Musings from Millis

This post is sent from "on the road", as it's the weekend for our Canobie Lake Park Birthday Bash. With 7 kids in 4 familes, it was easier to have one big party than have many different ones spread over the year.

The usual hotels near the park were full this year, so we're all at a Marriot Spring Hill Suites about 7 miles away. Very reasonable rate for a room with 2 TV's, a "living room", 2 large beds, a kitchenette and hi-speed internet (not wireless). The kicker is that it's right next to where I work, so I obviously had no problems finding the place. My guess is that they can offer the low rates because it is situated in an industrial park and probably does a good business with travelers during the week.

Just returned from the annual dinner at the Weathervane, a seafood restaurant. Now we're all either resting, watching TV, blogging (me), or in the pool. We're off to the park tomorrow morning with a decent weather forecast, except for the mid 90 heat.

I end up being the family "videographer" so my family memories are black & white images from a camcorder viewfinder, tomorrow will be no different. I'm not a ride person anyway, I'll hit a couple of water rides to cool off, the kids have way too much energy for this 50-year old.

I doubt I'll be there all day, I hate the heat and I'll be home in time to catch the Sox on ESPN and to jam the meds down Buddy's throat.

Buddy's hyperthyroid condition requires that he get medication twice a day, in the form of 1 1/2 pills. He used to get the pills ground up in his food, but he's not eating when the food is served to him, so to keep Lucky from getting the meds, I've had to give Buddy the pills myself.

Fortunately, Buddy is a very good patient. He gets put up on the bathroom sink and I reach from behind to keep him in place. I don't have to worry about losing my fingers or being scratched, eventually his mouth gets pried open, and in go the pills.

His latest "trick" is to turn his head and look right at me as soon as I go for the mouth, at which point he'll get told what a "good boy he is" and he should just let me get it over with. He'll do this a couple of times then give up.

This morning, he decided to open his mouth as soon as I touched it. I was so surprised, I wasn't ready with the pills.

Buddy holds no grudges, he'll curl up next to me within a few minutes of getting pilled. I'd hate to do this with Lucky, I doubt I'd have any unscratched skin left on me by now.

I've been out of the wedding loop for a while, but when my wife and I went to a wedding last weekend we were handed bubble favors instead of the traditional rice to throw at the bride and groom. I suppose it's partially because there's no cleanup involved with bubbles. Anyway, it was fun for all of us to blow the bubbles around.

We ended up at home with partially used little bottles of bubble water and my wife wanted to see how our 2 cats would react to it. As I expected, Buddy the elderly one seemed to be scared of them especially when they popped on his fur. Lucky was definitely interested in playing with them, to the point where when we were finished he would cry for more. This from a cat who hardly ever meows, even if you step on his tail. Now if we show him the bottle, he'll cry for us to blow the bubbles at him. I'm glad he's finally decided we're worthy of being "talked" to.

Yesterday, while shopping for other kitty needs, my wife saw a bottle of "catnip bubbles". You guessed it, catnip in bubble water, just shake and blow bubbles. Well, those turned out to be a big hit with both cats, except it was really difficult to get a good amount of bubbles, I think it might be because the wand is much larger than the ones we got with the wedding favors. I think the cats would prefer lots of little bubbles to fewer smaller ones, so they won't fight over them. Buddy still prefers to watch them, but he's not scared of them and Lucky will joyfully chase and destroy.

It's been raining, and raining, and raining, and raining.......

The flooding rains that hit Northern MA/Southern NH last month gave us a glancing blow so while the rivers rose, things weren't that bad (almost like it is when the snow melts in the spring). Now it might be our turn. The River Charles is almost a foot over flood stage, which is higher than it was during our last event. I notice during my commute where I cross the river between Dover and Needham that the water is very close to the edge of the road, another few inches and it will be in the road.

I vaguely remember the floods back in 1987 when the main road that crosses the Charles River flood plain between Millis and Medfield was under water.

The forecast for tonight is rain, followed by a good chance of rain for the rest of the weekend. We might see sun by Monday (whoopee). The Red Sox are already playing (maybe) 4 games between now and Sunday with a doubleheader Saturday. Judging by what I'm seeing now, there's a good chance we have a washout tonight.

