Adventures and Misadventures

Posted on 08/28/2025 by chick

Yesterday we took the kids to The Adventure Park in Sandwich, MA, on Cape Cod. Unfortunately, when we got there we could hear thunder. It wasn’t super close, but as safety experts say, “If you can hear thunder, you’re close enough to the storm to get hit by lightning.” The park’s rule–a totally reasonable one–is that nobody’s allowed on the course until 30 minutes after the thunder, and every time the sky rumbles, the clock gets reset.

Rather than wait for who-knows-how-long, we headed over to the neighboring Heritage Museums & Gardens, only to find that they were also closed due to the weather. They have indoor exhibits as well as the outdoor gardens, but I guess they close everything rather than risk people getting struck by lightning on the grounds. I can’t say I blame them. Just before we left, we saw a bolt of lighting that made us strongly feel the need to not be outdoors. So we consulted my phone for local indoor activities, and that’s how we found out about the nearby Sandwich Glass Museum.

The Sandwich Glass Museum is not a huge place, but they’ve got some great displays, including several with an audio component (those were fun!), a stunning special exhibition of glass by Josh Simpson (through October 31), glass-blowing demonstrations every hour on the hour, and a gift shop. We had a good time, except Livia, who hadn’t wanted to go to the glass museum at all. She got even more upset when we told her that we weren’t going back to the adventure park. We weren’t happy about missing the adventure park either, given that it had been our goal for the day, but we’d spent longer in the glass museum than expected, and the hour had gotten too late.

An employee of the glass museum recommended Seafood Sam’s on the Canal as a good casual seafood restaurant, and we went there for dinner. The food hit the spot. Then we headed home, promising Livia we’d take her back for her aerial adventure soon.

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Reading Report 8/24/2025

Posted on 08/24/2025 by chick
  • Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik: In this sequel to Her Majesty’s Dragon, the Chinese have claimed Temeraire as rightfully theirs, because he is a special and rare Chinese breed. The leaders of the British government, fearing war with China, try to get Laurence to give Temeraire up. He refuses. But, as a compromise, Laurence and Temeraire agree to travel with the Chinese delegation back to China. The journey, taken by sea, is a long one, and China is a big country, so there’s ample opportunity for enemies to attack, and they do. My reading experience: Maybe it was because I was reading the book in small doses, but the story seemed to drag, and for me the threat of Laurence losing Temeraire hung too heavily over everything. After the story’s end there was a preview of the next book in the series. It sounded interesting, and I may decide to read it eventually. Just not now.
  • Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman. This is a Romeo-and-Juliet type of story set in a modern, alternate-reality Britain in which lighter-skinned folks (Noughts) are discriminated against by darker-skinned ones (Crosses). Callum (a Nought teenager) and Sephy (a Cross teenager, slightly younger) grew up together and are good friends, maybe even more than friends, but society will do everything it can to keep them apart. My reading experience: The societal reversal struck me as so obvious as to be ridiculous, and I would never have read the book were it not on the BBC list. There was a lot in the book that was equally obvious or broadly telegraphed in advance, which annoyed me at the time, but in retrospect I wonder if obviousness is a plus in a book intended for a teen audience. Told in alternating first-person chapters, Callum and Sephy’s story was compelling, and the ending, at least, took me by surprise.
  • So Much by Trish Cooke and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury: This was such a pleasure to read. Family members keep arriving at a toddler’s house, and each relative spends time with the child in a different way, to his delight. It beautifully captures the joys of growing up in a tight-knit family.
  • No Kisses for Mother by Tomi Ungerer: I read this book, my first by Tomi Ungerer, because it was on the BBC list. In this story, a kitten behaves very badly, getting into fights at school, smoking cigars, and refusing to let his mother kiss him, among other things. But, at the end he does something nice for his mother, after which we readers are presumably supposed to go, “Aw! What a sweet child!” I did not. I don’t think we should teach our children that it’s fine to act badly most of the time as long as they occasionally do something nice. No praises for this book.
  • The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer: This book, also by Tomi Ungerer, is also on the BBC list. It starts with a frightening description of three robbers, their weapons, and their violent acts of thievery, and it ends with the robbers doing nice things for orphans. On my first reading, I felt that the happy ending didn’t make up for the dark beginning. Reading it a second time, I’m undecided.
  • The Moon Man by Tomi Ungerer: This book is not on the BBC list, but I read it because I had become sort of fascinated with Tomi Ungerer, thinking that he was clearly a popular author and, having written 100+ books, he must have written at least one that I’d like. In this story, the Moon Man (who is “curled up in his shimmering seat in space”) looks down upon the Earth and sees people dancing, and he wants to experience such fun. He hitches a ride to our planet on the tail of a falling star. Soon he finds out how aliens are treated here (poor Moon Man!). Things start to look grim, but no worries–it’s just a phase. My reading experience: This one was OK. As with The Three Robbers, I liked it a little better the second time through.
  • I Am Papa Snap and These Are My Favorite No Such Stories by Tomi Ungerer: This is collection of short, silly stories. The anthropomorphized animal characters all have funny names, and each story ends in an unexpected way (bizarre moral, non sequitur, etc.). For example, a wealthy bird couple buy a ready-made nest which turns out to be junk, and at the end the male bird muses, “Well, that’s what happens when you start spending money.” It’s a little dark and at times a tad offensive (by modern standards), but I liked it. One story even made me laugh out loud. I would consider buying a copy. So I guess I was right–Tomi Ungerer did write at least one book that I like.
  • I stayed up late last night so that I could finish reading Becky Chambers’ A Closed and Common Orbit, which I hope to write about later. I don’t have any books going at the moment, and soon I will need to choose two (one from the BBC list, one not). Contenders include The Owl Service by Alan Garnder, Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde #3) by Heather Fawcett, Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson, Beethoven in the Bunker: Musicians Under the Nazi Regime by Fred Brouwers, and The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah.
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Pretty Big Spider

