It's very quiet in the Hood

Last night I realized that a lot of people were gone from the neighborhood. It was extremely quiet and over half of the houses were in total darkness. I know that a lot of school opened this week so that was probably why a lot of the summer people left and their houses were dark. This weekend the neighborhood should be very busy, last weekend of the summer, people closing up there houses for the winter. Come Tuesday morning the speed bumps will be pulled up and stored for another season. The Snowbird will be the last to leave, between October and November, with just a handful of the full time residence, like Michale and I left to deal with the winter. At night the only light will be the one street light in the beach parking lot and just a few houses lit here and there.

A Perfect Day

I've been looking for thing to do when Michael and I will be in New York City in October. On our first night I booked us to see The Marvelous Wonderettes playing at the West Side Theater Upstairs, 407 W. 43rd Street at 9th Avenue. 5 Rows center from the stage. I only know that the play takes place in the 50's , during a prom and of course the music is from that time. I can't remember the songs but I've heard them before from movies. I have two more nights to plan, and was thinking about Alter Boyz at the New World Theater on 50th Street, also maybe take in some jazz at Cleopatra's Needle on the upper west side. We always go to Century 21 for some good bargain ,across from the World Trade Center. Then off to Lord & Taylor's on 5 Avenue, large men's department on the 10th floor. We'll be going to Daniel's Bagels on Third Avenue and Amy's Breads on 9th Avenue, just around the corner from Restaurant Row. We'll also hit Chelsea Market for lunch and there are a few furniture stores in that area we're going to. Plus there is a stove store we are going to check out, Michael is looking for a new 48 inch stove, six burners a grill, plus two ovens.

Monday - late afternoon storm

Here's a picture of the bay as the rain stared to come in. Just five minutes before I could see the coast line of Plymouth. It's amazing how quickly the conditions on the water can change. The storm that roll in was great with plenty of lighting and thunder. The picture was taken as the dark clouds were moving in

"The Boys"

Talked to my sister Dottie and "The Boys", her son Matthew and Patrick, my sister Beth's son both graduated high school this past June, "the boys" both attended the same high school in NH. They are both getting ready to head off to the same college. They are the youngest of all my nieces and nephews, where does the time go? My grand niece, Alisa will be graduating high school next year. I'm sure my older brother Jimmy is just thrill.
Here's a picture of "The Boys" with Patrick's sister Kaitlyn Marie.

Received an email from my sister Carol who lives in Ft. Myers, FL, her and Jim her husband only had a few trees down in the glen. Carol did say they had plenty of rain and it was very windy. Today will be a clean up day and I don't think they will be playing golf unless their association has the links cleaned off before the homes. Carol whack a couple of balls for me if you do get out there. The life of retirees

Our day at the beach

The day was perfect, the temps were in the high 80's and the water temp was very warm at 69 degrees. Here's a picture of Scorton Beach. Here I am on the beach with the sun in my eyes, you'd never know they are blue.

Micheal in from swim

Val, was sunning herself all afternoon and what a tan she has.

Pictures of Sandwich Village

Here are some pictures of Sandwich Village that I took on Saturday

Couple of shops above and A church that was converted into a house below


The Painted Lady Guest house above
Wicked Goods shop below

Brown Jug below

Main Street

Lunch at Beth's in the village

Michael and I took Val to Sandwich Village, we had lunch at Beth's tea shop. We all had quiche with salad and cake for dessert. I had lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon frosting, Michael had a white cake with a raspberry filling and chocolate frosting and Val had chocolate cake with chocolate filling with white frosting covered with coconut - YUM

KC and the Sunshine band update

I was really surprise with last night concert with KC and the Sunshine Band - they were good.
First off the comedian really sucked, he was so bad that it was very painful to watch him. A real kicker came, when he was done, there was a 30 minute intermission. Then it was show time, KC did mention where did the time go, he's 57 and where did all this weight that he gained come from? KC had a lot of junk in his trunk but he still could move around the floor as he did years ago. We think that KC's son was seating in front of us. The guy knew all of KC's music, gave him a wave at the end of the show, looked just like a young KC, him and his group had back stage passes. We should have been a lot more friendly to them, maybe we could have gotten passes too. I know if we did Val would have be in heaven.

Wednesday update "My day of jury duty"

I got to the court house in Barstable Village well before the 8 am check in time on Wednesday. The waiting room was full with people and I was glad I was there at that time. At 8am one of the court officers check us in. My number for the day was twelve. We all sat in the Superior courtroom and watch a tape on why we were there. What a great looking courtroom, wish I had my camera to take a few pictures. From there we all went to three jury rooms to wait. The court officer wanted everyone from one to eighteen to follow him and we walked across the court yard over to the district court. at 11:45 am the judge came in and talk to us about how it was important we were there. Once all the care were reviewed and there would be more than enough jurist all the case but two were settled without a jury and the other two cares opted for the judge and not jury to hear their cases. So we were free to enjoy the rest of the day. Wednesday we a perfect Cape summer day, sunny and warm.

Here's a picture of the Barnstable Courthouse

KC and the Sunshine Band

Tonight is the big night, Valerie, Michael and myself go to the Cape Cod Melody Tent to see KC and the Sunshine Band.

Unfortunately we were unable to get our platform shoes, bell bottom pants, fringed suede vests, and funky hairdo's with head bands - we didn't make it to the Garment District, a warehouse loaded with vintage clothing and shoes from the sixties up to last year, located in Kendall Square, Cambridge MA.
We're still going to shake our groove thing and have a great time.

View of Scorton beach and the evening sky

I'm off to jury duty at Barnstable Courthouse.

Edward Hopper: Then and Now

From the New York Times



In the New York Times today was a great multimedia essay looking at Edward Hopper's Cape Cod, click this on to bring it up the NYT Web site today: The iconic American artist spent nearly half the summers of his life painting isolated buildings in broad vistas. See how some of these landscapes have changed and hear what they mean to the people who live there. Living here on the Cape, as much as things change they still remain the same.

The Hood Blimp

While Michael and I were up on the deck the Hood Blimp made a couple of passes. Here's a shot of it going by the house.

We got our tickets this afternoon

Early this afternoon Michael and I headed over to Hyannis to run a couple of errands. We should have known that most of the small companies if they are open on Saturday close at either 12 noon or 1pm and never opened on Sunday. They would be the same merchants to complain about the box stores coming on Cape and stall them as long as possible using the Historical Commission. Yes two of the places we went to were closed so we went over to the Melody Tent in Hyannis to pick up our tickets to see none other than KC and the Sunshine Band. Val loves KC so we decided for all us to go and see him. Val will be coming down next weekend getting here some time on Friday afternoon and leaving on Sunday. Val cleared her calendar months ago so she could see KC. it should be fun to see KC and the band and hope they put on a good show.


Val just so you know we have the ticktes and above is a picture of the tickets so get your platform shoes on, get down tonight and get ready to shake your your groove thing..

Wasn't a beach day but

it was still nice out there with temps in the low 70's until later this afternoon it dropped to the 60's. Never made it to the beach today, we took some time to go to the upper deck and just relaxed and enjoyed the view.

nice day out there

It has been a very quiet day here at work, might have been a nice day to take off from work.
Ride in took less than an hour it might take longer to get home due to all the Cape traffic. Only four more weekends till the summer is over and I'm looking forward to that.
I know the picture is slightly out of focus but I kind of like the way the thistle looks in this picture. Not much else is going on.
We're going over to the Melody Tent in Hyannis on Saturday to pick up tickets for KC and the Sunshine band. Val want to see them live since she has had a crush on KC for years. The show should be a real hoot, if it's like the video clip I saw on line.

Pumpkin Pie

This is a picture of Pi she has very blue eyes and is a killer cat when it comes to rodents in the neighborhood. She love to carry them home and play with them in the gardens until she kills them.

Michael

Here's a shot of Michael waiting for me this morning while I was taking a few pictures of the cranberry bog.

Cranberry Bog in Sandwich

This morning on our way to work we took Rt. 6A instead of getting on Rt. 6 to get over the Sagamore Bridge to Rt. 3. I had Michael pull over so I could get a couple of shots of a cranberry bog that has been going through a transformation of sorts. Read in the local paper that the guy who owns this bog has removed all the old plants, reworked the soil, the irrigation system, small canals, brought in new sand and all new plants. The new plants are a hybrid with a harvest in three year of over three times the harvest of last year. He also owns over a 1,000 acres of bogs on the Cape and in Southeaster Massachusetts and will be doing the same thing to the other bogs he owns. It was interesting to watch the progress all summer. All the new plants are in and it should take three years for a harvest.

There are a few of these grasses, they are over 4 feet wide at the base and I think the spread is over 8 feet, and 6 feet tall. I need to dig them up and using a sawed to cut the root ball. I think there might be over 20 plants when there cut. I'm hoping to put the above the new retaining walls that will be going up in the back yard. Once the grasses are replanted to their new home they should grow to a good size and give some privacy to the pool area from the street.

Zinnas, Pink False Dragon Flowers, Blackeye Suzans and another flower that I don't know the name of that has passed it prime.

Zinnas and Black Eye Susans

Picture this moring from the garden

Believe it or not I had a couple of minute to spare this morning before leaving for work and thought I'd take a couple of pictures from different gardens in the yard. I noticed when downloading the pictures I have a lot of Black Eye Susans. The shot aboove is from the front garden. the others will be from the side garden, between the house and two car garage.

Song List

Here's a picture of the white liliesin the late evening. This garden is between the house and two car garage. Everything is blooming right now, I'm loving it. I'll be posting a different picture from each garden everyday.

Last night got my hair cut, late appointment, 8:30 and didn't get home till after 10:00. Came in, fed Pumpkin, then got ready for bed, 5 AM come pretty early Monday through Friday for work.

I asked Lori here at work to make me a CD with some old Disco songs. Lori put them all on one CD, Michael and I have been listening to it on our round trips from the Cape to work and back to the Cape. It helps when we lose the radio signal.


"The Boss" by Diana Ross
"Last Dance" by Donna Summer
"Shame" by Evelyn "Champagne" King
"If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Elliman
"You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" by Sylvester
"I Love The Nightlife" by Alicia Bridges
"Take Me Home" by Cher
"Can't Get Enough of Your Love" by Barry White
"Never Can Say Goodbye" by Gloria Gaynor
"Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston
"Love Is in the Air" by John Paul Young
"More Than a Woman" by Tavares
"Young Heart Run Free" by Candi Station
"Got to Be Real" by Cheryl Lynn
"Native New Yorker" by Odyssey
"That's the Way (I Like It)" by KC and the Sunshine Band
"Come to Me" by France Joli
"More More More" by Andrea True Connection