to attend a wedding (a friend's son). And then we have the 4th of July long weekend after we're back and some vacation time on the Cape in early August. Our summers are short here and go by so fast. Probably best to turn off the news and social media as much as possible and enjoy the long days while they're here.

Into 2016

As I was writing my 2015 Year in Review, I scrolled back through many old posts, not just from 2015 but further back. I'm amazed at how much I blogged years back, and so much more thoughtfully than now. Of course, much of this was when I was freelancing from home (and, frankly, barely working and thus barely surviving), before I went back to working full-time in 2006. Then once I started seeing D in 2009 and spending weekends in the city, it just became impossible to keep it up. My brain was fried with work, and I already spent too much time sitting at a computer during the week. I did begin to photograph more, but mostly posting on Flickr and sometimes on Facebook. I know many bemoan Facebook from taking people away from longer and more thoughtful blog writing, and surely that's the case for many, but it's mostly other circumstances that have necessitated channeling my congenitally limited energy supply elsewhere. And the smallish bits of time I spend on Facebook let me feel connected to people I would otherwise have sadly lost track of.

So I will certainly not say I expect to spend more time blogging in 2016. In fact, I have made no New Year's resolutions. Over the New Year's holiday, I suffered from much insomnia and sleep deprivation and so resolving to do anything more than get through the semi-waking hours semi-enjoying my vacation time was more than I could entertain. I did, and do, have some vague concept of letting myself off the hook a bit more this year and worrying a bit less about the judgement of others as I'm wont to do. It just saps too much energy, which, as I said, is already in finite supply and not likely to increase much anytime soon.

I do hope to move around a bit more - D gave me a Fitbit Charge wristband for Christmas, which encourages the achievement of a certain amount of steps and stairs and activity each day. I already know that sitting all day as I do at my job is not healthy, but tracking the numbers does have its motivational aspect. My Fitbit also has a sleep tracker, which is somewhat depressing in my current state - and I had to just take it off a couple of nights as I was all too aware of being awake well into the wee hours - but it does provide some interesting feedback when I have worn it. I'm hoping being back into a daily routine on workdays rather than at D's (let's face it, another person's snores and stirring about are a challenge when you're having sleep issues) will get me back on track with sleep, precious drug that it is.

Above - New Year's Eve fireworks from the lagoon in the Public Garden in Boston. These were the "family fireworks" at 7 pm, after which we returned to D's and had dinner (I'd made a Bolognese sauce earlier) and watched a movie on tv and then some New Year's Eve stuff until the ball dropped.

I've been back to work since Monday, and pretty busy already. Despite the lack of sufficient sleep over the holidays, I did get a welcome break from work and feel more ready to get back into it. If that's not enough, I also this week booked our summer vacation stay on the Cape, which cheers me no end and provides warming thoughts on these cold winter days.

Year in Review: 2015

 

The big story of 2015 has to be the snow. Snowmaggedon. Snowverload. Snowmygod. It fell and it fell until we had more than 94 inches in the 30 days from January 24th to February 22nd, or 110 inches for the entire 2014-2015 winter season.

It started out so mild. On the weekend of the January 24th, with barely a dusting of snow in Boston, D and I drove up to Vermont for a lovely weekend with old friends of mine in their ski house, marveling at the lovely snowy mountains. It wasn't until we got home that we had the first blizzard of the season in Boston, Winter Storm Juno, which dumped more than two feet of snow. I noted cheerfully in my blog post that since you can't beat winter in New England, embrace it. Little did I know. A week later, on February 3rd, another foot of snow came down, dubbed the Full Moon snow (or Winter Storm Linus). With more than three feet of snow on the ground, we were already weary. But there was more on the way.

On February 9th, Storm Marcus left another two feet of snow. Five days later, after taking a taxi in to Boston to stay with D for Valentine's weekend (the T was no longer running above ground and D's car was in a coveted spot on Comm Ave), Winter Storm Neptune hit, leaving another 16 inches. D was also very sick that weekend, alas, making for great anxiety since we really couldn't get out if we needed to. The morning after the storm, I got out for a walk  to document the frozen deluge. And fortunately D recovered after a couple of weeks on antibiotics.

