Interesting slant

Heading out to mail some stuff, put a check in the bank & pick up the papers before it rains. Freezing (literally) here - "feels like" 24F, so best I put another sweater on before heading out. No big plans for this evening - just went through a couple yarn bins - how did I accumulate all that stuff? And couldn't find what I was looking for so now I have to search all the other stash hideaways to try to track down the fugitive yarn.

Interesting shape

Wow - 13F outside & "feels like" 3F. I had to stand in line so long at the P.O. yest. that I decided to postpone grocery shopping 'til today - too much fun in one day otherwise. ;) It's _much_ less windy today, so that's good for carrying groceries to the car. There are several articles in a recent NY Times that I'll forward all today, at the risk of overwhelming you, lest the paper hang around here for days waiting for me to get to all of them. Have entirely too much of _that_ already. This house is on the same street as yesterday's photo.

Toddling down Alban Street

We happen upon this turqoise maison. It's unclear to me if this is a single-family with two front entrances (for "Preferred" & "Hoi-polloi"* perhaps? Heading out the the Post Office soon & if it's not too brutal (25F - "feels like" 10 now - though the sun shines, Nellie - wait, I've heard that before), taking a swing down to the local Tedeschis to pick up the papers. Thence to a grocery shopping run in Cambridge - I'm hoping everyone will have been out yesterday since the temps then were much more clement. Then the uzhe - tootling, stitching. Andy's working from home again - refuses to wait for buses, etc., in sub-freezing temps. Wimp.

* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoi_polloi>

Thus begins the Ashmont Hill Series

On Nov. 11 I took my first (recent) stroll through the Ashmont Hill
area of Dorchester a few blocks from moi (you know its fancy because
it has its own sign).

Our tour begins on Alban St. <http://tinyurl.com/yez7apv> with what I call
Wowza. Just above freezing now with a forecast high of 41 and rain
scheduled, though the sun shines [now], Nellie.* Perhaps I best get
out early for a walk & then tootle & stitch (why does that sound
vaguely off-color?). This rather stream of consciousness missive ends
with a big hug and the hope that all's well with you. OXOXO JR

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wait_%27Till_the_Sun_Shines,_Nellie> -
who knew stock traders sang?

All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown) and the sky is gray (and the sky is gray)

Got down on my knees . . . OK enough of that - recognize the song?*
Raining here this AM & weather widget says a high of 50F is forecast -
the snow disappeared literally overnight with some apparently heavy
rain (but who knew? I was sleeping - and, thankfully in a warm(ish)
dry house!). Some chores, tootling & finishing up a vest on my docket
today. Next knitting project will be a cardigan in some lovely Rowan
yarn for my chunky yarn project & I'm not sure what exactly on the
smaller size yarn - I've decided to keep a few projects going on
various weights of yarn just to mix things up - though being a project
polygamist means any one of them takes that much longer to complete -
and if it's a particularly complicated pattern, one has to keep close
notes as to where one left off or it's hell trying to figure out where
you were when you pick it back up after awhile. Speaking of notes,
happy to report those knuckle breakers in Peter & the Wolf &
Prokofiev's Classical symphony are beginning to sound better. Not that
I have to play them soon (thank God) but one want to be prepared. :)

* <http://popup.lala.com/popup/432627069321242532>

Plastic Rover behind bars

Grey day here - 38F going up to 39F according to my weather widget - mid-40s re the weather dude. Heading off to the Stitch House Dorchester in about 1 hour - 1/2 off some yarn that I'm hoping they'll have colors for a sort of Norwegian design sweater that's kicking around in my head. Later for some Polarity work & then I have to get back to tootling - I've more or taken the last couple days off. Don't wanna sound like caca @ the Jan. 4 orchestra rehearsal! Snitch has just joined me - she's doing her rotating kittie thing trying to find her special position on my lap.

Morning frost

One of the things that gets me out of bed on a cold morning is to see what wonders Mother Nature has created on the window. The stained glass is one of Dad's creations. A lovely Christmas morning here though with temps forecast to be above freezing the next few days, the snow will diminish. We're apparently headed for another deep freeze next week, so maybe it won't ALL be gone by then - and fingers crossed that the "wintry mix" that we're forecast this weekend has a chance to dry before it hits, or getting around will be (sarcasm on)a joy(sarcasm off).

Tired Rudolph

Of course the ground around him is snow-covered now (though not for long with temps above freezing forecast for the next few days & rain on Sat.) - and if he's so tired already . . . I dreamt last night that I was living in an old folks home & decided it wasn't a healthy place for me since everyone there was either slightly demented, ill or otherwise encumbered - though for some reason I could see no way out. Upon awakening I realized it's only 20 years until I'm 75 (I should live so long) and who knows what shape I'll be in then? Kinda bleak for a Christmas eve, but there you are. But, to quote my mantra, I won't live in Dread, it's a horrible place and I absolutely refuse to stay there. For today, I have a lovely cat sitting at my feet keeping me company, plan to head out soon to the Post Office & a morning constitutional (since it's finally warm enough - 31F - to contemplate doing that without freezing my tits off) and then on to whatever else the day (or my plans) has/have in store.

Save me!

This poor little puss was just around the corner from the Christmas colors building. It's beautifully sunny here with temps cold enough that the snow should stick around. Freezing rain forecast for Christmas day evening - blech. Heading out soon to mail Christmas cards, grocery shop & then back for (even more) vacuuming, tootling & stitching.

Christmas colors

This photo, from Halloween, was ahead of its time. Heading out for an Alexander lesson soon - then the usual, tootling, stitching, and, if I'm feeling ambitious, some vacuuming. I wish the weather forecaster who was bemoaning the "refrigerator" effect of the snow would focus instead on its benefit to the bulbs & seeds that otherwise lie under ground exposed to the elements. <http://www.adn.com/gardens/story/550298.html>

Lonely lookout

For some reason this caught my eye on a 2009/10/31 walk. Lovely 10" or so of snow on our yard and it looks like it'll be around for Christmas. Andy's working from home today. Since he hangs around in the kitchen to do so, I'll have to work around him doing laundry. Did manage to get my music from Franklin the other day (have I told you already?) and discovered a great fabric store there with a moderately interesting yarn collection. I got fabric to back a canvas that Andy stitched eons ago, though it's circular so I think I'll probably farm it out to be finished unless I decide to undertake a really challenging project for my first attempt on the Singer 301A (from the 50s - the newer Singers by all accounts are crap) that I won on Ebay a couple weeks ago. Happy to have a warmish house to live in. Andy made molasses cookies yesterday. Yum.

Game of chance

Snowing now - though I doubt we're going to get the 10" (ooh, baby!) they promised. Nice & quiet outside. Off soon to tootle, etc. Might try toddling down to the corner store (about 1/4 mile away) to get the papers later - maybe if I wait long enough Andy will shovel?

In case you're interested, here's a list of Czech pubs selling "craft" beers and here's a list of Czech breweries <http://aliancepiv.cz/> and here <http://pivovary.info/> - and in case you're curious, there was an article on craft beers in Prague in a recent NY Times Travel section. Student coming today, as, apparently, is (are?) 7-14 inches of snow. Yippeee! Two years in a row of a white Christmas. Thank goodness it happened _this_ weekend & not last. Can you spot the lone walker?

All gone

Heading off soon to an acupuncture appt - though I'm thinking of scheduling them later in the morning so I don't have to rush out the door @ 9AM. So far we're not forecast to get any of the snow this weekend - a pity for the poor bulbs that are experiencing these single-digit temps with no blanket of snow to protect them - not to mention the (normally 3 out of four) chance of a not-white Christmas here. Oh, the pic is of a tree whose gradual balding I was tracking this fall.

Fallen Leaves

Wow - 16F outside & feels like -3F. Heading out soon to Franklin to pick up the music then back to hunker down in the nice, warm(ish) house. Turns out the bassoonist has rehearsals every Sunday PM, so so much for the house concert - at least until the orchestra breaks for the summer. Probably for the best - finding rehearsal times btwn now & the end of January when the concert was proposed would have been tricky. And more time to work out the (few) tricky licks.

The runner & the knitter

Runner: "Why don't you just buy socks?"

Knitter: "Why don't you just take the bus?"