Posted on 08/19/2025 by chick

Today I was eating cereal in the kitchen when Marshall looked at me and said, “You have a spider in your hair.” That was alarming. “It’s pretty big,” he added.

I forced myself to remain calm. “Could you please remove it?” I asked.

My husband came into the room at that moment and, quickly realizing what the problem was, took the spider out of my hair. Then he showed it to me. It was pretty big.

If you’re wondering how I managed to stay calm, it’s because I’m allergic to insect stings and consequently I’ve taught myself to remain motionless when a bee or wasp lands on me. That skill translates to spiders to some degree. But if it had skittered onto my face, OMG, I would have freaked!

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Book Math

Posted on 08/16/2025 by chick

I always hope to read at least 52 books per year. It’s a good thought, but it’s just a thought. You can’t hope your way into anything; you have to take action. If you want to read 52 books, then you have to make a point of reading.

Today I asked myself, “How many books could I finish per year if I were to read for an hour each day?” Given that I read about a page per minute and assuming that the books I’d choose would be in the 350-page range, then I’d be able to read at least 62 books per year (60 pages times 365 days divided by 350 is roughly 62.6). And if I lived another 27 years (my theoretical life expectancy), then I could read another 1,674 books total.

Some people would say that 1,674 books is a lot. I’m not sure it is (I’ve already read so many that I feel like I ought to be able to read several thousand more). But, it seems likely that if I don’t start reading for at least an hour a day, I’m going to read a lot fewer than 1,674.

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Looking for the Impossible

Posted on 08/13/2025 by chick

Every year around this time I start looking at lake cottages for sale. They are always out of my reach financially, though at one point they felt “only just” out of reach, as if at any moment we’d find the perfect one and we’d finally have enough money to feel comfortable making the stretch. Then came the Pandemic. Since then, lake houses have gotten crazy expensive, just like other homes, and our spending power has been eaten away by inflation.

Occasionally I see a cottage at a price that makes me hopeful, but only until I’ve finished reading the details. There’s always a reason many, many reasons why the price is lower. Here’s the sad truth: if a lakefront home in any Northeastern state is even close to affordable, that’s because it’s strictly seasonal, and/or one-bedroom, and/or a mobile home, and/or on rented land, and/or on an island, and/or dilapidated, and/or part of a high-cost HOA, and/or lacking plumbing and electricity, and/or not actually on a lake but merely in the same general vicinity, and/or is located outside the range any sane New Yorker or Bostonian would be willing to drive (their range is the same as mine, and they take everything that’s decent within that range).

Sometimes I wonder if I’d even like having a lake cottage. Not only are they pricey, but they come with a lot of extra work: more laundry, more cleaning, more outdoor maintenance, more bills, more driving, etc. I’m getting older and dislike the cold more, so moving in a northward direction, which is where many of the cottages are, might not be the best idea. Many lakes are warming due to climate change and have related problems, or have major pollution or invasive species, so finding a cottage is only half the battle. For example, who wants to spend a fortune on a cottage only to find that you can’t use the lake half the time due to toxic algae blooms or bacteria? You really have to do your research.

