Rediscovering Crime Story

Everyday Life, Memories

I’ve rediscovered a show from the 80s that I used to watch on Tubi – a serial television show called Crime Story. Time ranked Crime Story as one of the best television programs of 1986. I just remember liking the cars and the gritty mobster feel. Now that I can watch the whole thing without missing any episodes the story can be much clearer to me as it’s somewhat of an episodic show. I’m about 5 episodes in and the story is starting to heat up (although episode 2 was really weird). Can’t wait to get to the one where Julia Roberts first appears. It was her first tv work. Do you remember this show? Did you watch it? Did you like it?

Cat Catches Bluejay

Everyday Life

So far today I’ve seen a hawk in the back yard hanging out in a tree, Carson and I watching a cat right out front take down a blue jay and carry it off in it’s mouth (strangely Carson watched intently but didn’t spaz even though they were right in front of his face!), and tried to fill up air in my car’s tires but the machine I go to is currently out of order. Maybe I can find another one later today if I feel like exploring a bit (but probably not).

Did a fire out on the patio this afternoon- was jonesin to try out this new wood that I purchased. I did order a new steel poker though because the one that came with the pit kind of broke (the handle came off and broke in two), so this’ll be a nice upgrade as I got a decently built one that should last forever. I also recently updated the firmware on the home cams so I needed to reset them since 2 of the 3 weren’t displaying but after I went through the setups (essentially resetting them) I got them all up and running again, so that kept me busy for a little while.

A Numbing of the Fingers

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography
Relaxing on set.

Took my mom to an appointment down at the CHA in Assembly Square today. Her two fingers on her hand have been bothering her for quite a while now – basically has very little feeling in them and makes buttoning things and such difficult to accomplish. Basically it sounds like it comes down to some kind of carpel thing and muscle loss. I’ll need to take her back in a couple of months for some tests that they do and if surgery is required, which it sounds like it might be. Sounds like a small rather simple incision, we’ll see. While I was waiting outside (Since you can’t go in – covid) I ended up walking around some of the blocks down there to get in some steps. After that I paid some bills and renewed some stuff online.

Hearts on a Good Beach Day

Uncategorized
Love on the beach.

Spent part of the morning taking a walk on the beach as today was a rather nice day. I even found another heart shaped rock. We took a picture of it along with some beach calligraphy that the Ladydoc was kind enough to create and rejuvenate our souls. Nothing like some great beach air and sights to get a walk in. Get sick of walking around the block sometimes. Anyways maybe finding these things are good signs for the future, right? Got to keep the faith. Think I was able to get some pretty good photos, the lighting seemed pretty good. I’ll see as I go through them later in the week.

Spent the latter part of the afternoon rearranging the sitting room as it’s becoming a makeshift work from home office for LD during these winter months when using the sun room isn’t really feasible. Also finally took down the xmas tree which really opened up the room quite a bit. It looks so much bigger to me now and open. I’d say a it’s a good change of pace.

Odds and Ends

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography
My love of lighthouses will never die!

Got my Mega Millions and Powerball tickets ready to go. I only play when the jackpots get big and only 1 ticket. I’ve seen people in line spends hundreds on tickets when all you need is just one with the correct numbers. I don’t even care to hit the big jackpot – it’s almost too much – but second or third place wouldn’t be so bad. Anyways, when it’s like this you have to try just on the off chance. Total pipedream but worth a shot.

You can watch all the Hunter episodes streamed on Tubi. For some reason that cable channel I’ve been binging them on doesn’t include the 1st episodes of the first 6 seasons so I’ll be watching those on this service. Show wasn’t the same after the “Brass Cupcake” DeeDee left, probably why it tanked after. Those early seasons are gold! hard to believe they’re over 30 years old now. I only have about 12 more episodes to go and I’ll have seen them all. I like that the networks are playing the older shows since there’s not much new content due to the pandemic.

Climbing Mountains

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography
Not a recent picture.

