Who Doesn't Like Lobster?
20/07/20 06:43
Going to be a hot one today, boys and girls. The heat index is going to be up there. We'll have to get our bike rides in early today if we're going to escape the brunt of the heat. I suspect that after 10 or so it's really going to start to get hot as hell and downright unpleasant for those of us who find that sort of thing unpleasant.
It'll be a far cry from the cool breezes down by Rye Harbor last night when Nancy and I decided that there was nothing more important than grabbing a lobster roll from the vendor on site and enjoying those very same rolls while sitting by the rocks overlooking the harbor.
I didn't care how much they cost. I didn't care how long I was going to have to wait in line to get them. I didn't care that the sign at our parking spot said something about 30 minutes and we were likely to exceed that time limit. I didn't care that a family of five stood too close to me in line without a mask between them and they looked hungry. So much so, that I felt a little guilty for standing between them and their banquet of banquets. If only the line were to move a little faster we all might have been a little bit happier for it.
Nancy, being the Covid-19 whisperer that she is, stood several feet away and watched with horror as her husband (that would be me) braved the crowds and the viral strains of god only know what spewing from the mouths of children and their parents so that the two of us might escape uninfected to the picnic tables nearby which were only coincidentally unoccupied at the time of our arrival. Were it not for the fact that there was a lobster roll with her name on it just feet away from where I stood, she might well have insisted that we leave the premises.
Mother bear, who was coddling her brood in line directly behind me walked around me and entered the small shack where she picked up a paper menu from the bin. She was ostensibly checking prices and availability. No sooner did she return when the lot of them just up and walked away leaving their place in line to other interested parties. If they were looking for a meal on the cheap just to keep the kids happy, they came to the wrong place. Maybe lobster rolls are lost on children.
Although we're something of a stones throw away from the Harbor as the bird flies, we've not ever ordered anything to eat from one or more of the shacks that serve up such things at the Harbor. We're also not died-in- the-wool lobster fans so that might explain why we've not eaten down there. But it was dinnertime and we were both a little bit hungry so that was that.
I can tell you that it was worth the wait. For the price, the rolls were just right. There was just enough but not too much lobster and there was a smattering of mayonnaise that wet the lobster without mucking it up altogether. The rolls were toasted and they threw in a couple of bags of chips just for good measure.
Now that the insulation job has been completed I owe it to myself to go take a look-see as it were. It wasn't an inexpensive job so there is always that. You want to make sure that you feel good about that which you decided to do not on a lark but out of necessity. It's akin to having the shingles on your roof replaced after a number of years although having work done in the basement is largely out of sight and out of mind. You throw a dart at the dartboard when it comes to picking and choosing the contractors to do the job and I think that that too was a success.
The insulation guys brought a couple of things to my attention which helped explain a problem or two we were having with the heat in certain rooms in the last couple of years. The ductwork wasn't properly snugged up to the floor vents in those rooms resulting in weirdly cool temperatures compared to rooms throughout the rest of the house.
I may have put my hands over the vents at the time looking to see if there as any heat coming out of the register and while I may have felt some heat it was probably just warmth rising from the basement instead of heat coming directly from the furnace.
Thankfully, I had someone over working on a couple of other things so he attended to the vents and applied the necessary fix. This is not something the insulation contractors were there to fix so it was somewhat interesting and maybe somewhat serendipitous if that's the right word that someone was there to help out. Not just someone, but a person with the requisite skill set to do the job and do it right.
You have to respect people who bring their skills and knowledge to the workplace and who take pride in the work that they do. When I see that in young people, as I did in spades with the insulation contractors, it is indeed heartening.
I'm happy to hear that Trump is sending in Federal troops to Portland, Oregon, to help quell the riots and the mayhem brought to bear upon that city by the Antifa anarchists for 52 straight nights now. Neither the mayor nor the governor has even tried to stop the craziness and this is Trump's opportunity to step in to see if there isn't a solution of some kind. He is, after all, the law and order president despite the fact that many have thought he should have stepped in sooner than he did.
