Greetings from Tougas Farm

We went in late morning to meet Adam and Haley at Tougas Family Farm to pick apples. We went to see the goats and guineafowl, then we rode one of the tractors out to the orchard, where we picked honeycrisps and had just arrived at the ginger golds when it started to rain very heavily. We ran for the information tent along with about 50 other people until the rain let up, picked some more apples, and walked back to the center of the farm, which is having a Jimmy Buffet tribute weekend with music and nautical decorations for the end of summer.

 

We stopped at Shaw's on the way home -- it was very cold in the store because we were wet from the rain -- and put on some college football around various chores, though the main game I cared about was later (the Terps won 62-0, though that game wasn't televised here on anything we can watch). Paul made apple cider chick'n for dinner, then we watched the Red Sox-Orioles before 9 to 5, which Disney+ put into the lineup after airing it on ABC last week; I hadn't seen it since it was in the theater in the 80s and remembered none of the details!

Greetings from Polar Park

Another quick post because we got home late after tonight's Woosox game, which we decided to go to this morning so we headed out to Polar Park when Paul got home from Boston. There was a forecast for some rain but that lasted maybe 45 seconds, and otherwise it was a magnificent not-too-warm evening. We parked a few blocks away, walked to the stadium, I got a quite-good Beyond Burger and fries with (of course) Polar cola, we ate it during the national anthem and Puerto Rican Heritage Night events with Roberto Clemente's son. 

The Woosox were playing the Buffalo Bisons. Gage Ziehl, who pitched last week when Adley Rutschman was catching, was the starter. Unfortunately the home team only led for one inning and lost 6-2 (not as bad a night as the Red Sox had, they lost 8-4; at least the Orioles won), but we got to sing "Sweet Caroline" and watch mascot races and t-shirt tossing and, after the game, there was an excellent karaoke fireworks show mostly to 80s and 90s music. We got home just in time to save the cats from starvation, and now we're watching this week's Silo.

Greetings from Fitchburg

Very quick post after a day in Fitchburg -- dropped some things off at Adam's, then lunch at 5th Street Diner (excellent egg salad), a walk around the lake at Coggshall Park, ice cream at Hollis Hills Farm (excellent almond joy), a walk through the meadow and on the boardwalk to the pond surrounded by teeny toads at Doyle Conservation Area, visits to Ollie's ($3 Tarot decks from my wish list! $2 Garth Brooks 7-CD sets!) and Market Basket, a quick dinner at Burger King, then birthday cake for Haley with her and Adam, her parents and one of her sisters and husband, plus the other sister and my parents on Zoom. I got onto my Thursday night chat on Zoom in the car and now it's late. More photos and stuff tomorrow. 

Greetings from Home

Nearly all of Friday was a travel day for us, with a couple of nice breaks. We ate breakfast in the hotel, then drove to Paul's father in Hanover, bringing Thai food with us for lunch. The roof of the building was being repaired, so the ducklings who live in the courtyard were hiding, but we got to see Clair play the violin and tested his computer by getting Adam on Teams for a few minutes. 

In the afternoon, we drove through parts of three states and over several bridges (with a quick pit stop at a gas station across from the Bayer headquarters in New Jersey) to Mount Kisco, New York, where we had an excellent dinner at The Turk with Tracey, my good friend from college. Now we're home with our cats who claim they were not fed one single time.

Greetings from Fenway Park

We spent most of Sunday going to, attending, and coming home from the Red Sox game at Fenway Park! Unfortunately the home team lost, but it was otherwise a very enjoyable afternoon at the ballpark, from the pregame video to Neil Diamond's "America" to the eighth inning "Sweet Caroline" singalong. The game was tied 1-1 at that point after a Jarren Duran home run put them on the board, but unfortunately that was the only time the Red Sox scored, and it ended 3-1 in the 10th inning (which we did not witness, since we wanted to make the 5:10 train because the next one didn't leave till 6:45). 

We did get to see lots of other fun things though: a foul ball that could have hit me had the guy across the aisle not caught it (see photo); two different groups of Star Wars fans in costume, posing with attendees for Star Wars Day; NASA astronaut and local native Suni Williams throwing out the first pitch; the adorable Red Sox Grogu bobblehead giveaways; the "monstah" size slices of pizza we ate for lunch; the pregame baseball hype video to Neil Diamond's "America" (a song that's both very Jewish and very pro-immigrant); and the by-hand score changes, though the Yankees-Orioles endgame changes were not fun. 

 

There was a minor crisis when we left, since the train arrived on the track heading into Boston instead of going out and there was a stampede off the very crowded platform up the stairs and around and down. I thought I might get knocked over, and I was already not thrilled to be on a train platform with so many people. But it was a nice ride out of the city and we saw wild swans in one of the lakes. Tonight we watched Toast, which was kind of sad and weird but I liked it until the misogynistic ending, around the Watson finale, whose cancelation is a bummer but did not cliffhang as much as I expected.

Lyrics for Wednesday and Volunteer Park Conservatory

I've Been This Way Before 

By Neil Diamond 

I've seen the light

And I've seen the flame

And I've been this way before

And I'm sure to be this way again

For I've been refused

And I've been regained

And I've sung my song before

And I'm sure to sing my song again

Once again

For I've been released

And I've been regained

And I've seen your eyes before

And I'm sure to see your eyes again

Once again

Some people have to laugh

Some people have to cry

Some people have to make it through

By never wondering why

Some people got to sing

Some people got to sigh

Some people they never see the light

Until the day they die

But I've been released

And I've been regained

And I've been this way before

And I'm sure to be this way again

Once again

One more time again

Just one more time

-------- 

Paul only had to work half a day on Wednesday, so by the time I was done with chat in the morning and doing dishes from his Swedish cooking, he was done. We ate lunch and went out, first to stop in a couple of stores (the one I really needed, to get the nose pads on my glasses replaced, was closed, but we visited the Recology Store, which sells recycled goods and products to aid in recycling). Then we went to see Song Sung Blue, the Neil Diamond cover duo film with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, which I loved pretty much everything about. 