The photo I'm calling purple 'n pink. Obviously the flowers in the picture are long gone (well about 1 month & a half, anyway). Heading out noonish for lunch with my friend & former supervisor (plan to wear & show off the sweater I made with some of the yarn the dept. gave me when I retired), followed by (I hope!) finally being fitted with my night guard that is designed to halt the "Center, Ho!" (and not the lead player on a prostitutes' basketball team) migration of my teeth. 29F with a forecast high of 30F here today (they say it feels like 17F right now, so best I bundle up.

Interesting detail

Here's a porch detail nearby that caught my eye (internal rhyme anyone?).* Heading out soon for errand running (meds, yarn, cat food, groceries, yadda, yadda, yadda). I discovered yesterday that I managed to leave my 3-ring binder with the picc part to the Tchaikovsky in Franklin so I have to schlep down there on Thurs. Well, at least they found it - I'm pledging to myself to work on some of those licks during the course of the year to _really_ get them nailed down. 42F & partly cloudy here but what do I care, I'll be in a car. (Where DOES one put the question mark in a sentence like that?) Since I've not posted in a couple days, I'm including a couple photos I sent around to my daily email group. 1 of moi @ Melrose & the other another house.

*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_rhyme> Gotta love a posting with footnotes.

Mary Ellen's shawl

Here's a copy of my neighbor, Mary Ellen, and the shawl I made her after her husband died several weeks ago. I thought she might need something to keep her warm this winter with hubby gone. I'll have another crack @ those picc licks tonight. How they went last night is best passed over in silence. Tomorrow I'll have to go miles out of my way to and from Franklin to avoid the traffic from the expletive deleted Patriots home game. :(

Peaceful puss

I'm sure glad she's inside today (not that she ever goes outside except for trips to the vet). Apparently it's 25F out there & feels like 6F with the wind. I'll be heading out (heavily bundled) for a walk soon, then getting ready for the rehearsals that begin @ 4PM. I cancelled my acupuncture this AM figuring I needed the 3+ hours it would take me to get to & from (esp. since I had to wait 30 minutes _twice_ for an expletive deleted Ashmont train yesterday - and it wasn't even inclement weather) to practice, etc. Laundry, here I come. :)

What's wrong with this picture?

Again, I hope I haven't sent this before - I need to come up with some kind of system that tells me whether I've posted a photo or not when I go out of sequence. It's a new store on the corner & I haven't had the heart to tell them - not that they'd necessarily care. Heading out soon for an Alexander lesson - anxiety grows for the Nutcracker licks, since we rehearse tomorrow. I'm hopeful that the acupuncture treatment I'll get Friday morning can address that - that and more slow practice. If you've heard of heavy, wet snow in New England, we got none. Driving-wise, I'm grateful for that, even though it would be nice to have a white Christmas.

I imagine back in the day the subject line for this msg. might have been (mis)taken as a headline for some kind of fracas in the Soviet Union. I hope I haven't posted this picture before. Of course, those leaves are long gone (the photo is from 29.Oct.2009), and we're having the aforementioned wintry mix - right now it's just a little snow but with the flakes getting smaller & smaller which is a sure precursor to the switch to rain (according to my weather widget it's 36F out there now). Thank goodness I'm not a mail carrier today! The whole day to practice, vacuum (?), & stitch. I'm working my way though The Six Wives of Henry the VIII on Netflix (I remember them when they were first broadcast & I read a THICK bio on him as I lifeguarded that summer) as well as reading Wolf Hall, winner of this year's Booker Prize <http://www.themanbookerprize.com/>. It's a novel of the period seen through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell. I hope when I've finished both that I'll have a clearer of who exactly all the characters in this real-life drama were.

Red diamond

Title a la Kandinsky. When I passed a house this AM (early - before
9!) that had simply painted over this detail, I realized what a
difference just a little bit o' paint can make. The thing I learned,
too, is that the sun really _isn't_ up so far in the sky @ that time
of day this time of year, so in addition to it being just a little
above freezing, it was kinda shady, too. I'd left early to get the
jump on some errands before the lines got too long & to cast my vote
for a potential new senator. We'll see who wins. I imagine it's going
to be our attorney general, who has the greatest name recognition, I
certainly hope it isn't the part-owner of the Boston Celtics who works
for Bain Capital. Snitch is settling in my lap & kneading my left arm
purring all the while, so I guess she things I'm going to be here for
awhile. On to practicing, vacuuming (yeah, I lied - I didn't get to it
yesterday - did get some laundry done). We're forecast to get that
miserable "wintery mix" tomorrow (something I always maintain should
be reserved for serving at holiday parties) starting as snow & then
turning to rain. Blech. At least I don't have to go anywhere & this
weekend is (so far) supposed to be cold but clear.