Since the local politicians never requested federal assistance, Trump is sending federal assets ostensibly to protect federal assets, courthouses, etc. The anarchists immediately redirected their efforts to setting the federal courthouse in Portland on fire.
It didn't matter to the anarchists that the building was housing the human assets sent by Trump. The Antifa crowd is on video night after night for the world to see where they are attacking the facade of the federal courthouse with fire extinguishers and anything that they feel will help breach the exterior of the building.
To the casual observer, the anarchists do not appear, at least physically, particularly menacing. They're seen running around the streets of Portland in helter skelter patterns armed with baseball bats and bicycle chains while wearing oddball outfits, carrying homemade shields, and most look somewhat malnourished and, perhaps not coincidentally, effeminate. There, I said it.
Were it not for their anarchical behavior it would be hard for anyone with half a brain to take them seriously. The only question remaining now is how to bring this nonsense to an end without resurrecting the harrowing memories of Tiananmen Square in the eyes of the American public.
It seems like Mr Hobbs has finished up with the tasks assigned him here at hime for the time being. He came highly recommended by my neighbor as a carpenter extraordinaire and he has lived up to that billing. He had a reliable sidekick who seemed to do most of the work while Mr Hobbs was off buying supplies and I'm not sure that that sidekick didn't qualify as a sub contractor. I was sure to give the two gentlemen their due following my inspection of the areas completed and I assured him that I would have him back to do some minor things in the coming months. Nancy got what she wanted done and I got what I wanted done so there's that.
It was just too hot to pay Mrs G a visit last weekend but it seems manageable today so we'll making a trip over to Exeter to do just that. This will be our second visit since they've relaxed their policies during this so-called pandemic and they are now allowing relatives and friends on the premises. We'll pull up a chair on the patio outside Mrs G's apartment while maintaining the appropriate social distancing. Masks appear optional at least as best we could tell the last time we visited. I'm not sure we saw many people wearing the damn things to begin with so we let ours slip to our laps as well.
People, especially the elderly, may be letting their guard down a little prematurely but even the elderly want to get on with their lives. Sometimes I'm reminded of the movie "Cocoon" when I'm visiting Mrs G's facility where everyone seems happy-go-lucky and without a care in the world. Well, that was true in the second half of the movie anyway after some sort of cataclysmic event which turned the lot of them into dreamy adolescents again.
It appears that most of the good folk at her facility view the masks and precautions as necessary but just not for them. Put them on the security people or the people working in the kitchen or maybe even on the delivery people but not the residents. They want to spend the precious time remaining they have on this earth living their lives unencumbered by such nonsense the likes of which we've seen during this pandemic. I'm talking about masks, quarantines, the absence of dining facilities and other niceties afforded to the residents, and the particularly abusive rules around the matters concerning human contact. Fuck the elbow bumps! We want hugs!
I'll be going for a haircut on Monday. It will be my first haircut since this pandemic began. I'm not a big haircut guy as haircuts go but sooner or later you need to just get it done. And there is no mistaking the fact that it feels good to get your ears lowered especially in the summer. The person that usually cuts my hair asked me for my contact information maybe back as far as February and well before this pandemic thing began. She asked for it in a low key sort of way and it suggested to me that she was looking to go out on her own but wanted to have an established clientele before leaving the workplace.
She reached out to me recently and indicated that she will not be going back to her workplace and has set up shop in a building adjacent to her home. She inquired as to whether or not I was interested in having her cut my hair. I'll admit that it feels a little weird but I have a pretty good comfort level with the stylist so Im going to run with that. She didn't say anything about how much she was going to charge, what or what not to wear when it comes to personal protection equipment, etc. All of that suits me just fine.
Too many rules and restrictions have a tendency to make me want to avoid getting involved rather than the other way around. We'll sort it out as we go along and that's okay with me. I'm not fearful one way or another about contracting the virus but I'm guessing my chances of not contracting it are better in her small shop (I'm assuming it's small) than the mill of a joint where she used to work where there are a half dozen stylists working on any given day. She can more easily schedule people to give herself time between cuts to spray down the equipment if that is what she intends to do. Wish me luck!
It'll be a far cry from the cool breezes down by Rye Harbor last night when Nancy and I decided that there was nothing more important than grabbing a lobster roll from the vendor on site and enjoying those very same rolls while sitting by the rocks overlooking the harbor.
I didn't care how much they cost. I didn't care how long I was going to have to wait in line to get them. I didn't care that the sign at our parking spot said something about 30 minutes and we were likely to exceed that time limit. I didn't care that a family of five stood too close to me in line without a mask between them and they looked hungry. So much so, that I felt a little guilty for standing between them and their banquet of banquets. If only the line were to move a little faster we all might have been a little bit happier for it.
Nancy, being the Covid-19 whisperer that she is, stood several feet away and watched with horror as her husband (that would be me) braved the crowds and the viral strains of god only know what spewing from the mouths of children and their parents so that the two of us might escape uninfected to the picnic tables nearby which were only coincidentally unoccupied at the time of our arrival. Were it not for the fact that there was a lobster roll with her name on it just feet away from where I stood, she might well have insisted that we leave the premises.
Mother bear, who was coddling her brood in line directly behind me walked around me and entered the small shack where she picked up a paper menu from the bin. She was ostensibly checking prices and availability. No sooner did she return when the lot of them just up and walked away leaving their place in line to other interested parties. If they were looking for a meal on the cheap just to keep the kids happy, they came to the wrong place. Maybe lobster rolls are lost on children.
Although we're something of a stones throw away from the Harbor as the bird flies, we've not ever ordered anything to eat from one or more of the shacks that serve up such things at the Harbor. We're also not died-in- the-wool lobster fans so that might explain why we've not eaten down there. But it was dinnertime and we were both a little bit hungry so that was that.
I can tell you that it was worth the wait. For the price, the rolls were just right. There was just enough but not too much lobster and there was a smattering of mayonnaise that wet the lobster without mucking it up altogether. The rolls were toasted and they threw in a couple of bags of chips just for good measure.
Now that the insulation job has been completed I owe it to myself to go take a look-see as it were. It wasn't an inexpensive job so there is always that. You want to make sure that you feel good about that which you decided to do not on a lark but out of necessity. It's akin to having the shingles on your roof replaced after a number of years although having work done in the basement is largely out of sight and out of mind. You throw a dart at the dartboard when it comes to picking and choosing the contractors to do the job and I think that that too was a success.
The insulation guys brought a couple of things to my attention which helped explain a problem or two we were having with the heat in certain rooms in the last couple of years. The ductwork wasn't properly snugged up to the floor vents in those rooms resulting in weirdly cool temperatures compared to rooms throughout the rest of the house.
I may have put my hands over the vents at the time looking to see if there as any heat coming out of the register and while I may have felt some heat it was probably just warmth rising from the basement instead of heat coming directly from the furnace.
Thankfully, I had someone over working on a couple of other things so he attended to the vents and applied the necessary fix. This is not something the insulation contractors were there to fix so it was somewhat interesting and maybe somewhat serendipitous if that's the right word that someone was there to help out. Not just someone, but a person with the requisite skill set to do the job and do it right.
You have to respect people who bring their skills and knowledge to the workplace and who take pride in the work that they do. When I see that in young people, as I did in spades with the insulation contractors, it is indeed heartening.
I'm happy to hear that Trump is sending in Federal troops to Portland, Oregon, to help quell the riots and the mayhem brought to bear upon that city by the Antifa anarchists for 52 straight nights now. Neither the mayor nor the governor has even tried to stop the craziness and this is Trump's opportunity to step in to see if there isn't a solution of some kind. He is, after all, the law and order president despite the fact that many have thought he should have stepped in sooner than he did.
Since the local politicians never requested federal assistance, Trump is sending federal assets ostensibly to protect federal assets, courthouses, etc. The anarchists immediately redirected their efforts to setting the federal courthouse in Portland on fire.