It wasn't until February 22nd that we had enough of a thaw that we could go out to eat, enjoying a sunny window view overlooking a still hulking snowbank. March brought a slow melt, though we had to go to the Wellesley College greenhouses to see anything resembling spring. By the end of March, we could see the sidewalk outside D's place.

Crocuses finally appeared in early April, and by Boston Marathon weekend (April 18-20) the cherry and magnolia trees were starting to bud and the Swan Boats reappeared on the lagoon in the Public Garden. Marathon Day itself, though, was chilly and rainy, although that was no excuse not to celebrate the day in style, as this gentleman showed.

But May - ah May - was lovely. A balm to the winter weary in Boston. Remedial.

In mid June, we got to the beach one day, and in late June I flew out to see my dad for a nice visit, during which I got in a good walk at the arboretum. In July, we had lovely weather for the Independence Day weekend, with fireworks on the 4th and a nice spur-of-the-moment ride on the No. 9 bus out to Castle Island on the 5th. In mid-July, D went off to visit friends in Pittsburgh, so I got to go play with my girlfriends, enjoying the giant white rabbits on Lawn on D, a tour on a giant sailing ship, and then giant margaritas dockside. 

August brought a lovely summer vacation stay for D and I in the outer Cape Cod town of North Truro at a place right overlooking the beach. In September, we took a fast train down to Providence for Waterfire for a fun afternoon and evening, including an excellent choice of restaurant and the ever enthralling Waterfire event.

We made the best of October light, including driving back up to Vermont to stay with my friends again, this time for a fall leaf-peeping weekend, although the warm weather forestalled the autumn leaf colors quite a bit. At the end of October, we took in the spooky goings-on for Halloween in Boston. In mid November, we went to the ICA-Boston with a good friend of D's to see some modern dance and the Black Mountain College exhibition. November 18th was this blog's 11th blogiversary, but I'm afraid I forgot to note it this year. At the end of November, we finally used last year's Christmas present of a gift certificate at the Top of the Hub, taking in the views from the 52nd floor (too snowy to get there early in the year, too nice out later on to stay indoors).

It was a busy year at work. Though I still enjoyed the job this year, it's been challenging with various physical issues - sleep interruptions with night sweats and then each of the many remedies I tried which worked and then didn't or worked but ended up giving me anxiety or palpitations. Lack of sleep sometimes wrecked my concentration and my moods and left my muscles tense without enough rest at night. I developed hip bursitis from crunching up at my desk to try to focus in order to do my job. Physical therapy helped, and the latest remedy has eased things though not completely. We'll see how it goes in 2016.

En fin, December, a very busy month indeed (see previous post). Yesterday, we had our first snow of the season (or slush actually), after hitting record high temperatures in the 60's (about 19°C) the day before Christmas. The weather is expected to clear for New Year's Eve, which we'll enjoy in our usual low-key way, with a cocktail out somewhere, then the First Night promenade (around 6 pm), maybe the family (ie, early)  fireworks, and then back inside for dinner at D's with a movie and whatever New Year's Eve festivities are on TV. I'll just make it to midnight.

Happy New Year, wherever you are!

Remedial

[Tulips in the Public Garden, Boston; 5/16/15]

Spring continues to pour forth its bounty following our exceedingly trying winter.

[Red tulips, green grass]

Alas, other trials have been  in store as D became very sick again on Thursday/Friday and was touch and go through the weekend as to whether or not to go to the ER. Meanwhile my dad, who'd had intestinal surgery the week before and had been doing well enough to be moved to rehab, got very sick on Friday and had to go back into the ICU. Both, thankfully, are doing much better now. I was able to get out for a walk on Saturday while D slept, and I was cheered by the riot of colorful tulips in the Public Garden. On Sunday, by noon D had decided he was well enough to continue to heal at home, and he had a little bit to eat. So I got out again for a walk by the river, a sunny day with the birds chirping and cool breezes blowing. Nature on its best behavior, soothing and lovely.

[Boston Esplanade lagoon; 5/16/15]

Tonight both D and my dad are on the mend. My brother, who lives near my dad and was himself ill with a very bad cold at the start of my dad's latest odyssey, has been keeping me posted by email (which is also rather heartening as we've been estranged). The days continue to grow longer, another month until the longest day of the year. A holiday weekend is also in store (Memorial Day on Monday). I'm very tired, but the light and the verdant spring are buoyant as the salty sea. Maybe summer will be okay after all.

