• Category Archives day by day

  • This is the category closest to just being a plain diary. Places I go, things I do, people I see, what’s happening in my life.

  • Saturday

    Posted on by Don

    It’s not quite the countdown to Christmas here yet, but today is the CAT board’s annual holiday party at our house. We’re getting the place ready this morning.

    Yesterday was an Iris day, and we also had a few visitors: next-door neighbor Jim came over with a gift loaf of of bread, and Lisa from Cutters picked up my touring bike — she was borrowing it as a sizing demo for another customer.

    Anne was out on some errands, so Iris and I were on our own when our visitors arrived. We’d just spent some time in the neighborhood, and also in the backyard where we’d walked all over some fallen persimmons — it was all in our shoes like dog poop. We came inside and I took our shoes off, and that’s when I noticed that Iris’s hat was missing. Uh-oh, it could be anywhere in the neighborhood, but hopefully it was just out back — we went outside and it was right in the wet grass, and now my socks were wet from the rescue so I took them off too.

    I got Iris’s shoes cleaned and back on her feet, but still hadn’t dealt with my footwear when our visitors arrived. So there I was, barefoot outside in December, holding Iris and a loaf of bread and chatting like it was the most normal thing ever. At this point, I guess it kind of is…

    (Lisa texted later– they got the sale!)

    Not much else going on.


    day by day

  • Scenes From A Wedding

    Posted on by Don

    Extra! Extra!

    Our nephew’s wedding was the big November event in our extended family. Greg and Emily had their wedding just outside Boston, the central location for the extended families and also near where they live. Anne and I drove up with her sister Lorraine on Friday, and met parents-of-the-groom Joe & Laura and a few others for a tour of the Samuel Adams Brewery. After that, and after checking into the hotel and meeting up with more people, a big group of us went out to dinner before walking over to the pre-game party at a nearby pub.

    Samuel Adams Brewery Tour
    Samuel Adams Taste Tet
    Boston: An Evening Dragon
    Mustaches: Anne and Adelle
    Mustaches: Bill and Valerie
    Mustaches: Jenny

    Much shenanigans ensued, and a good time was had by all…

    The wedding was Saturday, at a venue just outside Boston proper. I did not get many pictures of the ceremony itself, but I did get a few sweet shots of the family at the reception.

    Kyle, Emmi, and Ben
    Emily: Here Comes The Bride
    Emily and Greg: The Ceremony
    Anne and Me
    The Crew
    Anne And Her Siblings
    Father-Daughter Dance
    Mother-Son Dance

    I put the camera away after the the eating and dancing started in earnest, but rest assured another good time was had.

    Congratulations, Emily and Greg!

    The next morning we — us, Ben & Jenni, Lorraine, and Joe & Laura and Alex — took a walk over to the Italian section in Boston’s North End for cannolis and pizza, and then it was time for all our long trips home.


    day by day 📎and tagged

  • And The Days Go By

    Posted on by Don

    Wow, it’s been a month; all of November I was running silent. Plenty has happened, which I’ll I’ll write about in other posts, but here as an icebreaker is an Iris photo update:

    This was at our rescheduled Halloween Parade, one week after the original parade was rained out. No photos, but she enjoyed watching Trick or Treat from our porch, and she liked the parade too, especially the school bands, and especially especially the percussion sections…

    I watched her one morning about a week ago, and this is how we spent the time, at least until it was time to go to the playground. Snacktime, and some time with her “drumset” — the mixing bowls, which she likes to bang around and also stack and unstack.

    We watched her yesterday, and we had fun playing with her and her makeshift “toys.” Friends visited later in the day and the weather turned unexpectedly nice, so we all took a walk over to the playground. She and her personality are both getting so big!


    day by day 📎and tagged

  • Looking Back At Looking Back

    Posted on by Don

    I’m currently battling a cold/sinus thing, no COVID according to the test (and from what I see I’d guess it’s a bacterial infection anyway), but I still feel pretty shitty: stuffy nose, sore throat, headache and stomach ache, and just feeling really tired. I’ve been hanging indoors for the past two days, sleeping and working on my Native Paths project, which is now almost halfway through the foot segments. (The canal museum is doing their next project on native paths in the Corridor, so it’ll be interesting to see their take.)

    Meantime, here is what I wrote, ten years ago, about my first bike race. Enjoy!


    day by day looking back

  • Back In The Old Groove

    Posted on by Don

    I’m back fro a weekend visit to my folks, Friday through yesterday. I helped them with a few errands, we went to Manasquan Reservoir during the nice weather Friday afternoon (first time there, for me), and on Saturday night we went out eat at Appleby’s. The rest of the time was just hanging out, talking and reading.

