T Stands For Crane Beach

The Eldest had a vacation week around the time of her birthday the second week of July. She asked if I wanted to go with her to the beach. It used to be if you wanted to go to the beach, you packed a bag, towel, and chair and drove to the beach. Now you have to make reservations. It seems local residents complained about the Summer people getting all the parking spaces. Reservations come in the form of day passes which get scooped up quickly or 2 hour passes. Nice if you live close to the beach but not practical if you have to take an hour and a half ride to get to the beach.

The week the Eldest chose also happened to be prime vacation time. I told her about the reservations, but she had no difficulties securing a day pass to Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts. We left early on a Monday morning, and had a little hassle with commuter traffic.  When we got to the beach, we were one of the first visitors and hardly anyone was there.

A seagull

claimed his spot on the beach

We took a selfie to remember the day

The Life Guard crew were holding contests to see who could paddle out to the buoy 

and back to shore first.

It was a perfect beach day. Though the weather was hot and humid at home, it was quite breezy at the beach. We set up our chairs and I made a little cabana to try to keep us out of the sun.

It had been decades since I had been at this beach with Teague. One thing I forgot about was this beach was notorious for Green Heads, a type of Horse Fly. They have emerald green heads and giant teeth! Apparently, the Green Heads decided to return a few weeks earlier than normal to correspond to our visit. 

By the time we left, I was covered with so many bites I looked like I had chicken pox.

I found a beautiful snail shell

There's a snack shack along with a clean beach house so we decided we didn't need to drag along a cooler for lunch. We did bring water. 

The Eldest was going to treat me to lobster sandwiches for lunch, but they were out of lobster. I opted for a veggie and hummus wrap with a peach ice tea. The wrap was delicious, but I'm not a fan of peach flavored things though I do like peaches. All that could be said about the tea was it was wet and cold. We had a nice lunch underneath the pergola.

While the Eldest was swimming, I met a young woman a few years older than the Eldest. Her name as Tanya and she had also brought her mother for an outing. We had a nice chat.

How many seas must a white gull sail

before she sleeps in the sand? (apologies to Bob Dylan)

Despite the Greenheads and the sunburns, we had a nice day at the beach.

See ya later! 

Only if the Greenheads are gone!

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Monet and Me

 

are tracking a polar bear through Fahlo. I had been seeing ads for tracking animals and wondered if it was worth it. I thought it would make a fun gift for the girlies for their birthdays. Then my friend, Andy Tiberius Fish, said he was tracking some animals and got some for his adult sons. Well, monkey see, monkey do.

For the girlies, I chose a pink bracelet with a dolphin for the Eldest. The dolphin is a male named Per. For the Young One, I chose a blue bracelet with a penguin, another male named Luc. Why should the girlies have all the fun?

Monet is modeling the bracelet I chose to track a polar bear named Bobbie. A portion of the sale of the bracelet goes to conservation efforts for the animals.

Bobbie is an old broad like me. She's a 20 year old polar bear, one of the Churchill bears from Hudson Bay, Canada.

Once a week or so, the tracking app on the phone, sends an update map as to where your animal is 

Sometimes there are also some factoids about the animal and what they would be doing at this time of year.

There's also some tracking stats and a mini bio about the animal you are tracking. A bit of fun and a good cause to help endangered species.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We had a couple of visitors to the yard, a deer

and a hawk. The hawk was probably a Cooper's hawk as we've seen him/her from time to time.

This picture of Quill could work as a cartoon with the bunny in a thought bubble. Quill dreaming of bunny rabbits. Or the rabbit blissfully unaware how close to death s/he is.

A Monarch butterfly hung out for a while

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Keith Wann ASL - Green Eggs and Ham

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Last month, I applied for the  old people's parking pass to Massachusetts state parks. The pass is for people 60 and over, costs a one time fee of $10, and is good for life! I think they figure us Weebles aren't going to last long.

2. I made giambotta, an Italian vegetable stew, with veggies from the garden.

3. We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with Chinese food take-out and hanging out in the sunroom.

4. I Skyped  Microsoft Teamed with the Young One

5.  I received some Happy Mail 

How was your week?

TBT: Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

  In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Dance Band on the Titanic

The scam man phoned again only didn't leave a message on the voice mail. I had done a reverse look up on the first number he left, but that only told me it was a land line in NY. This time, I had a company name and number. I looked up the company in BB and found this company does business under 49 other names and all sweepstakes. Red flags went up. If one of his companies is sending junk to Ma, so are the others. The BB didn't have much useful information. The company did not have an unusual amount of complaints lodged against it.

A week or so ago, Ma had received a letter from a US Postal inspector about one of the checks she received as a prize. Because I don't get a complete story, I wasn't sure if the inspector's letter concerned the check Ma tried to cash on Tuesday.

I called Dad to try to find out the particulars. Only to find, she cashed the $250 check plus a few others she had. Seems she went crying to the neighbor next door to take her to the bank. Help me, Lord! The bank opened a second checking account for her, and all the checks were deposited into this new account. She was told she couldn't have access to the funds for at least a week.

I feel like I'm in the dance band on the Titanic.

I have a sick feeling about what will happen, but can't do anything but play the tune. The worse thing is if, on the long shot, one or all of the checks she deposited are legitimate, there will be no end to Ma's "I told you so." I can just hear her chortle and gloat. Depending on the time of day, God, Nostradamus, and her father have told her she will be a rich woman. She is, but she's looking in the wrong places.

So she took a gamble and maybe, just maybe, she beat the odds. I wish her Buona fortuna! The worst thing is the addiction will become even stronger. But Fortune's wheel swings round. Most gamblers know the House always wins. Always. In the mean time, I stand on the deck with The Dance Band on the Titanic by H. Chapin

Paper Bag Book

A day or two before the Bookbinding 101 Zoom session was to begin, I poked around the Vintage Page Designs website and found some free instructions for making hand-made books.

The book I decided to make was called a Paper Bag Book because it used a brown paper bag

as the pages of the book. I like these kinds of projects because no special materials are needed. Just stuff you have around the house and in the recycle bin.

The paper bag was cut to a standard size sheet of paper 8.5 in. x 11 in. Cuts were made so the bag could be accordion folded.

I've made this type of book many times, but I learned it as a Meander Book. The only difference being that the loose pages/flaps were glued together in this book and left to change the direction of the fold in the Meander Book (hence the name)

I raided the recycle bin to make the cover from a cookie box. I had every intention of covering the cardboard with paper, but looking at the Windmill cookie box reminded me of my Auntie.

Auntie was Ma's younger sister and a second mother to us. Since Ma worked, we spent a lot of school vacations at Auntie's until we were old enough to stay at home by ourselves.

Auntie had a white cookie jar embossed with cookies. The cookie jar had a lid with a red knob. The cookie jar was always filled. Auntie would sometimes by the spiced cookies shaped like a windmill, and a Dutch boy and girl. 

I decided to leave the cardboard as is. Glued to the front and back of the paper bag pages. I made a button and string closure to hold the book shut.