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Friday, August 01,2008
TREASURED PAINTINGS
Three small 4 by 4 paintings hung in our den for most of my childhood. They were little wood framed oils depicting farming life in the shadow of a volcano. I never knew much about them but always liked them for how their tiny brush strokes depicted such big scenes.
My parents took them to Florida with them when the moved down there. After my father had a stroke and I went to Florida to care for my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's. One day she served me ice cream on one of the paintings. I guess she mistook it for a plate.
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Saturday, July 12,2008
Long overdue post
Why so quiet you ask. Well things have been pretty busy this summer. Some for the good, some not so good.
On the good side, we put our house in Groton on the market and are under agreement with a buyer - yay! We don't have a new house yet but we have some irons in the fire in the Chelmsford area.
I've also been having a lot of fun at work developing our voice driven search product for mass market mobile phones. I don't know when it will first show up in the wild but it's pretty darn slick.
Lastly I've been reading a lot (yes, I know, I always say that). I got hooked on George R. R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series and plowed through the four available books with barely a breath between pages. I generally hate Fantasy, I find it so insipid, but this series was amazing. I've seen it described as Fantasy for people who hate Fantasy. I guess that's why I liked it. I've also just finished Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe. It's not my favorite Wolfe book but if pirates be your fancy, you could read a lot worse.
On the bad side, I've had a bad back. Worst that it's ever been. Between doctor visits and physical therapy I've been pretty busy. The good news is that the therapists at Wellesley Theraputics in Harvard are now among my favorite people in the world. Their ability to fix a problem that's been nagging me years is just fantastic. So I guess it's really all good.
Hermit Island is coming up so I'll probably not be posting again for a while. Have a nice summer everyone.
Tuesday, January 08,2008
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Tuesday, August 21,2007
Ghost Dogs
The grieving process is in full swing at the Lyons household. This is the first time in a long time that we have been dog-less. In the past when we lost one another canine friend would always be there to deflect the pain. Part of the magic of dog ownership is that it's just impossible to feel too sad when you're being licked on the face or nudged by a wet nose to toss a ball.
Now that we are dog-less the routines I've grown accustomed are a constant reminder of lost friends. Pulling into the driveway I was always happy to see the excited dogs waiting at our backyard fence. When flipping channels on the TV I could never pause too long on Animal Planet or one of the dogs would go crazy trying to chase the animals on the screen. While eating dinner, cutting away the fat from a chunk of meat, I might move the knife a little to leave a slice of meat on the chunk to make it a tastier treat for them – also adjusting the size to make sure it was divisible by the dogs we had at the time.
Probably the hardest is night time. My normal routine is to stay up later than Jayne and then, when ready for sleep myself, to let the dogs out one last time and usher them up to the bedroom. Last night I found myself walking through the routine. I mentally called for TC, Ginger and Cori. I turned to look at the back door. I paused to imagine them jostling for position and then could nearly feel them trying to squeeze past my legs as we all climbed the stairs for bed. I guess it's better to have ghost dogs than no dogs.
I'm not a believer in the afterlife but times like this make we wish for it. Yesterday, it was pretty funny, but I was quite choked up in my cube after I read the Rainbow Bridge story my friend Andrew left in the comments to my previous post. I had a meeting in a few minutes and I had to dash to the bathroom to splash some water on my face. I had a plan in my head if anyone noticed – allergies, definitely allergies.
Sunday, August 19,2007
Cori Update
I hate writing this post, on many levels, but since I've talked about her so much I feel I should finish the story. The cancer finally got the best of Cori this weekend. Friday night Cori wasn't feeling well and by morning on Saturday it was apparent that she had taken a severe turn for the worse. Jayne and I discussed the situation and decided it would be best for Cori to end her struggle.
From better days.
From a not so great but rather memorable day
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Monday, July 30,2007
Vacation Stats
Hello blog world. I'm back from my annual summer camping trip. A few metrics from the trip:
- 53 friends visited with
- 7 sunny days
- 1 rainy day
- 5 days at the beach
- 64 Lobsters cooked on lobster night
- 50lbs of Steamers cooked on lobster night
- 14 Striped Bass caught and cooked over the week
- 0 Striped Bass caught by me
- 4 bottles of Tequila served from the Tequila Alter
- Tequila preferred most: Chamucos
- 3 books brought by me to read
- 0 books completed by me
- 7 kids taken snorkeling
Tuesday, June 19,2007
Tuesday, June 12,2007
Nature Abounds
Driving to work Monday a beautiful, well fed looking, coyote ran across the road in front of my truck. The wild canine was going full speed and paid no attention to the road. It propelled it's body in long tight strides like a racing greyhound. I watched it approach the road through a yard, cross the road and disappear again into the woods. The whole thing took only a few seconds. When I mentioned it to a friend they said they had heard wolves were in the area. I somehow doubt that but I can easily see how a sturdy coyote like this could be mistaken for one.
