June 2008 Archives

June is often a busy month for us. There is a birthday, Father's Day, and my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces come for a visit. For Father's Day, we went out to a nearby driving range. This was a new one for me. A bucket of balls went screaming off, most with a serious slice. A few of us were kink-ified the next day.

Renovation is ongoing during all of these other activities. We had some wet concrete and someone thought it would be the thing to do to immortalize our hand prints. We didn't jump in right away, the concrete was somewhat far along, too far along to get more than a faint impression of Josie's toesies.

We played tourist with the Graybills. We played some mini-golf up on Route 1 and visited the ocean at Halibut Point and Good Harbor Beach. We walked a bit of the Freedom Trail and sampled some micro-breweries. A whirlwind visit and a lot of fun.

I tossed together a peach pie, too. Mea culpa, with a Pillsbury crust. You cannot cut corners with a pie (it has no corners).

Here is a pictorial update on some happenings around the house. Our general contractor just stopped showing up sometime late last fall. There was no explicit "sign off", he just wouldn't return our calls or mail. So we have gotten some other workmen in to finish up: plasterers, a mason, a carpenter and painter, an electrician, and landscapers.

The entries here in the blog lag real time. Coming soon, notes on adventures in babysitting and a pleasant Father's Day.

Our new house sits at the crest of a hill. This fact serves to explain why, when I return from a run, I no longer finish strongly. Indeed, the last quarter mile is often walked, sometimes with gasping, bent over, hands on thighs, breaks.

This posture does give me a chance to inspect all sorts of interesting features found along the sidewalk. Recently noticed is a small U.S. Coast Guard and Geodetic Survey marker right across the street from home. Geodetics is a branch of Earth sciences that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth, including its gravitational field. The placement of this marker almost certainly denotes a gravitational anomaly. We sit at an elevation of 312.39 feet and the gravity here is freakishly intense. This surely is a better explanation for my lethargy, than some half baked I'm getting older speculation.

Pie note: my recent birthday was celebrated with a cherry pie from Wholefoods. Thumbs up!