Nothing like rain to help my foul mood. The rear brakes on the Accord are scraping, so off to the mechanic on Monday. Lucky for me because I'm second shifted and there's no traffic I only need to tap the brakes a couple of times for my whole 100 mile round trip. I can downshift for everything else. I've got nothing to complain about, I got 90,000 miles out of the original brakes. Just not looking forward to a $1000+ repair bill (including a timing belt, it time for that, too). Buddy's doing his darndest to cheer Daddy up though, he's at my side while I'm typing, purring happily. Good boy!

I drove to Logan Airport (Boston) Monday to pick up my wife who was coming back from visiting her brother's family in Pass Christian, MS.

Before the "Big Dig" and Logan's reconstruction, driving there was such a pain that it was usually better to fly into Providence, and the airfares were sometimes cheaper as well. That doesn't seem to be the case now as airfares at Logan seem to be cheaper, but it's not an issue any more. The new Ted Williams Tunnel gets you right into the airport, but the new roads are set up in levels so you have to circle the airport twice to get to the International/Northwest arrivals terminal.

I parked my car at the terminal 10 minutes before the scheduled arrival time and just as I was going into the terminal I got a text message from my wife saying they had landed, by the time I got to the designated "Northwest/KLM Arrival Lounge" she was still on the plane. There were a series of glass doors but only one was open where there were passengers from previous flights walking out and a TSA agent standing at that open door, so I text messaged my wife that I was there waiting, in one of the rather uncomfortable metal seats.

Ten minutes later I get a call, my wife is already in the lower level looking for the baggage carousel, where am I? So what's the sense of having an "Arrival Lounge" when that's not where the passengers are going to go, especially if you both don't have cellphones to keep in touch? Fortunately for us, we did.

$7.70 in tolls to drive about 30 miles on the MassPike and the Ted Williams Tunnel seems a bit steep, but the driving experience was a breeze, maybe it's worth it in that it kept my blood pressure down.

The reception Anne got from her kitties was what I expected. Lucky was at the door to sniff the luggage, while Buddy didn't move from his sleeping position on the dining room table, and appeared rather irritated when she picked him up to give him a hug. The cold shoulder treatment continued until it was time to eat.

I had looked forward to dragging out the lounge chair, maybe take a short walk to the store for some hamburger and begin to enjoy some warmer weather during my "bachelor weekend", but of course it's Weekend in New England which means wet and raw. The windows which opened for the first time last week as temperatures climbed into the 80's had to be shut because 50's and 60's are too cold even for me (much to the cats' dismay). The sun's been trying to peek out over the last few minutes, but for the most part the weekend's been a washout.

So as a shut-in today while getting this blog set up, I'm getting reacquainted with a show from my younger days, Benson, thanks to TV Land's 48 hour marathon. I'm going to have to work out how I'm going to record these shows (11PM) , as TiVo is busy with The Daily Show / Colbert Report and any game the Red Sox might be playing.

The TV has been acting strange for last few days. It was so humid here on Saturday morning that the carpet actually felt wet. The TV refused to turn on that morning unless I unplugged it, then plugged it back in again, and later in the morning it just turned itself off. Now the TV Land logo is cut off at the side of the screen and everyone looks fat. I wonder if the settings for the TV got corrupted when it shut down. It's already spent some time "out-of-order" when it blew a fuse and stayed that way for a while until I felt like turning around the 170 lb beast and open it up to replace the fuse. It's been running OK for the last few months until this weekend.

I mentioned that this was a "bachelor weekend", my wife is visiting her brother in Pass Christian, MS to attend school graduations, while I'm at home cat-sitting Buddy and Lucky. While Lucky doesn't seem to mind her absence too much, Buddy's a different story. He's known something's been up ever since he saw the luggage come out two weeks ago. Even though stays around me during the day, once it's time to turn in for the night, he makes himself scarce. The only night he spent any time near me was Thursday, when I physically put him in the bed and held him down until he gave up. Fortunately it hasn't affected his appetite, because that's how he gets his hyperthyroid meds, only once this week did I have to pill him manually. My wife arrives home tomorrow, so I've got to de-bachelorize before I turn in.

What you're going to find here is a diary with a few recurring themes. They're going to range from electronics new and old, to general politics, to whatever my cats Buddy and Lucky are doing, or anything else that enters my mind. I'll try to keep entries to one theme, but you never know, if Buddy jumps in my lap while I'm typing, my focus will shift.