The Other Don Kelly

This morning, after years of procrastination, I got my chipped front tooth fixed. The dentist decided not to use any novocaine, or any anesthetic at all, and it was the most painless bit of dentistry I ever experienced. And now I have my smile back…

When I got home, the town leaf collector truck was just in the process of cleaning up our leaf pile, which had been sitting there, mocking me, since late October. My day was complete.

Actually, it was just noon, but the rest of the day was gravy: I rode down to the Museum for a few hours and got home just before dark, then I hung out, played my cello and did a little reading.

I went to my old boss’s retirement luncheon yesterday, and saw many old friends and co-workers there, which was strangely bittersweet (many were looking much older and less hale, and there was much talk of a vanishing past), and for the rest of the day I was kind of — not somber exactly, but maybe a little bit, maybe a bit nostalgic, a bit reflective, a bit “Mais ou sont les neiges d’antan?”

Today I was back on my game.

Kind of a mellow day: I got up and continued learning GNUCash while sampling some experimental croissants Anne made, got some easy chores done, dishes and laundry and so on, then rode over to volunteer at the Museum for a few hours — I got home just at dark. Finished some more chores, played my cello for a bit, and now I am back at the computer, listening to Polish Prog Rock over the internet. A nice day, a mellow day. It’s the simple things…

We went out yesterday to the Allentown Farmer’s Market, and on the way we stopped at Syb’s Deli for lunch. We sat near the window, and Anne noticed a cute little birdhouse, built to look like the deli, just outside on a telephone pole. (I didn’t see it until she pointed it out.) We asked the waitress about it, and she said they had no idea who put it up — one day it was just there. There were three other little birdhouses that also appeared in the neighborhood at the same time, she said, but these didn’t look like the Syb’s one or any local buildings: they were undecorated, except each of them had “eat the rich” written on it. Here’s a photo of the one outside Syb’s:

We got a bunch of other stuff done yesterday, and then met Judy and Erika, at Stoke in Easton, to plan our Thanksgiving dinner. Today I raked the leaves; it’s cold and windy, and it even snowed a bit this morning, so I figured it was the perfect day for it. Later this afternoon Anne’s quartet will be doing a “house concert” at Jeff and Kristen’s, then we might go out for drinks after dinner, to a new place — new to us, anyway — down by Sand Island, called Artisan.

Yesterday was a completely wasted day — I was tired and headachey from the time I got up until around 9:00. I couldn’t tell if it was a sinus headache, or maybe tension, or dehydration. It felt for all the world like a hangover, but even though we went out Tuesday night I had only one beer; if one beer can knock me out of the game like that, it’s time for me to to hang up my drinking shoes.

I suspect it was the aftermath of the ride we did Tuesday. Anne and I did a solid 65 miles, through four counties and over two gaps: we rode over Blue Mountain at Little Gap and came home by way of Wind Gap, with a lunch stop at the diner there. Not the most difficult of rides, but my nose was seriously draining and I have not done any rides like that in a while, and maybe that was what beat me down. (Anne of course was fine, the weeks I took off from riding were the weeks she spent riding, over New England mountains on a loaded tour bike.)

I would show you the ride’s GPS and stats, but well, you know how that has been working out with Garmin, and that gave me the germ of an idea for my next map project: something that can extract and display my ride data in a frame on my blog. I started looking into it yesterday, and promptly fell down the GPX/FIT rabbit hole. I learned a lot though — mostly that this might be more of a PIA than I figured. Oh well, everybody needs a hobby…

Meantime, Halloween. We had Trick or Treat on Friday, and we had a few friends over to help (they got adult-liquid treats), and then on Sunday the parade came by on Broad Street. Yesterday was pretty subdued, though the library did a cover-to-cover reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in honor of the 200th anniversary of its publishing. Anne was there for a big part of the afternoon, and I went for a bit too, listening through several readers before heading back home. I forgot how sad the story really is.

Here are some pictures from the parade:

So the Big Stick Cleanup got started yesterday, but did not get finished: I got a call from Anne just before 2:00; she said she was somewhere in Connecticut riding alone, she was cold and wet, it was raining, and was done. I packed up what I was doing, got home and ready to go, and was on the road by 2:05 after getting her exact location by email. It was about four hours away, but the drive was pretty easy, and with an hour for dinner we were home by 11:00 or so, and totally crashed not long after. I guess we’ll have that pot roast tonight.