Winter in New England

[Breakfast in Vermont; 1/24/15]

We were fortunate to be invited to spend the weekend in Stowe, Vermont to celebrate a friend's 60th birthday at the ski house that she and her husband bought last summer. D and I drove up on Friday afternoon (3+ hours), arriving just after dark, to find their beautiful new place all lit up, warm, and welcoming. But the real beauty was waking the next morning to have breakfast overlooking the gorgeous views.

[The ski house]

Although my friend and her family are avid skiers, we didn't ski this weekend but got out for a little bit of hiking. Then, Saturday evening, her husband cooked up an amazing feast for us (eight of us in all). We four women all worked together in the '80s and have stayed friends ever since, though there have been stretches where we didn't see much of each other given child-rearing and family obligations and such. But there's such joy and comfort in old friendships.

We had lovely weather all weekend, sunny and not too cold on Saturday. After dinner, we ladies enjoyed the outdoor hot tub under the deck with the snow falling lightly around us. Sunday was quite chilly when we headed back home, but clear and dry. Alas, we headed out of snow country just in time to settle in for a blizzard that started on Monday evening and didn't end until early this morning after having dumped about 2 feet of snow where I live - almost 3 feet in some parts.

[The scene today outside my apartment]

Fortunately, it was very cold so the snow was light and fluffy - good for not pulling down the power lines and also not too heavy to shovel. I am a bit stiff today, though! My neighbor and I dug our cars out of our contiguous driveways yesterday, but our landlord finally arrived this afternoon with the snowblower to clear it out completely. Which is good because they're predicting more snow to come, albeit a smaller amount this time. My friends in Vermont have the right idea - if you can't beat the winter in New England, embrace it!

Year in Review: 2014

 
[Starlit tree in my dining room; 12/30/14]

After a very eventful 2013, 2014 was much more stable, albeit rather quiet on the blog front. At least that made it rather quick to review my year of posts! I was just too busy to blog regularly, although I did manage to post something at least a couple of times each month. Looking back, I see that I finally began settling into the new job some seven or eight months in. The effort took a lot of my concentration and drained me of words by the end of the day. I replenished my body if not my mind by joining a gym in late March, going roughly twice a week after work, a lifesaver (possibly literally). The other weekday nights were spent on grocery shopping, meal making, laundry and rest. Weekends were mostly spent at D's in the city, doing "city-things" - walking, eating, movie-going, etc.

Posts this year mainly featured the weather, ever the New Englander's favorite topic. The winter was cold, as winters here are, but much colder than normal without letup. D and I did get an injection of much-needed color and warmth for a couple of hours in January when we went to the New England Aquarium, delighting in the swimming sealife in the Giant Ocean Tank.

[Coral, New England Aquarium; 1/25/14]

February saw winter maintaining its icy grip on us. Alas, the cold and snow didn't let up into March, so we found another way to escape by entering the tropical respite of the Wellesley College greenhouses. With April, winter finally began to relent, affording us a lovely Marathon weekend and magnolicious blooms along Commonwealth Ave. But it was May that brought us the weather we'd been waiting for all winter, filled with blooming daffodils and tulips and dappled light on the green lawns of the Public Garden.

[Public Garden in May; 5/11/14]

June saw a couple of daytrips to the New Hampshire seacoast. July had some lovely summer in the city weekends as the weather was just right for walking and enjoying Boston's summer sights and sounds. In August, we crossed the bay to Boston's eastern enclave to explore the shipyard art, savor the local fare, and take in the spectacular views of the cityscape across the water. At the end of the month, we spent a long weekend on Cape Cod at our favorite shoreside accommodations that we'd found the previous year, and we took the ferry over to Martha's Vineyard for a fun daytrip.

Looking over at my Flickr photo site, I realize we did many other things that I never even got around to blogging about, including an afternoon in the North End enjoying the annual Feast of St Anthony, an always enjoyable city-thing.