It's a movie that starts as an hour of pure triumphant joy, then life interferes, but that doesn't ruin the joy of it, just changes it. We got a preview for the terrible-looking upcoming Wuthering Heights movie billed as the greatest love story of all time, and here's a movie about two flawed middle-age people with messy pasts who know it's too late for them ever to be famous and they just want to make music, blend the stepsiblings into a family, and find ways to be there for each other despite alcoholism, major health issues -- a much deeper love story. 

We had Chinese food because Jewish Christmas requires that as well as a movie, and I got to talk to to Laurie, Kristen, and Cheryl on Google Meet. Then we watched Almost Famous, which we'd never seen. I knew there were aspects I'd really loathe, but I liked Hudson more recently and I've been so impressed with Billy Crudup in The Morning Show that I figured I should see it. I did hate all the sexism and it has not aged well at all. Now we're watching the season finale of Pluribus and I want to smack Carol. Harpist Bill McJohn at the Volunteer Park Conservatory:

Greetings from Oz

We went this afternoon to see Wicked: For Good, which I enjoyed enormously -- I wasn't positive I would because I was never particularly a fan of Wicked until the first film, and the second act isn't as strong as the first. Stephen Schwartz wrote two new songs for the movie and "No Place Like Home" absolutely sold the movie for me (it's always been a very Jewish story but after a week of listening to antisemitic antizionist conspiracies, that song hit hard). For Good is also extremely queer; we're supposed to accept the love story between Elphaba and Fiyero, two actors I've seen kissing members of the same sex more often than not, but Glinda literally can't keep her hands off Elphaba. 

Like its predecessor, this Wicked is visually spectacular; some musicals aren't much improved by being put onscreen, as it ruins the intimacy of the theatrical experience without really contributing any magic only film can create (see: Camelot and Annie), yet this one is stunning and every scene seems to have been carefully reimagined. The costumes and visual effects are gorgeous to look at. I still wish the second act had a number that comes close to "Defying Gravity" but I think it was smart of the filmmakers not to try to do a full reprisal of that. "For Good" isn't the same kind of showstopper, it's too sad, but it's a beautiful song, and the singers do terrific justice to it. But why does weather goddess Morrible ever need a wizard?

 

We had bagels for dinner because we weren't very hungry after popcorn at the theater, then we watched American Folk, the movie in which Amber Rubarth and Joe Purdy drive across the US after 9/11 wrecks their flight plans; they're both enjoyable to watch and there's lots of music, but structurally it's single road trip movie you've ever seen and the dialogue's rather didactic. Now for some reason we've decided to watch the 2022 film of The Magic Flute, which I knew absolutely nothing about except a couple of cast members from the promo photos; it's a strange cross between Hogwarts and Mozart, but probably no stranger than the libretto of the Mozart opera!

Lyrics for Thursday and Ruminants Ruminating

From "Holding Out for a Hero" 

By Whitney Avalon & Hildegard von Blingin' 

Whither have the worthy gone, oh, where is fair Gawain?

Where is gallant Galahad to take the bridle rein?

Is there not a white knight upon a fiery steed?

Late at night I toss and turn and I dream of what I need

I need a hero

I shall hold out for a hero 'til the end of the night

I pray he be hale, wingèd of heel

And newly return’d from the fight

I need a hero

I shall hold out for a hero 'til the morning light

He must be assur’d, e’er true to his word

With a wit that will thrill and excite

Erelong at the witching hour within my reverie

Somewhere just beyond the veil someone reacheth out for me

Racing on a courser and clad in gleaming mail

I shall answer none but he who bringeth me the grail

I need a hero

I shall hold out for a hero 'til the end of the night

Could I but afford my very own sword

I would not require his might

I need a hero 

I shall hold out for a hero 'til the morning light 

By god was he blessed, e’er true to his quest

A man of whom Chaucer will write

Up where the dragons glide near heaven above

Out on a storm-tossed odyssey

Verily doth a saintly champion ride toward me

Through the wind and the chill and the rain

The plague and the flood

I can feel his approach like a fire in my blood

I need a hero

I shall hold out for a hero ‘til the end of the night

I pray he be hale, wingèd of heel

And newly return’d from the fight

I need a hero

I shall hold out for a hero ‘til the morning light

A knight not a pawn, a true paragon

With armor and eyes shining bright

I need a hero

-------- 

I lost my Thursday morning to Bardcore on YouTube -- completely by accident, I was just looking for one song from KPop Demon Hunters, but YouTube often knows what I need to hear before I do. There I was, listening to heavy metal versions of "Golden", when YouTube queued Hildegard von Blingin's take on "Pink Pony Club", and the next thing I know, I'm singing along to the best version of "We Didn't Start the Fire" ever and making a playlist. Since I still have a cold, it was otherwise a quiet Thursday.

We did have gorgeous weather. The ducks at the beach tried to mooch food I didn't have. I got some reading done and saw some baseball (yay Cubs, boo Yankees). After my Thursday night chat, and I watched this week's Peacemaker -- he didn't NOTICE the Hitler mural? Then we watched The Naked Gun reboot with Liam Neeson, a straight ripoff of Kingsman but short, snappy, and fairly funny. I wanted to show the progress the goats made behind our apartment in the two days before they left: