Guster "On the Rocks" at Red Rocks Amphitheater July 25, 2021

(note: Additional photos added after publish!)

We bought tickets for this in maybe April when the band announced it. Our favorite band.A headlining show at Red Rocks. Headlining. They've opened four times for other bands but this, this was theirs. 

And I've always wanted to see a show at Red Rocks, so this was it. Here we go. We cannot miss this one.

Doug didn't want to go, even though I wanted him to. He isn't a big Guster fan, and I thought he'd maybe like to just go to Denver and enjoy Denver. But he opted out. 

I bought the tickets for myself and 5 friends.

I bought plane tickets for Linda and me. We all made our hotel arrangements for the same hotel, coordinated schedules. Got it all figured out. 

The crew, the "framily" as Sara calls us was me, Linda (from NY), her bestie Ginger (from Florida), Sara and Sean (from up the road here in Maryland), Kacey (she went to HS with Jess and lives around the corner from them up in Massachusetts), and Joe and Debs. Sara and Sean connected with me before a show in DC, and we met Joe at the same show. Joe lives in Pittsburgh. Debs is his bestie, she lives in Virginia Beach. Debs and Linda got introduced to our little growing team at the Fillmore show for Lost and Gone Forever's 20th anniversary. Linda brought Ginger to the Guster show we attended in Fort Lauderdale.  

No matter what, we'll jump anyone into our friend circle and have a great time. 

Once the plans were made we then just had to wait. The excruciating wait. Time dragged on and eventually we got to the week of travel. Finally.

Linda drove here 2 days before the actual trip so we started our "vacation" early. We both are working from home so we worked from the couch here. We went out to eat all together with Doug and Geoff, cuddled with Phineas, and had a lot of fun just visiting. 

Thursday we flew to Denver, you can't tell in the picture because of the mask but I'm smiling super big (you can tell Linda is because she's got goot "smize"... smiling eyes). 

Conveniently, Sara and Sean were on the same flight with us. We thought they were on the flight before us. 

Our departure ended up rescheduled at some point, initially it was supposed to be 5pm but got bumped back to 7:30, which turned out okay since I didn't need to take half a vacation day just to go to the airport. We met up at the tequila cantina across from our gate, joyfully chatting. It had been a minute since we'd been in the same place and this was fun.

We got into Denver at about 10:30pm, got our luggage, and met Ginger at the passenger pick-up area. She had rented a "mid size SUV" but they gave her something much smaller. She argued this letting them know she had to pick up 4 people and luggage and this was not going to work but as many people know rental cars are scarce, and she had to just take what they gave her and deal with it.

Evaluating the situation, Sean and Sara were contemplating taking the light rail to get to the hotel, and we'd take the luggage. We were tired and cranky, our bodies feeling like it was closer to 1am than 11pm with the time change. We discussed it at length, how ridiculous this toy clown car was, but damn if somehow we didn't just make it all fit. I kind of wish I had video of this, or pictures, of how we did Tetris and got luggage into the way back, and then ourselves in there with more luggage on top of ourselves. With us laughing our asses off as we drove the forever long trip from the airport to downtown. 

We must have looked a sight to the valet folks as we were falling out of the car, stuck under luggage,  laughing like assholes. 

Ginger had flown in that morning, so she had toodled aboot Denver getting to know the lay of the land. She bought the makings for cocktails and a mess of snacks, and Linda and Ginger's room was "the bar." My room was next door, and I had the room to myself until Kacey showed up Saturday morning. Sara and Sean were a couple floors above us, and the pool was waiting for us the next morning on the fourth floor deck.

 We got checked in, had a couple cocktails. Sara was very hungry and tried to order Door Dash a couple of times but each time her order got canceled. Around 1:30 in the morning, she finally got a McDonalds order completed and delivered. Probably the best Quarter Pounder with Cheese I've ever had because at that time, I was also very hungry. We laughed our asses off and fell assless into our beds around 3:30am MT. 

My former manager texted me at 10am ET/8am MT and I could tell she was not doing well. So instead of texting, I called her back. We talked for 90 minutes and I was up for the day. Luckily my brain thought it was like 10am just about so it felt right getting up. 

Linda got coffee. We went to the pool deck. The view was lovely but everyone local told us this was horrible. Not at all what the view should be. Cloudy, smoggy, smoke-filled. But hey, I thought it looked pretty nice.

Nice little football stadium there, too. Hello Denver Broncos.

We got ready for the pool and had a lovely afternoon "bobbing like manatees" in the water. Sara ordered pizza, we gathered with other Guster fans there (from MA and NH) and just really had some fun. 

Some of the details and recollections are foggy for me for Friday. I do know that Joe and Debs were on their way to Denver, and I think we went to pick them up at the airport to surprise them. They had a shit day of flight cancellations and reroutings but we were so happy to get them there in one piece. More hanging out. More fun. Kacey arrived on Saturday morning and took the light rail. We were all gathered in our place together. 

Here are Ginger and Linda, chilling in front of some wall art when we walked back from dinner on Friday night. 

Saturday Ginger, Linda, and I went and got pedicures. Treat yoself. They were a lot more affordable than DC pedicures, that's for sure. 

Guster hosted a bingo night on Saturday, and we ended up delaying our departure to the venue which was a mistake. We didn't get in, but were able to sit at a picnic table on the sidewalk and hear the game. We were able to get in to get drinks thanks to a friend who scored us nametags (you couldn't get inside without a name tag) so we could at least hang out, see other friends and, then this happened. 

That's the drummer, Brian. He couldn't get in either. Too crowded. Ha.

 

I ran across the street to the brewery where he was hanging out on the patio to say hi. We got to visit for a few minutes, a lot of people wanted to say hi and get selfies so I didn't want to hog him. I wished him a happy early birthday (his birthday was the day before so I was wishing him a happy early birthday for next birthday. That's a joke we had running at the office for a while. "Every day that isn't your birthday is your early birthday, Brian," I explained. He laughed and said "you're the weirdest person I know." I told him I doubt that. He has to know weirder people. 