It didn't matter to the anarchists that the building was housing the human assets sent by Trump. The Antifa crowd is on video night after night for the world to see where they are attacking the facade of the federal courthouse with fire extinguishers and anything that they feel will help breach the exterior of the building.
To the casual observer, the anarchists do not appear, at least physically, particularly menacing. They're seen running around the streets of Portland in helter skelter patterns armed with baseball bats and bicycle chains while wearing oddball outfits, carrying homemade shields, and most look somewhat malnourished and, perhaps not coincidentally, effeminate. There, I said it.
Were it not for their anarchical behavior it would be hard for anyone with half a brain to take them seriously. The only question remaining now is how to bring this nonsense to an end without resurrecting the harrowing memories of Tiananmen Square in the eyes of the American public.
It seems like Mr Hobbs has finished up with the tasks assigned him here at hime for the time being. He came highly recommended by my neighbor as a carpenter extraordinaire and he has lived up to that billing. He had a reliable sidekick who seemed to do most of the work while Mr Hobbs was off buying supplies and I'm not sure that that sidekick didn't qualify as a sub contractor. I was sure to give the two gentlemen their due following my inspection of the areas completed and I assured him that I would have him back to do some minor things in the coming months. Nancy got what she wanted done and I got what I wanted done so there's that.
It was just too hot to pay Mrs G a visit last weekend but it seems manageable today so we'll making a trip over to Exeter to do just that. This will be our second visit since they've relaxed their policies during this so-called pandemic and they are now allowing relatives and friends on the premises. We'll pull up a chair on the patio outside Mrs G's apartment while maintaining the appropriate social distancing. Masks appear optional at least as best we could tell the last time we visited. I'm not sure we saw many people wearing the damn things to begin with so we let ours slip to our laps as well.
People, especially the elderly, may be letting their guard down a little prematurely but even the elderly want to get on with their lives. Sometimes I'm reminded of the movie "Cocoon" when I'm visiting Mrs G's facility where everyone seems happy-go-lucky and without a care in the world. Well, that was true in the second half of the movie anyway after some sort of cataclysmic event which turned the lot of them into dreamy adolescents again.
It appears that most of the good folk at her facility view the masks and precautions as necessary but just not for them. Put them on the security people or the people working in the kitchen or maybe even on the delivery people but not the residents. They want to spend the precious time remaining they have on this earth living their lives unencumbered by such nonsense the likes of which we've seen during this pandemic. I'm talking about masks, quarantines, the absence of dining facilities and other niceties afforded to the residents, and the particularly abusive rules around the matters concerning human contact. Fuck the elbow bumps! We want hugs!
I'll be going for a haircut on Monday. It will be my first haircut since this pandemic began. I'm not a big haircut guy as haircuts go but sooner or later you need to just get it done. And there is no mistaking the fact that it feels good to get your ears lowered especially in the summer. The person that usually cuts my hair asked me for my contact information maybe back as far as February and well before this pandemic thing began. She asked for it in a low key sort of way and it suggested to me that she was looking to go out on her own but wanted to have an established clientele before leaving the workplace.
She reached out to me recently and indicated that she will not be going back to her workplace and has set up shop in a building adjacent to her home. She inquired as to whether or not I was interested in having her cut my hair. I'll admit that it feels a little weird but I have a pretty good comfort level with the stylist so Im going to run with that. She didn't say anything about how much she was going to charge, what or what not to wear when it comes to personal protection equipment, etc. All of that suits me just fine.
Too many rules and restrictions have a tendency to make me want to avoid getting involved rather than the other way around. We'll sort it out as we go along and that's okay with me. I'm not fearful one way or another about contracting the virus but I'm guessing my chances of not contracting it are better in her small shop (I'm assuming it's small) than the mill of a joint where she used to work where there are a half dozen stylists working on any given day. She can more easily schedule people to give herself time between cuts to spray down the equipment if that is what she intends to do. Wish me luck!