I Am Just Too Old!

I wanted to buy a box of chocolates for us for our anniversary. So I went to our local CVS where I have always bought Russell Stover, or Whiteman's Sampler boxes of chocolates.  I looked all over the place and couldn't find any!  So I asked one of the young employees if they had any boxes of chocolates, and they had no idea what "a box of chocolates" was!  So I went to the larger, newer CVS about a mile or two away, and asked an employee the same question.  I used my hands and fingers to describe the size of the box and that it was not very thick.  He showed me all kinds of things but he didn't seem to know what I was talking about.  Of course the new thing is they they have small and large bags of chocolate candies of all kinds, but he just didn't know what I was describing!  So on a chance, I CAREFULLY looked at each and every shelf from top to bottom, and finally saw maybe three of these boxes on a bottom shelf!  I was in luck.  So in the end I figured that it is only old people who even know these things exist, a more formal gift than a giant bag of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!  In Wikipedia, it did say that apparently "Boxed Chocolates" are a big favorite at Christmastime.  We'll see if that is true.  I will let you know.

 

A Different Sky Tonight

Our usual walk around sunset tonight.  A different kind of sky - high stratus clouds rather then the usual cumulus.  I first noticed the glowing clouds in the center of the photo and thought that was interesting but then I saw the three small figures, and new I had a photograph!  I grabbed my iPhone, rather than my Sony Rx 100 because it was quicker, and it had a wider angle lens on it.  Two shots was all it took and I knew I had it!  A lucky evening for me!

 

Hung Out to Dry

I have explained how I used a garden sprayer to spray a mixture under the eaves to kill any mildew, and then washing it all off with water, before painting.  So my gloves were always soaking wet after this process was over.  So I hung them up to dry!  After going to the garage for something I came back out and saw them, and thought it was funny looking so then went and got my camera to recored this.  I just thought this looked interesting, so here you are!

 

How's The Painting Going?

 So I have shown you a photo of me up on the ladder working on scraping and cleaning in preparation for painting.  I have already shown you the setup and me on the ladder.  And I showed you how badly the wood trim - the eaves - on this side of the house needed painting.  This is a reminder.  And this is the result of my days of hard work, below.

This is an extra large image of the finished eaves!  Be sure and click on this.  I still have to paint the siding but that's only one coat of the finished paint.  It doesn't need priming. It took me two days to scrape all this.  It took two days for spraying with Clorox and TSP and hot water from a garden sprayer to kill all the mildew.  Then three days of painting all of this with a primer.  And then two days to do the final coat.  Tomorrow I will start painting the siding and this side of the house will look brand new.  The other sides have already been painted already over the last couple of years.  It is really deeply satisfying to make everything beautiful again!

Farewell My Faithful Companions

These are a pair of Timberland work boots which I have had for years and they are well used.  I think I have had them for at least 30 years, and probably longer.  There is no way to tell, but they are clearly well used.  The bottom soles of both boots became detached in the front and I used some contact cement to fasten them back on, and they were fine for a while.  But recently, as you can see in the photograph below, the entire sole became detached and that is really unsafe if I am up on the ladder and climbing up and down while painting.  So, sadly, they needed to be replaced.  They certainly have served me well but now that I bought a new pair from a different manufacturer, I no longer need these.  I have no idea how much they cost when I originally bought them, but the replacement cost of the Timberlands was about $200!  Yikes!  My new work boots only cost half that.

I do like studying this photograph, to see the wear and tear on these boots after all these years.  This view of one boot really shows the history of them, more than the photograph looking down at the two of them together.

 

A Cloud to Study

Tuesday. Dunkin' at the beach, of course.  We sat in beach chairs down at the waterline because the tide was out.  There were cumulus clouds moving into where we were but there were not a lot, of them nearby, and there was not much wind either, so it was interesting that one cloud would sit in front of us for quite a long time and we were studying it.  A single cumulus cloud, a "fair weather" cloud.  The delicacy of it was just sublime, with wisps all around the edges of it that if you looked carefully, you could see either appear or disappear over a few minutes.  So light, so delicate, and a gray bottom because the sunlight could not make it all the way through the cloud to the bottom so it is darker.  And of course, the deep blue sky to make the clouds stand out.  I don't think I have every studied one particular cloud for a whole half-hour.  It was really illuminating.

 

Another Evening at the Beach

Another walk at the beach around sunset.  We never know what we will see, which is fun.  I knew that the Moon would be in a crescent phase but had not been paying close attention.  So it was a surprise to see a 4 day old crescent Moon, and of course, to the right, the planet Venus.  But of course all of you already know about Venus being there.  I took several different views, and the key was some kind of foreground.  Just seeing the Moon and Venus in the sky was not enough.  But the branches of a tree completed the picture for me.