He said he said he was feeling so overwhelmed and blown away. He was shocked and amazed at how many people came from so far just to see them. "You're here from like Maryland, there are people from everywhere here, the show is sold out! The orchestra is amazing. You're going to die, Chris. You're just going to die." I told him that Linda was there from NY and Ginger from Florida, and yeah he was right. People were there from everywhere, it was a pilgrimage. An opportunity to have fun, gather, be together, finally. Finally. 

I thanked him for recognizing that this was such a big deal for them as a band and for us as fans, and thanked him for making it so I'd die. I left him to go back across the street to Linda and Ginger and hang out. He came across and we had the opportunity to say hi again and we got the picture. 

Then he had to go to the airport to get his family. I asked for his nametag, he laughed. Later I put it with a red rock that I got from Red Rocks. 

We hung out with Joe and Debs, and Kacey, and the gang was all together. There we were. T minus 24 hours to the show. 

Mind you right now the forecast for Sunday  is for 77 degrees, 1% chance of rain. Keep that in mind.

On Sunday I had arranged for a meet and greet for Guster fans. There's a hotel near the venue that a lot of people were staying at the night of the show, but they couldn't accommodate us without charging us a room rental fee, so I reached out to the brewery across the parking lot to see if they could host us. 

The taproom manager was the coolest guy, set us up with a side of the tasting room. Guster fans gathered, I think we had like 50 at one point, people came and went as they had time. The beer was flowing, the restaurant next door was coming over every 15  minutes to take orders to feed the people. The staff had the brilliant idea to just put on Spotify's Guster playlist and everyone was singing along. Good lord we looked like some sort of crazy cult, but everyone was just having so much fun. Good old friends, new friends, card games, lots of laughs, meeting new people, meeting kids! It was a successful and wonderful gathering of the like-minded and some joy. I asked the taproom manager at the end if he thought this was a good day and he looked at me and said "uh yeah. You guys bought all our merch. Best day of beer sales we've had in weeks." I thought it was so weird that they're so close to Red Rocks that no other fan base had made this kind of event and he shook his head and said no not really. Nothing organized like this. Sometimes a few people show up and have a beer before the show but nothing like an actual coordinated meet and greet. 

If you're ever in Morrison Colorado, go to Over Yonder Brewing Company. Tell Corey I sent you.

Holy Cow this is a lot of Guster Fans enjoying beer and each other. 

We were staying at the hotel near the venue that night (we kept 1 room at the other hotel in downtown and concierged all our stuff in that room for the night. Best 300 bucks we've ever spent for all of us to not have to worry about schlepping stuff back and forth. Linda is a genius sometimes). We knew that we couldn't once again cram all our shit into a car again. Joe had picked up a car for a 24 hour rental through some Uber driver thing. So we had 2 cars at our disposal. 

I was taking a post meet and greet snooze and the sky opened up. It was POURING, thunder and lightning, and hail. Everyone was pretty terrified that the show would just be canceled. We waited at the hotel, monitoring the chat in the Facebook group from people who were already up there, waiting it out in their cars or inside the venue because they were doing show volunteer work with Adam's organization, Reverb. 

The waterfalls rushing down the stairs, the absolute pooling and ponding of water everywhere. The images were kind of daunting. But then it stopped, the sun was coming out, and the show was not canceled. We made it over to the venue. 

It's a complicated parking situation, and kind of a shitshow. Because we had two cars, our group got separated. I had the tickets on my phone for the 6 humans I bought for, but Sean and Kacey were at a lower gate from where we were. I should have dispersed them at the hotel before we left but we weren't thinking we'd end up in this situation.

No cel signal for either of them (I had one) so they couldn't receive the tickets.... and I was wary of trying to transfer them, and then have them be floating somewhere in the ether with no way to get them once we found what gate our friends were at. 

There was some stress but I wasn't going to let it ruin anything. Sara was freaking out a little because she couldn't believe Sean might not be able to get in. The Red Rocks Staff was literally no help. We came in the north gate. But Sean said they were at the north gate. There's an upper north and a lower north but basically the lower north was marked "Coca Cola gate" according to Sean and Kacey when we were able to get them on the phone. 

The staff had no idea what that meant. "This is the north gate." 

No dude, up top there, that's the north gate. 

"yes. Yes it is. And this is the north gate." 

Jesus you people are infuriating. 

In my heart of hearts I'm writing the "strong letter to follow" that Red Rocks was going to get from me for calling both of their gates North Gate instead of naming them things like Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple gates. Or something. Or telling their internal staff what the Coca Cola gate means. Dipshits.

Anyway, we finally find one normal human, who knows what the Coca Cola gate is, and points up to where we can see Sean and Kacey coming down the stairs toward the ticket scanner. They're about 20 people up. We run over there and try to tell security that we have their tickets on my phone. This one woman tells me "no you don't." I'm like "bitch do not try me right now." Sean and Kacey are waving to us and I point to them like "look, I have their tickets, I need to step up to that scanner lady and get this scanned, and finally someone with half a brain guides me up. 

Scanned, in, relieved, somewhat pissed and angry, and realizing we've basically just missed the entire opening act, the Lone Bellow, who I really wanted to see but ... we've got our party back together.

Rule number one in D&D is do not split the party. Well. Same for Red Rocks, I guess. Lesson learned about electronic tickets too - make sure to just give every human their ticket on their own devices before leaving. And cel coverage is not universal out there - screenshot your ticket so it is an image in your gallery and back that shit up. 

All together, we get to our seats. Joe and Debs had bought their tickets way after I bought ours, and they got them from someone who couldn't attend, so they were in the 14th row and we were in the 22nd. Joe offered the people next to us "swapsies" so they could go up to the 14th row and we could be together. Those folks were happy to do so, and were part of our Guster fan group so they shot a little video of themselves in their new seats being all happy. We were happy to have our party fully together. 

And the show began. 

This was a next level experience for me as a fan. The venue, the lighting, the stage, the crowd. I'd never seen them in a bigger venue than say the House of Blues in Boston. There were 9000 people here. 9000 people there to see Guster. And the band was absolutely blown away. "For the first time in my life, I'm at a loss for words," Ryan Miller said after the first song. 

They played a few songs and then the orchestra came out. The Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Conducted by Christopher Dragon. Coolest conductor I've ever seen. 

And this is one of the magical results. Full screen this and love that orchestra rounding this all out and making it just an auditory masterpiece. And love Brian's drum performance when they have it full miked, because he's just the focal point of this all and I wish the camera would just stay on him from about 4 minutes in. 

The entire experience was simply amazing. Even when Ryan's voice went all "12 year old puberty" in a few spots, probably hydration and altitude related. And the wind in the microphones was a bit hard on the audio. 

When they performed "Hard Times" acoustic, quietly and beautifully singing at the edge of the stage holding that audience in absolute silence as they listened along, really a stunning experience. Their song "Mind Kontrol" isn't one of my favorites but with the orchestra, it was mind blowing. And such beauty with songs Adam sings lead on, like "Dear Valentine" with the orchestra. I can't get over how wonderful they all sounded together.

At the end of a lot of the shows they do a song called "Jesus on the Radio" and they usually do it without amplification, standing on the edge of the stage or out in the audience. For this they had a small stage set up in the audience, about 18 rows up, and they had to be microphoned. People had left the show already, so we were able to move much closer. And everyone close in knows - sing along. Sing loudly, you're part of this little 2 minute long song.

The show ended and they put a "Save the Date" sign up on the screens for On The Ocean, 2022. They have done this twice where they basically take over the city of Portland Maine for a weekend. That'll be August 12-14 next year and we're already conspiring on our attendance for that one. 

Monday morning, Kacey had to go back home, so before I drove her to the airport, Joe and I were up early and we went over to Red Rocks to look at it one more time. The venue is in the middle of a park, so it's open every day. People exercise in their, running up the steps and using the different stages of the venue for different exercises. 

We walked around and just looked at it, Hot, dry, no rain, bright sun. No Guster. It was fun to just have one more walk around. 

I dropped Joe off at the hotel so he could rouse the crew and get them ready for check out. I took Kacey to the airport, got back and grabbed Linda and Ginger. We all went over to a Mexican restaurant that Joe had been eyeballing after the show but we sadly were all too tired to go out. We hit the place up for lunch, and had a great time. 

We headed back to our downtown hotel, got our rooms all figured out. Ginger took the car and headed back to Florida. 

Tuesday morning, we headed out to the Denver Biscuit Company for breakfast and mimosas, and spent our last moments together before we had to part ways. Joe and Debs were headed to her aunt's house, Sara, Sean, Linda and I were flying home that afternoon. 

Flight was delayed by over 2 hours so I'm glad Linda and I had driven to the airport instead of having Doug take and pick us up. We got in well after midnight, and were happy to try to fall asleep thinking it was only 11pm in our bodies and brains at that point. 

I keep thinking that I could have done more in Denver. But I was very happy doing pretty much nothing but Day Drinking at the pool. There's no crime in that for a vacation. I am disappointed on one hand that Doug didn't want to come with me but on the other hand, I got to do all the dumb things I wanted to do like nothing. I didn't have to go hiking and get really winded and exhausted. I didn't have to walk 11 miles all over town to go look at things in the 90 plus degree heat. I got to just hang out with my friends. And that's just fine sometimes. I had a great time. I don't regret any choices. The only regret I have is we didn't have another day or two to be there because maybe, just maybe, I could have gone to a museum or something, or more driving in the mountains. But it's okay. The focus of this trip was the band, and the friends. 

Happy to have that as a memory that I'll cherish forever.

In The Valley

I want to write up a full entry on the Red Rocks/Guster/Denver trip. I can't believe that happened weeks ago and we're now here at August 15th. So many good memories, and such a great time. Ah me, oh my heart. 

More recently though, we went to help Doug's mom with her packing and moving. We were under the impression we would be doing work. 

That did not happen.

It was not a full wash out but I have feelings about the whole week we spent there, and I am kind of angry. I'm not sure who reads this journal anymore, so I'm reluctant to really to pour my heart out. Suffice to say. It was not the best week, I did not enjoy myself at all. And coming off the joy of the Guster trip and travel with friends where we all worked together to make it the best experience, man. This has made me bitter.

Pros: 

• Attended Doug's family reunion. It was not well attended. All of his mom's level of family/cousins are sad because of it. 
• Condo is really nice. Almost too nice. Kind of weird to be there.
• Brought over the patio bench and chair.
• Brought over 2 bookcases and a metal shelf.
• Brought over several small boxes of things.
• Purchased a TV, wall mount, scheduled install.
• Purchased laptop (surface pro). 
• Got internet connected.
• Helped configure her phone for better use and put all the contact numbers in there.
• I made a record of all the passwords/codes, so if someone forgets they can easily ask us.
• Visited Ohio for the Rogers Sale and got some things (rather than just coming home sunburned and empty handed).
• Visited Home Laughlin's China in West Virginia and went into the Seconds section, and bought a ton of plates/bowls/etc to replace all the mismatched stuff we use daily. 
• Quality time with our niece, nephew, and Doug's sister.
• Quality time talking with mom (when freakouts were not happening). 
• Good pizza! So good. 

Cons:

• Given stuff to bring back with us (It was a challenge to put it in the Jeep, lads).
• Dog traumatized by kennel (injured himself, puked/shat in it 2x). And then I was traumatized by his trauma.
• Cleanup from second dog explosion = not a very happy event with lots of tears and crying (not just me). 
• DWG - frustrated with absolute lack of progress at old house in regards to packing/cleaning/organizing, when we specifically came out there to move so many things. He vacillates between "there is no big hurry for her to move, she'll do it in her time, she has 53 years of stuff to sort through" and "oh my GOD. Why can't she just put 10 books in a box and move them?! Why has she not sorted through things? What is this pile of shit on the dining table, it's all junk mail, why won't she just put that in the recycling and move it! There are no end tables/patio tables at the new house so we can't put anything on a table. Can't we just bring something over For Fuck's SAKE!" 
• GWG - frustrated with lack of things to do and felt he wasted a week being there. Doesn't see the purpose in maybe just spending time. Antsy, pacing the cage, none of this is his style. Drank a lot of beer due to boredom. But bought cool sunglasses at Rogers, so he liked that.
• Me - overwhelmed by how unbelievably stubborn MIL is, how no one can make decisions, how both DWG and mom say "I don't care" when it comes to decisions but it is obvious they do care. Annoyed that decisions get made but then plans change because the person who did not care suddenly has a different idea. Wanted to see my friend Joe but wasn't able to (it's ok - I saw him at the Guster concert in July) 

We got back a week ago, and I basically just kind of shut down, focused on work all week. I think it was Wednesday when I finally gave Doug a full unload of my feelings about what we went through. What I went through. 

He owes me.

And I told him I really do not intend to go back and "help" until actual help is needed. So go ahead, if she asks you or wants you to come up, go ahead. 

Basically what it comes down to is she isn't ready to move, and keeps talking about if she doesn't like being there, she'll sell it and move back to the house. So she does not intend to fully move out. It's clear to me. She's not going to sell the old house. So why bother moving out fully. It's a game. This is dumb and a waste of my time. I'm not interested. 

I'm trying to be merciful to her position but also am completely dumbfounded by it. I'm gobsmacked. 

Doug has told me my mom is difficult but, to be honest, nah son - she wins. 

Anyway. 

One of the highlights of this trip for me was going to West Virginia to the Homer Laughlin Fiesta Tableware store. We spent a great deal of time in the Seconds section, and we put together a nice setting for 6 of the different sized plates/bowls. 

Buying their stuff at market price, that blue container at the top is a dog bone container - and it is $86 retail. In the seconds? $20. Scores abound. 

I've always wanted Fiestaware. It is durable, colorful, fun. I've especially wanted a pitcher for iced tea or sangria or who knows what. 

They had white and purple ones of those pitchers, Doug didn't like the purple because you can't see what is inside so we went with white. 

The turquoise tray is for a dozen deviled eggs. We have yellow bowls and 10" plates, 7" blue plates, some purple/black dessert plates, white coffee mugs, orange and blue deep "bistro" bowls. I wanted something red thrown in here and he said he already felt like a Crayola crayon box barfed all over the place so we didn't mix in red. 

All told, all of the pieces we bought came to less than $150. Retail this would be close to $800. 

We have been enjoying our plates and bowls. I have not made deviled eggs yet but we have 2 dozen eggs so hey - I can do that any time! I want to set up a nice photo shoot of all the things, because I like them so much. 

Geoff asked me what we'd be doing with all our other plates, all the Martha Stewart Collection plates from K-Mart that Doug bought when he was like 4. Other bowls and things we've got. I am going to pack those up and hold them aside - he can have them for when he moves out, and they'll do him good for starter plates. 

That was a delightful highlight of the trip. I enjoyed myself immensely. And I'll go back for sure. 

Farmer Chris

I hate the heat. 

Absolutely hate it. I have always felt that I can deal better with the cold. More socks. Layers. More wood in the fire. Space heaters carefully positioned so as not to set fire to everything in the house. Fleece blankets. Yes.

With the heat, there's nowhere you can go and nothing you can do. You can take off just so many articles of clothing before they put you in jail (if you're, you know, outside and stuff). You can aim a fan at your face. You can put a bowl of ice in front of that fan or make your own air conditioner/swamp cooler. You're constantly fighting the heat and trying to overcome it. Moving, going places, walking, being outside, these all become intolerable.

And then you die. 

DC area heat can be brutal. It starts early and goes long. Not like New England where there are 2 months of super hot heat, around here, it is a solid 5. 

I am not a good gardener. 

I like the idea of gardening, but I do not enjoy doing it. Kind of like the opposite of what Jim Gaffigan has to say here, I'll eat them, I just don't enjoy the work that goes into maintaining the garden. 

We have put in some garden plants just about everywhere we have lived, and I hate weeding, and Doug kind of believes in just letting the garden do its thing. So our gardens have always kind of sucked.

Last year, we put out tomatoes and peppers. Within 2 days some small critter ate our pepper plants, we ended up with one single solitary pepper as a result. 

It was nice. I appreciated it being there. 

But I told Doug then that I didn't intend to go out there and be Farmer Chris and take care of the garden, and it seemed he did not either even though he said he would.  There was a wooden swing in the yard when we moved in, and it was a rickety piece of shit, so we had taken the swing off of it and put the frame over where the garden would be. Doug said he was learning his lesson from past gardens,and would build a lattice of twine so the tomatoes could grow up. He'd said he'd weed the garden. 

He did not. 

And then the bastard squirrels came. 

They would pick tomatoes off the vines, which were growing down on the ground and out into the grass in the yard, and they would eat them while sitting on top of the frame of the old swing, looking at us in the kitchen window. Tauntingly. Nom nom nom look at me, loser! I'm eating your under ripe tomatoes! Oh And I'm basically going to eat about 1/3 of it, drop it, and go away. Bye!  

I tried to get Doug to avenge them by putting up that nice netting system over the frame, and do the twine lattice, but he said 'meh.' 

I think we were both, at that time, sick of being at home, cooped up, working. And the loving spirit of growing things was gone. 

This year, we put plants in again. 

The yard had 3 established garden beds. The previous tenants were avid gardeners it seems. We still get their gardening catalogues with super expensive seeds and implements for digging and cultivating. 

The family across the street are huge gardeners, too. They told us in the past they'd coordinated what they were growing with the people who lived here and behind them, and traded a lot. We didn't want to grow things like potatoes and corn, so Doug politely said that he was going to grow tomatoes and peppers and just see how we made out. 

The dad seemed disappointed. 

Doug spread out a ton of Cosmos in one of the plots, and sunflowers in another. He likes wildflower gardens that take little or no maintenance, and when we lived in MA he'd always put out wildflowers. The island we had in our driveway in the Brown House was always the greatest. People would stop to tell us how beautiful it was. 

And it was.  

He spread out a shady mix at the back corner along the fence, but barely anything has come of it. Possibly not enough rain, possibly birds. We were disappointed in that. 

We put in tiny sweet orange tomatoes, some Beefsteak and Better Boys, and 2 different peppers in the center plot. Once again the peppers were eaten overnight by another critter, probably the little bastard who ate the last ones we planted. Doug angrily replaced the peppers, and bought some spray to keep the little jerks away from them. He bought a zucchini too on that trip, so the zuke was planted late but seems to be thriving.  

