Check!

Laundry - Check!
Training walk - Check!
Weeding - Check!
Brew iced tea - Check!
Shower - Check!
Clean bathroom - Check!
Eat lunch - Check!
Rearrange furniture a bit - Check!
Have the Olympics on TV - Check!
Go to the post office - Check!


Now wasn't I supposed to spend the day working on writing a paper for work?


Oops!

Sharing the view

One of my friends said that the pictures I post of my new place look great, and it is! I am VERY happy I moved here. Save on gas, wear & tear on my car. Save time commuting. It is close enough that I know people will come over when I invite them. Every night, when I sit on my porch, I want to photograph the sunset. Part of it, I think, is because I am seeing it by myself and I want to share it with whoever will look!

 

In the mornings, I have started opening my doors to let more cool air in before I head off to work. I am glad I do, because this greeted me a couple of mornings ago.

Sometimes I do not get my camera in time to take a picture of something cool. Last night, I watched a small heron of some sort dive, get a fish, then land on a post of the dock and swallow the fish. It was gone before I could come back with my camera. Tonight, I caught a yellow finch enjoying one of the sunflowers I planted that has maturing seeds. I grabbed my camera and it had moved on to a younger flower. Sadly, it flew away as I snapped the photo. You can see its tail in the top corner though.

My garden has done well too! The only drawback, per se, is that as an organic operation, I brought a nice sized spider into the house with basil tonight. The spiders seem to do a good job eating little bugs though!

When I went to a conference the end of June, my downstairs neighbor fed my cat, but I had not mentioned my plants. The only thing that is struggling to come back from the lack of water are the violas. From left to right, that's the tomato & basil, lettuce & green pepper & nasturtium & parsley, yellow bucket with a purple pepper & cucumbers climbing onto its wire, and finally two cucumbers & nasturtium & violas (you can't see in the background). So far I have eaten a lot of purple peppers, lettuce, two cucumbers, basil, lots of nasturtium flowers and leaves, viola flowers, and tonight my first two tomatoes!

And clouds lit from above.

On the road

I attempted to write an actual blog post, but cannot figure out what in my head I want to write about. Instead, I will give you pictures. I was just back East for 10 days (well, one day of driving on each side in a car with no AC, but whatever). I fit a fair amount of stuff in, but did not take many pictures.

I went back when I did because I had friends getting married. It was outdoors and lovely. Her dress was beautiful, as wedding dresses tend to be, and the hydrangeas were in full bloom.

I saw lots of sail boats.

Boats that apparently do not have room for a dinghy, so they have a helicopter pad on top instead.

Oh! More sail boats!

The Boston skyline from afar. (Also saw it from up close, but then it is harder to capture.)

I saw nice sunset while walking to the subway when my friend and I were on our way to her friend's roof-top Friday night happy hour overlooking the Charles River. The 'Do Not Enter' signs really make this picture, I think.

And the morning after a night out? A long drive home. At the beginning, I was thinking about how much more I like the scenery along the Mass Pike than along the highways in the northern Midwest. This picture is not the best example, but there are mountains and vistas!

I stopped and visited my grandmother (and uncle) and then hit the road again.

 At one point, I was in two countries at the same time. Crazy! Spark, I think I could see Toronto from there.

 And then the sun set.

 And unfortunately, the crescent moon does not photograph so easily when you are driving 110 km/hr.

And then there were two times when I thought I should not be driving, but I was SO CLOSE to home, so I rolled the windows down more and turned the radio up and made it home fine. My cat was so happy, her whole chin was wet with drool. It was a long 16-hour trek home.

Things that...

...suck. I am trying to be positive, but life does make that more difficult sometimes. The other title I thought about giving this was something to the effect of, "A list of things that would suck less if you did not have to deal with them on your own." Suck less = glass half full?

• A completely broken car air conditioner. During a 100 degree+ week in the northern Midwest. The compressor is kaput; there is also a short in the wiring to the compressor. Let's just say it would not be cheap to fix.
• Someone keyed my car the day after the AC broke.
• A new car = car payments, and that would severely limit my ability to save money beyond the limits of being a post-doc to begin with.
• Several days this week there has been a big thunderstorm 30 to 60 minutes before I intended to get up. Living alone, I should be able to at least sleep until my alarm goes off.
• I have sliding windows in my apartment. After searching dimensions and types of units online, I have confirmed that there is no air conditioner worth buying that is less than $300. Ones that cost less are not so effective, according to online reviews. If you own a home or rent out apartments in a place where central air is not the norm, you should only put in sashed windows.
• I worked all day on the 4th of July, you know, a national holiday. I do not REALLY care, but it is more the principle of the thing. That is the same day my car's AC broke.
• Having people comment to me over and over and over again about ME moving to where CF decided knowingly and of his own free will to move. I remind him that I do not appreciate the assumption. He left me a beautiful bouquet of flowers; that does not make it okay.
• Three or four weeks ago now, someone hit my mail box and the two next to it (with a bat or something, not their whole car). The other two were mildly damaged, and I fixed them. I just cannot fix my own. I do believe my mail carrier has officially stopped delivering mail despite my note in the mailbox explaining this and that my landlord knows and I have someone who will be fixing it on Monday. It is not even my fault that it is all flimsy?
• Also, WTF with blogger only "supporting" google chrome. I know blogger is free and all, but come on. It is like they are giving the heads-up that they will intentionally be putting something in the site that will prevent you from using anything but chrome.

In other attempts to be upbeat...

• My credit cards are paid off. Next step is getting a month ahead of
• I do love the guys at the car shop where I go.
• I could list other stuff, like I have a job, can pay my bills & afford luxuries like cable and internet. This stuff only makes me feel guilty about being frustrated with life though.
• I leave next week for about 10 days back East trying to catch up with as many friends and family as possible. It will be nice to get away.

Time to finish "working" and head out into the heat sans AC.