Finally got around the removing all the remaining holiday lights from the front of the house this afternoon. I’ve been somewhat of a hibernation mode lately as there hasn’t been anything really new to blog on about in my personal life at the moment. It’ll change eventually but for now, quiet times for me. There’s enough going on in the national scene right now anyway. Here’s a pic from a trip up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire back in 2013, back when we could do outings like that.

Boston Visit

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography
Sailboat lit up against the Longfellow Bridge backdrop.

Had to take a ride into Boston last night to pick up something. While there stopped by the Esplanade to grab a few pics and then headed over to Luke’s Lobsters for takeout over on Exeter Street. I must say the lobster rolls and lobster mac and cheese were quite tasty! Been so long since we’ve even done a takeout. Knocked me out early as I feel asleep on the beanbag and didn’t wake up until 1 in the morning.

Boston was a ghost town by the way. So strange to see the area so deserted of people.

Today was much more social as in the early afternoon we had some folks over for a socially distanced firepit outing and then in the late afternoon a Zoom session with our friends that somehow lasted 4 hours!

First Day of the Year

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography
New Year's Day 2021 at the beach.

“Yesterday we stood at the edge of the earth, dipped our toes in with abandon, and invited the universe to provide us with our next lesson.”

-Ladydoc 1/1/2021
Sloth on Zoom

Yesterday we took a trip out to the beach to get some air and reflect on the new year ahead. Fresh start. I picked up a really smooth rock and am using it as a worry stone. This is also the beach where I found that cool heart shaped rock last summer. Also this morning we had breakfast with two sloths. (virtually). The zoo had this Zoom meeting thing where you could learn about the sloths and such. It was basically aimed at children but I enjoyed it too.

Tried watching the Godfather II yesterday afternoon. I don’t know maybe it’s me, but I found it kind of boring. Only watched about 1/4 of it – Unfortunely it was being DVR’d and took up too much space and erased all my season 7 of Hunter that I didn’t get to see yet (only season I haven’t caught yet – pretty much saw all the other episodes now) so I have to re-record them the next time they air on Z-Living. Just so happens that they’re running them now so that works out.

Goodbye 2020 (thankfully)

Everyday Life, Memories

This year has been a lot. It’s been hard, scary and at times down right miserable. But for those of us who have thankfully survived, we should take a moment to really appreciate that fact. Life is going to move on, and things will eventually go back to some semblance of normalcy. We just have to hold tight and keep going. So here’s to 2021 – May it bring us more ups than downs, and most importantly, an endless amount of memories and moments that we can hold onto forever.

The Heist

Everyday Life, Memories

So here’s my story for yesterday. I was at the bank in the drive thru window waiting to make a transaction. I put my materials into the tube and sent it on it’s way as I was patiently waiting for the teller to process it. After about a minute, the teller sends it back and says “Sorry Sir, we’re closed” and pulls down all the shades. I’m like, what? It’s around 11 am – why would they close immediately at this time? So, I said oh well, I’ll come back another time and left. Well, come to find out, as I was waiting, apparently a robbery was occurring inside just at that moment. Sounds like the person got away on foot and they’re still looking for them. Not sure how much the person got away with or how they could just disappear on foot like that, but that’s the story. I did seem to notice of a lot of police cruising the area now that I think about it, they were probably looking for the individual. Anyways, good thing I was at the drive-thru instead of inside!

I stopped making New Years’ Resolutions a while ago as I never seem to keep to them after a few weeks but this time I think I’m going to try one and it is to be more generous and to try to just be a better person. That’s my goal moving forward.

Good Stuff

Everyday Life, Food, Memories

I got some really great gifts this year – the big prize was this giant bean bag that I can lay in (like, my whole body fits inside it – it’s so large). Takes up a good chunk of the room which might be problematic but who cares! Also got some needed clothing, a wonderful photobook of our adventures from 2020 utilizing a lot of the personal photos from the year, a Carson mousepad and a heating pad and bear slippers. The last two I’ve been using for a while already because I got to open those early! The best was watching Carson open his gifts!