We also planted herbs in pots, which is something we never have done. We'd had some hanging baskets in the shed when we moved, and he brought them here rather than pitch them. Doug's instinct to reuse paid off. I planted Greek oregano, parsley, mint, and thyme. Wish we had some rosemary because I like to use that on chicken and fish.  I'll remember that next year.

Left to right, oregano, thyme, mint, parsley. 

Doug pulled a ton of parsley off the other day and used it in a marinade and it was delightful.

I should note, I planted the veggies in the yard myself, talking to them and welcoming them to the plot. I have began actively weeding the areas around them. I started noticing that they really should be staked up, one of the tomato plants was getting yellow at the bottom and two of its lovelies were on the ground, bug eaten. We got the stakes after I told Doug I refused to let these bad boys die. 

While Doug took a nap last weekend, and I got to work. And things are looking pretty good out there right now, considering how much I hate this. Not as good as the super gardeners across the street but hell yeah, good for something I'm not good at. 

Here are some pictures. Sunflowers, Cosmos, Tomatoes. All the friends. More to come, I'm sure.

Some of the sunflowers are 8+ feet tall! Looking up, I always try to take pictures of them without the power lines getting in the way. 

Looking through the Cosmos, the tomatoes are behind them and then the sunflowers soar.
The cosmos are about 3ft high. 

I took some of the cosmos from the main patch and moved them to the fence. I thought they weren't going to make it, but they're doing well. I should have moved more into this bare spot on the fence! 

To the left and right of the cosmos, I've got morning glories starting up... late. 

I can't wait for them to start to get tall enough for me to coax up into the chain links and they can climb.

And yes, weeds. I have to go out and weed. 

These little orange tomatoes are delightful and delicious, and we discovered Phineas likes to eat them off the vine, so we have to watch him carefully.

Everyone is still so green. Please ripen so I can eat you!

Zucchini in front, I'm hoping it starts to vine and thread and grow, I'm going to encourage it through the tomatoes. And the peppers are to the left and right. And I do need to weed this too, but this is looking good compared to last weekend. 

We managed to score some firewood from some neighbors through the nextdoor app.
Not pictured, Doug cut down a small dead tree and pruned another tree in front of the house that was growing into the chain link fence, so we've got a bunch of wood from that adventure, too. It all needs to dry/season before it can be used. Some of this wood is too long for the fire pit, so when Doug gets his blade replaced for the electric saw, we'll have some perfect pieces.

And even with the heat, which I hate, I have done this kind of activity a few times this summer and didn't cry or die. 

After getting completely filthy and caked in dirt and sweat, the post garden-time shower I have taken each time has been a gift and a blessing, where I stand and watch all the dirt and grass pool up round my feet. 

It's exhausting, and then in the shower, I feel sleepy but very alive. Maybe that's why people like this?

We still have a lot of days of super high heat, and I'm keeping an eye on all the friends, watering with my new 75 ft hose (because, of course, the water spigot is on the totally wrong side of the house for the garden). 

Waiting for those green ones to ripen and be delicious. I hope.

Enjoy my filthy feets, I guess I am Farmer Chris after all.

July and the Second Half of 2021

After my last post, and looking at things where they were for a couple of days, I decided to move Lita's Likkah Cabinet to the other end of the room by the hutch. 

Closer to the kitchen, closer to ice and the sink, closer to more glasses. It made sense. I noticed how the sun was coming through the windows (which do need to be cleaned, yes) and a bonus Phineas sleeping on the dining room floor in the sunshine... So I had to take the picture. House is still coming along nicely. I have my puzzle table set up, and just have to move 2 more things to get stuff organized.

Managed to not get my legs and feet in the shot through some mad skill. 

The past week was kind of a rough one. Work has been insane, but when is it never insane? Doug keeps getting mad at me for working after dinner but my job is different than his. I go to a lot of meetings during the day and don't get to touch helpdesk tickets. So all the tickets that come in all day long, I look at them at night, answer them, send some to other co-workers so they can help. And usually put in 2-3 hours additional. I feel right now that if I can just do the meetings, or the tickets, one or the other, life would be better. Or if I had someone doing the ticket side of my life so I could do far fewer of them, that'd be great. My co-workers are taking a lot of the easier tickets (or the tickets for things I'm not sure of the answers to, but they do because they built the sites) but there are still so many tickets. 

The other night, my sister and I were going to facebook video chat, and she was delayed in getting to me. I had made an icy, pint glass sized vodka tonic and put it on my bedside table ready to drink while we talked, but she never got to calling, and I didn't drink the cocktail. 

I worked. Completely focused on answering tickets. 

I sat here with my cute little lap desk that I bought (it's perfect) and pounded through those tickets. Doug came in for bed at 10pm and I put the laptop away... perfect timing. We went to sleep. 

I woke up around 6:30am, the dog wanted to go out. Geoff had fed him and let him out at 5 but an hour or so after brekkie he enjoys another go-out. I reached over to the bedside table to grab the glass of water. I always have a glass of water there. 

Only it was not a glass of water. It was a room temperature, rather strong, vodka tonic. 

Imagine my surprise. 

And yes, I drank the whole thing. Hey Wednesday, how you doin?

It has been exceptionally hot. Not as brutally hot as the historic and deadly heat up over the Pacific Northwest. I talked to Aaron over on the coast and he said in his backyard it was 115 at the moment. Right on the river. Right at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The next day it was 66 and cloudy, but folks from Portland were all flooding to the coast to try and get some sort of reprieve. I felt incredibly bad for them. 

Here it was "normal" hot. DC hot: mid to upper 90s, tons of humidity. But we went about a week without receiving a cooling rainstorm.

Our AC was working extra hard, as I'm sure everyone's was. All kinds of people in the neighborhood were having AC guys at their house to fix. We all have Central Air - it's kind of mandatory around here. 

When we moved in, I asked the rental agent to please have a furnace and AC wellness check done in February (she did). We had just spent 4 days without heat at the other house (they got a brand new, super quiet, efficient and lovely furnace installed, we got to enjoy it for a couple of weeks before moving). I didn't want for that to happen again, and I wanted to avoid any AC nonsense on days like we had this week. 

With the cold, I can deal with fleecy jammies, slippers, blankets, and space heaters and stay comfortable.  I always feel like we do fine. 