This morning while getting ready for work I happened to look out the window and saw a turkey hen escorting her clutch of chicks through the field across the street from my house. The little turkeys were so small their heads didn't stick up above the fresh shoots of grass. You could only tell their passage by the dark shadow they cast and the movement of the grass.
At work last Friday a co-worker and I sat at our office building's window watching a large red tailed hawk circle nearby. The raptor leisurely cruised the thermals rising from the sun drenched earth until it was finally chased away by a tiny songbird. A week or so ago I came out of the house to find a pair of mallard ducks padding across my driveway; a week before that it was two fat ground hogs lolling in the sun.
I know I'm supposed to feel bad about the state of the wild world but with all this activity I'm finding it rather hard.
Monday, May 28,2007
Jose's Mexican Restaurant
Jayne and I took a trip into Cambridge this morning to put some flags on her grandfathers' graves in honor of Memorial day. On the way out we decided to stop for a drink at a small but colorful Mexican restaurant called Jose's near where her grandparents had once lived. Jayne had been there once before and raved about it but this was my first trip.
We had a cookout to go to later in the afternoon so, in an effort to not totally kill our appetite, we opted for something small; a cup of Chili and a couple of beef Empanadas to share. I know Chili is more TexMex than authentic Mexican but I like the stuff so I wanted to try their version. What I was served was unlike anything I've eaten before. As you would expect it was chock full of meat, onions, beans and cheese but those standard item were sitting in in a thin brown soup instead of the standard chili or tomato sauce. Regardless of, or perhaps as a result of the dishes departure from what I knew as Chili, it was one of the most delicous and memorable versions I've ever tasted.
The Empanadas were fantastic as well, though I have less experience to judge them with. What I can say is they were full of moist and tasty stewed beef that melted in your mouth. The accompanying sauce had a nice kick and was full of smoky, earthy flavor. Very tasty indeed.
For drinks, Jayne had a Margarita, which she said was excellent, while I sampled their Tequila selection by savoring a shot of Gran Centenario Anejo with a Dos Equis chaser.
I've never been to Mexico so I can't say if the place is authentic, but I've traveled in the South West so I've had a lot of Mexican/Tex Mex style food. What I do know is this food was distinctive and delicious. I know I only sampled two things but what I tried has me itching to go back and try a lot more. If you're ever hankering for some Mexican food and you find yourself in the Sherman St area, I think you'll like it too.
Sunday, May 27,2007
Open Road
Yesterday, my friend Dave needed to borrow my truck. He needed it for the afternoon so we decided to swap vehicles. Dave has a Chevy Suburban as his primary ride, but he also has a 1986 Jeep CJ-7with no roof or doors that sits way up high on big gnarly tires sticking out from the wheel wells like menacing chocolate donuts. I, of course, opted to take the Jeep.
Dave gave me a couple of pointers about the Jeep’s quirks – pump the gas peddle a few times before you turn the key, don’t go fast around a corner or you’ll roll and of course always wear your seatbelt because, well there are no doors and you’re sitting way up high on an unstable monstrosity. Check, check and check.
Prepared to depart, I donned my sunglasses, flipped my ball cap around backwards and started to mount the beast – and I do mean mount. As I’ve already mentioned, this thing sits up high, but what I didn’t mention was that it didn’t have any running boards or step rungs to help my middle aged body reach its lofty carriage. It took a little strategizing, a bit a stretching and some not so graceful maneuvers but I did finally get in.
Driving the Jeep was more challenging than I expected as well. People back in 1986 must not have had knees, because the position of the shifter in second gear was pretty much mid knee-cap. Unfortunately, I didn’t find this out until I was attempting to downshift and brake in order to pull into the local mini-mart to buy a Diet Coke for the ride home. In this case I managed to downshift but my knee was then blocked from extending to apply the brake. As I struggled to get it out of gear so I could apply needed brake power I ended up pulling into the parking lot a lot faster than I had intended (recall quirk #2 and #3 above). The four wheels stayed on the ground but my heart rate certainly tipped the scales. Note to self, tell Dave to add ‘Plan on not using second gear’ to his list of quirks.
Once I mastered the Jeep’s few remaining idiosyncrasies, like don’t go over 40mph, whatever you do, I was good to go. It really was a fun ride. The moment that sealed the experience for me was on Rt. 119 on the way home. The traffic from mid town Groton was behind me, the splendid greens of the new leaves and the fresh grass whizzed by as I followed a slice of blue sky down the road. Out of one ear I caught a few familiar chords playing on the radio and I turned it up loud. It was Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wailing away on the classic Zeppelin tune, Whole Lot of Love. Suddenly I was 18 again.
I think I need a Jeep.
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