I walked into the bank today and waited for a teller to call me over. There was one other customer there.
I handed my teller the deposits and walked to the counter to grab a lollipop. As I turned back, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I recognized the woman. When I heard her voice, I knew who it was. Someone from high school. Someone who was on the cheerleading squad with me. Someone who I’d call an acquaintance, or someone that I used to know.
Hmmm….do I just kept my head turned and sneak out after my transactions are done? Or do I find my friendly face and say hello? What to do what to do!
I turned toward her and said, “I’d know that laugh anywhere!”. We shared a hug, had a small conversation, I collected my receipts, and left with a breezy, “It was nice to see you!”.
It would have been so easy to just ignore her, and go on my way. I feel a smidge better that I didn’t.
It never fails. We have days and weeks with 100 degree heat and suddenly we wake up one morning and it’s cool and breezy!
Today is that day. But I confess, it feels beautiful, albeit a little chilly as I’m in a tank top and shorts here on the porch.
I actually wore something other than a summer dress for work and took a nice 20 minute walk around our complex. I think it’s 5 times around for 1 mile but I forget to count…
On my way home from work, I stopped at the library to pick up the DVD Troy (it’s only for rent on Amazon), and stopped at the bank and post office. I really had a spring in my step!
Heading out from the bankOur town hall (formerly the high school)
I think the hot weather has finally broken and we’ll see some cooler weather moving forward. Central Air is still on for bedtime though!
I may be 65, but sometimes I think my mind is stuck in my teens. Or maybe it’s because I’m a Taurus?
Anyway, I’m like a dog with a bone. If I get a thought, especially a negative one, I can’t let it go. Money, bills, employees – it’s what swirls around my head all day. And if there’s a comment from someone rebutting me on a Facebook post about creating affordable housing in my town (I’m for it by the way) – yikes!
But then, I watched the New Heights podcast with Taylor Swift as their guest. It was one of the most entertaining and enlightening two hours I’ve had staring at my screen in a long time.
What snapped me to attention was when she said, “What you spend the energy on, That’s the Day!”. THAT’S THE DAY.
I have to say in my defense, I am only a week and a half back from a 10 day vacation cruising along the coast and inside passage of Alaska but even I’m saying to myself, Enough’s Enough!
I currently say a morning prayer to get myself right with the day and try to get a 5 to 10 minute meditation in, but, it looks like I need to add an additional mantra to the day.
We went on our boat the other day. As I walked along the dock, trying to reorientate myself to the layout, I realized it had been 11 months since I’d been on the boat and probably a year since I’d been to the marina we dock it at!
Our boat / heading out
How could that be?? Well, last year we took it out of the water and up to Lake Winnipesaukee the second week of August. We brought it home and, whether the weather was just ok or life got in the way, we never put it back in the water! It just sat in our driveway until it was time to winterize it.
Fast forward to 2025 boating season – my husband and son brought it up to the marina and launched it and they’ve been on it a couple of times. You’d think with the weather so incredibly hot since early June, we’d be there every weekend. But…we’re not…. “It’s TOO hot”, “it’s supposed to rain”, “it’s raining again”. There’s always been some obstacle. There’s even been talk of downsizing and trailering it to different lakes for finishing.
I took Friday off so we could go to the boat. Instead of heading out early in the morning, we took our time and didn’t leave the house until 11. We got there, uncovered the boat and headed out at slow cruising speed.
Inn at Candlewood Lake where the best wedding ever took place in 2018 😍 / a view of the lake
We hit every cove on the southern end of the lake and ate our sandwiches as we motored around. Once we headed north, we anchored at our favorite spot and spent about four hours reading and swimming around. After a month of such hot weather, the water temperature was perfect!
Our anchoring spot with a view of a town’s beach and home at the point
It was so relaxing and I remembered how much I enjoyed it! Maybe it was the shift in the time? The gorgeous weather and warm water? Sadly, not having our dog Wally to have to get home for which allowed us not to have to rush home, played into it as well. We headed home around 6, and ordered sushi to pick up as we got closer to home.
Heading “home” to Gerard’s Marina
Here’s to (hopefully) a longer boating season this year!
If I say the number on the scale is “just a number” when it goes up, why don’t I say the same when the number goes down?
Here I am again analyzing what I ate that would cause the scale to increase by .6, yes, half of a pound. It never ends.
Does it reside in my head past the weight check? Really, that’s all it is, it is a weight check.
No, I realize it doesn’t. There are so many factors that can cause it to shift. The delicious sourdough cinnamon raisin bread with butter I had after dinner last night comes to mind….
But I drink my coffee, fill my water bottle, and head out the door for my morning workout.
Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?
I grew up in a traditional household in the 60s and 70s. Sundays involved the 9:15 mass, picking up newspapers (New Haven Register, New York Daily News, Boston paper) with the possibility of a comic at Boylans, and a stop at my aunt’s house before we were home. Once home, we read the papers, and waited for Sunday Dinner which happened anywhere between Noon and 2 p.m. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but some Sundays it felt like it was that late because everyone else was out playing while we were still waiting to eat!
Except for that rare Sunday when we got Kentucky Fried Chicken….
Kentucky Fried Chicken. There was a store across the street from our church that opened at noon. On those Sundays (usually during the summer), my mom would head back out to pick up a box or bucket. They would also get the cole slaw and mashed potatoes and gravy that went with it.
Oh that chicken! So crunchy and greasy. I probably ate it for the skin more for the chicken. You can have those big old chicken breasts at the bottom of the box or bucket! Give me a leg or thigh for that juicy dark meat. As a last resort, I’d eat the breast but I’d need a lot of cranberry sauce to wash it down.
My father would jokingly swear that the cole slaw tasted “just like ice cream” and I’m sure we choked it down. Not like now – I love cole slaw!
Stores still exist, but the one across from our church is long gone and it’s probably a good thing because, like anything else that tastes so delicious, that skin is not good for you!
The last time I had it was in 2022 when we were traveling in California to visit my father in law and we stopped to pick it up and bring it for a dinner with him. It was as good as I remembered it and I’m sure as I did every other time I ate it, I told my husband the stories of my families KFC Sunday dinners.
Here in Connecticut, it has rained at some point during 15 consecutive weekends. Maybe one day, maybe both days.
When we moved back here in 1995, me, the Connecticut native, told my husband, the California native to expect at least one day on a summer weekend to be rainy. I think I did pretty good with that assessment. Overall, this has been a Really Wet Year and it doesn’t look like much is changing.
Now that we are in “summer”, the humidity rises. And falls. And rises. I can handle it but my poor husband suffers from the Jekyll and Hyde atmospheric pressures. Vertigo, sinus conditions, headache – he’s had them all!
Do you have constantly changing weather where you live?
I know that ear worms are usually associated with songs but I have an ear worm of a poem running through my head:
Summer breezes softly blow Memories of long ago Happy places Smiling faces Loving you
It is from SO long ago, and from a random place that I’m not sure it’s exact so maybe I’ve made some parts my own over the years.
I started enjoying poems when I was in my early teens. In our local newspaper was a weekly section of reader submitted poems. Being a love obsessed teen, the poems of that type were right up my alley! I was also in the early stages of typing so I would sit on the floor of my room with my aunt’s portable typewriter and type out the poems I liked. It was a great way to practice, progressing from “hunt and peck” to “not hunting but still pecking” to straight up “no look typing”.
I kept them all in a small book of sayings (about love, of course) that I hung onto for years, moving it with me in my “box of treasures” where ever we lived. Unfortunately, in the course of “simplifying”, the box with this book and some other items got thrown out with the rest. I feel a little heartbroken about it and feel like it’s going to magically appear one day!
Are your ear worms mostly music or do you have a favorite poem that pops into your head too?
Worry and fear fly into the room and enter my brain at 4am. I should be enjoying the final hour and 15 minutes of a good night’s sleep but instead in find myself awake giving them the opening to appear.
Bills.business.life.health.travel.bills.job delays.bills. Over and over again.
I turn to my left side and recite the Lords Prayer. I try a little ‘God’s got me the palm of his hand‘. Nope.
I rotate like a pig on a spit to my right side. Happy memories? Upcoming adventures? Nope.
it’s 4:30. I realize the problem is, I’m THINKING. Everything involves my brain thinking. Turn it off.turn it off. It won’t shut off.
Then suddenly, I’m younger, alone and driving trying to get home. I don’t know where I am but (in the morning light), I think it’s in a town nearby. I’m driving up a hill, stop when I can’t go anymore and leave my car. Where do I go? Suddenly, I’m taking a yoga class. Then I’m at home with my husband and Vince Vaughn and his sister (?!) stop by to look at our house. She and I talk about needlepoint. I’m called away from yoga by my friend Sherri who died a few years ago to go see a young girl who was in the elementary school I worked at. When I go back, yoga is over so I pack up my belongings and suddenly I’m back at my car. People are picnicking in the area. I look over and my car door is open. Someone broke in but the people nearby say all they saw was people commenting about the car. I head over to look.
I hear a noise. It’s my alarm at 5:45am. I press the button on my phone to turn it off and lay there to calm the feeling in my body from the alarm.
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 