    (I’d managed to get my Cloud Library app back up and running, so I borrowed Titanium Noir by Nick Hardaway, and just burned through it during my visit. Pretty good: a near-future sci-fi murder mystery, like Phillip Marlowe by way of William Gibson, and fast-paced.)

    Now I’m home, doing laundry and getting other things done like cello practice, my Native Paths project, and bike maintenance –bikes took some heavy use the last few weeks, and there’s much overdue work that needs to happen.

    Anne is home from Vermont, and is now working on her own projects. We both made it through a very busy time mostly unfrazzled (mostly!), and are both ready to just get back into our usual routines.


    day by day

  • Salisbury Beach

    Posted on by Don

    What a great weekend! Anne and I went to visit friends at their Massachusetts beach cottage, on the beach and practically in New Hampshire, for a few days of road cycling. We were there with our hosts Ed & Jan, and their friends Gayle and Bob & Beth, and Jen C. We did 32 miles Friday, 30 miles Saturday before the rains came, and another 20 on Sunday before we drove home. In between was pizza, and lobster, and a potluck at the cottage…

    Now we’re almost back to our regular routine: we’ll have Iris overnight and tomorrow, and I’m planning to do some Museum volunteering this week. I have yet to get back into the swing of the cello, but I played last night and it felt good.


    day by day

  • Odds & Ends

    Posted on by Don

    Well, that went by quick — no posts for all of September! So, just some things that have been happening:

    • We just did a CAT-sponsored bike camping trip to Jim Thorpe this past weekend.
    • Last week was the final Shawnee Road Scholar bike program.
    • My mom’s birthday dinner (earlier in the month) was a success.
    • The cello ensemble is back together, we had our first practice a few weeks ago.
    • Plenty more, but it’s all starting to blur together…

    day by day

  • My Heart

    Posted on by Don

    I really don’t have much to say, but I wanted to post a few photos of Iris:

    Iris

    I took that Monday, when we had her for an overnight. She is so fun! She’s taken her first steps, and is just about to start walking on her own, and we love just letting her explore her world. (We are constantly forced to upgrade our child-proofing…)

    Iris

    day by day

  • Summer In Deceleration

    Posted on by Don

    We went out to the Velodrome last night with Shari & Rick, and met Bill & Marie M there along with Joe & Laura. It was the last race of the season, the weather was perfect, and the place was as full as I’ve seen it in years — the whole scene still hasn’t recovered from COVID, and maybe it never will, but last night it was almost as full as the Friday nights of old. And it was just a lovely night, with some truly exciting Madison Cup racing, good friends, beer and french fries, and a spectacular fireworks show at the end. (I realize now that, between MusikFest, New Years, Independence Day, Heritage Day, and the odd Friday night at Coca Cola Park, I have become a fireworks snob…)

    Anyway, it was a good night, and today we’re off on a birthday ride: Sean C set up a slopeside party and overnight camping trip for Jen at Blue Mountain, and we’re all biking there together.

    It’s not the end of summer yet, and we’ve got a few more things planned before the cold weather arrives, but the late-summer bugs are singing, some kids are already back at school, and you can feel the plants getting ready to turn color. The seasons are turning, as they always do.


    day by day the sporting life

  • Chillin’

    Posted on by Don

    I’m home at the moment, just waiting for Anne to get back from the big Women’s Overnight Bike Ride. This was a combined CAT/Adventure Cycling event that our friend Jennifer C put together, and I helped by borrowing Sarah A’s pickup truck (she was also on the ride) and doing support duties. It was a long exhausting two days, but now I’m just hanging out at home in our newly air conditioned house…

    Yes, we finally broke down and got a species of AC called a mini-split, which works like a heat pump: heat in the winter, cool in the summer. It took about a week to get installed, and we’ve had it running for maybe a month now. I love it, though it’s a bit weird to be so disconnected from the outside weather in our comfort bubble.

    Here are pictures I took while they were installing the system:

    Mini-Split Wall Penetrations
    Mini-Split Wall Penetration
    Mini-Split Inverter in Living Room
    Mini-Splits: Piping Partially Installed
    Mini-Splits: Outdoor Unit In Place
    Mini-Splits Fully Installed And Functional

    We have no room for ductwork in our walls, so the working fluid (air? water?) runs in the piping/conduit installed on the outside wall; I guess this is what makes it a “mini-split.” They are super quiet and really efficient, and are very popular in our neighborhood, where most houses are of a similar age and design. Anyway, we’re keeping with the Joneses…

    We had them installed and working for one day, when I had to travel down to Florida — but that’s a story for another post.


    day by day