Curvey detail

Sorry I didn't include this with the curvy house picture yesterday. It's a closeup of the detail on the roof. We're up to 32F now, woo hoo, so I'll head out to deposit the corporate gig check soon. Then I get to stay @ home all day, yippee! Good news, too, since the laundry is to the roof (I exaggerate only slightly), and for some reason we have whore's wool of cat hair all around the house just begging to be vacuumed up (I don't know how I ignore the racket). And of course all the knuckle breakers in the Nutcracker waiting patiently for their daily workout. Once that gig's over, I can settle in for a long winter's nap until January. Of course Dvorak 5 is on the books for the March Melrose concert but a quick look @ that yesterday didn't reveal any particularly hair raising sections (though, goodness knows I could use a few of those) and one never knows what hellish tempo the conductor will take in the fast movements.

Nature's cathedral

I'm jumping ahead with my photo sequence to this morning (and hoping I don't resend this one like I did the pumpkins). :| The overhang makes mail delivery, etc., a little difficult (unless one realizes that one can go up the side steps to get to the porch. Left last night @ 4:30PM, got home @ midnight. Makes the $/hour a little less than overwhelming, but the dinner was good (I was happy to have been given the stuffed chicken entree & not the steak since I don't trust the FDA's mad-cow screening), it was good to see Matthew Doherty, the harpist, & the tunes were fun (except for the really chromatic ones in the fake book since the melody line is so small, my weakening eyes can't decipher them so quickly). And here's hoping mother nature's gotten weekend snow storms out of her system at least until after NEXT weekend when I have to schlep down to Franklin 3 times for rehearsals & performances.

Blue curves

Have sent my Sat. student off to work for the next two weeks, heading out soon for a Polarity treatment & then back to iron a shirt & see if any of my dark suits still fit for the 4-hour corporate gig (they also feed us dinner, so, assuming there's something other than red meat on offer, that'll be good). Hope all's well by you. OXOXO JR

Funnel Tree

Someone on Dakota Street obviously thinks this is a good look for a tree. Quite the the blustery day here - with a high of 63F (on Dec. 3!) forecast. Unnatural I calls it! It's apparently 66F outside now so someone goofed. The sun's now pouring through the clouds. I had thought I'd postpone the walk until later, but maybe I'll head out now.

Remember when I said I was doing laundry yesterday? Well, I lied. Since we were forecast to get rain (which we did), I decided I'd wait since I'd be hanging it up (or rather draping it over drying racks) just before the rain moved in. So it's (the laundry's) on the docket for today. That damned Bb scale still eludes me from time to time even @ mm 35 to the 1/8th note. The picc is much more susceptible to movement so I have to push harder against my lip to keep it steady. Since that's not what I usually do, I tend to forget. Fascinating, eh? I should alsways have such problems.

Odd angle

There are some houses around here that certainly have odd angles build
in. Heading off soon for the morning constitutional. Will pick up a
paper to read the text of Obama's speach last night (we watched Merlin
instead). There was some interesting commentary on Charlie Rose last
night after the fact. <http://www.charlierose.com/#schedule_lower>
(I'm not sure that link will work - it's taking too long to load &
I've got to get going). I'm curious to read what others have to say
with at least a few more hours to digest it. Ask me, we're
doing no good there & should get out now.. Thereafter,
tootling, housework which today consists of laundry & vacuuming
(_where_ does all that cat hair come from???), & then stitching &
watching a version of Dorian Gray on Netflix.

Another Dakota Street scene

Someone else likes kitties, too. Heading out for a morning's worth of shopping, I'm afraid - then cramming to get my practicing in before my student shows up this evening. Sunny here today, but only 36F - forecast high of 44. We'll see. I think it's the first really cold (well comparatively speaking, anyway) we've had this season. Happy (?) World AIDS Day. <http://www.worldaidsday.org/>