Even though the calendar has declared it to be fall, the temperatures have been well into the 80s. That is ridiculous.
This weekend the weather broke and while we still need rain (it’s been weeks), the be outside factor has jumped remarkably. I finished up some yard work before noon today and then we went for a walk along the river.
The best news was after our walk there was a nap. Pretty good start to the month.
After a three year absence, we returned to Ocracoke for a quick trip.
As soon as we got off the ferry, we ate tacos:
The remnants of Harvey made Saturday a soggy day, but it brought a beautiful sunset:
We tried to cram all our usual activities into a couple of days. We took a bike ride, we ate good food and slept better than we usually do. The ocean was rough a couple of days and the temperatures were actually moderate. A pretty good trip.
I looked for photos of Caneel Bay, St. John, USVI after Irma went through and my heart is hurt at the devastation on that island and at that resort. I think the resort is mostly flat and gone. Hope these guys survived:
Yesterday was the Great American Eclipse. The better-half researched and found a reputable dealer for glasses. We had so many that I ended up taking extra pairs to work. My boss was thrilled that she got her own pair. Several other pairs went wandering around amongst co-workers. I really don’t know where some ended up. But that’s good. We had lots of pin-hole boxes and folks set up recording equipment with the appropriate filters, naturally. It helps to work in a building of nerds.
I didn’t have my cell phone on me–it was transferring video files for a project I’m doing–so I have zero pictures of the big day. For me, the best was looking at all the crescent shadows. I wasn’t expecting that and I was pretty impressed. Also, the moon transiting the sun was pretty cool too.
We watch out for the space station all the time. It was pretty cool seeing this video:
It is already August. I’m not sure how that happened. It seems like we’ve hardly had time this summer to do anything.
My work friend is back at work finally after being out for 14 months and it was really good to see him today. I don’t think he’ll actually do any work this week with all the heart-felt best wishes to him. He’s the entire company’s good luck charm and we’re all so glad to have him back.
The better-half and I canned tomatoes yesterday. We decided to just skin the tomatoes and can them. No seasoning, no cooking, just tomatoes in jars. It was still tiring work. I don’t know how women put up enough food to feed their families back in the day. We do it for the gratification of eating fresh vegetables in the middle of winter, but thinking about row upon row of canned produce in cellars of bygone days is mind blowing. We didn’t even grow these tomatoes.
Someone in my household insisted on buying a watermelon last weekend and then proceeded to eat none of it. Which left us with a ton of cut-up watermelon. I hit it with a potato masher today and strained it.
Oh man, watermelon juice. It is a thing of beauty.
Last weekend we were in Bermuda. I am sad that going to Bermuda every weekend isn’t a thing.
This was the view from our room. We were at Elbow Beach resort and, even though we were up the hill, we could see and hear the ocean.
I conferred with this creature each morning of our stay:
The resort had a signalling system from the beach to the bar. Much happiness is contained in a Dark and Stormy while sitting in a lounge chair:
I worked on July 3rd and had a less than 5 minute conversation with one person. Otherwise I didn’t say more than Hi to anyone. It was bliss. I cranked out 8 hours of work with no interruption and am officially ahead for July. It is amazing what one day of work can get you.
I borrowed a stack of books from my niece and then got two in the mail. One of the books I borrowed from the niece had been on my hold list at the library for months. I was tired of waiting. It is weird reading physical books since I am firmly into the Kindle app and on a no buy book ban. The better-half received a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble so that is how I ended up with two books in the mail.
We’re trying to figure out if we can slip down to the Outer Banks for a long weekend in September. We haven’t been in years, well, just to Duck. We’re missing our favorite spot. We’ll see how that works out. I need to figure out how many more vacation days I have this year and then we can make a firm decision. I should have plenty, but our system is so weird that it is hard to get a firm handle on that.
My friend from Germany was here with her kids. We haven’t seen each other since 1997, before she had kids. We spent a day and a half with them in Washington, DC. It was a good trip because we visited monuments that the better-half and I haven’t visited since we were in high school. Oh yeah, and seeing them too.
Always impresses:
Unless you happen to be three teenage boys:
Honestly, I think they were worn out and just wanted some downtime.
To give you an idea of how long it had been since I went to the Lincoln Memorial, I didn’t even know the WWII monument had been built. My German friend asked me if she had just forgotten all about it as we walked from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. I told her if that was true then so had I.
(It was dedicated in 2004–so there’s a reason why we didn’t remember it. Also, I hadn’t been past the Mall in ages).
We met up at the White House on Saturday morning and there was the usual milling around of supporters and detractors. Then as we walked to the Washington Monument, we came across the speech part of the March for Truth:
I was a bit proud that all of this was going on since it is a great example of what democracy looks like.
We went to a concert the other night and while there was only good musicianship, the show didn’t do much for either of us. I guess that happens on occasion. By the way, we’ve been to 14 shows already this year. We have a spree of them in the coming weeks and then we slow down a bit.
Yesterday we ate breakfast out since I had off from work. Can you make out the name on the wall?
This morning, we made a batch of quick pickles. Behold the curry cauliflower pickles:
This is late going up and it almost seems like we never went, but then I remember things.
We visited Blue Lagoon on the Friday of our trip and went all in…silica mud masks, algae masks, drinks in the water, and dinner at Lava. It was super relaxing and completely full of tourists and we didn’t care.
Icelanders have a wicked sense of humor and as much as they love murals, they also love graffiti:
This was off in the distance and we had to find out what was sitting on top of a cupcake shop:
I seriously admired the official signs. Whichever branch of government issues these signs should get a pat on the back. The signs were on point from a design standpoint…do you need to read Icelandic to know what will happen if you stand here? Nope, you don’t.
The weather was miserable. It rained or snowed for the entire week. We may have seen the sun for 2 hours in the week we were there. Don’t get me started on the wind. Would I go back? In a heartbeat.
