Greetings from the Boston Raiders

My Wednesday was all the chores I neglected for the past several days around Zoom chats -- my high school friends after laundry and lunch, then Cel and Laurie later in the afternoon when we watched the first half of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. My cats were very vocal after being left at home for several days with no one to supervise, so they were probably overfed. 

We saw some of the Red Sox and Orioles' bad days, then took a walk and ate leftover Indian food. Afterward we watched The Mandalorian and Grogu with Cheryl long-distance. Here are some more photos from Heated Rivalry night at Fenway Park -- custom drinks, friendship bracelets, Rachel Reid greeting fans inside and out, decorations, t-shirts -- thousands of happy fans!

Greetings from the Cottage er Fenway

Quick post after extra-innings Red Sox victory over the Mariners at Fenway Park's Heated Rivalry night, which included game jerseys, exclusive drink cups currently selling for five times what we paid for them on eBay, author Rachel Reid throwing out the first pitch, and lots of awesome photo opportunities, plus all the usual joys of a Red Sox game (the Monster, enthusiastic fans even when losing, "Sweet Caroline" etc.). 

Before the game we went into Boston, rode the Swan Boats in Boston Public Garden, walked a bit past Boston Common, had a picnic on a bench in the park, then walked up Commonwealth Avenue to see the permanent statues and the temporary Great Elephant Migration display before we walked to Fenway Park and waited in line for over an hour with many delightful Heated Rivalry fans dressed for the occasion exchanging bracelets and cookies!

Greetings from Franklin Park

I had a quiet Friday -- wanted to scan one thing, so figured it was as good a time as any to catch up on all the scanning since we moved here (some receipts, some cards, some old photos that turned up during packing). In the middle of this, I learned that Anthony Stewart Head had died, which I'm very sad about, and when I went to look for a photo of him from many years ago, I realized that I had never scanned any of the autographed photos I had saved back in the day when fan clubs were sending out autographed photos, so I scanned those, too. 

We took a long neighborhood walk when Paul got home (it was a four-bunny day, three of them together), then watched the Orioles' come-from-behind win around dinner. This is the last Friday for a while that's a busy TV night, but we watched the excellent season finale of Your Friends and Neighbors, the atrocious mid-season finale of Rivals (I think I'm done), the very good new episode of Star City, and episode 14 of Discovery (yep, still watching without Jason Isaacs). Some of the birds we met at the Franklin Park Zoo:

Greetings from Worcester

We reached 70 degrees here on Monday! And we had a report that they were working on the cables in our neighborhood so we might lose internet, but it was fine all day and only went down a few minutes ago, so I will be brief. The major news of my day was learning that the person to whom I gave much of my Star Trek collection -- the absolutely lovely man who wrote the West Week Ever blog -- passed away after a stroke, which I'm very sad about. 

Otherwise, we watched some baseball (Mariners swept the Astros, Orioles came from behind to beat the Diamondbacks), saw the new Maul episodes, and caught up on last night's Watson -- of course the show is getting really good right as it's canceled. Spring in my neighborhood; more tomorrow when hopefully I'll have working internet.

Greetings from North Bend

We spent Saturday back in Twin Peaks country so we could visit some of the places from the show we didn't get to last time or didn't get good pictures of. We started at Snoqualmie Point Park, Laura and James' picnic spot; then we stopped at Snoqualmie Casino because we've never visited any of the Seattle area casinos (once is plenty for me) before driving into North Bend, where we had cherry pie at the Double R Diner, I mean Twede's Cafe, and visited the Mt. Si Motel, Big Ed's Gas Farm, and Reinig Bridge. We also stopped at the Sheriff's Department, which is now the DirtFish Rally School, and at Snoqualmie Falls to see that and the Great Northern, plus various spots in Fall City and downtown Snoqualmie. 

 

After a lot of driving and walking around in spectacular weather, we headed toward Bellevue to stop at World Market before going home to watch the Seahawks-49ers game. It was not an exciting competition, since Seattle led from thirteen seconds in and ultimately won 41-6, but that is vastly preferable to the alternative so I'll take it! We ate macaroni casserole during the game for dinner, and when it ended, we watched One Battle After Another, which is excellent -- I wouldn't have guessed that Vineland could be adapted so successfully and it's terrifyingly relevant, plus the performances are all great and I was surprised how satisfyingly they managed to end it.

Greetings from Twin Peaks

Extreme quickie, we're watching Twin Peaks (for the first time, believe it or not!) after an afternoon in Twin Peaks country a.k.a. Fall City and Snoqualmie Falls. We stopped at Si View Park to see the mountain that's the fictional one from the show, then at the remains of the Snoqualmie Mill, which was the Packard Sawmill on the show and is now the DirtFish rally car course (whose office served as the sheriff's department). We tried to take a photo of the Welcome to Twin Peaks sign, but apparently it gets stolen regularly, and it wasn't there. 

From Reinig Road we drove to the Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls, which didn't have a lot of people because it had been drizzling earlier, but was clear while we were there and the views were spectacular. We walked around the upper trail, then drove to Fall City Farms, which has pumpkin patches, farm animals, seasonal displays, and a donut machine, so fresh donuts and cider. We stopped at Safeway on the way home, had soup and cheese for dinner, and watched the Dodgers beat Toronto before the first few episodes. Our afternoon in reverse:

Poem for Friday and Furvana Vacation

The Prime of Life 

By Isaac Asimov 

It was, in truth, an eager youth

Who halted me one day.

He gazed in bliss at me, and this

Is what he had to say:

"Why, mazel tov, it's Asimov,

A blessing on your head!

For many a year, I've lived in fear

That you were long since dead.

Or if alive, one fifty-five

Cold years had passed you by,

And left you weak, with poor physique,

Thin hair and rheumy eye.

For sure enough, I've read your stuff

Since I was but a lad

And couldn't spell or hardly tell

The good yarns from the bad.

My father, too, was reading you

Before he met my Ma.

For you he earned, once he had learned

About you from his Pa.

Since time began, you wondrous man,

My ancestors did love

That s.f. dean and writing machine

The aged Asimov."

I'd had my fill. I said: "Be still!

I've kept my old-time spark.

My step is light, my eye is bright,

My hair is thick and dark."

His smile, in brief, spelled disbelief,

So this is what I did;

I scowled, you know, and with one blow,

I killed that rotten kid. 

-------- 

Friday was pretty quiet around here -- chores with cat help, photos of dogs and turtles in Malaysia from Daniel, chat about work and Thanksgiving travel plans with Adam. I tried to keep up with the news but then couldn't stand it any more, so I read the so-so novel about Sylvia Beach that mentions Margaret Anderson and The Little Review at least once a chapter so it gets a pass on everything else. Girlyman made me ridiculously happy by reuniting to sing "On the Air"; I was so sad when they split up with so much hostility and made it so public, it had kind of ruined that song and a lot of others for me. In the afternoon, we walked to the beach, and later were visited by a raccoon in one of the trees. 

Dinner was veggie avgolemono, eaten while we watched some of the Orioles loss and the Mariners victory (TIED FOR FIRST). We also watched this week's Peacemaker with Cheryl (fly Eagly fly) and the Foundation season finale (no Dusk no Dusk NO, but at least it's been renewed for a fourth season), and now we're watching the live-action Lilo & Stitch, which is absolutely charming and extremely funny, so just what I was in the mood for -- also it goes well with Pokemon Concierge, which I've seen in bits and think of as Pokemon: White Lotus. I think I mentioned that Furvana was in Ocean Shores while we were there, and now I will picture the town happily with furries everywhere: