New England's Narrow Road

A Trip to Boston

My two sons who live out of town came to visit me this summer and while they were here they went to Boston with their sister and her boyfriend to see a Red Sox / Rangers game at Fenway. They all love baseball (well, my daughter not so much), but they love the city too and had a great time – and sunny, warm weather for the short trip. My son took a ton of photos during the game and I think that this one is a pretty good shot showing the “green monster”.

statue at the cigar store — Nick and friend

How nice that Nick found a cigar smoking buddy.

My son, Nick, is a firefighter in Florida so he had to snap this shot of the Boston fire department’s truck running a call. He also took a photo of one of the fire hydrants and a wall hydrant. Funny.

Of course they had to visit “Cheers” and they all drank water I guess!

They had a blast even if it was only for a couple of days. The weather was great and I got a break from all their bickering! Ha ha!

My Brilliant Idea For Getting In Shape

Getting “in shape” is all relevant. It depends on what kind of shape you are in in the first place. And my shape is getting rounder by the day. So I’m not in good shape.

First of all I don’t really care that I am a size 12. I am in midlife, have given birth to 4 kids and sit at a computer all day working. I won’t ever be a size 8 or probably even a 10 again. I don’t care. I have no one to impress and just care about being healthy… and I know it is not healthy to lead a sedentary life, which I hate to admit is happening.

Yes, I am writing about the boring and all too many times written about – weight loss, but not really. I just want to be in better shape. I won’t get much smaller, but I refuse to get larger. I am acquiring a spare tire around my middle that is quite depressing and I know it’s from sitting at this computer so much. There is no movement happening!!

Today I had a hard time finding clothes to wear when I went out to the DUMP!!! Now that is bad.

My excuses are these: I don’t have a yard of my own and I used to work constantly in the gardens, digging and expanding and weeding – all that. I have no incentive to do that now. It’s not my yard and I am just doing it for someone else. And who knows how long I’ll even live here. There is no future in it, if you know what I mean, and you might not, but anyway….

Same thing with the house. It’s not mine so I take care of it, but don’t spend time wondering how I could make it cuter or nicer. Again, there is no point. Those are the two big changes in my life and because of them, I have to concentrate elsewhere and it happens to be working online. So I sit from 3 or 4 AM until at least 3 PM with a few breaks in between to let the cats in ..and out…and in… and out…AND I do laundry and dishes etc. to make myself move.

I’ve had excuses all summer for not going walking in this beautiful area. We’ve had one of the hottest summers in recent northeast history, the besides that, when I have walked, the horse flies have been so horrendous that I wished I had just stayed home. Also, there are ignorant people on my road let their dogs run out and bark at me when I walk. So I’ve gone walking very little.

Today I got a brilliant idea. My rental is a ranch, but there is a cellar with a straight flight of stairs going down to it. I am going to use those stairs to get into better shape.

I am going to set the timer for an hour and when it goes off I will walk up and down my stairs for 3 minutes. (I checked to see how long I could do it and 3 minutes is a good starting point – I told you I was out of shape!)

Then I will set the timer again and do it again. All day I will do that and it’s got to help some! Three minutes every hour? Who can’t spare that. No excuses!!!

In 18 minutes I’m going for a walk.

Check out this funny postcard by my friend Tom aka Swiss:

Funny Collectible Dieter Junkfood Helper Cartoon postcard

Funny Collectible Dieter Junkfood Helper Cartoon by Swisstoons
View other Funny postcards Postcards

Time to Photograph The Hydrangeas

hydrangea shrub — Hydrangea shrub with blooms

I was outside yesterday photographing the hydrangeas for making new products to sell in my Zazzle stationery store.

This year the flowers are very different looking. For one thing many of the blooms are smaller than last year and I don’t have any that turned really bright blue.

But I am getting some odd colors on the shrub in my yard. As the blooms age I am seeing pink and light green on some of the flowers.

I haven’t uploaded my new photos yet and will probably do that today, and I was hoping for some white flowers to photograph – maybe in a neighbor’s yard, but that didn’t happen.
I was talking with an online friend who lives in Canada and she was kind enough to send me a couple of her white hydrangea photos to use. She also mentioned how the hydrangeas didn’t do so well this year.

I have been meaning to get some of them cut to dry too. Last year I hung them upside down in the window of my bedroom and they dried out nicely, although I think they have to have plenty of water before being cut.

blue hydrangea — Last years bright blue flower

The Air Up Here

When I visited North Carolina one year I remember standing outside on the deck of the house we had rented just breathing in the cool, dry air. I lived in Florida and air like that never happened. We would get less humid air – our “winter” – but it still was not the same as the “northern” stuff.

I realized then how much I missed that lack of humidity that wasn’t brought about by air conditioning.

I also thought it was odd to think of the Carolina’s as “north”. I never could get used to everything being north when I lived in Florida.

Now that I am back in New England the world seems right again. North Carolina is in the south and the air I breathe up here is mostly wonderfully dry. I swear there is no air like the air up here. Even during this hot, and sometimes quite muggy, summer we get a break and the air clears.

This morning at 4AM it is like that.
I just let my cats out, against my better judgment, and I went outside on the deck to scare away any wildlife that might want to hunt them, and the air is just awesome.

The day before yesterday I finally bought an air conditioner to help with this humidity we’ve been having, and now the temperature has dropped to about 40 degrees! But I love it.
It feels like Fall, but I am not fooled. It’s only the beginning of August and we are bound to have more humid, muggy days, but this morning I feel the energy that comes with this sweet smelling northern air.