But when it is hot like this, there's absolutely no escaping it. You can't sit in front of a fan enough to cool off. 

Yesterday we finally got the storms through the area. They were pretty rough! Thunder and lightning began here at about 1pm. I was on a Zoom call with a station and one of the attendees slacked me to say it looked like someone was taking pictures in my house. The room was very dark, and the flashes noticeable. It lasted all the way until about 6pm. We had our power go out twice while I was on calls. Luckily I wasn't the only one from my team on the call so we had someone fill in for what I was saying until I could log back in. 

We got another wave at about 9pm, and a tornado touched down near DC from what I understand. The overnight was quiet, but wow, what a ride. 

Phineas was kind of sick this week. Starting on Friday he just wasn't the Phin we've gotten used to. He stopped eating. Drank a LOT of water. Needed to go out pretty much all the time. Which was nice because yeah, it's hot a balls doggie. Come back in! All weekend he didn't touch his food, and all he wanted to do was sleep. 

And throw up. 

We couldn't figure out what was going on - did he eat something? I mean, he went through the whole Dogs Eat Cicadas phase during the Cicada invasion, but the brood had long finished and there have been no more bugs to eat. Doug said that a hungry dog will eventually eat. Which he did, but not with the exuberance and gusto of his usual brekkie and phinnertime celebrations. He'd nibble and leave, and go back to sleep. 

Starting yesterday he seemed back to his good normal self. Seeing him bound up the stairs to come back in after we walked around the yard together was a relief. Before that he took the steps so slowly, like a very old man, and I was afraid he was going to fall down. 

But we're on the mend, and heckin' cute.

Phin wishes you a good day.

It's the 4th of July weekend. We're entering the second half of the year. My early morning wakings will note a darker sky in a couple of weeks and the reality of the downhill slide to winter will begin. Still, it's incredibly light early in these parts for the morning rise to take the dog out and feed him.  

Doug is looking for places for us to go watch fireworks. I'm not really interested in going. My office would always open the 4th floor deck for employees and families to come and enjoy the view over to the national mall, but last year and this year the building is closed for that. So none of that for us. I'd kind of rather stay home. 

I have a feeling our neighbor across the street is gearing up for a party and fireworks. He shoots them off all the time. When we lived up the street it wasn't a big deal but now across the street we may be in for it. We'll see. 

Least a guy can do is invite the neighbors over for the shindig, am I right? 

Accomplishments

About this time last year I was flush with doing things that I called the Little Projects. Pandemic life made me look around and evaluate my lack of organization and all of my messes. So I commenced to cleaning up stuff, organizing things. I felt like I made really great progress on my life. I threw out things, I got things out of storage and put them up on shelves to make me happy while we were going to be home all the damn time. I ran out of gas a few months into the process. Brodie died, I think I was much more sad about that than I initially imagined. I was derailed.

In the fall, I tried to kickstart myself a couple of times but just could not get things done. Work got insanely busy. I got the Covid. I had to pack us to move, and I bemoaned all of the things I'd unpacked as I put them back into boxes. 

All those books. Jebus. 

We got here and this house is very much the same size and style wise as the other house with a few exceptions. The floorplan is slightly bigger, and it is laid out differently. And we have a whole huge finished basement downstairs to make a second living/working/office space. 

I got about 90% organized down there. Doug kind of messed up my flow when his office gave him 2 monitors and a new laptop, so he stopped working from the couch and set up downstairs. So that has monkey-wrenched my furniture and book placements but we'll make it work out. I am glad we have that space because otherwise I'd be trying where to force all the things I have into the living room, our bedroom, the guest room, places. I keep waiting for a truly rainy day to go down there and organize the heck out of everything.

During the pandemic, we managed to save a lot of money and went and got a nice living room set. Well, nice for a discount furniture company. It is nice, it's just not West Elm nice but nice enough. It is much nicer than the used Bob's Furniture Discount couch we inherited from my college roommate's uncle when it didn't fit in his house, and the IKEA couch we got for free from one of my coworkers who relocated to Spain. Raising kids, especially The Boy we just never wanted to get new furniture because we knew that he would wreck it relatively quickly. 

Once the furniture was placed in here and after two strong arguments about how far over the couch should be (I have given up) we started to get a good idea for other things which have been kind of crammed into the dining room or sitting in boxes. 

I set up the black glass-front cabinet that my friend Lita gave us when she moved to be our liquor cabinet, and put a 2x4 IKEA set of shelves under the window beside it. 

A few months ago we got a corner hutch for the glass and the china at a place called Community Forklift. They specialize in recycling furniture, appliances, all kinds of house and yard things. It took me forever to get Doug interested in going down, for as much as he's totally into buying used furniture and the shabby chic-ness of the style. 

We should have a camp cottage somewhere full of shit that we'd both envision having. But once I got him there, well. He's a big salvage fan now. 

The hutch needed some cleaning up. There was tape all over the glass, but a little windex and Mr. Clean Magic Eraser took care of that. Doug got some Howard's Restor-a-Finish and a couple coats later all the scuffs and mess were rubbed out and it was ready for living its next best life looking fantastic and shiny.  

It is full of our super expensive glass and our cheapassed wine glasses someone left behind at the cooking school. The Noritake china is down in the bottom, looking good, waiting for holiday dinners. 

We went back to Forklift yesterday in search of end tables and lamps which you can see in the living room shots. 

We scored exactly what we needed, and the bonus is the lamps match. We found one at one section of the warehouse, and then while walking around double checking to see if we missed any good end tables anywhere else we found a larger version of the same lamp. They were separated from each other for displays, but we reunited them joyfully. 

Geoff's bathroom in this house is huge, as opposed to the tiny assed shabby shitty bathroom in the last house, which was actually too small for me to even clean with success. 

I took an old table we'd been schlepping around since before he was born. I've used it in the bathroom before, I believe I have a picture of it here in the blog from our years in the Brown House. 

It is a perfect size for a couple of towels and hand towels under, a drawer for nail clippers and extra razors, and the top for anything you need like paper towel, cleaners, TP and stuff. 

Doug's grandfather used to get old Saturday Evening Post magazines at yard sales, and then frame advertisements that he liked. Kept him out of trouble, I guess. And we inherited a large box of them. 

There are four that we've used in the bathroom before, two from Kohler plumbing, one for Scott Tissue, and one for soap (Lifebuoy?) where "The Health Doctor" is credited for giving advice to women to wash with this soap and keep their youthful complexions. Thank you Health Doctor!

We have dozens of these, a lot of pipe tobacco or beans ads, but I wanted to find something in the collection for Geoff's bathroom once I got this table in there. I found two ads for bandages and gauze, and thought that my future X-Ray technician could appreciate them from the medical perspective (which he did). They are slightly askew in this picture but I did go back and fix them later. 

Our walls up here on the main floor are not drywall. In fact, I think Geoff's bathroom is the only room in the house that is drywall. Hmm. 

These walls are as hard as stone so I have to get special hanger dealies to stick stuff to them, hence in the photos you can see my four ads are sitting on the living room table to remind me to get this figured out.  

Carrie had shipped a bookshelf to me at the old house which I found I didn't have a good space for, so it sat in a box until today. I broke that open, and set that up. It has 4 lovely little shelves now full of glass knick knacks and paperweights, some small toys, Uno Cards, all kinds of things I have been waiting to stick out in public.  This helped me get rid of several boxes that were sitting in the dining room, taunting and annoying me. 

We still have a couple of things in the dining room that need homes, and I'm getting the itch to hang stuff up on these damn boring sand colored walls. But we are infinitely closer to actually like, living here.  

On that note, gotta get some more things done before I run out of gas! As it is Father's Day, either Geoff or I have to go to the market for good grillables. Geoff said to Doug "Seein' as it's Father's Day, how about I grill for you tonight?" Which I think is the sweetest thing he could say. 

Here are some pictures of the aforementioned things. Enjoy. 

Before I took the Restor-A-Finish to the hutch. 
And below, After but before the china and glass were put in.

the table to the left of the Lita's Liquors Cabinet is going to be the new puzzle table.

All the wee shelfy things I love. Ignore the dusty floor.

There was a bunch of stuff there before I set the shelf up, and I've since gone back to swiffer it nice. 

We have one box of things that I'm not sure where I stuck it. It'll turn up, I'm sure!

Everything does, right?

Thirty

I started this blog shortly after my 10th anniversary. June 1st we celebrated our 30th anniversary. How wild is that? 

Initially, we thought about doing something substantial to mark 30. We had a great trip to Canada for 25. We thought about going back and retracing the route of our honeymoon through Nova Scotia. We thought maybe we'd go to Denmark or Sweden, or an Alaska cruise. Covid and the Pandemic kind of changed any cloud talk plans that we'd mentioned to each other for marking the occasion. Plus, Canada is closed to us Yanks.

Doug suggested we go to Massachusetts, see my folks, see the kid. It sounded just about right to do something meaningful. My parents were ready for us to visit, and comfortable. Jess was not, but Doug was pretty determined we'd still visit. 

So that was decided. 

We left on Saturday, and on paper it is about 7 hours to my parents, in reality more like 9 with traffic around NYC. We got to our hotel and got takeout and beer Saturday night. Sunday morning we went to my folks' and hung out. We went to their favorite watering hole, and all my mom's favorite people were there, including Bert, who told me once he's marrying my mom. So I call him Step Dad. 

They have a lovely support system up there at their bar, people who take good care of them when they are not well or need help. It's kind of like a church family, only they are from the bar. The bartenders have our phone numbers (me and Linda) and can get ahold of us fast if there is an emergency. That kind of community is hard to come by for some folks in their late years so church family, bar family, it's family. 

I asked my dad to smile for the picture and this is what I get. When you are 81, you can do you. He's so damn funny. And look at that hair. 

We stayed at a hotel a town away, and we took my dad for a couple drives because my mom literally never goes anywhere and he doesn't get to go out as much as he likes. 

We went to the Canal, and took a walk. We drove around a little town on the bay with all kinds of great little water vistas. We tried to go driving down to a road that turned out to be private to go out where the water would be all around us. We had a lot of fun with my dad. 

During our trip, my mom and I went to see her sister, my Aunt Bea (Bevvie, Beverly, etc...) who is now at an assisted living facility on the Cape. My cousins got to the point where this was just the best option for her, for safety reasons. It is hard to be the caretaker for someone with memory loss. I could write a whole entry on that visit. I may just do that. 

My mom has been reluctant to go visit her, and my sister has given her a hard time about it. I'm sure for my mom this is hard, to see her baby sister in a position where she isn't "herself" and needs pretty much round the clock care which my cousin John really could not continue to give her.  She frustrates my mother, because she asks the same questions over and over, and doesn't remember a lot of things. So my mom has been incredibly reluctant to go visit. 

This frustrates me and my sister, because ... well that's your sister. You should just cope with/deal with her in her situation and meet her where she is. Having mercy for both of them, I was more than excited when my cousin Billy offered to bring us to see her. We had to be added to his visitation, so he took care of that signup. 

I took a lot of photos on the trip that were not shared socially, this one chief among them. My mom is holding the pudding cup so Bea can get all the pudding out. "It keeps trying to get away from me," she said. Laughing, mom helped her out. 

Ages 78 and 76 or ages 8 and 6, there is your sibling helper. 

I have a lot of feelings here. I'm sure my mother has. I'm sure my sister does. I'll just say we had a really lovely visit. I hope I get to see her again, at least one more time. 

Here are a couple shots of my dad. I think we had more fun on this visit with him than we've had in a long time. With kidnapping him and taking him for a ride one day, and kidnapping him and going to the canal another day, he was full of stories.  

Here he is at the Canal with the train bridge behind him. I thought we would take a long walk here, but it was a short one, as he migrated towards the street, towards a bar. Like you do when you've escaped the house. My cousin Billy had told me to go to Buzzards Bay Brewing Company, next to the bar Bart was aiming for, as he knows we like craft beer. So I steered him to the right a little bit and we had a good time without a Keno machine or a TV. 

My dad is not a craft beer aficionado, so I always ask the staff "what's your closest beer to a Budweiser, or your lowest ABV ale?" 