Anyway, we could simply rent a cottage or do some other type of summer vacation, but we don’t in part because a vacation for four is practically unaffordable. Given that, I have no business even thinking about buying a second home, which would be even more expensive. And yet, the dream refuses to die. Next summer you will find me parked in front of my computer again, searching various real-estate websites, looking for the impossible: an affordable, conveniently located, all-season, 2+ bedroom cottage on the shores of a deep, clean, beautiful lake.

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30 Years

Posted on 08/12/2025 by chick

I had my 30-year work anniversary last month. I got a card and a bonus from my employers. That was nice.

But I am so tired of my job! And after 30 years, I’m certainly justified in feeling that way. I mean, at some point, enough ought to be enough, right?

Were I younger and without dependents, maybe I’d jump ship. As things are, taking risks with my income doesn’t seem like a wise or responsible thing to do. I’m going to just have to keep toughing it out.

Being older does have its upsides, though, one of which is having learned a few things. I know that happiness is a state of mind and that the responsibility for how I feel lies with me. In the past, I’ve been able to make myself happy in my job by broadening its scope and trying new things (testing programs, writing documentation, inventing new puzzles, etc.). The question is, what new thing can I try now?

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Smoky Days

Posted on 08/11/2025 by chick

The smoke from the Canadian wildfires became a problem here again last week. Poor air quality plus extreme heat has certainly made athletic training more difficult this summer, confining our activities to late in the day and sometimes making them a no-go. On one day that I took Livia for her run at the park, I started to feel short of breath just from walking. By the time we returned home, my voice was scratchy and my lung congested.

The air quality had been rated merely “moderate.” Knowing that Marshall was more sensitive to air quality problems than the average person, I’d left him at home, but I hadn’t realized how much the smoke would bother me (Livia claimed to be unaffected). The hazy, orange moon was a sight worth seeing, though.

BTW, I know that a mask would filter out some of the fine particulate in the air, but wearing a mask also makes me feel short of breath. So I probably wouldn’t wear a mask unless the air quality were rated “unhealthy” or worse, and if it were that bad, I wouldn’t leave the house unless I had to. Livia flat-out rejected the notion of wearing a mask when I suggested that she might use one.

For now, the air quality has returned to normal. Let’s hope it stays that way for a long time.

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Outside in the Middle of the Day

Posted on 08/10/2025 by chick

The sweet pepperbush’s season is all but over. I can no longer smell its fragrance on the air, and most of its flowers have turned brown. A few clovers linger in the front yard and the bees still visit, one by one. Our sole Queen Anne’s lace abounds in fancy white blooms. In the back yard, a feast of tiny dewberries awaits. More asters and goldenrods bloom by the day–summer is passing, ticktock! As I stand on the driveway, a dragonfly lands on my bare foot. It makes a lovely ornament, and it’s the same wine-red as my sweatshirt. Oh, how fashionable am I!

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Mental Vacation Over

Posted on 08/10/2025 by chick

I had decided to take the entire summer off from music composition lessons, because I was feeling worn out from work and lack of sleep. Meanwhile, Livia had expressed interest in taking piano lessons, and I thought, “Why not give her my time slot with the teacher? Then I’ll have my vacation, she’ll get some lessons, and the teacher will get paid for the summer. Win, win, win!”

Yeah, no. It’s always the perfect-sounding solutions that turn out worst. Livia hated the lessons and wanted to quit. I could have forced her to continue going, but it didn’t seem worth the fight. I also knew that my teacher had noticed she wasn’t happy (he’d mentioned it to me on the phone), and it occurred to me that she might not be the only one uncomfortable with the situation. Who wants to teach a student who’s clearly miserable? So I let them both off the hook.

Because the plan had been for her to take lessons for the whole summer, I felt obligated to pay him for the entirety. Then, having paid him, the obvious thing to do was to use the lesson time for myself. Only I hadn’t done any composition for weeks or even played the piano. Yikes! I took Friday off from work and hastily composed a few lines of music, just enough to base a lesson on. He liked what I’d composed, and we had a good lesson, but I already miss my mental vacation.

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Ugh, Cleaning

Posted on 08/09/2025 by chick

This morning I had to get out of bed earlier than usual to clean the downstairs bathroom. Cleaning is unfortunately necessary when we’re about to have company (in this case, one of Livia’s friends). In a way, I hate having company for that reason. In another way, I’m grateful for company, because it forces me to do sooner what I have to do eventually anyway. In any event, Livia had a fantastic time with her friend, which was all that really mattered for today.

P.S. I’d been putting off cleaning the bathroom because it’s such an awful job. But I’d done a lot of cleaning and decluttering in other parts of the downstairs while procrastinating on the bathroom. That’s proof that procrastination can be a good thing, right?

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