Normal Life

I've had a really quiet week with little to report. No cycling, no parties, no fights, trips or adventures. The best thing about the week is that The Major Retailer where I work closes at 6:00 pm until the holidays roll around, so I have few shifts ending later than 7:00pm. I have most evening free now, which is very much to Shana's taste. I miss having a lot of days free to play outside, but the weather will not hold so much longer and indoor pursuits will be the order of the day.

I have been knitting quite a bit, but nothing much to show for it, at least in the form of finished objects. I've lost a lot of time down the Ravelry rabbit hole (I'm cinderellen over there) trying to match up my stash with new projects. If you've spent much time on Ravelry you know how that kind of research can leave you wandering in the wilderness of beautiful possibility. Looking at patterns makes you wander the Internet looking at yarns suited to that pattern - on and on. I came to my senses just in time to avoid buying both yarn and patterns, but barely.


I've been reading a fair amount lately too. What's on my nightstand now is The Night Circus. I have not finished it yet but I am willing to recommend it. The images it brings to life in my mind are magical - a combination of the writing style and the inventiveness of the author. It has the feeling of a dream. Magical Realism is one of my favorite categories, one which is nnot easy to do well. This book is enchanting.


To contribute to the general craziness of the presidential campaign Randy Newman has put out a little ditty that sums up some of the GOP hopes quite neatly:

Out and About

Our Neighborhood Turkeys

It's fall here, and with the change of seasons comes a change in life on the Cape. On the day after Labor Day it was apparent that summer was over. Traffic has dropped off, not to winter levels, but noticeably. The kids have gone back to school and most of the vacationers have gone home. The summer workers are nearly all leaving, and the Summer People will mostly leave at the end of October, with the latest few leaving around Thanksgiving. The light is already different, and next week will see a few low temperatures below 50°. Our local flock of wild turkeys has been very much in evidence. One big Tom was sitting on our deck railing Friday morning, much to Shana's surprise. The Major Retailer where I work will be closing at 6:00 every night now, although I will still work a few late nights (until 11:30 pm!) here and there to reset floor displays when our customers are out of the building.

Oak Bluffs Harbor

Today is Shana's birthday, and thanks to the reduction in tourist population we were able to indulge in a  day trip to Martha's Vineyard yesterday. We took the Ferry out of Falmouth to Oak Bluffs because we were not taking a car across. Roxy stayed with "Aunt Lisa" for the day. Shana and I rented mopeds and spent the afternoon tooling around the island. Only a week earlier I would have hesitated because in high season it's a dangerous thing to do, but the traffic this week is largely locals. We visited Acquinnah to see the cliffs of Gay Head and the Acquinnah lighthouse. The cliffs are as beautiful as advertised and the ride was lovely, with intermittent views of the sea and intriguing glimpses of cottages among the dunes. We could not help but fantasize about how it would be to live there! As we approached the lighthouse we heard the unmistakable sounds of Native American song - this weekend Acquinnah was hosting the Wampanoag powwow. Next time we visit Martha's Vineyard we will bring a car and visit some of the other lighthouses and beaches. Philbin Beach is especially lovely, but it is private and we may not be able to go there.

Gay Head Cliffs

Today we went to the beautiful Coonamessett Inn for a champagne brunch for Shana's birthday meal. It's a pretty place, if a little "grandma", but the food is good and it was a place where Shana often went with her mother. We had a wonderful selection of delicious dishes and some very helpful advice from our Jamaican waiter on the preparation of callaloo. This my favorite cooked green, and thanks to a large Jamaican population here in the summer it is available at a local organic farm. I'm eager to try his recipe.

Labor Day 2012

Labor Day is not just a day to fire up the grill. It's a day to remember the American worker and the fight for workers' rights which built the American Unions. Whenever you hear "right to work" you can substitute "right to work for as little as possible".

Still Touring the Beaches

Dunes at Sandy Neck

Sandy Neck Beach

Around here we are still touring the beaches of Cape Cod. There are so many that we probably will not visit them all this year. Shana had wanted to visit Sandy Neck Beach in the town of Barnstable, so away we went last weekend to explore the beach. You approach Sandy Neck through the dunes, which are lovely. At the eastern edge there is seems to be RV access to the beach, which must be a wonderful way to camp. A day pass costs $20.00, which seems to be about what they are charging for beach parking around the Cape. Of course late in the afternoon you can go for free, and walk in access is free. The beach itself is easy to access and very flat. That's the good news. The bad news is that typical for beaches on the bay side of the Cape, there is a lot more rocks than sand. Down near the water it is kind of sandy, but I was not using one of our beach chairs and I found the large rocks somewhat (!) uncomfortable. The amenities at this beach were good - snack bar, Flushorama, and shower. Because Sandy Neck is on the Bay side there are not large waves, and the current ban on swimming off the Atlantic facing beaches (because of large numbers of shark sightings) is not in effect.

Beach Access at White Crest

 

This week I had Friday free and since the weather was good I went for a ride. I took the Cape Cod Rail Trail as I often do, and to the 70 miles I usually ride I added a leg of the Claire Saltonstall Bikeway in the middle to bring my total mileage to 80 miles. The Bikeway is a string of roads and trails that you can follow from Boston to Provincetown using bike trails and roads which are not too busy. The leg that goes on from the Wellfleet end of the CCRT goes along the Atlantic shore of Cape Cod with beautiful ocean views but very little traffic. What is does have is hills. I used to ride a lot of hills for training but recently I have done nearly all my riding on flat trails. It's amazing how quick you get out of practice! As soon as I headed up the first hill I started breathing hard and had to remind myself not to panic and to let the bike do the work. I actually did walk up a short stretch on the way back because I had mishandled my gears and ended up losing too much momentum. It was good to have some manageable hills on a road where I can ride without dodging all kinds of traffic. I stopped at White Crest Beach on the way to see if that would be one we wanted to visit. Although the view was breathtaking I don't think we will be spending a lot of time there. It's a significant drive and services are minimal - a bathhouse and a parking lot (Day pass $15.00). This is not necessarily a barrier to visiting - the Mashpee Town Beach has one Porta Potty and that's all, but the lack of services there is offset by the fact that the beach is flat and easy to access - right off the parking lot. Also the Mashpee Town Beach  and South Cape State Park are quite close to home so a quick visit to the beach before going to work in the afternoon  is an easy thing. At White Crest  you access the beach over huge dunes and this beach is really far below the parking lot - a treacherously steep descent down the huge dunes with a correspondingly steep ascent back to your car. In soft sand it's hard to exaggerate how strenuous that is. Some of the Atlantic beaches have stairs down to the beach which is much easier access.  The road, however, is a nice bike ride - great surface, hilly but not murderously so, with stunning views everywhere you look.

Not so Hot 2012

HHH100 2008, originally uploaded by cinderellenk.

This weekend is the weekend of the Hotter n Hell 100 in Wichta Falls Texas, I went for 5 years - 2 100K rides, 2 100 mile rides, and one memorable crash at about 30 miles.

Over the years this ride has meant to me friendship, achievement, and celebration. I always battled the heat and distance, but nothing could replace that magical and thrilling starting line where 10,000 riders hit the road. A lot of things have changed in my life. I always ride alone these days, but I still wish I was in Wichita Falls this weekend.

An Evening at the Melody Tent

After having our tickets to see k.d. lang at the Cape Cod Melody Tent for months the evening finally arrived. The Cape Cod Melody Tent is one of only two continuously operated tent theaters in the round in the United states (the other is also in Massachusetts!). No seat is more than 50 feet from the stage, which rotates during the performance. I had been curious about the venue and excited about seeing k.d. lang in this intimate setting.

The beginning of the evening was a Keystone Cops sort of event. On the way out the door I reminded Shana to get the tickets, which had been mailed to us weeks ago. They were nowhere to be found, probably because they were "in a safe place". After running around the house sweating and pulling out our hair we stopped at the grocery store where our bank has a branch to get extra cash to buy fresh tickets but our bank is not open Sunday evening. I could not use an ATM because I have no idea where the card is for that account. I purchased our tickets by phone on our way to Hyannis. We were meeting a friend in Hyannis for dinner before the show, but until we left home we were not sure where we were going to go. The address we gave our friend for the restaurant we chose was wrong. When we did find the restaurant we found that we needed reservations unless we wanted to sit at a traditional Japanese table, which had legs about a foot long. We were to sit on the floor. Shana and I tried it with rather hilarious results, but in spite of being fairly flexible our friend just could not do it. We  got back in our cars and proceeded to another restaurant for Indian food. Our dinner was delicious, but the large amounts of fresh garlic in my order left me wishing I had a mint, or 200 mints.

Shana and I stopped at the ladies' room before going into the tent, but she did not know I had gone in. When she did not see me when she came out she thought I had gone to my seat. When I came out she was nowhere to be found. At last we got together and went to our new seats to watch the opening act. At the break we went over to the section where our original seats were languishing without us and settled in near our friend watch the main event, only about 6 rows from the stage.



k. d. lang was WONDERFUL. Her voice is impeccable, and in the intimacy of this small venue her joy in performing and connection to her band was clear to see. She sang some of her old favorites, and some songs I was less familiar with and every song sounded wonderful and fresh. I had wondered if singing Constant Craving and Hallelujah over many years would make them seem dull and rote to her, but her delivery rather suggested that there is always something new and thrilling to be discovered in these songs.  The band was excellent, and the devotion of the crew to the comfort of k. d. and the band was wonderful to see.

I'm not much of a concert-goer. Large venues and big crowds really leave me cold. I do like a smaller venue, and to see such an artist in such an intimate setting was a wonderful treat. One more item in the favor of this venue - too often live music in a smaller venue is too amplified to be enjoyed. It is too loud to be understood and I find myself more exhausted than uplifted. This was not the case here. The volume and clarity of the sound was perfect, and the lighting simple and effective. We will absolutely be  making plans to see more concerts at the Cape Cod Melody tent in the future.

Sadly my pictures are not good, but I was only hoping to give an idea of how the tent looks up close and on the inside before and during a performance.

Dog Days Excitement

It's true. I have not been updating at my usual frequency. I think something about the Dog Days of late July and August is sapping my energy.  With the Summer Olympics following so close on to the Tour de France I have been glued to the TV. Today it's synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics for the most arcane pursuits known to man.

I'm reading like crazy - Mostly the Game of Thrones series, which I have nearly finished. If you find yourself with lots of extra time and want to read something massive I'd recommend something else. It's not really awful, but the HBO series is so much better. The lack of character development is ameliorated by the quality of the cast and the excellent set design fills out the world of Westeros so much better than the books. The books also suffer IMHO from having ultimately no sympathetic characters. It seems to be the author's fallback position in order to provide surprise is to have a sympathetic character suddenly do something vile and totally outside of his known character. If an unsympathetic character does something good it always seem to go horribly wrong. Therefore EVERYTHING that happens in the book is pretty much awful. I like giant works of dystopian fiction as much as the next person, but this one is just not much fun.

Outdoors everything is pretty much finished blooming or in the fading stage of it except for the Four o' Clocks and the Cosmos, and the Montauk Daisies are not budding yet. It's a quiet time in the garden which in future planting I will need to address. I'm hoping for another flush from the Obedient Plant and Shasta Daisy which I have cut back.There are several shrubs which bloom well at this time of year, so that may be my answer. I've got a guy removing a tree which will give my hydrangea and hosta corner bed a little more sun. It will not make a great deal of difference because the tree in question was dying back at the top and was not providing a lot of shade. Lucky for me the tree is not massive, because it is something of an emergency removal. I knew it was dying and I assumed root damage because of the dieback at the top, but closer examination revealed a huge crack nearly all the way across the  trunk which would surely have brought it down during the next powerful storm. There is so little holding the tree together that the upper part of the tree is basically just balanced on the lower part.

Our recent beach tours have taken us to Chatham Light Beach and Marconi Beach. Chatham Light has had some shark sightings, and Marconi is on the Atlantic side, so we had hopes of spotting a shark. We did see a few seals, but no sharks. No matter, the beaches are beautiful and I love to sit on the beach. This weekend I will not have any beach time because of my work schedule - maybe a quick trip to the Mashpee Town Beach today is in order!




I'm giving in to a longing for some spicy food today and making a South Asian style meal featuring potatoes, chick peas, and tomatoes. I am going so far as to experiment with making my own naan. I can get it at the grocery, but they want to charge as much for two small pieces as I am used to paying for about the same volume of a whole loaf of bread so I'm not willing to pay. If this works out maybe the next thing I try to make will be paratha.


And now for something completely different: