Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Entering week four

Monday was a nice day that eventually clouded over. I sat on the back porch and saw how packed together all the houses were in this neighborhood. More so than my neighborhood a few streets away. And then there's the continuous chatter and racket from the birds. After seeing a blue jay, though I really know nothing about birds, and what I think was a cardinal, I figured as was sitting there doing nothing I might try to get some shots. As it turned out all the pictures had to be cropped because none of the birds were real close. The blue jay seemed to know when I was going to press the button. They were not worth showing. He or she would zip off before I could get a shot. None of these pictures are academy award winners.
 
 
 

   

There are three movies being made about the marathon bombing. Patriots Day, Boston Strong, and Stronger. I don't know why there will be three but Patriots Day is in the area filming right now. The surviving brother bomber was captured in the nearby city of Watertown but the city did not want to be part of the movie so street scenes are being filmed in the area including around here and yes there have been Mark Wahlberg sightings by Arlene's daughters who went to a local church, who's parking lot was used as a staging area for some of the night street scenes. I've not seen any of the filming but who knows in the next few weeks...?
From what I understand, the three movies will all be told from different perspectives, the victims, their families, the media, and the police. Still I don't know why there has to be three movies. All the same it is kind of neat having Hollywood around.

Because of Arlene's work schedule we will not be able to go to Martha's in the early fall/late summer though it is our favorite time to go, so we compromised. We will take a long weekend in New Hampshire. New Hampshire is a beautiful state and it's fantastic in the fall. In the winter there's skiing but I'm not a skier. Did it once and that was enough for me. At that time of the year there's a lot of snow up there but they deal with it better than here because there is no big, crowded metropolitan area with streets that go any which way to drive you nuts.
Here's a  two minute slide show from 2008. It starts with a quick trip we took to Maine but it's followed by shots of New Hampshire in summer and fall.


Arlene tells me that they have replaced all the windows in my old place and from what I heard from my landlord, so far things are coming along. Still as nice as it is to be living with my sister, I need my own place. It's just not the same. I feel like their 64 year old son. Ok enough whining. At least I'm not the guy sleeping on the park bench.
Time to eat.
I'm outta here.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Finally back on line

Editors note. That's me the editor. Hey call me Ed. What you are about to read is not so much a blog, as a collection of dairy entries. I started this blog on Sunday May 8. I'm not sure what day it will end on. Living here I am out of my element. It's like living back at home with my parents. I have my own room!    

Testing testing... well it's taken a bit of doing but I finally am back on line. I am living at my sisters house and it is closing in on two weeks that I have been here. For the most part it has worked out well except I now park on the street instead of a driveway. On the third day as I went to my car to run and errand and what do I see? Somebody had hit my rear drivers side door while making a turn. now aside from all that it has been mostly entertaining. All that's missing is a laugh track as I watch my sister and brother in law go through their daily routine. I've had to adjust to a small room with a small bed but every time I start to feel sorry for myself I think about the homeless guy I see sleeping on a bench on my way to work, just  a stone throws from Harvard. I don't have it so bad. If all goes according to plan I should be back in my new apartment, upstairs from my old one, in about six weeks. That last week also coincides with Arlene's vacation week, a week I also took off, because that's when we are going back to you know where (M.V.). There will only be one trip this year because this is turning out to be a very expensive year. We are lucky that we can go at all. Still we can't wait. 

Today (Sat. May 14) as I write this it is a spectacular day. The temperature is around 78 with a beautiful blue sky.

May 19. A few years ago I hurt my left leg while on vacation. It was painful but over time it got better. Every once in a while I would get a twinge but for the most part it's been fine...until I moved. Although I got a lot of pledges of help nobody was fit enough to help me carry stuff. My brother in law was wheezing after carrying on box. My friend Dave also volunteered the use of his car but he has certain health issues that only allows him to carry just a few light things. Well a few weeks after the move my leg started acting up and it has become difficult for me to go upstairs. Now apart from that I'm fine. I have no problem picking up and carrying around 50 or 60 pounds because I do it routinely at work however carrying things up stairs has become an issue. I realized that I have over stressed my leg during the move. This was something I never thought about while I was packing and going to the storage facility because it felt fine. Back at my old house I have about 15 boxes stacked on my washer and dryer that I will have to carry up two flights as when I move back as I will be living on the second floor. I guess I will have to have the movers do it.

May 19. It's a nice day today and Arlene, her daughter and I will be hitting the movies later on this afternoon. Arlene had a similar accident on her leg a few years ago. She has a part time job watching children in an after school program. She loves watching these kids (aged 5-7) and finds them very amusing. She was talking to a little girl, discussing her (Arlene's) leg issue and the little girl said her grandfather had the same problem with his leg. Arlene asked her how her grandfather was doing with his leg. Her answer, "He died."

So in 4 weeks we will be heading south to you know where and hopefully when we get back I will be moving to my new place one floor up from my old place.

Ok that's it for now. I do miss being on blogger as often as I was and I will be back on a more soon. My routine has been disrupted and I can't wait to get back into a more routine...uh...routine.
I am outta here.