There was a pack of cards on one of the table, so Doug dealt 21/Blackjack for us and we had a good laugh with those. 

On Memorial Day itself, we went up north. We realized that if we were going to see Jess we'd need to do it on the Monday. They weren't going to take time off while we were there, or come to the Cape. Jess is reluctant to do anything because too many people are not taking post-covid life (or somewhat post-covid life) with a seriousness of upheld caution. Even though they are vaccinated, they are not happy we (Doug and I) are not vaccinated. Side note: We've held the belief of science - that if you've had a disease, you don't get vaccinated after it (I know a lot of people disagree). And because Doug booked us in this hotel for a whole week, instead of a few days down by my parents, a few days up north, we knew it would be a day trip up there and our only real chance to get together. The forecast was for rain in the morning, and things held off enough for us to get in some time. 

We met Jess and their roommates and stood outside and chatted. They did let me in to use the bathroom (and pet the cat because I love me some Doyle). We took Jess to Salisbury Beach for a nice long walk, and then we drove up the coast through Hampton/North Hampton/Rye. 

I love this kid. So much mine. 

We realized it was getting close to dinner time, and Jess didn't want to go to a restaurant because of the aforementioned pandemic-is-still-going-on concerns. I realized we were very close to our friends Mike & Michelle's house, so we called them to see if we could do a drive by hello since traffic was insane (as it would be on Monday evening of Memorial Day Weekend for folks headed home from Maine/NH). They enthusiastically welcomed us to the porch, lit the gas fire pit, cracked open a new homebrew pony keg,

cheffed us up some dinner, and we had a great visit! I didn't get a chance for all of us to connect before we moved nearly 4 years ago, so this was a long time coming.  I'm so thankful they were comfortable to have us over. And would have been just as thankful for a driveway hello. 

We got Jess back home, and didn't have time to go visit anyone else on our tour of the north, which made me a little sad. 

Doug and I went to New Bedford, my parents didn't want to go. Well, my dad would have gone but he wasn't up to going through a whole museum. We hit the Whaling Museum, which I love but it also makes me sad at the same time. Great presentation, new exhibits that weren't open the last time we were there a million years ago with both kids. Here I am, inside the belly of the whale. 

We ate an early dinner at Moby Dick Brewing Company, walked down to the harbor and looked at all the fishing boats while soaking in Magic Hour as it got underway. We went over to Fort Rodman park and did more pokemon playing there. We watched a guy with VR goggles on flying his drone around while he sat in a beach chair on the hill by the fort and it was quite enjoyable. We got run out of the park by the cops as the sun was going down. Never had that happen before. 

Our plan was to hit the road to start our west and south bound journey on Friday. We had some time to play with, and I reached out to a few friends to see what they were up to on Friday night/Saturday during the day but people already had plans or were headed out of town themselves. 

We left after doing some gardening with my folks (which.... was dramatic and there was yelling) and headed towards Providence, RI to see what that town was like. It wasn't that awesome. A couple good views, mostly a lot of traffic. They close down a neighborhood for al fresco dining on Friday/Saturday nights and that's where we were parked, so we decided to get out of town before we got trapped. We drove down to Newport, RI to drive along Ocean Drive Historic District (since we've been to the big ass houses in the past we skipped that). We enjoyed views of the ocean, and went over to Brenton Point state park for some more great views. 

Driving west, we tried a couple restaurants along the way and there was too long a wait so we went further. Got to a town called Branford, found a little restaurant that didn't have a wait. It was raining (again) so we had to eat inside, and had a delightful meal. We booked a hotel just up the road, settled in to watch some hockey, and hit the hay. 

The plan was to check out the Thimble Islands via Stony Creek and the Thimble Island Cruise company. The 2 hour cruise around the islands was very nice, affordable, fun, and honestly... what a beautiful day after so much dreary weather. 

My only regret is we didn't stop at the Thimble Island Brewing Company on our way out of town to get some take home beer.  

The boat we toured on was the Sea Mist, and they have a beer named for the boat. We enjoyed one on the toodleaboot, and I would have liked to take some home. 

We never really have spent a lot of time in this section of Connecticut. Traditionally, from our time in the Boston Area and went to Pennsylvania, we'd travel down via the Masspike/84/Merritt Parkway, around NYC... and never touched the coast. If we went to my sister's, we'd either go down the Merritt to 95 to Bridgeport for the ferry, or go to Mystic for the ferry. There wasn't a lot of us meeting the coast where it lives. So this was a fun drive for us, checking out Rte 1 (Boston Post Road) and the towns along the stretch there. We'd always seen signs for the Thimble Islands, never went, and now we know and will go back again, I pretty much predict it. Getting to my parents' now, you kind of hug the coast on 95 and then go up to Providence to cut across to roads to access the Cape so the Thimble Islands and other shore points between New Haven and the Cape will be easier access.

We pushed through to head home after we grabbed a sandwich and got hung up on the Palisades Parkway in Fort Lee, NJ with no way to escape the highway closure due to a big huge fire that literally just started when we got a couple miles north of the location at Hudson Terrace.  

Finally getting through, we zoomed down the Turnpike, got some gas, and Doug thought we should stop for dinner in Havre de Grace, MD. I'd always wanted to visit there, and he wasn't in the mood for truck stop options. It wasn't too far off the highway, and I scoped out Tripadvisor for a foodrinkery while Doug was driving. 

The place I picked had a live band playing, and for as much as I miss live music, I have never once in my life wanted to walk up on a show and ask them to stop. They were atrocious. The lead singer had no style, the drummer was using those super heavy metal double bass pedals which do not work with Spin Doctors, Jimmy Eat World, or Collective Soul songs. No. Stop. Please. We could hear them all over town too. 

We found an indoor place to eat. Thankfully. They had a patio, but it was completely full and polluted by these dudes up the street wrecking a Harvey Danger song. We happily enjoyed a really tasty dinner, in air conditioning and peace and quiet. We noticed a DJ starting to set up out on the patio and were relieved to be done with the meal and ready to go. I guess I am An Old now if that kind of stuff just makes me want to move along. 

Happy to be home, feel like we could have done more up north as I said but thankful to spend as much time with my folks as we did. I look forward to doing it again sometime.