For lunch I went ahead and made and prepared some Cranberry Chicken and Herby Pan Stuffing. I’ve discovered that I think shallots are way better than onions. Will do a frozen pizza in the oven tonight.

I had to pick up one of the lighted reindeers out front. The winds knocked him over but overall, the wind didn’t seem to be that big a deal and that was a good thing. It was the only thing that fell out of place.

Today’s movie watch was Elf. (A movie I’ve actually never seen until now), can you believe it?) Last night was National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Winter Solstice Meditation

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography
Solstice Meditation

Spent some time tonight engaging in Winter Solstice Meditation. I recommend you do the same. After the day I had today it was needed. Actually it wasn’t all that bad – in fact it ended up pretty well.

We made a new recipe last night too – a turkey meatball sauce utilizing a spaghetti squash in the Instant Pot. Believe it or not it actually tastes pretty amazing!

Illuminations 2020

Art, Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography
Somerville residents homes all lit up. This one has a working Ferris wheel on the porch over to the right by the Santa head!

Took a ride tonight around Somerville to check out some of the homes decked out for the holidays. Here are some of them that we visited. Very impressive displays! Perfect weather for checking them out tonight!

  • All lit up
  • Frosty
  • Lots of lights
  • Grinch
  • Stained glass lanterns
  • More lights

Hiking to King Philip’s Cave

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography, Things that make me go Hmmm
  • Through the cracks
  • In between
  • The hiding place
  • The entrance

King Phillip’s Cave is a cave in Norton, Massachusetts near Lake Winnecunnett.

The cave is so named because Metacomet, the Wampanoag sachem also known as “King Phillip”, is said to have hid here near the end of King Philip’s War before meeting his death in the Great Misery Swamp in Bristol, RI.

We happened to be in the area so we checked it out. Very cool rock formations. I think I need to read up on Philip a bit more, sounds like he got a pretty raw deal. I wouldn’t really call it a cave though, more like two boulders that crisscrossed on top of one another and provided a gap beneath them.

We also checked out a quick hike over in Taunton at a place called Boyden Wildlife Area. This area is beautiful and quite scenic with some nice overhangs overlooking a nearby river that parallels it. Definitely going back to this location again.

Illuminating Schedule

Everyday Life, Memories

Plotting out tomorrow’s Illuminations Tour drivebys to see what holiday lights everyone’s put up.

I just popped on a new smart tv for us for us as a holiday gift. Time to get into the current century with technology. Should be arriving next week sometime – kind of exciting, went for a Samsung 40″ 1080p with smart tv features.

Tonight we made some homemade craft ornaments using seashells (some we collected from our prior beach trips) and glitter and modpodge and beads and wires and created our own creations for the tree, while that old Rudolph the red Nosed Reindeer television show was playing in the background.

We also cooked a ton of stuff tonight, partly to get rid of some of the stuff we had hanging around. I’m talking soups, turkey burgers with mushrooms and dijonnaise, squashes and chilis.

Getting in the Grill

Everyday Life, Memories, Scenic Photography
Shot from Scituate Light from the camera roll.

Decided to pull the BBQ back into the shed for winter storage this morning. It wasn’t too cold out and I wanted to do it before it got too cold. Getting it across the expanse of lawn, off the lip of the patio, and lifting it into the shed is a bit much for me by myself but somehow I always manage to do it and today was no exception. It’s true it could stay out all year round but I pride myself on keeping it looking and working like new so that’s why I do it. Folks have come over in the past and wondered if it was a new grill and we say No, it’s around 10 years old, that’s how nice I keep it.

Shameless plug, if you want to purchase some of my photo artwork just click this link in time for the holidays and browse around. Hell, even just get a little magnet or somesuch as a stocking stuffer if you like. Every little bit helps. Bookmark and check back now and then, I add new stuff every so often. Please share the link with others if you think they would be interested as well.

Other than running a couple of errands to CVS, the bank, and a quick side trip to Wellesley to pick up some stuff, that’s pretty much it for today. A quiet night in watching television…again.