Back to work…

garden box - week 7
garden box – week 7

My 1st Annual Friends & Fireworks party was all friends and no fireworks. The fireworks went off on schedule. But, it was just too cloudy. Maybe next year. Last year was a fireworks bust as well.

Yesterday, it was cold. Well, cool. High was 73. This coming Friday – I have to go downtown to get fingerprinted. And, it is supposed to be 98. Hottest day of the year. Not good planning. And why am I going to be fingerprinted? Getting a Global Entry card. Let the travelling begin.

One of our nurses works in GI surgery as well as in our office. Today he told us about an unbelievable “weight reduction procedure”. They put a little spigot in your tummy and you sort of drain the excess food out. Not kidding.

Read about it: The Stomach Tap

And here is the ad: Be sure to watch the video!

I would just be fat.

The FIrst Bug Visits my Garden Box!
The FIrst Bug Visits my Garden Box!

Another “busy” day

National Cathedral - notice the Hawaiian flag is in the wrong place.
National Cathedral – notice the Hawaiian flag is in the wrong place.

But, if the Hawaiian flag were in the correct place – this photo would feature the Alaska flag. And what was I doing at National Cathedral – went to a concert. It was fun. Anytime a big ass (189 ranks and 10,647 pipes) organ in a church does Darth Vader you know you are going to have fun. Not to mention watching 1,000 + white folk trying to clap in time to the music. Not pretty. But fun.

And then out to eat. Excellent fish tacos. And we got good seats – right next to the flour tortilla making machine.

Tortilla Machine at Cactus Cantina
Tortilla Machine at Cactus Cantina

Normally, on July 4 seating next to this gas fired gizmo wouldn’t be such a fine idea – but – today is the coldest July 4 in DC ever. (Well, I bet July 4, 1816 was colder. I leave it to the reader to research the summer of 1816.)

I am having 10 or so of my new friends over for fireworks. I don’t hold out much hope for good viewing. Too cloudy and damp. Will need a good breeze to keep the smoke away. I am serving wine, cherries, and chocolate. With beer for me. I am not going to take pictures. I got great pictures from the last apartment. I’ll enjoy my company. And not try to shoot through double pane windows.

Baby Luau – Mainland-style

Oliver's 1st birthday
Oliver’s 1st birthday

Been to a lot of parties in this house. But this 1st Birthday Party is one of the last. When grandkids arrive – it is time to get serious about downsizing. The party started at about 4PM – I arrived almost on time thanks to MetroBus. (took Uber home) It was damp and almost chilly today – not 4th of July weather.

The Food Truck got lost - so dinner was seriously late - but the beer didn't run out - so it was OK.
The Food Truck got lost – so dinner was seriously late – but the beer didn’t run out – so it was OK.

Seriously, the food truck got lost. It went to the correct house number and the correct street but the wrong city. Yep. wrong city. Zip codes are our friends.

Father and Son
Father and Son

Introduce your kids to photography early – that way they will always be too poor to buy drugs!

The grownups
The grownups – trying to encourage bad behavior.

My only theory is the grownups were encouraging bad behaviour in hopes of getting a really cool video to post to Facebook. But young Oliver was cool to be suckered into doing a faceplant in the cake.

A busy day. And tomorrow promises to be busy too. Going to a concert and lunch. Then hosting a little “Friends and Fireworks” get together in the evening – weather permitting. I’ll have to go back to work on Tuesday to get some rest!

July 2

cool frog and dragonfly
cool frog and dragonfly

Feeling a little mopey today – so I decided that a nice walk in the woods was called for. I head off to Long Branch Nature Center – that’s as close to woods as I can quickly access. Where I found this really cool bull frog. And a fine ladybug. Life is too short to try to identify what kind of ladybug it is.

ladybug and daisy
ladybug and daisy

Didn’t do much at all today. Went for a walk in the park. Took pictures. And naps. Avoided all things Trumpy. I vacillate between absolute confidence that he will never become president and abject fear that he will.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I plan on doing my normal Sunday things tomorrow. Work on deadheading the asylum rose bushes, have breakfast, shop for “groceries” – which is to say yogurt, cherries and chocolates, do laundry and then in late afternoon escape from the asylum for a party. In Hawai’i it would be called a baby luau.

Note to Carlton: You might be interested to know that the price of gas is at an 11 year low. I think it is about $2 a gallon. Not sure, since I don’t buy gas. Also, I did a little midyear check up on “your” money today. You would approve of my stewardship. Oh, did I tell you that bonds are getting dangerously close to negative yields? There is a capital gains play. But, I haven’t chosen to be a player. Figure that you would approve of that “non” action.

 

Just fotos 2day.

sun shining on my walk to the bus stop
sun shining on my walk to the bus stop
magnolia at hospital
magnolia at hospital
magnolia and bee
magnolia and bee – not good technically – but I like it
on the walk home from work
found on the walk home from work
not jello - but still scary
not jello – but still scary – I think it is mini marshmallows and coconut and fruit cocktail… I gave the salad bar wide berth at lunch today. 
last night's dinner
last night’s dinner – this was polenta, grilled skate, asparagus, watermelon with balsamic glaze

Strange Day

magnolia
magnolia

Today was upside down. I normally go to work at 0600 and am back here my 1300. Well, today, I went to work at 0930 and didn’t get back home until 1630. Which means – neither naps nor laps today. It will be an early to bed night for me. I like the early start time much better.

The oldest grand got an internship in Africa. If I were the worrying type I might not be so happy. But, I figure no one gets out alive – and Namibia is most likely safe as anywhere short of Antarctica.

My internet is really crappy tonight – so – I think I’ll get off line and fire up the Kindle for a nice read.

The way…

week 6
week 6

Note to self: The way to take more interesting pictures is to go more interesting places.

Laps beat out naps this afternoon. Made it 30 minutes before I tried to drown myself out of sheer boredom. I will try to work up to 60 minutes. The trouble isn’t swimming. The trouble is boredom. Might get a waterproof iPod.

No bugs again today. Too much Round Up, insecticide, and hybridized plantings around here.

my butterfly weed has yet to attract a butterfly.
my butterfly weed has yet to attract a butterfly.

 

Monday

sunrise screening
sunrise screening

Well, I wanted to see what would happen if I shot today’s sunrise thru the screen part of the window. Now I know.

Nothing much going on today. Making a few careful financial moves. Naps beat out Laps as the afternoon activity.

Stella's Paper Mache People
Stella’s Paper Mache People

One of the asylum inmates creates wonderful paper mache objects.

No unsuspecting bugs wandered in front of my lens today. And, I didn’t kill any fishes either. All-in-all a good day.

Sunday…

RIP, Pumpkin the Betta
RIP, Pumpkin the Betta

Pumpkin, the fish I was “taking care of” didn’t last 24 hours. He was very dead this morning. He was flushed with Full Ichthyological Honors. And that was the start to my Sunday. I should not be trusted with any living thing. That is why I need a ROBOT cat. I am surprised that Carlton lasted as long as he did!

I did clean and disinfect his tank. I’ll either replace him or put a bunch of flowers in his tank. I am leaning towards flowers.

And, I deadheaded rose bushes, did laundry, finished reading the papers, stocked up with yogurts. And napped.

the common house fly
the common house fly

The photo ops around the asylum are very limited – compared to the old neighborhood or Hawai’i. I am reduced to photographing flies. (And dead pet fish). I am even boring myself.

Saturday

a very fine honey bee
a very fine honey bee

Trying to learn how to do weekends. If I can master Saturday and Sunday, I can consider scaling back at work.

So, I went out before breakfast and deadheaded some of “my” rose bushes. I was just listening to mellow slack key on Pandora and snipping away for about 45 minutes.

breakfasting on "my" rose bushes.
breakfasting on “my” rose bushes.

This guy was snipping away too – but since I like bugs more than roses – I left him in peace.

After breakfast, attended to some paperwork, assessed the damages done to my personal wealth yesterday, and waited for a fish.

Yes, a fish. A friend is going away for 5 or 6 days and someone needs to look after her fish. She brought it up to me. It doesn’t look good. A friend in Hawai’i has 5 or 6 of them and they seem much perkier than this one. If it dies, I’ll go to Petco and get a replacement. I am guessing that all orange betta look alike.

 

pumpkin the betta is in fish hospice.
pumpkin the betta is in fish hospice.

I put a mirror behind it. Hoping that would cheer the poor thing up.

And, this afternoon. I swam laps. Boring. Very boring. But, my old body really feels better after a nice boring swim. That is too bad. If it weren’t efficacious, I wouldn’t have to do it.

A Very Strange Friday

aloha friday sunrise

Note to Carlton: You have only been away for 18 months. But, you would find it very hard to recognize our current world. Yesterday Great Britain – you know that chilly island where The Queen lives – GB voted to leave the European Union. The vote was a youth and anti-immigrant driven victory. With more than a few unintended consequences.

On our side of the pond, we have Donald Trump as the presumptive Presidential candidate for the party of Lincoln. Hillary will be our candidate – but she is looking pretty granny-ish. I don’t think she is the best possible Democratic candidate – but she is our only chance to stop Donald, You’re Fired, Trump. The same forces that fueled the Brexit vote will fuel The Donald’s campaign.

You were are huge fan of John Lewis – I think he lead his last sit-in this week – the Dems had a sit in in the House. They were demanding a vote on a rather sensible measure – if you are on the no-fly list you shouldn’t be allowed to buy a gun. Death by gun continues at an alarming rate.

People are on edge. Unsettled. Dow Jones down 600 points today.

On a happier note: “my” roses.

One of my rose bushes in my rose hospice program.
One of the rose bushes in my rose hospice program.
Some of my happy rose bushes.
Some of my healthy rose bushes.

LOTS of deadheading.

 

I seem to be…

shake a leg, any leg
shake a leg, any leg

I seem to be returning to some degree of mental stability after my trip down the abyss of loneliness and self pity. I still haven’t gotten enough courage to make appointments for massive cancer seeking medical tests. I just don’t think I can deal with potential “positive” results, which in medical speak is very “negative”. So, I choose the ostrich option.

Didn’t post yesterday because I spent a couple of hours headheading “my” rose bushes and then I went off to dinner and to a discussion about Brexit. They turned out the lights for a PowerPoint presentation. I fear I had a hard time staying awake. When I got back to the friendly confines of the OBC it was time for bed. Past time for bed.

And, again this afternoon – I had to decide between going to the monthly asylum meeting, swimming laps or taking a nap. The nap won. I went to dinner with a lady who gave me a recap of the meeting. I didn’t miss anything.

yellow jello, today.
yellow jello, today.