[Feast of St Anthony, North End of Boston; 8/30/14]

September saw the turning of leaves and the harvesting of my spent sunflowers by the neighborhood goldfinches. October was nearly over before I got a chance to post again, busy as I was with work, but we did get out to view the Head of the Charles Regatta on the river and to see the Halloween pet promenade on the Esplanade. Then the lovely weather we had from late spring through early fall suddenly turned in November, with snow early albeit lingering fall colors well into the month. Finally came December, a busy month that included a trip to see my dad, much work, and at last a few days off to rest and relax before the start of the New Year.

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I managed to read a handful of books this year, usually on vacation or on the couple of trips I made out to see my dad. Favorites include the most recently read All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which I absolutely loved; The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt, which I mostly read last Christmas and finished January 2, and also really enjoyed; and The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert. I just started Anthony Doerr's short story collect, The Memory Wall. He wrote so beautifully in his new novel that I could have read it all over again, but I thought the short stories would be a good alternative. Having read the first selection in the book, it was a good choice.

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Happy New Year, everyone! 

Time Flies

[Public Garden, Boston; 11/9/14]

3rd House Journal marked its official 10th anniversary yesterday, moving over on November 18, 2004 from my first blog site (which I started on September 14, 2003). The fact that I passed right by this year's blogday is emblematic of the current status of my blogging, or I guess of my life now.

When I started blogging in 2003, I was living out in the countryside, freelance writing, no colleagues, lonely, friends a lengthy car ride away, and too much time on my hands. I also had a desire for creative expression. I'd been in a writing group for a short time, but that disbanded. I thought I could set up a blog site to have a space for the writers from that group to post stories and share -- it was 3rd house party, 3rd house for the astrological house associated with writing, house party because it would be a shared fun place. The writers from that group weren't interested, but I kept posting and it turned out there were lots of people out there in the blogisphere who were, sharing on their blogs their writings, creative expression, thoughts, and virtual friendship. It went beyond virtual when I met several bloggers in person and developed offline friendships that continue to this day.

I left that first blog site (ah Radio Userland, it's still going!) in 2004 after many technical issues, finding a home at Typepad with a new name, 3rd House Journal, one woman's thoughts and day-to-day things. My life has become more full since I went back to full-time work in 2005, since I moved closer to the big city in 2007, and even more so when I started spending weekends with D in 2009. My job involves writing during nearly all of the 40 hours I put in, tapping out most of my supply of words each day (and sometimes even my capability to put two thoughts together in my head). And yes, I have Facebook for an online social network, with many of my blogger friends present there, whether or not they still maintain blogs. But I'm happy to still maintain my blog here in its current capacity and hopefully in whatever capacity it evolves in the future. 

Happy blogday, dear blog!

November

[Back Bay roof- and tree-tops, Boston; 10/27/12]

The November image in my 2014 calendar (above) is from a foggy morning the previous year, actually in late October, when D was still living up on the top floor of his building. Where October's image was bright with fall leaves, November's is more moody, appropriate to the diminishing light and fading landscape. A transitional time, between the radiant, busy days of autumn and the festive, busy holiday season. A time then to rest and turn inward, no bright and shiny things around to catch our eyes. (Well, save the TV and the internet...)

Alas, weekdays will not be so restful as the workload piles on this time of year, our clients all needing to spend their budget with us before the end of the year. But maybe seeing this calendar image every day for the next 30 days will inspire me to stop every once in awhile, rest a bit in the quiet dullness of November.

Before Sunset/Before Fall

[Sunflower, 8 minutes to sunset; 8/6/14]

The day is a full hour shorter now than it was at the summer solstice. A little more than a half an hour has been shorn from each end, like slightly clipped wings -- one can still fly, but not so high. Although it's still early August, a traditionally hot humid time here in New England, the catalogs have begun to appear at the door full of tweeds and leather -- even down-stuffed parkas and toasty boots in one of them! I've not even taken my summer vacation yet, a long weekend at the Cape with D towards the end of August, the last weekend before Labor Day weekend (the official End of Summer here). Perhaps we should have booked an earlier time slot.

I get sad with the passing of the summer season. Even though when fall is in full swing, I adjust and appreciate the crisp days, the turning leaves, the coziness. But summer is all too short, and I'm inevitably too busy and don't have enough time off. Those "lazy hazy crazy days of summer" are more crazy than lazy. But I do have the long weekend away to look forward to. Until then, I'll try to make time to savor what's left of summer.